spanfeller media group
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spanfeller media group is a privately - held company that operates in the following industries: online databases and online advertising. spanfeller media group was founded in 2010 by jim spanfeller. spanfeller media group headquarters are located in new york, new york .
jim spanfeller is ceo of spanfeller media group, former ceo of urltoken and chairman emeritus of iab .
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spanfeller media group focuses on the content aspect of media and commissions its websites to produce content by, for and about the web .
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spanfeller media group is scrapping the ekaida name that it had cooked up for its active sports enthusiast website and changing it to the active times .
about spanfeller media group: founded in june 2010 by jim spanfeller, the spanfeller media group brings media into the digital age through premium subject - specific digital destinations. its first site, the daily meal launched in january 2011 and is already among the largest food sites on the web. launched in june 2012, the active times is the second vertical content site of the venture - backed company .
i applied through an employee referral. the process took 2 weeks. i interviewed at spanfeller media group (new york, ny (us) ) in december 2013 .
helmed by editorial director colman andrews, the daily meal is the fastest growing food site on the web and the first property of spanfeller media group, founded by jim spanfeller. visit the daily meal on facebook; follow us on twitter .
spanfeller media group, which plans to launch a series of new sites, is close to finishing a funding round that i’m told will total around $ 2 million. backers include rre ventures, greenhill savp, softbank and lerer media ventures .
founded in june 2010 by jim spanfeller, the spanfeller media group brings media into the digital age through premium subject - specific content. its first site, the daily meal launched in january 2011 and already is among the largest food sites on the web. the active times is the second vertical content site of the venture - backed company .
new york, ny (june 19, 2012) — spanfeller media group (smg), founded by acclaimed media pioneer jim spanfeller, maintains its position at the forefront of digital content with the introduction of the active times (urltoken) formerly entitled ekadia. the website targets consumers passionate about outdoor and endurance sports, fitness and adventure travel .
steve macbeth, microsoft partner engineering manager. lead engineer personal cloud project george pappachen: chief privacy officer wpp group and evp strategy j. p. rangaswami: chief scientist, urltoken. paul sagan, executive vice chairman and past ceo, akamai technologies jim spanfeller, spanfeller media group, (and past chair, iab and opa) adam towvim, ceo, co - founder, trustlayers
“philip is someone who can seamlessly align the company’s technology vision with its business strategy, ” said jim spanfeller, president and ceo of spanfeller media group. “i look forward to working with him on a wide range of objectives, from day - to - day ad operations to the expansion of our video network and mobile capabilities. ”
new year, same question: is tronc chairman michael ferro a seller or a buyer? for the moment, he’s the latter, as the tronc chairman has closed a deal to buy the spanfeller media group, and its food and outdoors digital properties .
tronc closed a deal to acquire spanfeller properties the daily meal and the active times .
“according to google analytics, the daily meal now reaches over 5 million culinary enthusiasts worldwide, ” said jim spanfeller, ceo of spanfeller media group. “in just 19 months, we have established ourselves as a frontrunner in the food and beverage category, and we fully expect our hyper growth phase to continue into the 4th quarter of this year .
new york, ny (june 5, 2013) — spanfeller media group (smg) —publisher of mega food site the daily meal and emerging active lifestyle site the active times —continues its expansion this spring, announcing the arrival of philip barber as chief technology officer .
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prior to spanfeller media group, barber was senior director of webops and technology at american media incorporated where he introduced processes and procedures to improve development workflow and website quality, lead several drupal re - platform initiatives and expanded the digital technology footprint. he also served as senior director of project management and infrastructure at ivillage and nbc universal, overseeing operations relating to new product development and site architecture .
“the number one intention here is to build up dailymeal, ” said spanfeller, well known in the digital media business as an architect of pioneering and once - high - flying forbes. com .
tronc’s acquisition of the spanfeller media group closed at the end of december, at a price undisclosed by tronc. this deal may offer double, if small, value. tronc gains thedailymeal. com, with its seven million monthly unique visitors and some relatively small revenue, as well as the much smaller theactivetimes. com .
former urltoken publisher jim spanfeller has a new gig: a venture - backed web publishing start - up .
spanfeller has now become general manager the daily meal ventures, and a senior vice president of the company .
. com ceo jim spanfeller, closed a $ 6 million series b round lead by vantagepoint capital partners .
spanfeller media group, publisher of the daily meal and the active times, raised another $ 5 million in a series c funding round. the round was led by inovia capital, which joins existing investors vantagepoint, softbank, tribeca, lerer and rre, bringing the total vc raised to $ 12. 5 million since the company launched in 2010 .
“we cover the new menu at taco bell to the latest review of thomas keller’s restaurant, ” spanfeller said. while many food sites focus on recipes, spanfeller said thedailymeal ranges more widely into “all things food and drink. ”
both sites depend wholly on advertising for revenue. neither tronc nor jim spanfeller would divulge annual revenue data or ranges .
“it will chronicle everything from my immaculate birth to the 1973 championship, ” monroe quipped to media ink .
news corp. is a network of leading companies in the world of diversified media, news, and information services .
new york, ny (august 16, 2012) — the daily meal—spanfeller media group’s mega food site—today announced an unprecedented growth rate through the month of july. according to comscore’s latest report, the daily meal now ranks among the top ten in its competitor landscape - websites offering a full - bodied content model dedicated to food and drink. these results further bolster the daily meal as the fastest growing website of its kind .
both sites rely on a fast and deep content strategy, with both in - house writers and a growing group of outside contributors rapidly producing content to achieve scale .
greg sargent / washington post: dear media: the trump white house has total contempt for you. time to react accordingly .
the media business is in tumult: from the production side to the distribution side, new technologies are upending the industry. keeping up with these changes is time - consuming, as essential media coverage is scattered across numerous web sites at any given moment .
daniel politi / slate: white house press secretary lies and yells at media. it' s day 2 of the trump presidency .
these audience - extension tactics are basically legit — until they fail to meet the audience advertisers are buying. pre - internet, this took the form of sketchy circulation sales tactics, like publishers clearing house schemes that preyed on the gullible. online, there’s the buying of undesirable traffic to fulfill commitments to advertisers, or, worse, non - human or bot traffic. “when it gets dicey is when someone buys traffic that is not necessarily in keeping with what they sold their customer, ” said jim spanfeller, founder of spanfeller media group. “then, you’re basically paying a bait - and - switch game. ”
dcn has seen record growth in the past twelve months adding nine new members to its expanding organization. annual closed - door events for dcn members will continue in 2015. the organization will also expand its scope to share additional intelligence and industry findings through its incontext website, and public events and research. recent members are business insider, the daily caller, newsbeat social, newsday, rodale, telegraph media group, vocativ, vox media and warner bros .
once the deal is done, sources say, spanfeller’s plan is to roll out a series of industry - specific “verticals. ” first up: food .
urltoken is a web site devoted to news, analysis and opinion on technology, the internet and media. but it is different from other sites in this space. it is a fusion of different media styles, different topics, different formats and different sources. read more »
notable / the fjp: “i have a running war with the media. they are among the most dishonest human beings on earth. ”
“we were faster to 3 million than huffington post, gawker, business insider, bleacher report or yelp, ” said ceo jim spanfeller of the foodie site .
a fast growth media company conceived of and for the digital age, looking to revolutionize how premium content is created, shared, and monetized .
aren’t there plenty of food sites out there already? you’d think so, but spanfeller and his backers figure there’s room for more. after that, they have a list of categories to tackle, with the exception of five they think are overpopulated: news, business / finance, entertainment, traditional sports and technology. spanfeller declined to comment .
softbank capital ny led the series a round and contributed to the second round, as did gsa venture partners, rre ventures, and lerer media ventures .
peter w. singer / @ peterwsinger: trump' s new director of social media repeatedly posts conspiracy theories + infowars on his personal twitter page urltoken ...
it is the second vertical to be launched by spanfeller. the daily meal now has about 3 million unique visitors and is pulling in $ 100, 000 a month in ad revenue .
as an organization, dcn places significant emphasis on communicating key messages to high - quality digital publishers and bringing together this group to develop best practices and continue the innovation of this industry. dcn’s current member roster for 2015 is :
the first platform of its kind in the digital realm, the website offers an immersive experience, uniting valuable content with striking design and social media integration. in addition to original features, the site will aggregate content from several well - known industry players– including the competitor group, explorersweb, and the red bull video network. users are equally encouraged not only to comment, but to contribute their own stories and videos .
carlos lozada / @ carloslozadawp: “we' ve gone full orwell. ” @ sulliview on what the news media faces after the trump presidency' s first weekend: urltoken ...
today, the rise of social media has made publishers more dependent on facebook to reach an audience. the need for publishers to understand social has led their newsrooms to adopt business - side expertise .
in a phone call on tuesday, spanfeller told us that the money would be used to accelerate growth for the daily meal, a site that launched six months ago and currently boats 1. 5 million uniques per month .
jon bond once said, “marketing in the future is like sex. only the losers will have to pay for it. ” bond was talking about earned media like public relations and social media replacing traditional advertising. but the thinking could apply to editorial content, too. if your content is good enough, it should find an audience on its own, and you shouldn’t have to pay to promote it .
additionally, the board elected four new members to its executive committee: jim bankoff, chairman / ceo, vox media; tamara franklin, evp, digital, scripps networks interactive; declan moore, chief media officer, national geographic society; and christy tanner, svp and gm, cbs interactive media. they join krishan bhatia, evp, digital strategy & operations, nbcuniversal; kevin conroy, president, digital and enterprise development, univision communications, inc. ; david payne, chief digital officer, gannett co. , inc. ; drew schutte, evp and publisher, details; and michael zimbalist, svp, advertising products and research & development, the new york times company .
journalism professor jay rosen explains how journalists must get to know their audiences, ditch the “view from nowhere”, and show their work in the age of trump — journalism professor jay rosen offers some suggestions for journalists under siege on recode media .
we have a truly amazing platform to work with. digital media has so much going for it: it is incredibly flexible, it is interactive, it is not limited by form factor, it is multi - media and it should be extremely trackable. unfortunately, as an industry we have done a lot to limit these assets. the fact that it still works as well as it does is amazing. just imagine what it will do once we take the shackles off .
smg also plans to launch two other verticals, one that will be in beta by the end of 2011 and another coming online in the middle of 2012. spanfeller says they have not decided on the specific verticals, nor have they chosen the order of the launch .
but the collapse of the last tech bubble and the realization the web publishing economics require lots and lots and lots of scale have brought many other web publishers much closer to spanfeller’s tactics than they’d like to admit. his new challenge: re - creating that scale with brand new properties .
smg plans to use the money to launch new verticals, hire more staff and fund a new data center .
we will be adding staff in the technology, sales and editorial areas and will be building our a new data center for the company ,
says ceo and founder jim spanfeller .
based in new york city, six - year - old thedailymeal set up shop in january, 2011, backed with $ 14. 3m in five rounds of venture capital supplied by a group of six well - pedigreed funders. those include rre ventures, tribeca venture partners (tvp), softbank capital, lerer ventures, vantage point capital partners and inovia capital .
trump, in cia visit, attacks media for coverage of his inaugural crowds — on his first full day in office, president trump visited the central intelligence agency' s headquarters to express his gratitude for the intelligence community, which he had repeatedly railed against and recently likened to nazis .
so let’s all do what we can to educate, well, everyone about the current state of the ecosystem. it is through this knowledge that the industry will find the right way to live with and deeply respect consumers while using technology and tracking in ways that allow marketers to use their dollars in more and more efficient ways. but beyond efficiency, increased understanding will lead to value being put where it should: with the outlets that generate the most consumer involvement and provide the best environments for messaging rather than a wide and growing group of “platforms” and other third parties that hijack the engagement of the media properties and also the trust of the consumer in the name of efficiency .
evolve media used to pay for it, but it no longer does. buzzfeed says it rarely does. time and the huffington post claim they don’t. yet to hear some talk, it’s a more common practice than some publishers might admit. even the new york times (gasp) does it .
still food, 20 years into the history of the worldwide web, remains an uncertain category, as spanfeller points out. many legacy magazine companies have struggled to transition to digital audiences, too often just digitizing print content. dailymeal’s strategy clearly aims at this opportunity, but its own struggles with audience tell us it hasn’t yet found a winning formula either .
the saying goes that complexity breeds margin and to some extent that has proven true here; at least at the gross margin level. the bottom line is another issue, given the crazy estimates that adtech companies are taking between 40 and 60% of every media dollar (depending on which study you look at) .
when spanfeller left forbes last summer after eight - plus years at the site, his initial plan was to create a sort of repair shop for established publishers’ web properties. that made sense, given that that’s essentially what he did for the forbes family when he took over their web site in 2001. but the new plan is to create stuff from scratch .
“the active times will fill a major gap for the vast number of consumers already engaged in an active lifestyle, ” spanfeller said. “the site demonstrates a full - bodied commitment to smg growth and expansion. we’ve created a discussion centered on what people are doing in the world of sports and adventure, from methods to improve technique to exhilarating treks and the newest gear. ”
within the web publishing industry, spanfeller gets lots of credit for moving urltoken from also - ran status into one of the biggest finance sites on the web. and he gets a fair amount of derision as well, for both a blustery style and a lusty embrace of page views. his most infamous gambit, used more than once: a slideshow detailing the world’s “top topless beaches. ”
instead of focusing all your energy on preserving the outdated
old media
ideas you hold on to so preciously, listen to the people you' ve hired and have faith in them to do the job you hired them to. once you start respecting and treating the staff like humans and not
tools to be applied
, you could really have a great business .
today, its dailymeal property can claim seven million monthly unique visitors in the u. s. , down from almost 11 million one year ago, according to comscore. the site appears to have reached an apex of traffic then, and then dropped off to the seven million range in mid - 2016, where it has remained. spanfeller explained the drop in traffic to me this morning. “the sales process diverted our attention. ”
value, here, is plainly in the eye of the newsprint beholder. in december, merrick media paid $ 15 a share to hedge fund hg vora, a total of $ 37. 5 million to purchase 2. 5 million shares. intended as much to silence a dissident shareholder as to gain more leverage, that price, though, didn’t set a new floor for the share price .
it’s the first since ferro and his vice - chairman and investor partner patrick soon - shiong increased their stakes in the company in a series of moves late last year. the ferro - led merrick media now controls just under 25% of its shares, while soon - shiong owns about 15% . with that 40% stake, the partners have made a hostile bid for tronc less likely early in this year .
“i’m thrilled with the foresight of our leadership to make these moves in our pursuit of the interests of the companies investing billions in creating content people love, ” said jason kint, ceo of digital content next. “we represent digitally - native companies and companies that are more than a century old, from non - profits to for - profits and companies that are pre - revenue to those with billions in revenues. all of our members have direct, trusted relationships with consumers and marketers building the highest quality experiences in digital media. ”
at the end of the day, demographic - and audience - based buying is a proxy for finding consumers most likely to buy a product or service. so is environment. the difference is that buying by environment is a very straightforward process. the downside? it is very time consuming to do at scale and as such is a process that makes it very hard for a media - buying agency to make money with. that said, there should be plenty of programmatic ways to buy environment in a much more streamlined basis then we are currently doing .
it is said that if you optimize an exchange - driven campaign for “clicks” three times, you will end up with over 90 percent bot traffic. the same is true for optimizing around third - party cookies. to their great credit, many of the largest exchanges are now working hard to reduce the amount of bot - driven impressions. just recently in fact, appnexus said a new program to filter fraudulent impression decreased platform traffic by 65 percent. this is a great start, but we still have some miles to go before we get to a more “genuine” set of media goals .
the company’s first site, the daily meal, now attracts 7 million monthly uniques. second site the active times, which launched in june 2012 and targets adventure sports and active lifestyle enthusiasts, averages about 1 million monthly uniques .
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recounting comscore’s previous report, the daily meal grew a record 156% in the month of june and outperformed several well - known competitors along the way, including food & wine, bon appetit, and saveur. this past month, the daily meal experienced yet another 12% growth, continuing to excel as a comprehensive digital platform covering all things food and drink, including news, recipes, travel, celebrity chefs, restaurant reviews and social integration .
the recipe for the daily meal’s success is largely reflected in its stalwart content model: producing a wider selection of premium content than anyone else, and at a faster pace. the site also boasts a fully incorporated social community, an extensive video network, and the newly released “best dishes” mobile app .
the daily meal covers all things food and drink, creating a complete epicurean experience for cooks, food lovers, wine, beer and spirit connoisseurs, discerning diners and everyone in - between. comprised of original content and video from award winning editors, industry insiders, tastemakers and the user community, features range across the site’s multiple channels: cook, eat / dine, drink, travel, entertain, best recipes, holidays, lists and community. the daily meal also produces much - anticipated annual reports including the 50 most powerful people in food, america' s most successful chefs, 101 best restaurants in america and 150 best bars in america. additionally, the daily meal shop, an online cookware store, offers over 7, 000 kitchenware and specialty foods tailored specifically to the daily meal’s hungry following of savvy food enthusiasts .
earl “the pearl” monroe, a star of the last new york knicks team to win an nba championship, has inked a deal with rodale to write his autobiography .
“earl the pearl: my story” is set to hit next april to coincide with the 40th anniversary of the knicks’ last title. monroe is one of the only members of that team to not cash in with a book .
rodale won the rights to the autobiography at auction. terms of the deal were not disclosed, but it is believed the shared advance is in the $ 200, 000 to $ 400, 000 range .
the book is being written with quincy troupe, the collaborator with jazz musician miles davis on “miles: the autobiography, ” as well as co - author of the best - selling “pursuit of happyness, ” a memoir about the rags - to - riches life of stockbroker chris gardner .
“i expect to start writing in november, ” said troupe. “earl monroe was one of the first artists of the basketball court. he invented the spin move and the crossover, which are a part of the game today. ”
monroe, 68, had humble beginnings. born in a tough south philadelphia neighborhood, his dazzling ball handling eventually had him named one of the 50 all - time great nba players .
he had been a bitter rival of the knicks when he played alongside wes unseld with the baltimore bullets, his first nba team where he earned rookie of the year honors in 1967. by the 1971 - 72 season, he had a falling out with management and was demanding a trade .
he ended up getting traded to the knicks team — including willis reed, dave debusschere, bill bradley, dick barnett and phil jackson — that was already anchored by a flashy guard, walt “clyde” frazier .
monroe said he still keeps in contact with most of his knicks teammates and regularly pops into frazier’s manhattan restaurant, clyde frazier’s wine and dine .
dow jones’ smartmoney is shutting down its print edition and laying off most of its staff as it tries to make a go of its digital - only version .
like many of the books in the financial category, smartmoney never regained its footing after the financial crisis in 2008 — in fact, it was still reeling from the burst of the dot - com bubble in 2001 .
the magazine was started 20 years ago as a joint venture between hearst corp. and dow jones, publisher of the wall street journal. dow jones is now part of news corp. , which owns the post .
the magazine launched into the teeth of the early ’90s ad recession with steve swartz as editor - in - chief and david carey as publisher. swartz is now the no. 2 executive at hearst, while carey is president of hearst magazines .
smartmoney seemed to enjoy an editorial buzz that rival worth never achieved. but smartmoney’s ad pages, which had soared to 1, 289 by 2000, are just a fraction of what they were. through july of this year, the mag sold 186. 9 ad pages .
wall street journal editor - in - chief robert thomson, in breaking the news to staffers that the magazine was closing, said it “was losing a lot of money” despite picking up a bushel of journalism awards. one source estimated the losses at $ 5 million a year .
some of the staffers will be retained by the digital side. but editor - in - chief jonathan dahl and 24 other staffers will stay in the office through july 23 to produce one more issue .
“it’s always a surprise or a shock when it actually happens, but what are you going to do? ” said dahl, who has been in the post for the past six years and has worked a total of 28 years at dow jones. “my hope is to find openings for as many people as possible. ”
the website, edited by john rasmus, covers running, hiking, kayaking, surfing, skiing and five other sports .
file this under “making lemon out of lemonade. ” ann curry, who is being booted as nbc’s “today” show co - host, had a sit - down months ago with lee woodruff for a cover story in ladies’ home journal .
the issue hits newsstands july 10, but due to the long lead time there is nothing the editors can do to alter the story at this point .
however, lhj is distributing some quotes that indicate that curry realized months ago that she was on the hot seat. “it’s hard not to take it personally, ” she said. “you worry: am i not good enough? am i not what people need? am i asking the right questions? ”
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very directed culture... work hard play hard. core team really wants to win. great opportunity to learn given that the company is small but very collaborative. lots of responsibility for everyone... and with it good accountability .
there is a lot to do. so never a lack for something to do. but this does provide for great learning moments .
if management would' ve listened, this is a product that has a lot of potential .
previous ceo and founder of the company was a tyrant and openly enjoyed verbally abusing employees. training was an absolute joke. literally consisted of walking through a deck for 5 minutes. nobody explained capabilities, content, no account lists assigned. i was openly ripped apart in front of a co - worker for not understanding internal procedures because nobody ever explained any of it to me. ceo would try to find band aid versus long term solutions. he seriously thought you could walk into a major advertiser and they would drop million dollars on a site they never heard of with a fraction of the traffic versus established competitors. also thought the daily meal or active times didn' t need a phone app. this isn' t 1990 and you aren' t at forbes or playboy .
the office is in a nice area, a lot of the employees are great people and sometimes there are cool chef events. overall, this should be a great place to work, but unfortunately it isn' t .
great neighborhood. flat iron area is great. i need to write thirteen more words to get to the 20 word minimum .
everything is wrong with this place. here are some examples - men' s bathroom has one working stall. pos owner won' t fix the handicap toilet. - same pos owner is a terrible man. who cares about his resume. he simply ruins this place. never will this place be a good place to work as long as he' s involved. oh yeah - he' s the ceo and thinks he should be doing everybodies job for them. the exact opposite way to run a company. - if you like daily verbal abuse, this place is great .
talk to the board about removing the ceo if that doesn' t work, which it won' t - help your employees by getting them new jobs there are good therapists out there who can help you move forward .
somehow, this largely unsatisfactory company attracts really cool coworkers. it' s that whole uniting - against - a - shared - enemy thing — or, more accurately, uniting for survival. it' s like if you were in a life - or - death situation and everyone that was in it with you banded together to pull each other through it. yeah, it sounds melodramatic, but you know what i' m talking about. whether it' s a rough college course or an actual life - or - death situation, you may have experienced this (if it was the latter, i' m sorry). that' s the only pro about this place, besides a working relationship with colman andrews, one of the biggest names in the food industry. and sometimes getting free food / event invites. it' s still not worth the meager salary or, most of all, the horrific work - life balance, nightmares many of the employees have about their work, and the sorry excuse for quality journalism .
lower the article quota. you' re kidding yourself if you think that mission statement on the wall warrants quality work. it' s mostly taking information from actual sources and trying to weave it into a story. up the salaries. maybe people would stay a little longer than three to six months, if you combine that with a culture overhaul. go for respect, not fear. that' s the way to a long - term company and one that leaves a legacy. take a good long look at yourself, and ask if you want to be remembered the way you' re described in these reviews. then make a change. a big one .
the two main sites (the daily meal and the active times) are fast growing content sites in two of the most interesting areas. the staff live and breathe the content. it' s a small company, so there is opportunity to be noticed and to take on greater areas of responsibility than at a larger company. there is a good flow of free food coming through the place, so that' s also a bonus .
the output demands are high and the goals are aggressive. it' s a small company that wants to act like a larger entity, so it rewards the startup minded but isn' t for everyone. if you' re looking for a slow pace, this would not be the right place .
ignore the fake reviews. i promise, this is the truth .
i' ve been waiting to write this review since the first week i was hired at the daily meal. luckily enough, the turnover rate at this company is so high, i was able to do so in only a few months !
instead of making fake reviews to avoid a low rating, open your eyes, read the reviews, take what they' re saying, and make a change. you have a lot of talented people in your office, and they could really make a difference .
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meanwhile the year - long drama of tronc’s future, alone, or as a seller or a buyer, may offer some new plot twists .
we can also newly catalog the possible ways ferro could once again command center stage in the newspaper business in 2017. he dominated news industry coverage last year, first seizing control of the tribune company, publisher of a national network of newspapers that includes the los angeles times and the chicago tribune, in february, and then engaging in a nasty public battle to fend off a takeover bid from gannett, amazing observers with his guts, even as they guffawed at moves like renaming venerable tribune “tronc” in june .
in addition, expect daily meal content to begin appearing on tronc’s newspaper websites from orlando and chicago to san diego, as soon as those logistics are worked out. the 35 - person smg staff has moved offices within new york city, now residing with tronc’s national sales offices in midtown .
in addition to whatever revenue tronc will gain from the purchase, the company undoubtedly hopes the buy will burnish tronc’s digital cred, as ferro and ceo justin dearborn renew their bid to tronc - ify their company, with more lower - cost, high - volume digital content. tronc has unevenly pursued such content over the last year [ politico: “ welcome to the tronc widgeteria” ] .
tronc has not announced the acquisition or reported it in sec filings. the purchase price is unknown, though given the smallish nature of its audience probably wouldn’t have much taxed tronc’s year - end reserve of $ 187 million in cash .
“it is not a material acquisition, ” tronc spokesperson dana meyer told me this morning. “material” is usually defined as information that should be known to investors in a public company. “there are specific rules for how you determine if an acquisition requires an [ sec ] 8 - k, and generally, if the purchase price equals over 10% of our total assets pre - acquisition then it would trigger an 8 - k, but there are other tests too, ” said meyer .
the new tronc ownership is noted at the bottom of both urltoken and urltoken pages: “the daily meal is a registered trademark of tronc, inc. , copyright, 2017, tronc. ”
he notes that in addition to the seven million “property” unique visitors, various distribution - and - ad partnerships add traffic to the ad - selling proposition. “about 50” partners, most of them bloggers, and some other food sites – including finecooking and recipelion – fill out that partnership network .
daily meal offers lots – its “evergreen content portfolio” including 1. 2 million recipes, 80, 000 wine reviews and one million restaurant reviews, according to tronc .
colman andrews, a founding editor of saveur, has long led dailymeal’s editorial staff .
food has been one of the hotter categories in online content. the new york times “cooking” site and apps have been one of the high - profile newcomers in the category. the new york times says its internal traffic count for cooking shows
approximately 10 million monthly unique visitors on the web ,
a number that does not include mobile apps; comscore doesn' t track cooking individually. while cooking began life in late 2014, it was intended as much to generate new direct digital subscription revenue as advertising. while direct cooking subscriptions plans have been abandoned, at least for now, cooking now aims to exploit the boon in whole meal delivery services. blue apron, purple carrot and hello fresh, among others .
in fact, the new york times introduced its audience to home delivery through a chef’d partnership in may of last year .
smg’s other site, the active times, has been disappointing. it’s an outdoors enthusiast site, launched in june, 2012. in december, 2016, it saw an audience of only 378, 000, a number that’s been fairly static for last 12 months, according to comscore. it’s heavy on listicles (“ the 8 best products to relieve muscle soreness, ” “ the 15 most dangerous ski runs in the world ”, “ 17 ways to lose 10 pounds in 2017 ”) and videos, some with the requisite aussie outdoorsman host .
now, as ferro and his ceo justin dearborn enter a second year of operating the company, they show signs, internally, of re - focusing. this past fall, dearborn himself acknowledged that the company had put much of its digital tronc - ification plans on hold over mid - year, as gannett’s bid looked like it would succeed .
this small acquisition may set the tone for the year ahead. the company continues to announce itself as a buyer: “strategic acquisitions continue to be a component of our capital allocation strategy and we are interested in opportunities that will help accelerate our digital and commerce expansion. ”
yet, some insiders said, that bid could still be headed tronc’s way. the likeliest bidder, if any: gannett. as he did a year ago, gannett ceo bob dickey faces a ticking clock. last year, gannett missed the company’s deadline to offer up its own alternative slate of directors – which could have forced a sale to gannett. that hampered its effort, though the gannett - sponsored advisory shareholder vote made clear the alternative slate might then have won .
gannett – or any other bidder – would have to file a new board of directors slate some time between early february and early march, depending on when tronc sets this year’s annual meeting .
consider a new hostile bid unlikely, though. we can count at least four reasons .
first, the ferro–soon - shiong 40% holdings are an obstacle. that “40% ” number, though, is a nuanced one. soon - shiong, by the terms of his initial purchase agreement, must vote his shares “proportionately” with the votes of all other voting shareholders, a point a tronc spokesperson reaffirmed to me recently. that means that rather than a presumed 40% vote against a hostile bidder, ferro and soon - shiong might just be able to muster something more than 28% . even that 28% , though, is a significant hurdle .
secondly, tronc’s share price of about $ 13 may push an offer price beyond what the market will bear. while gannett ended up offering about $ 18. 50 a share for the company in late october, it had hoped that the tronc price would fall (as it did briefly after the collapsed sale to less than $ 10), allowing gannett to return with a bid in the $ 14 - $ 16 range. that may still be possible, but today’s share price makes it more difficult .
thirdly, there is the question of gannett’s current appetite. the company found itself chastened by the botched tronc takeover, its own share price dropping by more than 60% and still more than 45% down from its 52 - week high. given that financing woes finally tanked the final tronc deal, how prepared is gannett, financially and strategically, to bite off such a big acquisition, in the worsening newspaper framework of 2017 ?
consider a fourth point. oaktree capital management, now the third - largest investor in tronc and a public critic of ferro’s management, seems less likely to take its case to court, as it had threatened. while a pain point for oaktree, it’s a small one, and the firm appears reluctant to spend the time and money contesting ferro in court .
consider two other scenarios that could extend this newspaper soap opera that has produced so much satirical humor and so much angst for those formerly - known - as - tribune employees at the l. a. times, chicago tribune, baltimore sun and six other dailies .
gannett would have a much easier time justifying the purchase of tronc’s seven dailies outside of california. the los angeles times and san diego union - tribune make up about 40% of tronc’s value. separate out those properties, and gannett might see its way clear to do a deal. it would find financing such a buy a lot easier. further, gannett knows it can wring more geographical consolidation expense synergies (especially in chicago–milwaukee and florida) than out of the non - california dailies anyhow .
if gannett and ferro – who some say would still be willing to sell at a higher teens price – came to such an agreement, what would happen with the l. a. times and the san diego union - tribune? tronc, and ferro, could keep them, or patrick soon - shiong could buy them, given he is the wealthiest man ($ 9 billion net worth or so) in los angeles. in fact, there’s a new set of rumors swirling around l. a. that soon - shiong, who has wanted to own the times for a few years, might soon get his prize. one parlor game those close to the tronc action like to play is this: michael and patrick, bosom buddies or frenemies? only the two, chairman and vice - chairman of tronc, know for sure .
while the cancer - treatment - technology maker, trump - meeter and good doctor soon - shiong is a worthy character in this drama [ stat: “ who’s the billionaire doctor palling around with donald trump? ” ], the wild card in this drama is michael ferro himself .
finally, we come back to the study of michael ferro as buyer. in that scenario, ferro is playing out his long game. his goal: merging tronc and gannett – and becoming chairman of the combined company. the thinking: gannett itself was weakened, and maybe wounded, by its tronc pursuit .
both companies will be announcing fourth quarter and full - year 2016 earnings within the next six weeks. tronc itself will be buoyed with about $ 5 million in unexpected revenue given the chicago cubs winning run, and its other results may be better than some would expect .
as newspaper fortunes continue to be challenged by fast - declining print advertising, could ferro – with monied backers – wait for gannett’s own moment of weakness, and pounce? it may seem far - fetched, given gannett’s gold - plated history with investors, but in a topsy - turvy world, it’s a scenario worth noting early in 2017. audacity is in the air, and it’s worth keeping in mind what one associate who worked closely with ferro in recent years recently told me: “everyone always under - estimates michael ferro, and he constantly over - estimates himself. ”
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finally, smg will use the cash infusion to recruit people who can begin selling the daily meal .
we are just getting to revenue right now ,
he said .
we are starting to actively pursue revenue this month, basically. part of the funding will be use to hire a sales team for the first site .
the ceo thinks there' s a chance this will be the last round of funding his company needs to raise - the money will last at least through 2012 - but he remains realistic .
i' m hopeful but i think every entrepreneur says' i hope we can get through to profitability with series b.' and every sage, experienced venture person will look at you, roll their eyes, and say,' uh huh.' hopefully, we' re the exception not the rule, but if we' re not, hopefully we' ll have two to three sites up and running so we' ll have an even better story to go out for series c .
barber arrives after a record year for smg’s maiden website, the daily meal, which experienced a remarkable 100% growth in 2012, according to comscore data. parallel to such success, the culinary powerhouse launched a brand new video production test kitchen last month, and announced jp kyrillos as its new president .
“smg is experiencing such tremendous growth right now, i couldn’t be more excited to have joined the team in this period, ” said barber. “both the daily meal and the active times generate massive audiences, and produce more content on a daily basis than any other website within their respective categories. i plan to not only maintain that infrastructure, but to build it out and prepare for even more content and traffic growth. ”
spanfeller media group ( smg ) is american media company . it was founded in 2010 by jim spanfeller , after leading the digital strategy at forbes.com . spanfeller media group operates two media sites as subject-specific digital destinations , the daily meal , dedicated to food and drink , and the active times , centered on outdoor sports and an active lifestyle . 
spanfeller media group (smg) is american media company. it was founded in 2010 by jim spanfeller, after leading the digital strategy at forbes.com. spanfeller media group operates two media sites as subject-specific digital destinations, the daily meal, dedicated to food and drink, and the active times, centered on outdoor sports and an active lifestyle.
spanfeller media group (smg) is american media company. it was founded in 2010 by jim spanfeller, after leading the digital strategy at forbes.com. spanfeller media group operates two media sites as subject-specific digital destinations, the daily meal, dedicated to food and drink, and the active times, centered on outdoor sports and an active lifestyle.