The Swarm

December 23, 2007

Idolator: Gawker's 'low-volume' music site for sale?

TDS Editors

Portfolio (via Brooklyn Vegan):

Is the rock ‘n’ roll business not what Nick Denton had dreamed it might be? The Gawker Media mogul has been seeking a buyer for Idolator, his year-old music site, according to a source with knowledge of the situation.

Denton insists it’s not quite like that. “We get approached about pretty much all our titles, all the time,” he tells me via IM. “Have we occasionally taken a meeting? Well, sure. But, actually, the title that we were last approached about wasn’t Idolator.”

But the source says it was, in fact, Denton who did the approaching. It wouldn’t be the first time he’s sold one of his Gawker Media blogs; in the past two years, he’s quietly found new owners for Oddjack, a gambling site, and Screenhead, an entertainment site.

And there does seem to be a market, albeit a fragmented one, for music blogs. The owners of Stereogum, Idolator’s somewhat better-trafficked competitor, just made a deal to trade their stakes in it for equity in the social network BuzzNet. The deal values Stereogum at $5 million, according the New York Post, although I’m told the real figure is somewhat lower, and that Barry Diller’s IAC/InterActive Corp. had also made a play for it.

Silicon Alley Insider:

Regardless of who asked who, it wouldn’t be a shock to see GM shed Idolator. We’re big fans of the site, but it hasn’t really broken out of niche status since it launched in September 06; for most of this year it’s hovered around the 1M pageview mark. That’s not shabby for a two-person site, but Nick generally isn’t sentimental about his blogs, and that may not enough traffic or growth to satisfy him. And while we’re pointing out low-volume Gawker Media sites, we might also point out that “urban travel guide” Gridskipper has also not blown the doors off, though it’s picked up lately.

On the other hand, music blog Stereogum, which claimed 650,000 uniques in August, is now supposedly valued at $5 million. Portfolio thinks that number may be a bit exaggerated, but anything close to that and suddenly Idolator seems like a success.

NYT:

For Mr. Denton, the number of page views is the foremost barometer of success or failure.


Post a comment

Previous comments include

#1 question says:

How can you sell a failed blog URL? What is the point?

#2 NewMediaMan says:

Just like people still buy failed magazines (i.e. SPIN), if the parent company doesn't have the resources/interest and another one does, or if another company has a brand element that will drive traffic to the site, then it can still be lucrative
SPIN for example still has some brand value to exploit, and some people obviously thought they could do it better than those who were selling it

#3 Q says:

Come on, SPIN had 20 years on newsstands, five of which were extremely successful. Not much comparison to a year-old URL with minimal readership.

#4 NewMediaMan says:

Q, you are absolutely right. Not exactly the most apropos comparison
That said, a Gawker-launched site probably has some brand value, even if it never really took off

#5 MasterDave says:

Reason for Idolator not being uber-popular like it could be:

Here's a typical (I assume directed editorial style) before the cut article.

Newsworthy (or semi-newsworthy) item of interest. Sentence with a negative comment because hateful comments are much more awesome than positive comments. Sarcastic comment to show that we're really above it all and we don't care but it's our job so we're just going to say something snarky.

Repeat as necessary for every single interesting thing that happens in the music industry. It's so bad that you can't figure out if anyone there actually likes or hates anything at all significantly enough that you can't like or hate the site enough to care either. It's basically the same sort of 'attitude' of Gawker, shoehorned into semi-caring about music, so it's not a shock that nobody really cares about it either.

If they overhauled the tone behind their writing and got a new editor and actually made you think they knew what they're talking about and/or actually care about it... they might triple their pageviews since clearly there's a market for music blogs. Unfortunately it's just "Gawker on Music" which is pretty lame.

#6 oh says:

snap

#7 H says:

Just tried navigating over there, and looks like the site is completely gone now.

I enjoyed the site also, but didn't visit often. Usually when there was a link from defamer.com.

#8 ghmyrdkltuy7 says:

ghmyrdkltuy7 <a href="http://jymitvbw.com">ghmyrdkltuy7</a> http://jymitvbw.com [url=http://jymitvbw.com]ghmyrdkltuy7[/url]

#9 payday loans for canadians says:

www.thedailyswarm.com is very informative. The article is very professionally written. I enjoy reading www.thedailyswarm.com every day.


Click Here