Credit Martin Peretz, editor-in-chief of The New Republic, with some serious financial acumen... or luck. Not with TNR, of course, the storied Beltway political magazine that recently announced it's cutting its publishing schedule from weekly to biweekly to focus on (surprise) the company's Web operations. Canada's CanWest Global Communications Corp., which had a 30% stake in TNR, is buying the rest of the book, while Peretz is cashing out, although he'll remain as editor-in-chief.
No, where Peretz is presumably really making hay is with the revitalized TheStreet.com Inc., which he co-founded and where he remains on the board. Presenting at Jefferies & Co. Inc.'s annual Internet show Wednesday, TheStreet.com chairman and CEO Thomas Clarke said the company's 2006 net revenue totaled nearly $51 million, up 51% from net sales of $33.7 million in the prior year. Perhaps most impressive is TheStreet's surging subscription business, always a tough go in publishing, which generated 2006 revenues of more than $33 million, up from $23.1 million the prior year; ad sales over that period rose to $15.4 million, from $9.5 million.
TheStreet looked like a goner after the dot-com biz blew up in 2000. But it's come back strong by driving growth both through acquisitions, buying Weiss Ratings, which tracks mutual funds, stock and other investments, in August 2006 for a pittance, and through a bold rollout out of new technologies. Along with serving up blogs and podcasts, TheStreet now produces hundreds of its own online videos replete with—kaching—pre- and post-roll ads. More such initiatives are on the way.
"At the end of the day, TheStreet.com will be agnostic about how people consume their content," Clarke said. —Alain Sherter
See story from The New York Times
See Peretz bio at The New Republic
See story from The Deal
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