If I could boldface, italicize and underline Meritless in the title of this post, I would.
I stress meritless, but worth asking. I would also email Rafat to ask him for his thoughts on this but come on, what on earth could he possibly say (probably no comment if anything at all).
So here goes:
Yesterday Rafat Ali announced that Larry Kramer joined the board of his company, ContentNext Media, the umbrella company that manages Paid Content, Content Sutra and MocoNews.
The Background
Kramer, of course, was formerly the President in charge of CBS Digital Media upon its establishment in April 2005. Kramer had founded Marketwatch, a joint venture between CBS and Data Broadcasting Corp. dating back to 1997.
Kramer resigned from that post when CBS - by then spun out from Viacom as the mature, income component of the stock - hired dealmaker Quincy Smith. He remained - and remains to this day - an advisor to CBS, but (and we’re beyond speculating now) one can imagine that ’twas with a grain of irritation that he swapped the title of President for Advisor.
I know I would. But Kramer has hithero stated the opposite and there’s no reason to think he’s lying. From Paid Content’s own post on the executive change, quoting Kramer upon the announcement:
“I think the game changed in the last year. It’s nice to have digital assets we’re proud of but we really need to be a presence in the M&A world and he is instantly going to make us a presence in the M&A world.” [Kramer] spoke highly of Smith, who has been working with the company. Kramer said he was asked to stay with the same responsibilities but opted for an advisory role instead. (He had planned a break after selling MarketWatch to Dow Jones but wound up going straight into CBS, first as a consultant and then as the top digital executive reporting to Moonves.) Kramer: “I can honestly say I’m really happy with what we built. It’s time to go into the next stage. We did merge all of the sites into a strong and profitable digital division but that’s just the first step.”
In light of all of this: this begs the question, does that make CBS more or less likely to acquire Paid Content?
Let me stress that there’s nothing to suggest that Paid Content is up for sale. But the day that Alan Patricof’s Greycroft Partners invested an undisclosed sum in his company, naturally it became logical to presume that Greycroft would expect an exit at some point, and as much as we respect the entire crew at Paid Content, an IPO is not a plausible exit, so a sale comes to mind.
The argument could be made that there are dozens of better fits for Paid Content, Moco News and Content Sutra (though we won’t name them here), but by adding CBS’ advisor to both CBS Les Moonves and CBS Interactive CEO Quincy Smith to his board, one would presume, ContentNext Media is certainly “in play” and CBS is a front runner all of a sudden.
Or is it? A conspiracy theorist would suggest that if Kramer had any resentment towards CBS for the executive swap, nudging ContentNext Media away from CBS could be one small but rewarding act, especially since Paid Content has become the de facto industry standard for trade readers.
At Paid Content’s EconSM shindig in LA, during the M&A panel (commented here) someone joked “Did News Corp. just bought Paid Content?” - it was almost prophetic given Murdoch’s interest in business news.
Murdoch Rising
After all, with the impending launch of FOX’s Business Channel, that ain’t a crazy notion either, especially with Murdoch’s penchant for all things digital.
In fact, if that happens, we see this being more of a Jeremy Philips-driven initiative since it would be more fitting with News Corp.’s digital ambitions than something emanating from under Fox Interactive Media [disclaimer: I was employed by FIM from Sept. 2005 to Dec. 2005 and they’re huge fans of this blog and WatchMojo.com in particular]… But that entire debate and strategic angle is worthy of another post.
A Matter of Allegiances
But now that Kramer is on the board, would Moonves and Smith really be happy if Kramer let a site as influential and arguably profitable as Paid Content slip through CBS’ fingers and into Murdoch’s.
And while we continue this exercise in insanity, who can stop short of thinking of NBC Universal. It’s no mystery than CNBC is feeling the impending pressure of Murdoch’s business channel, especially if all signals seem to suggest that Murdoch will end up with Dow Jones and its Wall Street Journal and Barron’s brands… maybe NBC will make a move as well.
While we’re at it, why not Time Warner? Its print business under pressure I’m sure they’d love to bolster their digital business with sites like Ali’s. Of course, Ali’s sites are trade publications… so the fits are stronger elsewhere.
Oh lookie, here we are enumerating a bunch of companies that would also have ContentNext Media in their sights.
Stroke of Genius
And maybe therein lies the genius of Patricof and Ali’s decision to lure Kramer to their board, not only does Kramer add a unique mix of journalism and business publishing savvy, but he just changed the dynamics quite interestingly for the site that launched on a hot summer day five years ago in Manhattan by a guy who couldn’t land a gig in the news industry.
But just because CBS, News Corp. and NBC are the easy guesses, does that mean that ContentNext Media will fall within one of those companies’ grips?
Probably not. But we’ll keep mum on who we think is the best fit for now.
Subscribe: