Guardian group buys paidContent
News is breaking that the Guardian Media Group will announce today that it has acquired digital news site paidContent “for a price “north of $30 million.
”That price, though, includes an earn-out, sources said, which will depend on future performance of the company.
“…Sources said ContentNext would continue being run independently after the Guardian purchase.”
This looks to be a very canny acquisition of a site that makes decent money, for a less-than-inflated sum. As ReadWriteWeb reports:
“Its advertisers are B2B service providers that many of us in the consumer tech world don’t think about much. They are the companies that power the public facing media services we later consume. All the way back in 2006 Business 2.0 magazine reported that PaidContent was set to bring in $1 million in annual ad revenue. “
Interestingly, the story appears to have been confirmed by a slip of the tweet by Guardian Technology Editor Charles Arthur
in response to one by Craig McGinty.
UPDATE: PaidContent has confirmed the acquisition: “This also marks a major expansion of Guardian’s U.S. presence….it already runs the Guardian America website, focused on U.S. audiences.”
One Comment, Comment or Ping
Steve Hill
Hi Paul,
PaidContent is a great site, but I hope GMG won’t use this for (how can I put it?) more ‘political purposes’ i.e. as a forum to attack the BBC’s use of license fee money for Interactive services.
When it’s not after the BBC, the Guardian’s Media section increasingly seems to have its other rival, Channel 4 Radio, in its sights.
There is a lot of love out there for the BBC’s websites, particularly among many Guardian readers, I expect. Yet you don’t see this reflected in the pages of Media Guardian or indeed in The Times, Telegraph…..
Jul 21st, 2008
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