On the Edge and Under the Wing

As vanguard webzines Word and Charged polish up for their September rebirth under the benevolent ownership of Zapata Corp., a slew of independent sites is looking on with great interest.

About 30 sites -- some avant-garde, some cheesy -- are in negotiations to be acquired by the company that made its money (about US$400 million) in oil, then fish meal, before turning to new media. And in general, the indie Web publishers sound confident that an association with Zapata will engender a miracle not unlike that of the fishes and loaves: one in which the sites’ ad revenues will multiply almost magically.

"What it boils down to is dollars and pooled resources," said Scott Cole, chairman and chief technology officer at CD retailer Mass Music, which is in the queue to become part of Zap, the Internet division of Zapata. Through the acquisition and cross-promotions, "we'll have increased traffic and shared revenues," he said.

Same attitude, different owner

Apparently, the sites won't be asked to reel in their flippant approach to content. Word has spent the last few months enjoying "the summer of wanking," which amounts to a display of staff homepages while the site takes a vacation.

The editors of Word and Charged are pleased with the freedom of expression so far. "It really is almost too good to believe," said Alice Bradley, editor in chief of Charged, whose entire staff had gone on to other jobs when the site’s former parent, Icon CMT, pulled the plug in March. When Zapata came to the rescue a month later, the ex-staffers all quit their new positions to return.

"We were so used to being told all the time what we have to do. Now we can tell Avie [Glazer, Zapata’s president and CEO] what we need," said Bradley, positively glowing about the new arrangement. "He really trusts us to know." Charged is availing itself of the opportunity to shift its focus, beginning with next month’s redesign, from action sports to "extreme leisure." That means the zine will cover the wild and woolly turf of rollerblading, break dancing, model rocketry, and vanning, the favored activity of van aficionados.

"It seems almost surreal to have it this good," said Marisa Bowe, editor in chief at Word, which will reveal a slightly redesigned version of the same irreverent zine this month. "One never really knows, but I’m impressed by Avie and the whole strategy for Zap: Buy up things when Internet prices are at their nadir and build a network that's different from the portals."

It's not clear what Zap is paying for the sites, which include publishers of everything from homegrown erotica to stock info, online gaming, book and music sales, Latino issues, plus a pair of chat sites, a search engine and a Spanish-language community site. The deal specifics are under wraps until they close until later this year, but most of the sites presume it will be business as usual even after they become Zap employees.

Glazer wouldn't reveal much about his firm's overall plans for the network. "I can't give you anything definitely," he said, in lieu of answering questions about how much Zap will spend on marketing, what Zap will look like after a redesign he promises will be "cutting edge," and how many employees the company will have once the acquisitions are complete.

What he would say is that he is encouraging the sites "to be what they are," making it clear he recognizes that "each of our sites is not for everybody."

Breaking the portal mold

"We consciously don't want it to look like one product, like a Yahoo or an Excite where page after page looks the same," said Glazer, who just three months ago made an unsuccessful bid to buy Excite. Instead, he said, he hopes his varied network will attract advertisers interested in targeting the different demographics his sites attract.

Meanwhile, Zap is attracting plenty of Web start-ups answering "Zap will buy your Web site" ads that were placed in major papers like The New York Times. Most tell the same story: They've been doing well enough to break even or make a small profit, but they need more money to grow.

"We haven't had the resources to do it in a big way," said Dave Rae, founder and CEO of Attitude Network, which owns six gaming sites including Happy Puppy and Games Domain. He is selling out to Zapata because he couldn't fund the growth he wanted for his company and thinks Glazer has not just the bucks, but "a keen view of what the opportunities are ... courage, and the financial and business acumen" to build the business.

A generous patron

Nancy Eaton of Retro said, "We weren't going to go anywhere without a partner who believed in content." Zapata's acquisition of Word showed her "they were investing in content that may not necessarily be profitable next quarter."

Gretchen Glassock, founder of Advancing Women, sees it similarly. "I'm a niche site, but I am competing with big sites like Time Warner for the same eyeballs." She has turned her women's community into a self-supporting business, but the site doesn’t have the money it would take to make more money -- specifically the cash to fund marketing and ad sales.

"As Mr. Glazer put it, we have access to all of his resources," she said.

How great those resources may be will only be known when the lawyers and bankers finish chopping Zapata in two to establish Zap as an Internet company separate from the fish business. The process should be completed by the fourth quarter, and only then will the pending acquisitions -- most of which involve Zap stock -- go through.

Whether Zap retains the name Zap is also an issue if not an uncertainty, since an online futures brokerage called ZAP Futures filed a lawsuit disputing the name's use. A hearing is scheduled for 9 September.

But uncertainties are nothing new to the indie Web publishers, most of whom have been bootstrapping along on their own for years. In general, they sound less interested in security than in using Zap's resources to keep doing what they're doing. "We would have done it by hook or by crook," Bowe says of the revival of Word. "It just would have been a lot bloodier."

Related Wired Links:

Game Site Gets Zapped
5.Aug.98

Zapata Goes to College
27.Jul.98

WhoWhere Gets Zapata Offer
24.Jul.98

Bianca's Fish Meal Shack
16.Jul.98

Advancing Women Gets Zapped
9.Jul.98

Word, Charged Find a Savior
27.Apr.98