paidContent 50: The world’s most successful digital media companies

$1,200,000,000 (8% of total)
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The bulk of the internet revenue at Cox Enterprises comes from Cox Media Group, which includes more than 100 internet services for its newspapers and TV stations; Cox Target Media (direct mail coupon service Valpak with Valpak.com and syndicated coupons to 150+ sites, and recently-acquired Savings.com with social savings service DealPros); online advertising unit Cox Digital Solutions; and from AutoTrader.com, which includes auto bible Kelly Blue Book (kbb.com).

Cox Target Media completed its acquisition of Savings.com and Savuu.co.uk this past June, adding the online savings sites and the DealPros social network of savings experts to its Valpak.com service. With the deal, Cox Target Media picked up at least five million monthly uniques from Savings.com and broadened its reach to bargain shoppers at a time when more households see the value in saving.

Cox Enterprises is private but releases overall revenues and some specifics. By far, the bulk of its digital revenue comes from its majority ownership of AutoTrader.com, contributing $1 billion in revenue in 2011. We estimated digital advertising revenue at $120 million in 2010, but it’s more difficult to build a reliable estimate for 2011. Valpak had revenues of $260 million in 2008 and has been aggressively expanding digitally. Conservatively, we’ll estimate digital revenue in 2011 at $1.2 billion.
Source: Our estimate.