The independent publishing startup behind regional blog aggregator AsianCorrespondent.com is considering launching in other verticals, after securing angel investment money for near-term expansion.
We wrote about Hybrid News, an online publisher set up by James Craven after he left Bristol-based business magazine publisher GDS International, last October. Its first site, AsianCorrespondent.com, takes first-run articles from 37 of the most popular bloggers in South-East Asia against which to sell ads.
Craven told me the site had sold $251,000 in ads during Q1 and is now up to $296,000. “It’s mildly profitable on a month-by-month basis. We’re trying to make a push in green living and personal investment.”
To get there, Craven will need to add more writers, on the same kind of arrangement as AsianCorrespondent.com – bloggers must give the site first-run rights, but can then continue to self-publish and syndicate or sell their material elsewhere.
The angel, sealed in the last month, is a minority investor, but Craven didn’t add further details. “We are in discussions with other people and are considering whether we need more money to pursue our goals aggressively, and I think we probably do.”
AsianCorrespondent.com so far claims rich-media ad placements from clients including universities, who target overseas students, and from Quark, Bupa and the SouthEastAsia.org tourism agency, targeting an audience of 23-35 Asian urbanites.
James Craven and Hybrid News is a scam just like his last company GDS international. Do not spend your advertising dollars here. Look up the web reports and see that they get less than 400 unique visits a day.