Scripps, the Long Tail, and Wall Street Love

AdAge has an interesting article discussing how old media company Scripps, which started in newspapers, has become the 16th most visited online property. Seeing the possibilities of the Long Tail is one main reason:

Scripps was also ahead of Wired Editor Chris Anderson's Long Tail theory, recognizing that it could slice its food, garden and home programming to appeal to niche audiences. But most importantly, Scripps encouraged a culture that was not afraid to embrace new media that were likely to cannibalize the lucrative properties it already owned.

Also important, however, seems to be a company culture that has for decades embraced new distribution:

Scripps early on embraced a multimedia approach, buying radio stations in the '30s, TV stations in the '40s and '50s, and cable systems in the '80s before becoming a cable programmer in the '90s. Today, Scripps' newspaper division represents just a fraction of the company's total revenue.