NBC buys iVillage — which has been standing on the corner like a floosie with a big pricetag for sometime now — for $600 million. I’m not sure I get it — that is, I’m not sure what addition this brings GE strategically. When the NY Times Company bought About.com (full disclosure: I consult there), it got a cut of search advertising and search engine optimization expertise. When Dow Jones bought Marketwatch, it got the traffic it couldn’t generate behind its pay wall to sell the advertising it was leaving on the table. When News Corp. bought MySpace, it got a new relationship with the public and a new means of promoting and probably creating entertainment. In the latest old media/new media mashup, NBC buys a content site with lots of forums and horoscope traffic at a high price. This feels more like a mini (and much less harmful) version of Time Warner and AOL: trying to buy the online strategy you missed out on. Or what am I missing?
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by Jeff Jarvis