Boy mogul Jared Kushner’s Observer Media Group has acquired an 80 percent stake in Barry Diller’s cultural recommendation e-mail service Very Short List, The Post has learned.
Under terms of the deal, which is expected to be announced today, Observer Media Group and Diller’s IAC will create a joint venture to house the assets of VSL.
Diller’s company will retain a 20 percent stake.
Plans call for the newsletter to be renamed The Observer’s Very Short List.
Founders Kurt Andersen and IAC Senior Adviser Michael Jackson will remain involved, but most of the reporting and editing will now be done by The New York Observer’s staff.
Though other parties looked at VSL, a source close to the deal said Kushner was the only one to submit a bid, adding that the purchase price “didn’t reach $1 million.” But the source said the upfront payment was low because Kushner “plans to make a substantial investment into the product.”
Kushner got the idea to buy VSL from Davidson Goldin, whose firm DolceGoldin was handling brand strategy for VSL when Diller decided to focus resources on other properties such as Tina Brown’s Web site The Daily Beast.
Sources said that after Goldin casually mentioned that VSL would be a good fit with the Observer, Kushner instantly placed a call to VSL General Manager Gary Foodim to set up a meeting.
Kushner declined to comment on the deal’s terms, but said he intended to sideline niche-oriented offshoots like VSL: Science and focus on the company’s core function: recommending one movie, TV show, book or album “that deserves attention but hasn’t already been subject to giant media pile-ons” because it has the most revenue potential.
“The real stress now is finding ways to monetize the business,” Kushner said.
VSL generates revenue from advertising and referrals, getting a small percentage of sales from certain retailers that sell products it recommends. Kushner said he has no plans to make VSL a paid subscription service.
About 200,000 people receive VSL, but its open rate — or how many people actually read the newsletter — is much smaller. Using the average 20 percent open rate for media e-mail newsletters would give VSL 40,000 regular readers.
Kushner declined to comment on VSL’s open rate, but said that it was above industry average and compared favorably to peer group newsletters like Daily Candy, Thrillist, and Flavorpill.