First you create content, then you build distribution, then you monetize it all. Media is pretty simple and straightforward when you break it down.
Founder Om Malik announced that IDG will sell ads for Om Malik’s GigaOm Media, which means that Malik’s empire becomes the latest property to leave Federated Media, John Battelle’s company. I suppose GigaOm was not happy with the results from FM and Battelle, who has a thankless job of ad repping tech sites who look at a magazine like The Economist and wonder why they’re not getting those advertisements and advertisers.
IDG, a traditional, print-centric media firm, must be getting “the BIG idea” and will now be repping Giga Om Media. This type of deal can work, it might fail. But more importantly, it shows that they get it in the sense that the worst thing a media company can do is to get attached to its distribution, in this case, print. IDG recognizes that a major asset it has is its client relationship.
Distribution is wildly overrated. I am not saying it is not valuable, of course it is, but the value lies in
1) the content that is distributed and
2) the revenue, ie. the advertisers.
Expect more media companies to start doing this: repping new media sites. We have seen CBS repping a few newbies. SONY is also doing it with Rocketboom. Print of course is in more dire straits than TV, so this is not the last example of this.
You might be asking: will IDG buy GigaOm Media? It is indeed a first step towards an acquisition… I expect to see IDG content on GigaOm properties next, though. It’s also possible IDG asked for some kind of warrants or first right of refusal, which I hope and presume Om kindly refused.
If anything, I see this as a hedge by Malik who is wary that the economic slowdown will be too severe for a relatively new sales organization like FM to weather.
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