Rafat Ali

Rafat Ali 2.0: Meet Skift, the Travel Industry’s Version of PaidContent

Peter Kafka in Media on July 30, 2012 at 5:50 am PT

What do you do after you build and sell a pioneering digital media start-up? Take two years off, and start building another media star-tup.

Eye to Eye

Can Yahoo Turn Itself Around?

Beth Callaghan in Eye to Eye on April 25, 2012 at 2:48 pm PT

Mark Cuban and Eric Jackson answer the question: What is the one major thing you think Yahoo needs to do to turn itself around?

GigaOM Buys paidContent (Like Peter Kafka Said)

Kara Swisher in Media on February 8, 2012 at 11:19 am PT

Guess what? Wait, we knew that.

Is GigaOM Buying paidContent?

Peter Kafka in Media on February 6, 2012 at 3:39 am PT

Om Malik won’t say. But we should find out soon.

Three Years Later, the Guardian Wants a Buyer for PaidContent

Peter Kafka in Media on November 21, 2011 at 12:30 pm PT

The British newspaper publisher says the pioneering Web site is “is a high-quality asset but our focus in the US is on building the Guardian.”

Viral Audio: While Arrington Fiddles and Bartz Erupts, My Cup o’ Crazy Runneth Over

Kara Swisher in News on September 9, 2011 at 10:49 am PT

Do I have something to say about the clown circuses going on at both Yahoo and AOL this week? You bet I do.

For Sale: Inside.com, Barely Used

Peter Kafka in Media on November 4, 2010 at 11:52 am PT

Psst. Wanna buy a cool Web address? Guardian Media has one for sale. The British publisher is peddling the “Inside.com” domain name, people familiar with the company tell me. Asking price, I’m told, is something north of $100,000.

Exclusive: PaidContent Founder Ali to Depart Pioneering Digital News Site

Peter Kafka in Media on May 21, 2010 at 8:37 am PT

PaidContent’s Rafat Ali, who turned a one-man Web site into a must-read hub for digital media news, is leaving the company he founded eight years ago. Sources said Ali has told co-workers he will leave the company in early July, which will be two years after he sold ContentNext, PaidContent’s parent company, to the London-based Guardian Media group. He didn’t tell staff what he intends to do next.

The Guardian's Changing Media Summit in London: No Answers There Either!

Kara Swisher in News on March 26, 2009 at 2:33 pm PT

On BoomTown’s recent grand tour of Europe, I paid a visit a week ago to London to moderate some sessions at Media Guardian’s Changing Media Summit 2009. As in the U.S., a lot of the same questions were asked there about when and how the new media business would cross the Rubicon to transform into a strongly profitable and sustainable business. And the answer to that query was just as hard to find as here.