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Media - Tuesday, November 16, 2004

Corante - Profile

HQ: Boston, MA

Founded: 2000

Management: Editor, Publisher, and Founder is Hylton Jolliffe, a veteran of low-profile publishing ventures, including Wolff New Media which was high-profile only after the fact - and for all the wrong reasons.

Investors: Boot-strapped

Business Model: Constellation of business blogs combined with targeted news filtering (though at the time of this writing, the news filtering service seems to be on hiatus). Also introducing a Corante Research product to provide "actionable analysis and advisory services to our clients." Site sells sponsorships and classifieds as well. Claims to reach over 100K monthly readers.

Competitors: Gawker Media, Weblogs Inc., Tech Target

Dirt: All credit to Corante for seeing the blogging opportunity long before Denton and Calacanis. But the question remains: is there actually a business to be had for any of the blog luminaries? Corante has the advantage of a tight business/tech focus and has done well to forge a partnership with CNET/ZDNET. However, Corante needs to add some starpower to a roster of relative unknowns. Also, Corante Research sounds like a non-starter to the a:c. We know too many big tech publishers that have gambled and lost on the same idea.