current-tv

Al Gore's cable channel worth $2 billion, says backer

Nicholas Carlson · 10/30/07 12:49PM

Supermarket magnate Ron Burkle recently valued Al Gore's Current TV at $2 billion, the New York Times reports. You'd think that Burkle, one of Current's backers, would know when the produce is not quite ripe. By contrast, NBC Universal recently purchased the nine-year-old Oxygen Network for $925 million. Note that ComScore reports Current's site as averaging only 152,000 unique visitors a month. Sure, we should probably expect this kind of thing after Microsoft set Facebook's value at $15 billion. But still. I know the guy won a Nobel Prize and all. But anybody else starting to doubt global warming?

MSNBC.com buys Newsvine — but for how much?

Owen Thomas · 10/08/07 11:56AM

Newsvine, the Seattle-based headline aggregator — think Digg, but without the heartthrob cofounder — has sold to MSNBC.com for an undisclosed amount. The company had raised a small amount of venture capital, $1.5 million, which has led some industry insiders to peg the price at more than $15 million, less than $35 million. Newsvine, like Digg and the rest, encourages users to discuss news headlines, but it adds a twist: So-called "citizen journalism," where users also write their own articles. To a cynic, allowing that just spells more loser-generated content. But for MSNBC, which has, since its birth over a decade ago, been struggling to embrace the Web, the prospect of viewers contributing reporting has double appeal. First, it potentially cuts costs, and secondly, it adds a much-needed appearance of hipness, as upstarts like Current.tv threaten to garner a more youthful audience.

Media Bubble: Live From San Francisco, It's Al Gore

Jesse · 08/01/05 12:48PM

• Al Gore's cable network, which launches today, is apparently a tapas bar, says a San Francisco Chronicle writer. This is, we think, a good thing, mostly because we had some excellent tapas last time we were in the City. [SFC]
• Katie Couric is a diva, but not one who throws lamps, says Ken Auletta. Not that we can actually get to his article online. [NYer]
• While her husband is on vacation, Judy Miller gets jail visits from journos. [E&P]
• TV on the web is perhaps finally here. Which comes as great news for your friends who worked at Pseudo five years ago. [NYT]
GQ really, really likes The Dukes of Hazzard. [NYT]
• As if things were looking so rosy for media companies in the first place, now a global ad slowdown is expected. [NYP]
• Ten bought-out employees had their last days at the Times on Friday. [Romenesko]
• Apparently there's a clever guy in Los Feliz running a smart and funny blog about Hollywood. Who knew? [LAT]