Everyone loves to complain about email. Except for the growing batch of entrepreneurs using it to launch newsletter businesses. Latest example: Netted, a Web-centric recommendation guide from the guys who bring you the Webby Awards.
Ideal Bite, the green-flavored lifestyle newsletter business Disney bought in June 2008, faces an uncertain fate: Its parent company is shuttling the unit from one corporate silo to another and says it’s not sure what will become of it once that happens. Translation: The job market is going to see a few more resumes.
DailyCandy CEO Pete Sheinbaum is leaving the company, less than a year after Comcast bought the fashion and shopping newsletter from Bob Pittman’s Pilot Group Ventures for $125 million. His last day is Friday. Sheinbaum, who started working for the company as a consultant in 2000 and took the top job in 2005, says he doesn’t have a new job lined up yet. “I let them know after nine years it was time to look for the next thing,” he says via email. No word yet on a replacement.
Ad giant Omnicom reported that its revenue dropped 14 percent and profits declined by 21 percent in the last quarter, but investors are bidding up the stock in a down market. That’s presumably because the profit slump isn’t as bad as Wall Street expected. But maybe investors are buying some of the optimism CEO John Wren doled out–sparingly–during the company’s earnings call: He thinks stimulus spending could lead to more advertising spending by the end of the year.
EMI Music Group, which sued Web music start-up Project Playlist nearly a year ago, has dropped its suit and will start providing its catalog to the site, which offers free streaming music. The settlement, in conjunction with an earlier deal struck with Sony’s Sony Music Entertainment, means that Project Playlist now has deals with two of the big four music labels. But Warner Music Group and Vivendi’s Universal Music Group are still suing the company.
Are you an aspiring media entrepreneur trying to figure out how to raise money during brutal times? Here’s one method: Start an email newsletter business, then give Bob Pittman a call. The investor behind DailyCandy and Thrillist is trying it again, via a $1 million stake in VitalJuice, a “wellness” newsletter.
Four days after MySpace cut the legs out from under Project Playlist by disabling the music streaming service’s app, Facebook is following suit.
The purse strings haven’t completely closed for start-ups looking to raise money–even niche Web sites that hope to stay afloat by selling advertising. Wowowow.com, a site launched earlier this year, which targets women over 40, has raised a $1.5 million round led by Bob Pittman’s Pilot Group and the Rime Group.
iLike, the Web start-up that made a name for itself by becoming Facebook’s de facto music service, is looking for a buyer, according to multiple sources. I’m told that iLike is actively soliciting a list of buyers that include RealNetworks and Ticketmaster, which already owns 25 percent of the company.
Peter Kafka has been covering media and technology since 1997, when he joined the staff of Forbes magazine. Most recently, he has been the managing editor of the tech and media Web site, Silicon Alley Insider.
Here is a statement of my ethics and coverage policies. It is more than most of you want to know, but, in the age of suspicion of the media, I am laying it all out.
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