By and large, for traditional media companies to penetrate the Top 10 Rankings of Largest Media Properties, the cost of entry seems to be $2B, give or take a few hundred millions of dollars.
We already covered this for News Corp., who spent just under $2.5B to get to where Fox Interactive Media is now:
- MySpace parent Intermix: $580M
- IGN (my former employer): $650M
- Scout: $60M
- Strategic Data: $?M
- Photobucket: $250-300M (reported, but unofficial)
- Flektor: $15-20M (reported, but unofficial)
and by the looks of it, the tally is the same for CBS.
SAI has more on CBS’ rise to become a Top 10 media property, powered by the CNET $1.8B deal, as well as the $240M Last.fm deal. Any more up CBS’ sleeve? Time will tell. Interestingly both companies lack search - though I am not search if search is something traditional media wants to own. One other area where they could use some strengthening is online video… but I am biased there.
CBS is broken up into
- Technology
- Entertainment
- Sports
- News
- Business
Again, pardon my bias as a lifestyle publisher, but CBS also seems light in Lifestyle which is arguably bigger in terms of sheer client interest. Connecting the dots: when IGN bought my former company AskMen, it was to complete the 18-24 and 18-34 demographic amongst men, but it was mainly to complement its categories (IGN was strong in games, movies and technology but non-existent in lifestyle). I could be dreaming, but I am sure when IGN repackaged itself and sold to News Corp., it leveraged AskMen to convey its strength in lifestyle.
Interestingly, CNET has a few cooking and food properties and if my memory serves me right, they lured a former Maxim executive, so time will tell if they bolster that category as well.
Of course, this does not include the $5B News Corp. shelled out for Dow Jones, whose WSJ.com is indeed a crown jewel online and off.
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