sbm12

Congrats to Mommy Points for making the leap to join the TPG network.

JetAway

Are you thinking about jumping ship too?

ctownflyer

As in all maturing industries, consolidation will be inevitable. Welcome to the borg and good luck Summer

Randy Petersen

It's actually not about making a leap or jumping ship. Summer had the opportunity to sell her website and brand to Red Ventures which owns TPG and thus her content was an acquisition to start a category that BoardingArea defined a long time ago and has been fortunate to have Mommy Points, Pizza in Motion and Points With a Crew all contribute to the category.

We could not be happier for Summer—a class act by all definitions. Starting a blog is a bit like being an entrepreneur and there's nothing quite like being able to provide for your family and future with a transaction like this. Bravo, bravo, bravo. And the best part, she won't change as it's all about her readers and her information she loves to share.

SanDiego1K

It's always great to see you on your site, Randy. Classy as always with your support for Summer wherever she goes.

sbm12

From what to what?

Putting aside the part that no one wants to buy out my content (that I'm aware of) the two operations are VASTLY different. Boarding Area is an aggregation and ad sales network. TPG/Red Ventures is a content marketing company that operates and manages blogs.

84fiero

So, aside from blog/brand ownership - at the end of the day is she doing essentially the same blogging but now at TPG...or is there some additional role that this entails working at TPG?

Raffles

Doesn't seem fully clear. She is either:

a) just contributing her own stuff and there is an editor above her who is finding other contributors and soliciting content, or

b) she is editor of the channel and she finds other contributors and oversees their content

Hope it goes well. I have never heard a bad word about Summer from anyone.

kokonutz

Congrats to Summer on the payday! Loads and loads of hard work paying off!

oliver2002

While it is laudable that a blogger managed to build a sellable business out of nothing, lets not forget what the mission of the new owners is: plug selected financial products to potential customers:

From red ventures:
from Bankrate:
So its a bit of a ethical topic what is happening here. AFAIR Summer mentioned that her family had issues with debt in the past... it is sad that there are companies that exist to drive consumers into making decisions that may not be in their interest.

I suspect the demographic that reads MP is probably better off takiing a bank loan to visit Grandma in KS or do a trip to the mouse in FL instead of applying for 5 credit cards and potentially making atrocious APR interest payments because they can't pay off the required spend in time.

lwildernorva

Possibly so, but I think the problems Summer mentioned were not strictly credit card related but instead the kind of bad investment situation that if it paid off makes a lot of money and if it doesn't, causes bankruptcy. Happy to stand corrected on this, but I don't think their personal financial problems arose over the kind of credit card debt that plagues millions.

I think she's stuck to her original aim of trying to make good travel available for families by using credit card strategies, such as taking credit cards where you just put the spend you'd do in cash on a credit card and then converting to multiple economy seats on the right routes, rather than solely "aspirational" travel. I suspect her mission no longer fit BA, which seems oriented to a younger, more single demographic, which is mostly solos trying to leverage a credit card to one single "aspirational" trip rather than the current roster at TPG, which seems to accept that there could be situations where it's smarter to spend your miles/points for four economy seats and seven nights at a Hampton Inn outside the main gate at Disney over one business class seat and five nights in the Maldives for those who travel solo. That Orlando trip could easily cost a family of four almost $4000 in airline and hotel fees that credit cards could cover with maybe four $100 annual fees--which might be waived the first year.

I know there are others at BA who have focused on family travel, but I don't think any of them have made the impression Summer has. Now, they have an opportunity.

Raffles

sbm12

This is one of the funnier things I've read about Boarding Area in a long time. The suggestion that there is a single dominant demographic - other than "likes to travel" - is silly. So is the implication that one must fit a specific demographic to be part of that operation. As Randy mentioned there is a collection of family traveler blogs under the BA umbrella. Just like there are blogs focused on business travel, different geographies and other bits.

Last I checked BA had scores of sites aggregated into the network. There's no way they're all going to be the same or appeal to the same readers. You can choose to only look at a handful of the blogs and decide they represent the site overall, but that's not reality.

Adam1222

Hardly a BoardingArea apologist, but Boarding Area and the "TPG Network" are two vastly different things. TPG isn't even really a network, but rather a brand operated by Bankrate, a corporate entity with control of its advertorial content.
The "blog" isnt "moving" per se. Rather, its brand has been sold to a financial services marketing company, just like The Points Guy itself.
Mile Nerd had a good post https://www.milenerd.com/2018/07/thoughts/

kokonutz

Summer def sold out to 'the man.' Just as other bloggers before. Just as Randy did with this place.

It will certainly change the content - that's what happens when you go from working for yourself to working for a corporate overlord. But there's no shame in an entrepreneur selling out and taking a payday. That's pretty much the dream.

Then its up to the customers to decide if they like the new corporate entity. I/we are still on FlyerTalk all these years after Randy sold out and subsequently left, after all....

Bottom line: congrats Summer and caveat emptor!