Is the news industry about to grow "1,000 percent"?

Marc Andreessen is at it again. First, he said that software is eating the world. Then, he told us the bitcoin digital currency will remake global finance. And now, the venture capitalist and founding father of the web browser says we’re on the verge of a major boom in the business of journalism, an internet-powered resurgence that will see the industry grow more than tenfold.

Andressen isn’t the first investor to bet big on a new wave of original online content — either in this internet revolution or the last one — and few bets have actually panned out. But there’s hard evidence that the boom he forecasts is already underway.

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The Smart Money Arrives
In the days of monopoly newspapers, cloistered wealthy families tended to control media properties. But the list of names throwing money at the news business reads like a who’s who of the internet. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos bought the Washington Post. eBay founder Pierre Omidyar pledged $250 million to a news startup led by surveillance journalist Glenn Greenwald. Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes bought The New Republic. And, yes, Andreessen has seeded three different news startups. He even employs my former editor, so that he can produce news on his firm’s own site (consider that a disclosure).

To be sure, some of these investments might be chasing influence rather than profits, and some will surely end in folly. But the trend is real. Even Marissa Mayer — who, as a top Google executive, famously leaned heavily on data to drive her decision-making — is now throwing money at name journalists like Katie Couric and David Pogue from her new perch atop Yahoo.

The Catalogs
Other operations are discovering entirely new ways of making money from news. Andreessen is high on a site called Wirecutter, run by gadget blogger Brian Lam. The Wirecutter is funded not primarily by advertising but by affiliate fees it generates by sending electronics buyers to other sites. The site is as much a smartly curated catalog as a work of journalism. Ditto with Ben Lerer’s Thrillist, an internet empire built on making, stocking, and selling its own menswear as well as on smart writing and distribution. It’s news as salesmanship. Thrillist’s revenue recently crossed $80 million.

Ads Actually Work
Still others are using premium display advertising. For all the pessimism around the ads that accompanies online journalism — even the optimistic Andreessen railed against “crappy teeth whitening come-ons” — there are plenty of brands making it work with top-shelf ads. Andreessen mentions The Atlantic, where digital ad revenues surpassed print in 2011, and WIRED, which crossed the rubicon in 2012. Gawker Media (where I used to work and am a tiny shareholder) is also profitable. CNET was already profitable when it was acquired in 2008. And the Huffington Post was profitable right before it was acquired by AOL.

Beekeeper wrote: 

SOUNDS to me like they're "talking up the market.." ahead of their next 'Venture capital float'...

SHADES of the Facebook fiascos of the last couple of years ?

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