The popular humor-based website Cracked.com was bought by E.W. Scripps Company for $39 million cash. The website is reported to be highly profitable, as its revenue last year was off about $11 million.
Demand Media, Cracked’s parent company, has agreed to sell the website to Scripps, who had been acquiring many important digital news and media platforms as of late.
The value of owning Cracked.com
Cracked.com displays a window to reach millennials and new audiences. It is a leader in the humor-based media and it is able to be classified as a contender in this sort of marketplace, which is often regarded as a high-growth environment. Scripps will supposedly aim to expand Cracked to new horizons and to spread its availability on many digital platforms.
The company started as a magazine in 1958 until its purchase in 2007 by Demand Media, which then set its efforts towards developing the Cracked.com website. Scripps’ approach towards digital media is very much alike Cracked’s, as they intend to promote social commentary, pop culture analysis, new media platforms and engaging content that is frequently shared by both users and advertisers.
Cracked.com is able to attract over 20 million visitors per month through its app and website; and it is worth noting that almost half of its visitors access the website directly, which means that the site has a true organic following that does not rely on social media or search engines to be accessed by its audience.
Scripps CEO Rich Boehne argued that the team behind Cracked are experts in engaging young audiences and creating communities around its content. According to Boehne, Cracked “brings a fresh perspective to the way the next generation creates and consumes news, information, and entertainment.”
What E.W. Scripps appears to be seeking is the approval of new generations towards comedic commentators and news celebrities, some of which include Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert. The centennial approach on news content was focused on news that was valuable and useful for the consumer; but as time passes, there seems to be a widening acceptance of entertainment input along news reports in order to make them more engaging and appealing.
The metrics output by Cracked are very hard to match in today’s digital media environment, as most websites now rely on social media, subscriptions, and advertising to reach their audiences. It is estimated that, on average, users spend at least 8 minutes engaging with the content that is available on Cracked’s website, another hard-to-match milestone.
Source: Reuters