The King of Content
Demand Media CEO Richard Rosenblatt revolutionized the way media gets made — and monetized. Now he’s planning to do it again, and again.
Ramona Rosales
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E-mailIt’s late spring, and Richard Rosenblatt, CEO and co-founder of Demand Media Inc. (NYSE: DMD), is giving a tour of his company’s Santa Monica, Calif., headquarters and describing the kind of content it exists to create. “ ‘How to Make a Homemade Mother’s Day Card’ — that’s a perfect one for us,” he offers.
VIEW THE HISTORY OF DEMAND MEDIA
The Brief But Busy History Of Demand Media
Nearby, amid the sleek furniture and carts of Red Bull, Rosenblatt’s staff is carefully listening to the Web — decoding the signals that consumers send when they use search engines, share with their friends on social networks and surf their favorite sites. At the moment, the signals are telling Demand’s trend spotters that hordes of appreciative children and husbands will soon be searching for tips on crafting cards for Mom.
“When would a big media company make content on how to make a homemade Mother’s Day card?” Rosenblatt asks rhetorically. “It’s something that people care about but is not obvious. We solve the nonobvious stuff that’s really important to you.”
Courtesy Demand Media
Indeed, media companies traditionally have relied on editorial judgment to guess what their audience might find interesting. Demand flips the dynamic by first determining what consumers are looking for — and then mobilizing its creative team to figure out how best to satisfy that desire. “We’ve spent the past five years developing new ways to listen to the Internet,” Rosenblatt says. “The fact that we can hear what people want online and then create exactly the kind of content they need makes us a different kind of media company — one with the ability to stay ahead of the changing media landscape.”
This customer-focused approach has revolutionized the media business. Since launching in 2006 and attracting $355 million from investors including The Goldman Sachs Group Inc.(NYSE: GS) in its first two years, Demand Media has grown into one of the largest sources of original online content. According to Demand, it has 634 full-time employees and more than 10,000 professional writers and filmmakers who generate thousands of articles and videos each day. The company reported $253 million in revenue in 2010.
