Condé Nast Buys Wired News By Wired News Staff
17:00 PM Jul, 11, 2006 http://www.wired.com/news/technology/internet/0,71366-0.html?tw=wn_index_2 Lycos is selling its Wired News unit to Condé Nast Publications for $25 million, Lycos parent Daum Communications announced in Korea late Tuesday, a deal that brings Wired.com and Wired magazine under the same owner after an eight-year separation. Lycos acquired Wired News as part of its June 1999 acquisition of Wired Digital in a stock transaction valued at about $83 million at the time. Since then, Wired News has published Wired magazine articles on the web under a contractual relationship, while reporting independently on technology and science news. Tuesday's deal includes all the assets of Wired News, such as the website, news content and domain name, but leaves Lycos in control of former Wired Digital properties such as HotBot, Hotwired and Webmonkey. Upon completion of the transaction, the assets of Wired News will be operated as part of Condé Nast Publications' web division, CondéNet. No layoffs at Wired News are planned as a result of the deal. "We are thrilled to be bringing Wired News back into the fold after eight years of separation from the print publication, especially since it comes at a time of exploding growth and creativity on the web," said Steve Newhouse, chairman of the Advance.net web division of Advance Publications, the privately held parent company of Condé Nast, in a joint statement with Lycos, also released Tuesday. Net ad revenues reached a new record of $3.9 billion for the first quarter of 2006, the Interactive Advertising Bureau reported in May, up 38 percent over the same period last year, and up 6 percent over the 2005 fourth quarter total of $3.6 billion. According to TNS Media Intelligence, internet display advertising grew faster than for any other medium in the first quarter of the year, rising 19.4 percent to $2.31 billion -- though its report did not account for paid search listings, a category that has fueled meteoric growth at web darling Google. Total advertising expenditures for the same period grew just 5.2 percent, the research firm said, reaching $34.9 billion. After an initially slow start courting the net, Condé Nast has begun to explore new ways to position its wide stable of popular magazines -- such as Vogue, W, Gourmet and Condé Nast Traveler, among others -- on the web. In April, the company added to its stable of destination sites, launching Brides.com, a web portal that combines three of its bridal magazine titles and offers various web-only interactive features. It has also adopted a web portal model for Epicurious (food), Concierge.com (travel) and Style.com (fashion). For Lycos, the sale represents the latest effort to streamline and reposition following a $95 million December 2004 buyout by Korea-based internet service provider Daum. The company, best known as an internet search provider before the dot-com bubble burst, has since sold off various assets, including its Quote.com financial site, and is now focusing on developing broadband TV and community content services. "Lycos is one of the most widely recognized internet brands in the world, and my goal is to continue to reinvigorate the Lycos brand," said Alfred Tolle, CEO of Lycos and president of Daum Global, in a statement. "This deal allows us to focus entirely on building out Lycos as an entertainment broadband destination." Wired News is the heir to Hotwired.com, a news and opinion site launched by Wired magazine under the stewardship of founder Louis Rossetto more than a decade ago. The site is widely credited as an innovative web pioneer, but it has also struggled, suffering cutbacks and several rounds of layoffs, most recently last summer. In a statement Tuesday, Wired Editor in Chief Chris Anderson said that reuniting Wired News with the magazine was a long-cherished goal. "Wired's focus on innovation and how technology is changing the world can now be matched with our own innovation and experimentation with new ways of doing media online. We're bursting with ideas and can't wait to put them into practice," he said. ================================ George Antunes, Political Science Dept University of Houston; Houston, TX 77204 Voice: 713-743-3923 Fax: 713-743-3927 antunes at uh dot edu Reply with a "Thank you" if you liked this post. _____________________________ MEDIANEWS mailing list [email protected] To unsubscribe send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
