This one caught me by surprise:
Discovery Acquires TreeHugger.com For $10million
Discovery Communications has announced the acquisition of TreeHugger.com for what is believed to be $10 million.
TreeHugger.com started as an environmentally focused blog in 2004 and grew to include forums, green guides and other related features. The site sits in the Top 20 blogs worldwide according to Technorati and is said to have 1.4 million unique visitors a month. Alexa ranks the site at 5,395.
TreeHugger.com will become part of Discovery’s Planet Green initiative.
That’s amazing. When I first heard about this, I thought it was a joke. Apparently not.
There is a lot of “green” in the new green. Just ask Al Gore, probably the most famous ex-Vice President ever. (Who was George H.W. Bush’s VP? Nixon’s?)
It is sad that we have given web designers, sociology majors, lawyers and other non-technical people so much influence over energy policy.
Clearly you need to “include forums, green guides and other related features.” 🙂
Come on King, anybody is better than congresscritters.
I hit enter too soon …
On TreeHugger, it’s a very nice site (been in my rss reader for years) but I’d also note that it is a very product-oriented site.
That is going to be worth more in our world than an essay blog.
That’s not really a lot of money, relatively speaking. During the dot-com boom, Lycos was purchased for a ridiculous $5.4 billion by Terra networks, who ultimately invested over $12 billion into it.
On TreeHugger, it’s a very nice site (been in my rss reader for years) but I’d also note that it is a very product-oriented site.
That is going to be worth more in our world than an essay blog.
So, are you saying I shouldn’t hold out for $10 million?
🙂
I went over last night and had a look at who all is behind the site. I have also read it off and on for a couple of years, but I didn’t realize how big of an outfit they had behind the site. They had built quite a little corporation.
Cheers,
Robert
That’s a surprise to me, too, but, in a way, it makes sense. The Treehugger website is already big-media-corporation ready, with lots of blinking Flash and weird colors and ads everywhere and really, really, painful slowness-to-load. 🙂
“So, are you saying I shouldn’t hold out for $10 million?”
Just do a post about a product we can all buy for every post about what we shouldn’t buy (or invest in) 😉
And if you do “efficiency” products I won’t mind a bit.
I used to read that site, but stopped after a while. The rampant consumerism got old. The articles are just thinly veiled advertisements.
I used to read that site, but stopped after a while. The rampant consumerism got old. The articles are just thinly veiled advertisements.
I spent some time over there last night, and came to a similar conclusion: The site is set up as a corporation, and making money was not something that just happened accidentally.
When I make money, it’s usually accidental.
🙂
Humph. I thought I was cynical … maybe just cynical enough. Sometimes the marketing gets to me, and sometimes I see something I might actually buy.
I don’t think their mix is that far wrong, and an alignment of the planets in which (a) people want ‘green’ products while (b) companies try to provide them is not a bad change.
I mean, whaddya want … no commercialism and everybody shops at Sears?