Crazy Nikki sells her blog
The idea that she got $14 million for it, as reported by the Wrap here, or $15M, as reported by the Financial Times here, is slightly farcical. The buyer is Mail.com.
Entrepreneurship is hard, I understand, and Finke deserves whatever money she gets. But there are ethical issues involved when journalists spin their own stories, and it’s hard to believe the $14 million figure and other varying ones being bruited about aren’t coming from Finke. How can we believe her reporting when she allows misrepresentations to emanate from her own camp?
Sharon Waxman, who runs the Wrap, is a serious journalist, and I suppose we should take her at her word that some “individual knowledgeable about the purchase price” uttered the $14 million figure to her. But she should have quoted someone else saying the figure was a joke.
Over at something called Daily Finance, an intepid reporter there vouchsafes that the figure was $10 million, quoting a “source with knowledge of the details.” But the writer, Jeff Bercovici, has the decency to follow the factoid up with “observers who know the new-media deal market consider the $10 million figure improbably high.”
Meanwhile, over at PaidContent.org, Rafat Ali reports:
… I have heard from sources that the sale amount was in “seven figures” and there are some other incentive triggers built in. My bet is it is in very low seven figures, with some cash and possibly some equity built in.
… and notes that the $10M and $14M figures are “fantastical.”
FWIW, Hitsville bets that it was less than $1 million—and that, at whatever amount, Mail.com is investing in a risky figure. As detailed here and elsewhere, Finke’s undeniable talents and enviably accelerated metabolism are undermined by journalistic behaviors deplorable at best and self-destructive at worst.
4 Comments so far
Leave a reply
I thought internet insanity was dead. Even a Million is ridiculous.
I hadn’t even heard of her or her blog before I read about them on Hitsville. And while I don’t consider myself an expert in these things, I do know a little about the real-world value of Internet content. If her site is really worth $15 million, then it seems to me that the really big name sites (Gawker, Boing-Boing, etc.) would be worth five, maybe ten? Times as much. It just doesn’t make sense.
I really appreciate that people are finally taking Nikki to task for her so-called reporting, which seems to be veering more and more to insider gossip. I wasn’t familiar with her prior to the WAG strike, but found many of her posts quite informative. Since the end of the strike, I’ve felt desperation and arrogance coming from her. The fame went to her head. And her continued use of TOLDJA! is both irritating and juvenile. Given the backlash I’ve been reading towards her from fellow journalists, critics, and bloggers I was rather surprised to see news of the sale of her site, even if it’s under a million. I know nothing on Mail.com, but this doesn’t seem like a wise investment.
Giving Nikki Finke $14 million dollars is like giving a spastic 6 year old a bowl of Chocolate Frosted Sugar Bombs and the keys to the nuclear launch codes.