Sold: Mess and Noise
Burgeoning music/fashion media outlet Destra today announced its purchase of the Mess and Noise music community for an undisclosed sum, adding to its extended stable (Oyster/3D World, mp3.com.au, thescene.com.au, Central Station, etc).
Mess+Noise will be promoted across destra’s digital and physical publishing and broadcasting platforms, enabling collaboration with destra’s other music communities such as http://www.threedworld.com.au, www.centralstation.com.au and www.mp3.com.au.
M+N’s been shopping around for a while, but it’ll be interesting to see how successful the sale is considering the different community cultures. Compared to Central Station, mp3.com.au and 3D World’s online communities, and publishing paradigms, M+N offers sophisticated critiques, knowledgeable coverage and deep insights. It’s cynical, and built on a community that fetishises independence. I’m skeptical, but interested to see how it plays out.
Here’s M+N contributor Emmy Hennings on the thing.
I wonder if they are going to integrate a gig guide? That’s been missing from M+N for quite a while, and it wouldn’t detract from the culture.
Mel
22 Jan 08 at 8:27 am
The value being talked about here has nothing whatsoever to do with the content, it is about the community that reads/views that content. The community lies, for the most part in the active forums. Not only can it have advertising plonked in front of it, whoever owns it can also data mine the user profiles for patterns in what is being discussed, who by, when, how long, etc.
Of course all this presumes the presence of advertisers who want to buy advertising space and marketers who buy the aggregated user profile data. At a time of economic melt down those two buyers might be in shorter supply than usual.
No doubt Destra is in a much better position to act on this value than M+N was as an independent publisher. They can also data mine across their properties.
seb
22 Jan 08 at 6:19 pm