From CNN to a new frontier: SPACE.com

The executive traded in broadcast news a year ago for an Internet space venture that's in hyperdrive.

By JEFF HARRINGTON

© St. Petersburg Times, published August 6, 2000

Maybe space is Lou Dobbs' final frontier after all.

A year after quitting his executive job at CNN to launch a one-stop cyber shop for news and entertainment about the cosmos, Dobbs is showing little inclination of returning to the more earthly world of financial news.

And his Internet space venture, SPACE.com, is in hyperdrive.

The company has the credentials, with the first woman in space, Sally Ride, as president; the first man on the moon, Neil Armstrong, as board chairman; and pioneer Soviet cosmonaut Alexey Leonov on its advisory panel.

It has the financial backing, raising $50-million in February and inking a deal with NBC parent General Electric that gives it cash and advertising time.

And it has a game plan to grow quickly with a new magazine debuting this month and several pending acquisitions.

"I've always done things that are great fun and very rewarding," said Dobbs, a no-nonsense, driven executive best known for his days as anchor of CNN's Moneyline News Hour. "The past year of my life running SPACE.com has been better than all the preceding," he said.

When not at the Internet company's New York headquarters, the 54-year-old space enthusiast speaks about his mission and dishes out economic insights on the lecture circuit. His fee: $25,000 per event. Bank of America Corp. paid Dobbs to visit the Tampa Bay area last week and kick off a lecture series catering to the bank's wealthiest investment clients.

Between a closed-door luncheon speech to 200 invited bank clients and a similar dinner speech to another 200, Dobbs talked with the St. Petersburg Times:

Question: How did your interest in space develop?

Dobbs: As you know, my wife and I applied for the civilian space program in the early 1980s. I'm a lifelong amateur astronomer. I built rockets as a kid. I'm a great fan of NASA and the space program . . . It was always a much broader interest than a hobby. The fact is in 1997, when the Mars Pathfinder mission shut down in September of that year, I was looking on the Web for other space-related materials and couldn't find it and decided to build SPACE.com.

Q: What's the chief goal of SPACE.com?

Dobbs: To popularize space.

Q: In what way?

Dobbs: Through television, radio, the Web, the magazine.

We have already built the largest audience for space in the country . . . We've built the site in a year to the leading brand on space. We will be announcing a number of acquisitions in the next two weeks. We're launching Space Illustrated the magazine at the end of this month, which is receiving tremendous advertising support as well. Our software company produces the leading astronomy software in the country. Its sales are rising dramatically. So our business plan is being executed. I'm very pleased with it.

Q: Where are your acquisitions focused?

Dobbs: I can't divulge right now. It's all in the area of space content.

Q: In terms of growth, where do you see this company in five years?

Dobbs: We're a $150-million company now . . . with 106 employees . . . In terms of size, our best projection is it puts us somewhere in the neighborhood of $750-million to $1-billion in enterprise value.

Q: Your site shifts from hard news stories to science fiction with pieces on UFO cover-ups and the latest space movie. How difficult is it to keep news and entertainment separate?

Dobbs: It's not difficult at all, and that's one of the glories of the Web: that one can manage broader content for a community. The space community on the Web is made up of many elements of interest, whether science fiction, space science, astronomy, space exploration.

We broke the story, as you know, about water on Mars. We have the largest team of space journalists in the world. We have more journalists covering space (27) than . . . the top five newspapers, all of the broadcast networks and all of the cable networks combined. So we have obviously a significant commitment to news in this company.

We also have a tremendous commitment to entertainment and to science fiction. The fact is that science fiction is the basis for nearly everything that's ever happened in space. It would be akin . . . to if you asked me how Time Warner can produce a teenage demographic movie and also produce Time magazine.

Q: How competitive is your niche? A number of space-oriented sites have cropped up.

Dobbs: We've acquired several. We've licensed some. We've seen a number of competitors enter and validate our business plan. We're delighted. Believe me, in any endeavor you want to have competition . . . As the first mover in this area, we have a significant advantage over all entrants and we intend to press that advantage relentlessly.

Q: How would you describe your management style?

Dobbs: My management style is effective. I've helped build a couple of television networks. I've built the first profitable Web site on space.

Q: Do you have any plans to return to CNN or financial news?

Dobbs: I think, as you know from reports, I've declined (offers to return).

I have a tremendous relationship with NBC, a great partnership in terms of a newsletter coming out this fall. I have a a radio show. They're a great organization and I intend to build that partnership.

Q: Part of you isn't itching to get back into the financial news business?

Dobbs: (When) you do something through the course of your life, it's something you will always have interest in and enjoy. The fact is, I'm one of the most fortunate people in the world . . . I'm having a great time. I'm absolutely committed to build this company. That's where my energy and interest is focused.

Q: What do you think has been the impact of instant financial news? Has it led to more informed investors or overconfident investors who only think they are more informed?

Dobbs: I would like to say that television is responsible for all that you suggested. It's a little more complicated than that. The fact is we've got just about 80 percent of Americans now indirectly invested in the stock market. The audience for business news . . . is far more sophisticated.

Television news is making significant contributions to making more information available to more people, and the Web has taken that to the next level, whether you're talking about CNBC.com, thestreet.com, marketwatch.com, Forbes, the Wall Street Journal. The number of offerings is extraordinary . . . It's instantaneous. It's retrievable. Investors have never had a better opportunity to understand stocks and markets.

Q: Shifting to your speech to investors today, what's your economic outlook?

Dobbs: Very positive. Absolute bull. I think you'll see the markets next year rise 15 to 20 percent. I hope we do not see any further interest rate increases, because I don't think the effects of these last six have been fully worked into the economy. Inflation is not, in my opinion, a serious threat of any kind nor will it be . . . given all the productivity gains that we're enjoying . . . I think there's no reason in the world to expect GDP growth to fail to achieve gains of better than 3 percent probably the next two years.

Q: So you think the Federal Reserve is achieving the soft landing it's been aiming for?

Dobbs: I think Alan Greenspan has been absolutely terrific in guiding monetary policy. He's shown great caution not to raise interest rates the last time. On (Aug.) 22nd, we'll see what his view is.

I think it's premature to talk about soft landings or hard landings. This economy is in magnificent shape. Its future appears to me to be very bright, so I don't know what one would be landing from.

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