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Is FiLife Running On Borrowed Time?

Less than two months after talking up the turnaround at Dow Jones-IAC (NSDQ: IACI) personal finance JV FiLife, paidContent has learned the site’s continued existence is no certainty. It survived the multiple trimmings as Barry Diller cut back on IAC’s portfolio of emerging businesses, but the company is now exploring options that range from leaving it open to a sale or a full shut down. When Ezra Kucharz, president and GM for just over a year, left for CBS (NYSE: CBS) in January, both IAC and DJ credited him publicly with turning around the site and building it to the #4 personal finance site with 4.4 million unique visitors in December. Now both companies are declining comment about the site’s future.

One possibility for IAC could be selling its stake to Dow Jones (NYSE: NWS), which recently bought out SmartMoney partner Hearst. But that’s a well-established brand with an 800,000-circ magazine. Whether DJ would even want to own FiLife outright is unclear—as is whether a deal actually would involve much money. What FiLife does have—more traffic than SmartMoney.com, where personal finance is just one category, and a digital mentality. Is there a way to combine the two?

FiLife has had a bit of a tortured life from its beginning: taking more than a year to move from an idea to a blog, then taking so long to emerge from that status the plans appeared to be dormant. Dave Kansas, brought in from the Wall Street Journal to launch the site, was replaced by online vet Kucharz in late 2008. Adam Wiener, executive editor and VP-content was promoted to GM when Kucharz left, but not given the title of president.

It’s made strides on the editorial side. Just last month FastCompany picked it as the most innovative company in the finance area for using “a Q&A format with a host of social and game-like features to get Americans talking about money. More as warranted—and please feel free to e-mail me if you have details.

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Staci D. Kramer
@sdkstl Mar 19, 2010 11:15 PM ET

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Posted In: Features, Exclusive, Media & Publishing, Online News, Companies, IAC, News Corp., Dow Jones

  • Giant non-corporate private in

    It has been some time since anyone commented on this thread. I just want to say: All these comments are all sensible comments.  What is missing from them is, maybe, uh - fuzzy logic.  Jon Simpson doesn't make sense. He operates in a manner derived from Ken Starr (maniacally seeking all the evidence for something that doesn't really exist) and Donald Trump. He seems to be running around trying his new 'give me money' trick on anyone in the biz with what he feels are 'deep pockets', but are really 'profits'.
    My concern is that this company's business model is essentially designed to two things that I don't like: 1.) infringe on normal public use of the internet, and on public use rights, and 2.)  wring money from some place where there's none.

  • Last.fm's purchase prices largely reflected the social network side of the site, not the streaming audio service, which was just a small part of Last.fm.  It's not even a viable comparison.

    (Extra Credit question: Did Last.fm even pay SoundExchange ANYTHING? Did they even qualify under the Small Webcasters Act which limited participation to services with under $1.25 mil in annual revenues?)

  • The Boss

    Better yet, ask how much money the artists saw of all the Mp3.com, Napster, etc settlement money the labels got.

    Matter of fact, hang tight, rumblings are there's massive litigation forthcoming from some pretty stellar names out there who want their money.

    When you hear about it, remember you read it hear first ;-)

  • michael harnett

    I fully agree with the previous comment.  Did websites that helped break Amy Winehouse, Lily Allen and Artic Monkeys get a piece of the sales that they create. No! It is a two way street and what the RIAA and Sound Exchange and the people they represent seem to forget is if you put all of the people promoting your music out of business than you'll have no business either.

  • Fred Wilhelms

    This is a specious issue, and SoundExchange knows it.  John Simson should ask the members of his Board of Directors about the history.

    He should ask the representative from Universal how much was paid to the artists on the Polygram roster when Universal paid $16 billion for the catalog.

    He should ask the representative from the Music Managers Forum how much artists got when TBA Entertainment bought Alliance Artist Management.

    Last.fm's sale price is a smokescreen.  Simson knows it.

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