Consumerist.com Purchased By Consumers Union
A while back we had let our readers know that Gawker Media’s consumer information blog Consumerist.com was up for grabs. We recently found that the blog has been purchased by Consumers Union. We are not sure exactly what amount the blog was bought for, but it seems like it did go into good hands considering the niche and the market consumerist has been serving.
Consumer Reports was launched in 1936 and does not accept advertising and starting now consumerist.com won’t be accepting any advertisements either, which I suppose was the main source of revenue for gawker media through consumerist.com.
Here is a brief description of Consumer Union,
Consumers Union, the publisher of Consumer Reports, is an expert, independent, nonprofit organization whose mission is to work for a fair, just, and safe marketplace for all consumers and to empower consumers. To achieve this mission, CU tests, informs, and protects. To maintain independence and impartiality, CU accepts no outside advertising, no free test samples, and has no agenda other than the interests of consumers. CU supports itself through the sale of information products and services, individual contributions, and a few noncommercial grants. CU’s flagship publication, Consumer Reports magazine, has a circulation of 4.3 million and continues to expand, while the magazine’s Web site ConsumerReports.org has more than 3.3 million paid subscribers and is the largest subscription-based Web site in the industry. In addition, CU has successfully launched and expanded Consumer Reports on Health, Consumer Reports Money Adviser, and, most recently, ShopSmart magazine.
Personally I think consumerist will be much more better in the hands of Consumers Union!
[source : Consumerist]
Definitely good compared to the Consumerist going away. However, I’m personally concerned about this purchase.
I operate TrueDelta.com, which provides vehicle reliability information. Our information has two large advantages over that of Consumer Reports:
1. Report actual repair rates, not just vague dots, to make the differences between models much clearer.
2. Results promptly updated four times a year; so our information averages about ten months ahead of CR’s.
But, since we’re a competitor, you’ll never see CR mention our information, and I’m personally not allowed to mention my site in their forums–even when I have information that they cannot provide. Now that they’ve bought the Consumerist, I suspect the same will be true for it.
In other words, from where I sit media consolidation isn’t a good thing. Each media outlet has its own interests, and these come before the interests of readers. The larger these outlets get, the broader their interests get, and the more delimited their reporting gets. Even in CR’s case. CR is for CR first, consumers second.