Fast growing website content provider which focuses on news, analysis and lifestyle content, ‘The Huffinton Post’, for $315 million.
This deal puts together a media group that adds the metrics or in web language a combined base of over 100 million visitors monthly in the USA and a global reach of over 250 million people.
The AOL acquisition creates the next generation of new media building on content with the social media environment. Deal expected to close early in the second quarter. According to various reports $300 million will be paid in cash. At first glance this transaction is based upon Huffs meterics.
On how this deal happened: The Huffington Post was founded in 2005
RBR-TVBR observation: This is what you will see this year as ‘New Media’ content providers like Huff with a unique brand and niche will be acquired by focused media companies to create vertical growth.
Building a content driven website brand that consumers in their space know and consistently visit for their news and information takes time to build and like AOL who could not build what Huff had they did the next best thing: Buy.
Content providers with long standing strong unique brands with the metrics, which means the visitors consistently return to absorb and use the content, will become valuable because it can not be built from scratch. Remember that content represents a strong loud voice.
Huff and AOL will be expanding with more video and that will create new vertical growth and it will translate into dollars.
Will this happen in the Radio/TV business in 2011? Yep but only from the broadcast media people that have the vision, passion and commitment to recognize that ‘Content is King but only King when you Control the Content’.
You can not hide from the world of the internet. Let’s see who in Radio and or TV has ‘New Media Vision’ and will buy to build a new broadcasting media company.
