DailyRadar’s BLIP Business Model…
By Anna Johnson on May 11th, 2009Future US, Inc., a niche publisher of computer gaming and other magazines, has adopted an interesting business model for its online content. Introducing ‘Blips’ – aggregated news headlines grouped into niche-focused clusters that people can vote up or down.
TechBlips, EarthBlips, and WrestlingBlips are just three of Future US’s 40 or so Blips. Each Blip collects and clusters headlines from topic-focused news headlines and allows those stories to be voted up and down by Blip visitors. TechCrunch calls these Blips a cross between news aggregator, Techmeme, and news bookmarking site, Digg.
Future US makes its Blips available via its online portal, DailyRadar. According to TechCrunch, Future US began rolling out Blips in mid-2008 and they now attract about a third (9.3 million) of DailyRadar’s 27 million monthly unique visitors. Blips are probably a big reason for DailyRadar’s rise in traffic too – apparently the site garnered 12 million monthly uniques pre-Blips.
According to TechCrunch, Future US has been launching about six new Blips per month. It uses technology that evaluates 26,000 different news sources, blogs, video sites, and photo sites to create topical Blips.
Each of these must be approved by an editor, whilst readers can also add new sources of content. News stories are grouped in clusters with headlines arranged according to links, votes and how recent they are.
Future US seems focused on creating niche-oriented Blips – there are AnimeBlips, HorrorBlips, CricketBlips, CraftBlips, GuitarWorldBlips, MommyBlips, and so on.
The business model underlying the Blip strategy is to sell advertising. Given the traffic these Blips are generating, I’d be surprised if ad revenues haven’t also substantially increased.
On the other hand TechCrunch’s Erick Schonfeld rightly questions whether Future US can really offer advertisers the chance to meaningfully promote their wares across the whole of DailyRadar, given that each Blip is likely to have a very specific, niche audience.
Still, it’s an interesting approach to news aggregation. And Future is certainly one ‘traditional’ publishing company that’s not just adopting an online business model, but creating one…
