Demand Media had its first earnings call as a public company this afternoon, and chief executive Richard Rosenblatt took the opportunity to fire back at critics who have accused the company of being nothing more than a content farm churning out articles targeted at search engines.
Rosenblatt had to endure a lot of criticism in silence due to the quiet period before Demand Mediaa4ぎa4г IPO and its first earnings report. Now, however, he said ita4ぎa4г time to respond. First, he acknowledged that Demand Mediaa4ぎa4г articles often address somewhat arcane topics, but he said that doesna4ぎa4д mean they arena4ぎa4д serving a real need for readers.
As examples, Rosenblatt offered two articles that have run on Demand Media sites. First, the company estimated that nearly 100,000 people search for a4ぎAhow to make a paper lantern,a4ぎ and that 20,000 of them ended up reading the Demand Media article on that topic.
a4ぎAI dona4ぎa4д have a use for that article, but lots of people do,a4ぎ Rosenblatt said.
And with the snowy weather, the company estimated than 12,000 people recently searched for how to rake their roof, with thousands of them reading Demanda4ぎa4г article on that topic.
The second big criticism is about Demand Mediaa4ぎa4г quality. But Rosenblatt argued that the companya4ぎa4г editorial team has a strong quality control process in place, outlined on a new a4ぎAContent Mattersa4ぎ website. In fact, he said the company a4ぎAmatches or exceeds traditional media companies.a4ぎ
During the analyst question session, Rosenblatt also talked about Googlea4ぎa4г new efforts to cut down on spammy content in its search results. That wona4ぎa4д hurt Demand Mediaa4ぎa4г traffic, he said &8212' in fact, reducing duplicate or bad content in results actually helps the companya4ぎa4г traffic.
Rosenblatt was thinking about these criticisms earlier in the call when he talked about Demand Mediaa4ぎa4г flagship site eHow, where he said direct traffic is growing faster than search engine traffic. The implication: Demand Media isn&'t entirely beholden to Google.
I don&'t think that a few sound bites and a corporate website are going change Demand Media&'s image, but hey, at least the company is making its case.
As for those earnings, Demand Media reported $73.6 million in revenue and $1 million in net income, beating its earlier estimates.
[image via Flickr/B Garrett]
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Companies: Demand Media, Google
People: Richard Rosenblatt
Companies: Demand Media, Google
People: Richard Rosenblatt
Anthony is a senior editor at VentureBeat, as well as its reporter on media, advertising, and social networks. Before joining the site in 2008, Anthony worked at the Hollister Free Lance, where he won awards from the California Newspaper Publishers Association for breaking news coverage and writing. He attended Stanford University and now lives in San Francisco. Reach him at anthony@venturebeat.com. (All story pitches should also be sent to tips@venturebeat.com) You can also follow Anthony on Twitter.
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