TheStreet.com is rolling out mainstreet.com today in a bid to expand beyond its pure-play financial focus and add celebrity news with a personal finance angle.
“We’re merging current events and celebrity news with personal finance insights,” said Caroline Waxler, the managing editor of the site.
In the process, TheStreet.com hopes to blast past its claim of 6 million unique viewers a month.
Though anything with a financial theme is seen as riskier today than it was a year ago, TheStreet.com officials see mainstreet.com as something different.
“There’s no reason mainstreet.com shouldn’t be bigger than The- Street.com,” said Steve Elkes, the company’s executive vice president of mergers and acquisitions and chief revenue officer. “The world it appeals to is much larger than the financial audience.”
“It’s an interesting move for a vertical publisher,” said Colin Gillis, a media analyst at Canaccord Adams. “It expands their potential base of advertisers, particularly in the display area.”
But he added, “This is going to take time to build.”
“They don’t want to have 90 percent of their franchise being [‘Mad Money’ host] Jim Cramer and Wall Street stocks,” said Doug McIntyre, a former board member of TheStreet.com.
So far, mainstreet.com is working on a shoestring start-up budget estimated at about $1 million. Advertisers include Toyota and Charles Schwab discount brokerage.
The expansion follows a $55 million investment in TheStreet.com announced last November by Technology Crossover Ventures, which makes private equity and venture capital investments.
“The gist of it is, we write up the news of the day and then find the personal finance twist,” Waxler said. For example, mainstreet.com would use the Shaquille O’Neal trade to the Phoenix Suns as a jumping-off point to discuss 401(k) implications for job switchers, he said.