Wednesday, May 19, 2004

Standard Deviance has been riding around on that confusion merry-go-round that is nanopublishing for the last 45 minutes. It is impossible to determine whether it's Denton or Calacanis who's full of it(For background information read this). Business 2.0 came out yesterday with an article profiling Nick Denton and his wily media-building ways. The article concludes that Denton is playing down his position so he can keep ahead of the competition and ultimately sell Gawker Media when the blogwave crests. This caused Jason Calacanis to nearly wet himself as he was so excited to have someone agree with him.

Denton shot back and said that Business 2.0 just made up the numbers they were using to calculate his revenue and that they're far overstating it. He also says that Greg Lindsay, the piece's author, is obsessed with Gawker Media because, says Denton, "we used to write about him and, since he "went freelance", no longer do. Media about media about media." Denton claims, as he always has, that he's not in this business for the money but he is in it because he is excited by the new frontiers of media. But that could just be a story he tells to keep his writers and competition complacent. However, Jason Calacanis' claims of riches seem inflated. So the question is, who's playing loose with the truth?

Denton says he won't disclose his earnings and Calacanis won't disclose who his investors are or how much they are investing (but we all know Mark Cuban is one of them). Without the numbers it's pretty much impossible to tell who's overstating (or understating). Standard Deviance is more inclined to believe Denton because we really can't imagine that this blogging thing can really pull in that much cash. Plus the Calacanis model is puzzling to us: he splits the revenue 50-50 with his writers and then he has to pay for design, software, tech support, advertiser recruitment, and PR. It's hard to see how he's making any money off this at all. Of course, who thought people would pay $6 for a latte? If anyone with some insight wants to weigh in please do, because we're getting dizzy.

P.S. How funny is it that Lindsay published that super secret email from Denton? That's the last time he's getting an insider tip.

What Makes Nick Tick? [Business 2.0]
DIAL C FOR COMICS: TELECOM'S IDT BUILDS A GRAPHICS EMPIRE [NYP]

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