SB Nation Valued at $2.7m

by lemonverbena on Feb 26, 2009 7:32 PM PST Comment 60 comments

SBN is ranked 15th among the 25 Most Valuable Blogs. From 24/7 Wall St.:

15. SB Nation is a network of 185 sports blogs which has two million unique visitors and 20 million pageviews a month. The home site carries a very modest amount of advertising which appears to be getting mid-level CPMs. CPM per page is around $6. Total revenue per year is $1.5 million. The operation has a fair number of people for a company its size so operating margins are not above 30%. With a 6x multiple of operating income SB Nation is worth $2.7 million.

SBN founder Markos Moulitsas' Daily Kos, at 22nd and valued at $2m, is vastly overshadowed in the liberal blogosphere by 2nd-ranked Huffington Post ($90m).

Shrewd move by Kos to start a collection of sports blogs. SBN is growing and DKos is leveling off.

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I didn't realize what a great gig this was for Kos

all these blogs get peanuts in terms of compensation relative to that

Time to demand your raise, Jeff

Determined, Jonesing Commentor | Proud proprietor of Wyomingroutes.org & Washingtonhighways.org

by I'm NOT Corco on Feb 26, 2009 8:34 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

Heh.

LL makes about 5-10% of the entire SBN traffic.

by Matthew on Feb 26, 2009 8:47 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

If the quoted numbers are accurate,

which I do not think they are. They look low to me.

by Matthew on Feb 26, 2009 9:00 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

So I wonder when you guys will receive your $22,500-45,000 annual earnings bonus?

Seriously though, you guys provide unbeatable content and it is only a matter of time before each of you profit from it.

by Wilder. on Feb 26, 2009 9:04 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Free drinks at bowling parties.

61/755: KGJ's homer totals, or Rosie O'Donnell's age/weight in 2019?

by kevin_ess on Feb 26, 2009 9:06 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

That's why you guys deserve a huge raise

I hope you guys get more than Gopher Golf or whatever some of those deserted blogs are

Determined, Jonesing Commentor | Proud proprietor of Wyomingroutes.org & Washingtonhighways.org

by I'm NOT Corco on Feb 26, 2009 9:06 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

And Jeff gets about 0.2% of the revenue.

Sounds fair

by NOLAmarinergirl on Feb 26, 2009 9:33 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

I think it's rather poor myself.

by Matthew on Feb 26, 2009 9:39 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

You should strike.

by JI on Feb 26, 2009 10:39 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Please no.

Unless being paid a real amount would seriously improve the site’s content.

by Fin on Feb 26, 2009 11:28 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Agreed.

But it could probably stop even before that — just threaten to put an OTFPOTD on the main page so that it links from Yahoo.

Free Stephen "Awesome" Strasburg!

by seattlecougar on Feb 27, 2009 12:47 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs

When do we get our profit sharing checks?

Nice Guys Finish Third - Hopelessly lost, but makin' good time.

by pdb on Feb 26, 2009 9:23 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

I'd better inflate my comment count quickly then

Determined, Jonesing Commentor | Proud proprietor of Wyomingroutes.org & Washingtonhighways.org

by I'm NOT Corco on Feb 26, 2009 9:28 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Huh

I was not aware until this moment that SBN was spawn of Daily Kos.

by appleshampoo on Feb 26, 2009 9:32 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

Makes one consider "no politics" in a different light.

Seriously though. No politics.

by appleshampoo on Feb 26, 2009 9:33 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Where were you during the great blog USSM vs. Daily Orange blog war?

Determined, Jonesing Commentor | Proud proprietor of Wyomingroutes.org & Washingtonhighways.org

by I'm NOT Corco on Feb 26, 2009 9:36 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

He was probably a conscientious objector and fled to Canada.

That son of a bitch.

You can't hide from the omnipresent eye.

by Goose on Feb 26, 2009 9:45 PM PST up reply actions 2 recs

I voted for USSM. But I apparently was not paying that close attention. I mean, I remember daily kos pulling for the guy that beat Dave eventually, but I don’t remember anything coming up about the same guy starting SBN.

by appleshampoo on Feb 26, 2009 10:47 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

In the same way that Boca Burgers are the spawn of Marlboro.

Kos is a businessperson. Daily Kos is one of the arms of his business. SBN is a separate arm.

by acblue on Feb 26, 2009 9:59 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

I think that isn't quite a correct statement.

I don’t think Boca Burgers was originated by Marlboro. After looking it up, it looks Kraft bought out Boca Burger, which is owned by the same company that owns Philip Morris. But I understand what you are saying, sometimes companies, like GE is a great example, can be profitable in two completely different industries.

by Fin on Feb 26, 2009 11:34 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Well yeah, that's a better way of putting it.

I was just trying to point out that SBN and DK are totally unrelated in any sense that’s actually important.

by acblue on Feb 26, 2009 11:42 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

I wish xkcd would disappoint me less often,

but that one sure as hell didn’t.

by Double06 on Feb 26, 2009 11:25 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

The fair thing to do would be to let us trade our recs for chuckie cheese tickets.

Soriano into deep right, Ichiro back, at the wall...Yankees win!

by Robert on Feb 26, 2009 11:37 PM PST up reply actions 1 recs

I could get a BB gun with a crooked sight!

by JI on Feb 26, 2009 11:38 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Right after getting felt up by a guy in a rat costume...

Free Stephen "Awesome" Strasburg!

by seattlecougar on Feb 27, 2009 12:45 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Seeing Perez Hilton ranked so high on the list makes me weep for humanity.

Is that the light at the end of the tunnel, or the headlights of an oncoming train?

by Benne on Feb 26, 2009 10:43 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

Random thoughts at 12:30 am

From a business operating model standpoint, SBN has – by a rediculously large margin – my favorite blog format in what I believe to be proprietary design. If SBN wanted to raise some cash, or a potential buyer wanted to maximize returns above and beyond the views that come strictly from the incredible writing (at least on some sites), selling or leasing the technology to others would get the job done quick. I mod the corporate blog for my Fortune 500 company and it kills me to see what we pay for the pure, unadulterated shit that is our slightly customized CommunityServer. Yes, it’s more than “free” – which is the most I’d ever pay for that engine.

Unrelated: What would SBN page views look like if the live commenting wasn’t taken into play (or is it)? That’s one factor to use, but I doubt even the top blogs have the kind of emotional investment, frequency of visits, or passionate user engagement that LL and some of the other top tier SBN sites do. Hell, OGTs here regularly out-comment the top items on Digg on any given (regular season) day.

Free Stephen "Awesome" Strasburg!

by seattlecougar on Feb 27, 2009 12:43 AM PST reply actions 0 recs

Another thought

Did this take into account the Yahoo! partnership?

And has that spiked hit counts since it launched?

Free Stephen "Awesome" Strasburg!

by seattlecougar on Feb 27, 2009 12:48 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Doubt it.

As far as referrals go, it’s up there, but we don’t get many hits through referrals.

by Matthew on Feb 27, 2009 10:03 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Interesting.

I’d be curious to see if that spikes once the regular season kicks into gear and the F-Leagues get going. I don’t have access to Yahoo’s traffic patterns (obviously), but with them being the biggest F-League host I’d imagine that once those kick into high gear it makes a big spike in traffic to their baseball pages.

Free Stephen "Awesome" Strasburg!

by seattlecougar on Feb 27, 2009 10:19 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs