Time Warner Buys StyleFeeder.com For "Well Over Eight Figures"

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January 18, 2010
OpEd Guest Post By Robert Farago, E-Commerce Consultant

The Wall Street Journal reports that Time Warner has purchased online shopping service StyleFeeder.com for “well over eight figures.” The acquisition reflects an ongoing, cataclysmic drop in Time’s dead tree and electronic ad revenues. “Advertising will always be our core, and our primary revenue stream online,” asserts Time digital strategy supremo Fran Hauser. “But that growth is slowing. Our editors are generating significant consumer demand for products in the retail market. And what StyleFeeder allows us to do is share in that value creation.” This begs the question: will affiliate marketing determine editorial coverage?

Actually, that already happening. Even a quick peek at InStyle.com reveals a website that’s more magalogue than magazine. According to the Journal, Time plans to do unto its other titles what it’s done unto InStyle. “Time Inc. expects StyleFeeder to be laced throughout the Web site of its fashion magazine InStyle, a key brand inside a group of magazines, including People, that are highly regarded by Time Warner executives. Time Inc. said StyleFeeder also could be woven into Web sites of other brands, including Essence and People en Espanol.”

Driving the deal: margins and scalability. Last year, InStyle.com shoppers bought some $10 million worth of chotchkies. But the flagging media colossus kept “only a fraction of [the money from] those sales.” Yes, but, InStyle.com’s shopping service is considered an industry standard. It won MinOnline’s 2009 “Best of Web” award. “Much more than another online shopping add-on, InStyle Shopping demonstrates how an integrated e-commerce experience aligns perfectly with the way that celebrity and fashion-conscious readers use a magazine,” the judges wrote. “It turns a content experience into a service.” One way or another, that’s a scary thought.