Tycoons Row

Heather Harde, formally a SVP of Fox Interactive Media (FIM), is stepping down from her position at FIM & splashing into the unknown of the blogging world, and has joined as the new CEO of 1 year & 9 month old blog, TechCrunch.
When new CEO will be asking for the daily stats & numbers, “Shut Up, I’m blogging!”, are the phrases the EX-CEO of TechCrunch, Mike Arrington will be saying now, as he aims to focus on editorial duties and source the other business duties to Heather.

The story was broke by Om Malik of GigaOm, from a leaked Fox email where it was confirmed that Heather Harde will be leaving FIM & joining the TechCrunch Network at the end of the month.
In July 2005, FIM was formed to manage the growing media assets of Fox’s Divisions, for example, FoxSports.com, Foxnews & Fox.com.   Harde, a graduate from Harvard Business School as well as Mount Holyoke College had a stable career of 10 years at Fox, running the Fox’s mergers & acquisitions team, where she was involved in 8 acquisitions worth $1.3 billion.  She brings experience in mergers & acquisitions and has also been in corporate & development roles.  She was involved in tech deals NewRoo & ksolo.
It’s interesting to note, that FIM’s long term goal was to acquire leading internet-startups & properties.  Harde may have seen the value & opportunity at TechCrunch along with her own current skills, for example, FIM conducts regular discounted cash flow analysis on the potential monetization of traffic in analyzing value of an opportunitiy.  Thus, Hardes skills & expertise will allow for the following at TechCrunch:

1. Strategic & Additional Advertising Methods For TechCrucnh
2. Potential Acquisitions of other leading or opportunistic blogs
3. Growth & the conceptualization of the TechCrunch Vision - As I recall, Mike’s vision was to compete with CNET.
4. Separation of editorial blogging responsibilities versus operational roles

So, how can hiring a CEO happen to a blogger for their blog?  Well, there’s a few ways to look at this:

An MBA’s Viewpoint 

The Boston Consulting Group developed a model to be able to manage a portfolio of different business units, whereas, companies that become large enough to be organized into strategic business units, face challenges of allocating resources within those units.

Mike Arrington’s goal is to grow TechCrunch.  According to the BCG Matrix, his blogging biz would be considered a STAR.  This would mean that the TechCrunch network, or units within the network has large market share in a fast growing industry.  For example, TechCrunch currently has 318,000 subscribers according to Feedburner & the industry which is growing is New-Media News Publications / Blogging.  Tony at Deep Jive Interest reports on this story as well, stating that “it makes perfect sense when blogs get so big that non-blogging tasks start taking away from the time it actually takes to produce an effective blog.”

 An Entrepreneurs Viewpoint

One year and 9 months ago, there was no gurantee what TechCrunch was going to become.  There could have been a vision, but also being a early adopter in blogging to a niche audience was a key factor.  I think it was the passion that adds fuel to the fire, to make something great & unique, as well as to have a fun time doing it.  Of course, lets not forget making a few bucks off Google Adsense while sitting at home in your pajamas can be a great motivator.   Eight - 9 months ago, Arrigton was generating a bit above $60,000 per month from sponsored ads on the site.  Five months ago (November), Guy Kawasaki got an exclusive sit down with Arrington where we were informed that TechCrunch was generating $130,000 per month in revenues.  Not a bad part-time work from home job eh?

A Bloggers Viewpoint 

Well, bloggers aren’t avidly searching for CEO’s for their blog…yet.  I think they are focused on a list of things such as below.

• Support from the blogosphere
• Developing a community of readers
• Number of posts
• Number of comments per post
• Number of views
• Number of subscribers
• Rankings
• Statistics
• Believing in your own dream

As such, my personal goals are to 1.) Work Hard, 2.) Don’t Give Up, and 3.) Love what I do.  I am passionate about start-ups, emerging technology & most importantly like-minded entrepreneurs.  Is that an interesting recipe?

Congrats to Heather Harde for her new role as CEO at TechCrunch, and congrats to Mike Arrington & the TechCrunch Network.  This goes to show that the dream is still alive.

~Blogging Is A Lifestyle ~