Mags Migrate From Building Content to Buying It
By jason - up to 2007 (archived) • Jul 30th, 2007 • Category: Loose Ends, News for Creatives (archives)“Hearst and Time Warner Grab Web-Only Properties to Bulk Up Online Stables…It took a little while, but most magazine and newspaper publishers eventually accepted the need to establish web versions of their cherished print properties; it was pixelate or risk perishing. But now those same publishers are demonstrating a growing belief that while those companion sites are necessary, they are not sufficient.
Hearst Corp. acknowledged as much last week when it revealed a deal to buy UGO Networks, a suite of men’s lifestyle sites about games, movies, TV, movies, music, sports, women and comic books — but little connection with established Hearst magazine brands such as Esquire or Seventeen. Condé Nast Publications has been busily building sites such as Flip.com, Lipstick.com and others with zero old-media roots. And who can forget Time Inc.’s online-only Office Pirates, both born and axed in 2006? It may have survived only six months, but its parent has promised to try again.
Part of the drive stems from the failures of many print brands to make much of themselves on the web. Hearst’s Esquire.com drew 247,000 unique visitors in June, according to ComScore Media Metrix; UGO sites got 11.2 million.”
-From Advertising Age
That trend sounds familiar, same with the record industry. Major companies buying the smaller companies for their creative content; the big companies can feed off (aka $$$) the smaller company’s talents and skills. Just a thought.
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