The Blogfire of the Vanities
If Sherman McCoy (think Tom Hanks in the disastrous feature) was a “Master of the Universe” – who would that “Master” be in the blog world? Would it be a Nick Denton, Arianna Huffington, Michael Arrington, Om Malik, Henry Blodget or another? While The Bonfire of the Vanities was a bestseller for its generation, a “Blogfire” could be interpreted as the next generation – or “New Medici” – of innovative publishers who challenge mainstream media newspapers, magazines, tabloids and even television market share.
Because the list of blog (and blog network) owners above really highlight themselves as the leaders who “explode the newsroom” – as Jeff Jarvis would say – with very few supporting names or successor plans, this is certainly a vanity outlet.
Beyond a recession, as traditional media continues to move towards digital, the best of these sites will certainly be weighed for acquisition and corporate consolidation. But until (and during) that time, there will be a nice dance – and these blog/thought leaders will be the masters of their much more cost-effectively run media fates.
From Wikipedia for generational comparison to “Bonfire of the Vanities”:
[Wolfe's] novel was a bestseller and a phenomenal success, even in comparison with Wolfe’s other books. The title is a reference to a historical event, the Bonfire of the Vanities, which took place in 1497, in Florence, Italy, when the city was under the rule of the Dominican priest Girolamo Savonarola. The book’s title is a reference to the vanities of New York society of the 1980s.
Sherman McCoy, however, may not be the right metaphor for comparison – as he is a fallen victim – whereas these blog players are on the rise.
The blog owners might better be compared to Sherman “Master of the Universe” pre-fall, or better to Peter Fallow (Bruce Willis from the DePalma film), the washed-up British drunkard and journalist for the tabloid City Light, who fares better than McCoy in the end. With traditional media owners – the Sulzbergers, Zells, etc. – as McCoy both during and post-fall from grace.
But who builds their nextgen media network the best? Let’s look at some current rankings and suggest ways to innovate future growth:
From 247WallStreet.com’s latest “top blogs” ranking – where they identify the top 25 most valuable blogs based on operating income/revenues and largely traffic from a blend of Quantcast, Alexa, Compete, comScore. And from last year’s post – “top blogs” factors are traffic, demographics, monetization (operating income and revenues) and founder risks:
Gawker Properties — $170M; last year: #1, $150M. Visitors: 23M/month; last year: 30M/mo. Hotlink to the left is to their ad page, which describes their blogs with traffic breakouts and a nifty 8 MB ad package. Gawker has been getting some press/heat from Alley Insider and others for promoting ad takeovers; however, it’s a tough environment and Denton has a reputation for being a practical parent/founder. In addition, Gawker has been folding its less successful blogs into the Gawker parent (Valleywag, Defamer), which then allows them to unfold or take them back out in a better economic climate. It’s all about the subdomains and feeding the content engine. Gawker and its independent sites have become very good at making ‘art’ out of its gossipy news, including Gawker Artists – showcasing NY artists’ works where typical ad banners sit – thus, breaking the advanced user’s common blindness to ad units by switching in art and ad (artifice). Clever and cultured gossip – good to see Nick receive such a high valuation.
What New Medici would like to see innovated next: Even in recession, I’d love to see Denton open some untapped brand channels or go overseas with sustainable Gawker properties. Or go TMZ, i.e., old media for a network/cabler strip show. More upscale than TMZ, but would niche well for a Bravo or similar. More after the jump…- Huffington Post — $90M; last year: #3; $70M. Uniques: 12M; last year: 1.8M/mo. The big media equivalent of a news company, albeit very liberal in nature and celeb/image-driven (actually not so different from mainstream news giants). With $25M in recent funding, and traffic not dropping much since Obama took office, HuffPo has been smart to branch out beyond the political into media, business, entertainment, living, style, green, world and “Chicago.” Not sure which channels will take off or over during non-election years (and without Bush in office), but the site is getting more and more technical or social media-advanced every few months. Big ads this week from NYTimes offering viewers 50% subscriptions, which is sad in a way, as the NYT should have bought Arianna’s company on its rise, whereas she’d probably stay away from an offer now given the Times’ difficulties.
What New Medici would like to see innovated: More acquisitions. I like to be bullish, but I think this is a good moment for Arianna et al. to roll-up other political/media/living blogs while perhaps JVing with the Martha Stewarts (which are hurting online). This might soften the HuffPo tone, but the new channels created already need more “voices” in terms of walking/talking personalities. With Oprah’s new OWN network coming live soon, time to wind sprint a bit. - The Drudge Report — $48M; last year: #8, $10M. Uniques: 5M; last year: 1.8M/mo. The site that gave us HuffPo, literally. Now Drudge hasn’t changed its format in … years, but it’s valuation is way up somewhat surprisingly. Not much else to say about this relic-like site.
What New Medici would like to see innovated: Like the reported horrible GOP.com RFP (request for proposal to creative vendors) for a new site, a little polish every quarter or so, and some unique channel breakouts (HuffPo borrowed from Drudge, let Drudge now borrow from Arianna…) would make a significant helluva difference. Sure, the site probably catered to an older crowd who thought its frame-like format easy too ingest, but it’s time to upgrade its proverbial gym membership. Interesting also to contemplate the conservative Republican monies that could go into this to underdog the majority Democratic vote (or something more advanced) now that the GOP’s out of office. Keep Drudge’s tip network, but offer different views: simple, advanced, radical disco-version, i.e., roll-up Andrew Sullivan… 
Perez Hilton — $32M; last year: #4, $48M. Uniques: 5.5M; last year: 10.1M/mo. After viewing this “gossip-porn” site, one usually has to delete their memory cache. However celeb fascination doesn’t seem to be timing out anytime soon, so let’s see how big the cpm-pire gets. This site feels like the polar opposite of Drudge, but with its same simplicity.
What New Medici would like to see innovated: While not being an avid user, our initial sense is to brand more Perez Hilton like personalities – think Eisner’s or Job’s succession plans. Some kind of legacy plan or platform for Perez to manage into other areas of celeb worship like sports perhaps. Surprised a tabloid hasn’t picked this one up and rebranded, but clearly the template is replicable; it’s the readership and access to insider tips, like Drudge’s, that keep it viewed.- Sugar, Inc — $27M; last year: NA. Uniques: 10M. Think Daily Candy, but blog network. Same female-friendly, hand-drawn graphics but a pretty serious wallop of blogs in this blog network. Great design and well known to its niche. (Note to self, how does Sugar interact with Glam? See Mike Moritz/Sequoia link for its “anti-Glam.com” article.)
What New Medici would like to see innovated: Find the male/metrosexual equivalent and start creating it, just as Glam has done with Brash. Thrillist.com, anyone? Work up the newsletter subs (a la Daily Candy) and branded events to grow this into something that NBC decides to incorporate. 
TechCrunch — $25M; last year: #5, $36M. Uniques: 3M+; last year: 3.2M/mo. Greatest tech site imho, but they got it right and the creative look/feel is starting to get there too. Not to tech slobber, but their wiki/Crunchbase with its API is also something unique.
What New Medici would like to see innovated: Its Google/Feedburner newsletter subscription method (yes, New Medici uses the same as it’s free and simple) could be upgraded to really be monetized and sold through. We’d like – well with most of these singular blog creators/visionaries – to see more voices extend beyond/below Arrington’s, and eventually see more channels born. I have thought for a while that Murdoch should buy this and feed it into the WSJ. Equal bet to paidContent being acquired by Guardian Media Group (read Om Malik’s great post on this buy), and much cheaper than CNet and CBS’s splurge.- MacRumors — $21M; last year: #2, $85M. Uniques: 5M; last year: 5.3M/mo. I actually don’t track this one, being a former Mac child who went PC and can’t seem to go back to the one-button mouse environment; but I had a look. Pretty amazing that so many of these top blogs look like they were sample program codes from a Byte magazine, circa 1980-something. What New Medici would like to see innovated: With Apple missing Jobs, but with a potential new iNetbook coming, I would like to think even Steve Jobs would favor a redesign, if not sponsor one.
- SeekingAlpha — $11M; last year: #7, $15M. Uniques: 1.5M; last year: 700k/mo. Another network of financial sites, which like HuffPo’s political perspective, must be feeling a pinch right now given the investor downturn. What New Medici would like to see innovated: Lots of Bloomberg like information that needs some personalities. My opinion is that these cost-effective blog networks, like SB Nation, could become the mainstream news networks of the future, if one can distinguish between them. Think Motley Fool – you recognize the brand. Here, not as much and the home page is far too busy.
- GigaOm — $9.5M; last year: #10, $8.4M. Visitors: 1.5M; last year: 400k/mo. Similar in look/feel to Blodget’s Alley Insider, but a distant second from Arrington’s TechCrunch.
What New Medici would like to see innovated: GigaOm is more techie, less layperson tech than TC, but there is a crowd for it. How does he distinguish from Michael – well, snazz up the design, TC isn’t that far ahead and Om has taken some VC cash. Hard to say as there’s definitely a tech/VC crowd reading this site, but I’m not sure non-tech brands will see any crossover ad potential. Like Om’s Green2Tech movement; but again, needs more voice … even to an objective, tech readership. - Politico — $8.7M; last year: NA. Uniques: 5M. A real blog ezine, similar to Slate or any of the portals’ news verticals, Politico enlightens the political side with a little color, albeit somewhat dated design. Good blog columns and with a few earmarks towards sensational politics (hey, just like traditional news media!), the site made me want to come back more often than every four years.
What New Medici would like to see innovated: Dust up the design. Ahem, so many of these sites need the same tough love: more branding, more voices and time to speed up the tech – like HuffPo is doing – especially now as it’s on discount.
All said and done, we nominate Nick Denton and Arianna Huffington in that order as current “Masters of the Universe” (or “Blogfires of the Vanities”). With honorable mentions, again in order, to Michael Arrington, Henry Blodget (climbing on the list…)/tied with Om Malik and the Sugars, Lisa and Brian.
- Nick Denton / Gawker
- Arianna Huffington / HuffPo
- Michael Arrington / Techcrunch
- Henry Blodget / Alley Insider (tie with Om Malik / GigaOm)
- Lisa & Brian Sugar / Sugar, Inc.
Extra credit – peripheral as it may be, TheDailyBeast.com and Sugar Inc. are two sites that are having some fun with the way they present their updates and ongoing stories. With that in mind, make a point to check out Vanity Fair’s Blogopticon (play on “Octagon”?).
A brilliant foursquare approach VF developed last year, charting the must influential blogs across politics, gossip, Hollywood and media, across two continuums – tone and content:
Added bonus – “extra extra credit”? – and not to leave much wanting: a similar ‘approval matrix’ from NY Magazine, released prior to the VF Blogopticon. Why we include this? Well, we think that someone should create an online/social application that grids up pop culture and blog trends — think an app that charts innovation flow against actual practice (and, actually, we’re incubating that social app at New Medici):
