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The Drudge Report Could Be Worth $1 Billion in a Buyout
EconomicPolicyMonitor.com ^

Posted on 05/01/2007 5:20:33 AM PDT by Breakfast of Champions

...the average monthly page views at The Drudge Report have been 250 million.

EconomicPolicyMonitor.com (EPM) calculates that traffic of this size results in multi-millions in monthly revenue for Drudge...Given that the average price to earnings ratio in the, slowly declining circulation, newspaper industry is 23, a value on the internet driven revenue stream of Drudge can easily justify a near billion dollar value for the site, maybe more...

(Excerpt) Read more at economicpolicymonitor.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: buyout; drudge; freerepublic; noway; soras

1 posted on 05/01/2007 5:20:35 AM PDT by Breakfast of Champions
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To: Breakfast of Champions

Without Drudge its just another site.


2 posted on 05/01/2007 5:23:58 AM PDT by P-Marlowe (LPFOKETT GAHCOEEP-w/o*)
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To: Breakfast of Champions

Not bad for a guy who started out selling t-shirts in a gift shop.


3 posted on 05/01/2007 5:26:05 AM PDT by HAL9000 (Get a Mac - The Ultimate FReeping Machine)
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To: Breakfast of Champions

Lots of dresses for Matt I suppose.


4 posted on 05/01/2007 5:27:45 AM PDT by Eye of Unk
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To: HAL9000
Not bad for a guy who started out selling t-shirts in a gift shop.

He is the epitome of the American Dream!

5 posted on 05/01/2007 5:27:56 AM PDT by Erik Latranyi (The Democratic Party will not exist in a few years....we are watching history unfold before us.)
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To: Eye of Unk

And his “cat”.


6 posted on 05/01/2007 5:28:38 AM PDT by angkor
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To: Breakfast of Champions

The article said that the cost to run the Drudge website was “little to no cost” outside of a $30 per month internet connection fee. Don’t high traffic websites require lots of expensive servers to prevent all that traffic from crashing the site alltogether?


7 posted on 05/01/2007 5:32:24 AM PDT by eastcobb
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To: angkor

I don’t know about a or the “cat” and I am not knocking Matt at all as his newsite is pretty much the only one I look at on a daily basis now for quite awhile. Personally I would sell, he can always make another type of newsite I would think unless its a stipulation he cannot use his name past the point of sale.

I think its a democrats offer to silence him a bit, or is that too much tinfoil showing on the scalp?


8 posted on 05/01/2007 5:34:01 AM PDT by Eye of Unk
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To: angkor
I never knew he had a cat. I like him even more now. LOL
He will no doubt one day be a very rich man...
9 posted on 05/01/2007 5:38:01 AM PDT by Fawn (Achmed the Dead Terrorist--> http://youtube.com/watch?v=2QXQFTEBqNE)
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To: Breakfast of Champions

Forgive me for asking this, but are “page views” really all that important anymore? Isn’t the gold standard now “clickthroughs” where people actually buy the crap that is flogged on websites? “Page views” sounds like so much 20th Century newspaper and TV reckoning of what to pay for advertising.


10 posted on 05/01/2007 5:39:26 AM PDT by hunter112
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To: Breakfast of Champions

Why? It is nothing but a bunch of links to reports on Hollywood and hurricanes.


11 posted on 05/01/2007 5:44:13 AM PDT by P-40 (Al Qaeda was working in Iraq. They were just undocumented.)
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To: P-Marlowe
Without Drudge its just another site.

Exactly. Matt is the guy that gives the site value. Matt is a good guy and he is an American success story.

12 posted on 05/01/2007 5:45:05 AM PDT by Obadiah (Republicans - the battered wives of Democrats.)
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To: eastcobb

His web page gets a ton of clicks but he transfers very little information that he directly hosts. It’s usually Text and maybe 4 pictures that he can just code in hosted by the source. He can strait up kill links though, so you can tell he links to bare bones report type pages.

Take a look at his source code for his page and compare to another News site


13 posted on 05/01/2007 5:49:24 AM PDT by SShultz460
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To: eastcobb
Don’t high traffic websites require lots of expensive servers to prevent all that traffic from crashing the site alltogether?

Answer - YES - that $30.00 a month line is crap.

14 posted on 05/01/2007 5:51:16 AM PDT by Jake The Goose
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To: Jake The Goose

Actually, if you read the article carefully, the story assumes the very high 20% of revenues for bandwith costs and advertising comissions. —Not $30.


15 posted on 05/01/2007 5:56:11 AM PDT by Breakfast of Champions
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To: Breakfast of Champions

Well done


16 posted on 05/01/2007 5:56:56 AM PDT by Jake The Goose
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To: P-Marlowe
"Without Drudge its just another site."

Drudge has been a thorn in the side of the Commissars of MSM/Democrat media control the 1st Clinton dynasty.

The campaign for the "Fairness Doctrine", widespread copyright litigation for fair usage of news sources on the Internet... and now possible buyouts of Internet sites that buck MSM orthodoxy.

Could hidden forces be at play?


17 posted on 05/01/2007 6:00:56 AM PDT by drpix
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To: drpix; P-Marlowe
CORRECTION:
media control the 1st Clinton dynasty = media control SINCE the 1st Clinton dynasty
18 posted on 05/01/2007 6:06:46 AM PDT by drpix
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To: hunter112

My understanding is that on most websites, there are two major types price structures for advertising. First is the old fashioned “pay per click” deal, where an advertiser pays the host a certain set fee per click, like 1/10th of one cent or whatever.

The second, newer idea, is where the host gets a percentage of the revenues (often lifetime) spent at a site by a person who “clicks through” to the advertiser. This was invented by the guy who developed Adult Friend Finder, and it has been wildly successful for everyone.

Page traffic is important, like television viewing, because in either system, a page that generates more traffic can command either higher set fees or higher percentages of revenue.


19 posted on 05/01/2007 6:15:07 AM PDT by Publius Valerius
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To: Breakfast of Champions

To George Soros, it might be worth 250 Million to buy out drudge, to quieten his pen.


20 posted on 05/01/2007 6:20:22 AM PDT by AmericanMade1776
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To: HAL9000

Is he not an icon for the absolute power of the internet. Literally a david vs Goliath.


21 posted on 05/01/2007 6:21:37 AM PDT by Walkingfeather (u)
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To: drpix

Great minds think alike... Besides Soros who else would like to take down the Drudge report... Bill Clinton? Hillary?


22 posted on 05/01/2007 6:21:43 AM PDT by AmericanMade1776
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To: HAL9000

OR as one person called him a long time ago: “A college dropout with a laptop.” I don’t recall who said it so I apologize but...it was said.
Just like hilllereee cackled her laugh years ago when asked about Rush and she said everyone has a right to make a living and he IS entertaining. Yeah hilllereee...how many years now has he been on TV and radio? Entertaining? Stay tuned you phony, stay tuned.

Sorry I got off the track there but...it’s people like her and whomever said that about Drudge that make those assinine statements and they come back to haunt them.


23 posted on 05/01/2007 6:26:11 AM PDT by cubreporter
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To: Publius Valerius

how does one track that percentage?


24 posted on 05/01/2007 6:28:04 AM PDT by Walkingfeather (u)
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To: Walkingfeather

That’s a good question, and I don’t know the answer to it. I guess on some level, it’s on a little bit of the honor system, but that’s a complete guess.

I don’t own a web-based business, so I’m not completely sure of the ins-and-outs; I just try to read Web 2.0 business stuff in my spare time. Lots of interesting stuff out there. It’s neat.


25 posted on 05/01/2007 6:34:10 AM PDT by Publius Valerius
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To: Breakfast of Champions

Robert Drudge, Matt’s father, has a site that is very interesting also.. It is a reference site of information and at one time was more in line with the format of Matt’s site if I remember correctly..... It is at the following link.

http://www.refdesk.com/


26 posted on 05/01/2007 6:38:01 AM PDT by deport ( Cue Spooky Music...)
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To: Breakfast of Champions

I don’t think the measly ads that Drudge runs rakes in millions per year.


27 posted on 05/01/2007 6:39:26 AM PDT by Yo-Yo (USAF, TAC, 12th AF, 366 TFW, 366 MG, 366 CRS, Mtn Home AFB, 1978-81)
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To: Breakfast of Champions
The Drudge Report Could Be Worth $1 Billion in a Buyout

When will JimRob get the ultimate Freepathon donation?

28 posted on 05/01/2007 6:41:08 AM PDT by KarlInOhio (Parker v. DC: the best court decision of the year.)
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To: SShultz460

Many times when a hot article is posted the article will not pull. It refreshes the website with the headlines. I always wonder if it was done on purpose so he can increase the number of hits. Most click the article 3 or 4 times to read it.


29 posted on 05/01/2007 6:43:21 AM PDT by Orange1998
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To: eastcobb
The article said that the cost to run the Drudge website was “little to no cost” outside of a $30 per month internet connection fee. Don’t high traffic websites require lots of expensive servers to prevent all that traffic from crashing the site alltogether?

$30 a month? No way! I run a popular car discussion web site (sorry, not going to use FR for a free URL plug) and after 6 years I finally had to move to a dedicated server. I have what would be considered a low-end dedicated server with adequate dedicated bandwidth for my needs. I pay over $150/mo to lease the server and pay for the bandwidth. I imagine Drudge's bandwidth requirements are orders of magnitude greater than mine.

30 posted on 05/01/2007 6:44:53 AM PDT by JaguarXKE
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To: AmericanMade1776
"Clinton? Hillary?"

Drudge's role in the Monica and blue-dress thing really stick in the _____ of those two and their fellow travelers. Didn't her highness just recently mention Drudge... again. (Something like she doesn't care what he prints about her.)

31 posted on 05/01/2007 6:50:35 AM PDT by drpix
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To: Breakfast of Champions

Soros could turn it into a left wing blog.


32 posted on 05/01/2007 6:57:16 AM PDT by Mike Darancette (Democrat Happens!)
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To: drpix

And Let’s not for Barbara Streisand...she just might like to buy out the Drudge Report.


33 posted on 05/01/2007 7:04:22 AM PDT by AmericanMade1776
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To: HAL9000
Not bad for a guy who started out selling t-shirts in a gift shop.

Would that be the Seee..B.S. gift shop?

34 posted on 05/01/2007 7:55:06 AM PDT by Loyal Buckeye
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To: Orange1998

That’s a Webmaster freaking out and setting up a better format


35 posted on 05/01/2007 8:07:13 AM PDT by SShultz460
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To: AmericanMade1776

All Drudge does is point. He doesn’t write much of his own aside from collating Hollywood.


36 posted on 05/01/2007 8:10:19 AM PDT by RightWhale (Repeal the Treaty)
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To: Orange1998

When the hot news item or article is posted on Drudge and he has yet to find it posted on another site (breibart, myway etc...), the hyper link address is coded back the drudgereport.com site. A click here would be another visitor to his website. Could be considered slight of hand to get numbers up? IMO, no. He still has big numbers on a daily basis without that.

As someone else mentioned here, look at the code/source for the site, it’s very basic HTML. Nothing fancy. You could get away with doing his site with Notepad.

To be able to accommodate the bandwidth requirements to handle that many visitors isn’t cheap. I would be that he is paying 5 to 10k a month, maybe more, for that type of availability, reliability and redundancy.


37 posted on 05/01/2007 9:10:38 AM PDT by sjm_888
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To: drudge

Good Job!


38 posted on 05/01/2007 9:18:47 AM PDT by Sawdring
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To: sjm_888

nice post.

Most people don’t understand the mechanics of the web well enough.


39 posted on 05/01/2007 9:38:48 AM PDT by SShultz460
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To: SShultz460

Let’s not let the secret out! I make a nice side income off of creating/maintaining sites for small businesses in my area.


40 posted on 05/01/2007 11:08:39 AM PDT by sjm_888
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To: Breakfast of Champions
America is truly a great country. A real success story. I have followed his career since I first got a computer 10 years ago. Way to go Matt.
41 posted on 05/01/2007 12:33:56 PM PDT by Uncle Hal
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