Tuesday, October 23, 2007

IPC Media is not nuts to buy TrustedReviews

Terrible pun, apologies for that. [IPC owns Nuts magazine]

The publishing giant has today bought TrustedReviews.com, a user generated content site for electrical products, gadgets and computer gear.

What does this have to do with travel?

Well, there have been an interesting number of developments in recent weeks with mainstream media organisations snapping up unrelated companies - all with a strong online presence.

The BBC-Lonely Planet deal a few weeks back got lost of tongues wagging, for starters.

The point is this. Content-heavy websites are very valuable to mainstream media companies keen to increase their web presence in the face of competition from pureplay online media companies.

[For the most part] Content = Google Juice.

It wouldn't be a huge surprise if media companies start sniffing round some of the user generated content travel sites in the future.

Likely takeovers??

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

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7 comments:

samdaams said...

No comment on likely takeovers in the UGC travel sites arena :)

But the link should be to trustedreviews.com right?

Okay, if you want my guess on takeovers. Realtravel.com and travbuddy.com. Gut feeling more than anything else...

Ed Whiting said...

Kev, do you know something that we don't know - is the travel publishing part of RBI about to acquire? BTW I think it wouldmake good business sense, more advertising revenue oportunities.

Travolution Blogger said...

Ed: I know nothing.

Travolution Blogger said...

Sam I Am: link changed. apologies for the confusion.

travbuddy.com and realtravel.com?? interesting one...

the obvious one there would be for sidestep to grow its partnership with a takeover (perhaps).

Anonymous said...

Hi Ed-

Being ahead of our time (like Travolution itself!) we did look at some interesting 'content heavy' travel websites last year- the price, and the cultural fit with a 'traditional media company' proved an issue. However as The IPC/Lonely Plant stuff shows, these boundaries are eroding by the day.....

Anonymous said...

Here's a couple of independent travel sites I've that could be takeovers.

http://www.bootsnall.com/

http://www.destination360.com/

http://www.mytravelguide.com

Anonymous said...

Sorry to spoil your story, but trustedreviews.com is not a user generated site.

In fact all the content on there is written by professional journalists and the only user input is in the forum.

That is why IPC bought the site, because it can slot straight in with all the other IPC titles, all of which are also run by professional journalists, not users.

I guess that means that this buy out gives no indication of big company interest in user generated content.