What Time Is Puppy: The Animal Web Wars Begin

Former Salon editor-in-chief Kerry Lauerman’s secret Lerer-supported “content plus commerce” startup has been revealed — they were waiting for their Techcrunch exclusive blog post, which they now have. Because that’s how you get readers! OH WE KID. Anyway, it’s about kittens and hamburgers, and which one you should eat or not! Money quote: “Look at the front of The New York Times — they have a significant animal story on the front page every week. It’s our plan to launch a site to try to own that topic.” (Well, not this week, there isn’t one trending, but that’s just because they went so big with their recent People DO IT On Campus story.)

The forthcoming Animal Web Wars will take place between The Dodo, BuzzFeed, the Cheezburger network, the Catster properties et al and minor out-of-market contenders like PopSci, which works the animal beat pretty hard, but also Legacy Olde Media. For instance, Times honcho Jill Abramson and her puppy book action has at times straight-up owned that animal beat.

The Animals. It’s business. Some questions. How much animal can the Internet contain? Dumb question. All the animal. Animal is limitless vertical. Animal is Internet. Sponsored litterbox. Revenue affiliate dog pound. The Big Pet Food Industrial Complex is beyond ready. What say Techcrunch: “A place to be entertained, learn and maybe even shop, without a polarizing agenda that could alienate readers.” No pet owner likes to be polarized. What is a Lerer: “Bedrocket Media Ventures is a disruptive media company creating the next generation of great entertainment in the cloud.” What Are The Sources Of Cat? 52% of cat owners own more than one cat. That’s 86 million cats. None of those cats are in the cloud. Yet. Each is entertaining. They must crap somewhere. So must you. PetFood Direct’s affiliate commission starts at 9%.