CBS Has a Crush on Wallstrip
WHY would CBS want to buy the stocks-oriented video blog Wallstrip? After all, the network exited the online-business-news business when Dow Jones purchased MarketWatch.com in 2004. Is this just a case of a stodgy old-media company trying to hang out online with the cool kids? And anyway, couldn’t the network just create its own similar service if it wanted to?
Alex Eben Meyer
Related
Wallstrip Chat: Dick Costolo (wallstrip.cbsnews.com) CBS Buys Wallstrip for the Technology (vcratings.thedealblogs.com) Wallstrip Goes Through The Exit Door (avc.blogs.com) CBS Acquires WallStrip for $5 million (techcrunch.com) Why Aren’t You Working? (sfgate.com) OverheardInTheOffice.com
Probably not — at least not one that could draw as many viewers as Wallstrip. Like a similar service, Rocketboom, which is devoted to technology news, Wallstrip features a videogenic young woman (Lindsay Campbell), minimalist production values and plenty of attitude (wallstrip.com).
But to CBS, Wallstrip’s content is not as important as its expertise, said Joshua Jaffe of The Deal’s VC Ratings blog. Wallstrip’s value, he wrote, comes from “all the things the Wallstrip team has learned since it launched in October” (vcratings.thedealblogs.com).
In other words, CBS knows television, but the Wallstrip producers know Web video. “Just figuring out how to make a show on a cost basis that can make a profit is hard,” wrote Fred Wilson, a blogger and venture capitalist who invested in Wallstrip (avc.blogs.com).
It is unlikely, that Wallstrip makes a profit. An unidentified person told Michael Arrington of the TechCrunch blog that the blog has “zero revenue” which is even less likely, since it has advertising sponsors. The deal’s price deal was not disclosed. Ms. Campbell, he wrote, is “said to be” the reason for the acquisition. “Campbell has talent but if this was the driving reason behind the buy, they’d better hope she can tap dance as well” (techcrunch.com).
The site says Ms. Campbell is an actress. While she holds her own in her mostly humor-driven reports and interviews, she has no previous financial or journalism experience. It would be strange indeed if CBS bought Wallstrip just to bring her to the network.
