How a near-worthless magazine beats Demand Media

Sight unseen I'm betting that the difference between the two sets of numbers from Demand Media is based on a belief that they have generated a lot of recurring revenue that GAAP doesn't let them fully account for. The idea is that they build some content out, pay for it now, then keep on getting paid for it over time. Newsweek doesn't have this structure.

If you agree with Demand Media on this, you are likely to think that they are a good investment. If you disagree with them on this, or you think there are significant risks that search engines will decide as a whole (as, say, Duck Duck Go has) to destroy their business model by discounting their crappy content, then you'll think they are a bad investment.

As for Newsweek, they have structural problems that mirror the broader media industry. I wish them luck, but they don't have a plausible story for why current losses are likely to turn into future profits. Hence their low valuation.