The Washington Post Company wants to sell Newsweek. But prospects aren’t exactly lining up to buy the venerable title.
David Carr of The New York Times explores the topic in his most recent “Media Equation” column.
How can it be that Associated Content, a content farm that has zero brand recognition, went for a reported $100 million this month to Yahoo, yet Newsweek, a huge part of the national conversation since its founding in 1933, might be valued at less than zero?
Carr adds, “in the current digital news ecosystem, having ‘week’ in your title is anachronistic in the extreme, what an investor would call negative equity.”
We all know how dizzying the speed of disintermediation is today, but it’s times like this that brings the speed and impact of the changes into tight focus.
UPDATE: The New York Times reports that sports blog, The Big Lead has been bought by Fantasy Sports Ventures for “low seven figures.” This is a site I’ve never heard of until now and it’s fetching more coin than Newsweek is likely to bring.
