I love content

ratter-logoIn 1996 Bill Gates wrote the original article declaring Content Is King.  I was involved in the tech community back then and I totally got why he said that.  Then we watched the technology industry come to a huge halt a few years later. Yet the first thing that pulled me in when the next generation of the web (2.0) starting to return to life was Curbed, Eater and Racked.  Content, content, content.

We are seeing content become king again.  Look at Vox, Vice and Buzzfeed.  In full transparency we are now owners in Vox because they acquired Curbed.  The stats are crazy.  People read the new content coming at them all day long. People are also interested in connecting to something that they read every day.  People have their feeds just as they have their favorite apps.  All of that is just an extension of who they are.

I am invested in more than a handful of content platforms.  Ratter is one that is just making its way into the world wide web.  Ratter’s content is like no other.  Breaking stories that are unique paired with local tabloids.  The founders came out of Gawker.  The first thing they did was get off the Kinja platform so that they owned their own space.  Super smart.  Respected journalists who are writing interesting content.

TheBolde.  Content on life and love.  Female millennials love it.  Smart, sassy and snarky.

Vinepair.  Informative info on wine, cocktails and beer for the next generation.

The Mighty.  Powerful stories from people with meaningful heartfelt stories.

The traction is super interesting around these sites.  As they have each found their voice and their audience the numbers just soar.  People are looking for the right content that resonates with them.  Investors bob and weave around investing in content but to me content is king.

Comments (Archived):

  1. pointsnfigures

    For me, the problem with investing in them is the sites seem so hit or miss. I haven’t done one in this arena, and actually haven’t seen a few since most Midwest deals aren’t focused on this. RivetRadio.com is probably the best one we have right now. Benzinga.com is great on fintech news.

  2. Sofia Papastamelos

    Create podcast episode recently on Recode Decode with the founder of Buzzfeed https://itunes.apple.com/us

  3. awaldstein

    Not getting Vinepair.I should but it just doesn’t seem to have a point of view.

    1. Gotham Gal

      Interesting.

      1. awaldstein

        wine is hard.amazon will fail for the third time with its wine initiative.i will wager that both delectable and vivino will fail to get community adoption and get sold off to reuse the tech. with the exception of some dtc from vineyards almost all funded online curation portals will wither away.festivals like adegga and raw in europe wil cross over to the states but basically all informational and transactional innovations are not touching the core of what wine is about.too strange.

        1. Gotham Gal

          Mouth is doing amazing with wine.

          1. awaldstein

            checking them out now. thanksdo a bit of advisory work on the side for some smaller brands and marketplaces. passion projects.so like to get facts wherever i can.

          2. ranjanaarmstrong

            Check out PUNCH. http://punchdrink.com/ Much better content than Vinepair and with a point of view.