Cable giant Comcast is paying some $125 million for Daily Candy, a lifestyle-oriented website and e-mail newsletter that reaches 2.5 million readers, mostly women. Founded in 2000, Daily Candy publishes 13 daily editions and eight weekly editions, organized by locale or interest.
I myself subscribe to several of the e-mails that talk about the hottest new restaurants, fashion, travel, and yes occasionally candy. As advertisers increasingly aim to reach targeted demographics, Daily Candy's base of youngish women in urban areas who are interested in finding out the coolest new ways to spend their money makes it particularly appealing.
How does this fit with Comcast's cable business? Well Comcast has an Interactive Media division, that also includes its Fancast online video site, and Fandango and Movies.com. And Comcast.net, a web portal to access Comcast's distribution is a popular site.
Comcast will try to grow Daily Candy by promoting it across those other web platforms, and will pull from Daily Candy's content to bolster the other sites. And since the line beween the web and TV is increasingly blurred, Comcast can also use Daily Candy with the TV channels it owns, like E! entertainment.
And this story doesn't just touch one media giant, but two. Comcast is buying Daily Candy from The Pilot Group a private investment firm run by Robert Pittman. Remember him? He got the boot from the company now known as Time Warner when the AOL-Time Warner acquisition didn't work out so well. His firm bought a controlling stake in Daily Candy for $3.5 million in 2003 then put the property up for sale for some $100 million a few years ago. And he's not just an investor, he's helped the newsletter's founder Dany Levy grow it into a better marketing vehicle for retail brands.
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