Beliefnet 2.0
Excellent piece of reporting and analysis by Joshua Chaffin in today's Financial Times. The focus is Beliefnet, to which three million visitors flock each month. Chaffin's Faith 2.0 pulls together politics, technology, finance and religion and makes a very readable piece from the different threads. It's all about belief, as Chaffin points out:
"In December, the company was acquired by News Corporation, the media goliath controlled by Rupert Murdoch. The companies did not disclose the price, although it is believed to have been about $40m. The sale caps a remarkable turnaround for an internet start-up that was mired in bankruptcy just a few years ago. Beliefnet was so financially strapped in the wake of the dotcom crash that the handful of employees who were lucky enough to keep their jobs took turns cleaning the company toilets."
Mammon moment: The US market for religious media — including DVDs, books and magazines is estimated at more than $8bn. "It's a segment that's huge and still growing," Dan Fawcett, head of the Fox Entertainment Group, told Chaffin. That Rupert Murdoch! From topless page 3 girls to God, and all in one lifetime. Interesting snippet: "News Corp's expertise is expected to bolster Beliefnet's new social networking platform and improve its ability to offer online video — one of the fastest-growing areas of internet advertising." Maddened leftists, enraged by the Digger's contempt for trade unions, love to depict Murdoch as the devil, but it may turn out that he's a rather saintly man after all. Wondrous, indeed, are the ways of the Lord. It's all about belief.
