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Is FiLife Running On Borrowed Time?

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Less than two months after talking up the turnaround at Dow Jones-IAC (NSDQ: IACI) personal finance JV FiLife, paidContent has learned the site’s continued existence is no certainty. It survived the multiple trimmings as Barry Diller cut back on IAC’s portfolio of emerging businesses, but the company is now exploring options that range from leaving it open to a sale or a full shut down. When Ezra Kucharz, president and GM for just over a year, left for CBS (NYSE: CBS) in January, both IAC and DJ credited him publicly with turning around the site and building it to the #4 personal finance site with 4.4 million unique visitors in December. Now both companies are declining comment about the site’s future.

One possibility for IAC could be selling its stake to Dow Jones (NYSE: NWS), which recently bought out SmartMoney partner Hearst. But that’s a well-established brand with an 800,000-circ magazine. Whether DJ would even want to own FiLife outright is unclear—as is whether a deal actually would involve much money. What FiLife does have—more traffic than SmartMoney.com, where personal finance is just one category, and a digital mentality. Is there a way to combine the two?

FiLife has had a bit of a tortured life from its beginning: taking more than a year to move from an idea to a blog, then taking so long to emerge from that status the plans appeared to be dormant. Dave Kansas, brought in from the Wall Street Journal to launch the site, was replaced by online vet Kucharz in late 2008. Adam Wiener, executive editor and VP-content was promoted to GM when Kucharz left, but not given the title of president.

It’s made strides on the editorial side. Just last month FastCompany picked it as the most innovative company in the finance area for using “a Q&A format with a host of social and game-like features to get Americans talking about money. More as warranted—and please feel free to e-mail me if you have details.

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Staci D. Kramer
@sdkstl Mar 19, 2010 11:15 PM ET

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Posted In: Features, Exclusive, Media & Publishing, Online News, Companies, IAC, News Corp., Dow Jones

  • Grace Harwood

    Sadly, Mr. Henley is one of the reasons I do not go to the wOw website.  His comments are off-point, ascerbic, and anti-womanist.  He is rude and uninformed.  I can find disagreeable, uninteresting people among my neighbors; I don't need some jerk male on a website designed for women over 40.  Joni Evans is doing a very good job, particularly for a novice, in balancing the interests.  Mr. Henley is not one of them.

  • Victoria V

    Re: jim henley Tue 20 Jan 2009 10:11 AM

    What mr henley neglected to mention is that his posts on wowowow were in violation of the terms of use for the site, and contained remarks that were hostile to and abusive of women. Not exactly the angel he would have you believe.  mr henley arrived at wowowow with a chip on his shoulder and an axe to grind. He is neither female nor over 40, so why did he want to be on wowowow in the first place?

    mr henley posts his hostility and abuse on more than one site on the Internet. Feel free to do a Google search for him. I did.

    Kudos to Joni Evans.

  • I publish Goldivas.com, for women over 50, and I wonder why some of these sites are targeting a wider range of ages. 40+ is a huge range, for example, and one of them said 25 to 55! I think the new moms and parents sites are more focused, and that probably works better.

  • jim henley

    The site wowowow does not give people their freedom of speech. I am not a fan of Obama or gay marriage. I have let my opinions known on the blog wowowow regarding this. I was called a clod, idiot, moron, stupid, fool, my family was chastised, I was even called a douchebag by one of their female members. All this for stating my opinions on Obama. I realize that the Obamamania that is ocurring in our country can throw people off the edge a bit. My computer was completely blocked from wowowow. I can longer blog on that site. My opinions are as important as anybodys. Joni Evans should be ashamed of herself.

  • This site looks great and I wish all the women of wOw best of luck in this venture.  I see nice banner ad for St. Jude's Hospital on the site today.  Who can argue with that?

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