What's Huffpo Really Worth? The $200m Question
Is the Huffington Post really a $200 million company? Monday's New York Times story about the fast-growing group blog/news aggregator left a lot of people wondering about that eye-catching number, reportedly the price the company uses in its internal discussions about the possibility of a sale.
The consensus, among those who know about some matters: No, the Huffington Post is not remotely worth $200 million.
"It's absurd," says media banker Reed Phillips of DeSilva & Phillips. "It's not based in reality in terms of any metrics we see in the market."
"It's a ridiculous expectation based on their own perception of the brand," says another M&A banker who preferred to be anonymous. "There was a time when people would buy into ridiculous numbers like that, sight unseen, but that time has passed."
What would be a more reasonable valuation? Try $40 million. That's four times Huffpo's own high-end estimate for $2008 revenue -- a typical multiple for recent transactions involving content businesses.
Alternatively, one can also analyze the price in terms of traffic, but it doesn't make that much difference. Two hundred million dollars "seems to be way above market based on comparable transactions," agrees Henry Donahue, CEO of Discover Media and former CFO of Primedia's Lifestyles Magazine Group. Donohue recently wrote about blog valuations for Folio. Via email, he continues:
If you believe the Post, Discovery (a relatively aggressive media co.) paid $10 million for Treehugger, a blog with an obvious fit for their Planet Green business. According to Alexa, Huffington is 4-5x the traffic of Treehugger, but that doesn't get you to $200 million. The $10-20 per unique metric (which I still think is nuts) would put them at $40-80 million.
A major factor limiting Huffpo's worth is its focus on partisan politics. "Advertisers hate political content," notes one online publishing exec. That may be why Huffpo is extending its brand into the seemingly apolitical areas of sports and books. After a lot more of that type of expansion, maybe, someday, Huffpo will be a $200 million business.
- Madison Avenue's Got (Freaky) Talent
- May 16 2008 2:25PM EDT
- CNBC's Donny Deutsch Losing Viewers, Shirt
- May 16 2008 12:59PM EDT
- Duly Quoted: 'The Week's' Falk on Newsweeklies
- May 16 2008 10:13AM EDT
- Idle Chatter: C(Double)U Later?
- May 16 2008 8:48AM EDT
- Late Breaks: Downie and Out-ie at the 'Post'?
- May 15 2008 5:07PM EDT
- Caitlin Flanagan on Barbara Walters: Flirty, Old
- May 15 2008 3:46PM EDT
- Idle Chatter: 'IHT,' Bill O'Reilly, Stent Mania, more
- May 15 2008 9:13AM EDT
- CBS Buying CNET for $1.8 Billion
- May 15 2008 8:57AM EDT
- Handicapping the 'WSJ' Editor Search
- May 15 2008 5:00AM EDT
- Late Breaks: Chris Wallace, Katie Couric, more
- May 14 2008 7:22PM EDT
- Star Journos Take Buyouts at the 'Washington Post'
- May 14 2008 2:57PM EDT
- 'WSJ' Quotes Murdoch Critic: 'Thanks a Lot, Rupert'
- May 14 2008 9:28AM EDT
- Idle Chatter: The Dolans vs. the Press, more
- May 14 2008 8:50AM EDT
- 'TNR' Obama Cover's Metaphor a Bit Too Apt
- May 13 2008 6:50PM EDT
- Late Breaks: Anchors Losing It, more
- May 13 2008 6:21PM EDT
Archive
May 2008
Categories
- Advertising
- Awkward Questions for...
- Books
- Cable
- Cable News
- Conglomerates
- Depressing Releases
- Duly Quoted
- Entertainment
- Gossip
- Government
- Idle Chatter
- Industry Trends
- Journalism
- Legal
- Magazines
- Marketing
- Moguls
- Music
- Neither Here Nor There
- Network News
- Newspapers
- Oh Really?
- Outdoor
- People
- Politics
- Pundit Patrol
- Radio
- Sports
- TV
- Tribune Co.
- Web
- Writers Strike
Links
- Contact Me
- Romenesko

- Gawker

- Ad Age

- WWD's Memo Pad

- Keith Kelly

- NYT Media

- Jon Fine

- TVNewser

- Magazine Death Pool

- HuffPo Media

- Radar

- Galleycat

- Book Standard

- News Hounds

- Newsbusters

- Jezebel

- CBS Public Eye

- Editor & Publisher

- Hollywood Wiretap

- The Media Pundit

- FAIR

- I Want Media

- Viral Video

- Nikki Finke

- MediaFile

- Silicon Alley Insider

- Paid Content

- Valleywag

- Channel '08 -- Campaign Ads

- Cover Awards

- Talking Biz News

- SI.com - Richard Deitsch

- Gapper Blog - Media





