Miss Debi and The Grey Lady

Deborah White is excited.
She just went to work for About.com which just got bought by the New York Times.

I'm not sure if this means I am very short-termer, or if my journalistic fantasy of working for the Times has divinely materialized.
Whatever happens happens. In the meantime....I work for the New York Times!

Fred Wilson is a savy venture capitalist who has been at the forward edge of internet technology...I almost said "for a long time" but realized it's still pretty new...since it was fresh. I think he is a dot-com survivor, but I don't know. I do know he keeps an interesting blog, and he thinks the Times acquisition of About.com is a good thing.

I had a long brainstorming lunch with two particularly savvy media guys yesterday and we spent a lot of time on this notion of a network where creativity and advertising happens on the edges. That's About.com with its guides model of content creation and its Google-like CPC revenue business model. There are literally hundreds of businesses emerging on the web that look like this and they are very powerful business models because they cost very little to operate.

If you look at the economics of Marketwatch vs About.com, you'll see the benefits of this edge business model. Marketwatch's EBITDA was 10% of its revenues at the time it was purchased. About.com's EBITDA is 33% of its revenues. That's operating leverage and operating leverage makes growth much easier.

I pointed out to my friends at lunch that if you combine a network like that with a traditional centralized network, you get something even more powerful. The two can feed each other and create even more value.

Congratulations again, Deborah White, on your new new job.
I don't think you need worry about being a short-termer. You have the smarts to keep your new bosses happy. Just bear in mind that outfits like the Times, around for a long time, can still have a lot of old farts who need stroking.