GBC-Group, Inc.

 A new list of the twenty-five most valuable blogs has been published by Dougl McIntyre of  24/7 Wall St.  Value as measured in this survey is not by the information content or the editorial value add but by the most bottom-line of measures: what someone might be willing to pay for the property. This analysis of the data shows that the primary factor affecting valuation for these blogs, all operated by private companies, is audience size, measured as the number of unique visitors per month. 

In reviewing the survey, we find the range of business models quite remarkable.  Some depend on user contributed content, some depend on content provided by their own staffs, and others republish syndicated content from various sources. All are doing well at generating traffic but have a wide range of experience and success in selling advertising.  To understand the 24/7 Wall St. valuations better, we constructed a graph, shown on the left. The graph relates the 24/7 Wall St valuations to the unique visitors per month. The relationship between these two variables is a non-linear one.

With a high correlation, the relationship is described by a quadratic equation (of the form, y=ax^2 - bx + c).  At this point in the evolution of citizen journalism, whether it was a 24/7 Wall St assumption or conclusion, value is all about building your brand and generating traffic.

The 24/7 Wall St survey was limited in scope, excluding blogs with limited revenue, owned by large firms, or used primarily as fronts for other businesses. Valuations assigned to blogs on the list were callibrated by comparisons to blogs which have recently been sold, including Ars Technica and PaidContent.

To determine value, 24/7 Wall St. looked at unique visitor and page view information from several sources, estimating current and future audience size. The survey also considered the quality, quantity and duration of ads run on the blog. The survey also considered a number of factors to estimate the blog's operating margin such as the size of the operating staff. Other factors considered by 24/7 Wall St, but which appear to have had relatively little influence on their conclusions, included the blog's age, barriers to competition, the number of regular contributors, support by investors, and the likelihood that it will remain in operation.   Here is a brief summary of 24/7's analyis of the most valuable blogs, showing the data on which our graph is based.

1. Gawker Properties, $300 million. This group of blogs  has about 23 million monthly unique visitors, 250 million page views.

2. The Huffington Post, $112 million. The Huffington Post has about 20 million unique visitors. The site is set up to encourage navigation from page to page and uses editor slide shows to build page views which are probably about seven per visitor.

3. Perez Hilton, $44 million. The entertainment and gossip site have over 7 million unique visitors per month with twelve page views per visitor. The site carries text link ads. 

4. Drudge Report. $42 million. The site has about 9 million unique visitors, and carries a modest amount of premium advertising.

5. TechCrunch. $32 million. The sites that make up TechCrunch have almost 4 million unique visitors and the network has about eighteen million page views.

6. PopSugar Properties. $26 million. The Sugar Network has 11 million unique visitors who are mostly young and female.

7. Politico. $23 million. The site is the largest single media property in the US devoted exclusively to national politics. It has more than 5 million unique visitors generating 40 million page views a month.

8. MacRumors. $20 million. MacRumors has 6.5 million unique visitors per month and 45 million page views. 

9. Boing Boing. $18 million. This leading tech and gadget site has 3 million unique visitors a month and over twenty-four million page views.

10. Mashable. $17.5 million.This  blog, focused on social media,  has 4.2 million unique visitors a month generating 30 million page views a month.

11. Seeking Alpha. $16 million.Seeking Alpha is a financial content aggregation site, with 2.5 million unique visitors and 18 million page views.

12. GigaOm. $15 million. This network of websites has 1.7 million unique visitors and 12 million page views.

13. Breitbart Sites. $11 million. Total unique visitors across all sites are 3.2 million and 18 million page views.

14. SB Nation Network. $8 million. The company has a network of about 200 relatively small sites across all major sports. The network has 4 million unique visitors.

15. ReadWriteWeb. $7 million. The site covers online trends. It bills itself as a site for tech innovators. The site has 1.2 million unique visitors and 10 million page views.

16. The Business Insider. $7 million. The Business Insider is a family of websites covering media, the internet, business, and finance. The sites together have 1.8 million unique visitors and 14 million page views.

17. Destructoid. $5 million. Mega-gamer site with 1.1 million unique visitors and ten million page views. The website is game reviews meets social networking with a very loyal audience.

18. Apple Insider. $4.5 million. The site has 1.2 million unique visitors and eight million page views.

19. //film. (SlashFilm). $4 million. This film blogging unique visitors are still 1.3 million and eleven million page views.

20. SearchEnginLand. $4 million. This site, which covers the search engine industry, has about 400,000 unique visitors and 3.5 million page views.

21. Smashing Magazine. $3.5 million. The site is the online destination for graphics design and has 900,000 unique visitors a month and 6 million page views. The site has a huge Twitter following of over 80,000.

22. Talking Points Memo Sites. $3.5 million. This collection of sites, which includes political coverage site Talking Points Memo, has 1 million monthly unique and 8 million page views.

23. VentureBeat. $3 million. Provides online venture capital news and analysis serving 800,000 unique visitors and seven million page views.

24. The Superficial. $3 million. The Superficial  is a modest version of Perez Hilton, with one million monthly unique visitors.

25. 24/7 Wall St. Network. (value not reported) A family of sites which includes 24/7 Wall St., Volume Spike Investor, BioHealth Investor, and Apple Financial News.

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Here is the link back to the orriginal article at 24x7 Wall St: http://247wallst.com/2009/11/10/the-twenty-five-most-valuable-blogs-in-america/