Some Spider acquires Fatherly to form largest online parenting media group

Online publisher Some Spider Studios has acquired paternal competitor Fatherly in a move that is said to make the newly merged entity the largest parent-focused digital media brand on the internet. With Fatherly under its umbrella, New York-based Some Spider Studios will rebrand as Some Spider Family as it shifts focus to its parental brands Scary Mommy and The Dad. Its third brand, Cafe, which is largely focused on politics and law, will be helmed separately by Preet Bharara, a former district attorney and the brother of Some Spider founder Vinit Bharara. “We want to continue rolling up in the parenting category,” says Vinit Bharara, who will stay on as CEO of Some Spider. “We want to find businesses that parents are passionate about, across all points in the parenting lifecycle and across all aspects of life, whether at home or at work.” In 2019, Some Spider and Fatherly—then operated separately—saw a combined $35 million in revenue, with the new merged group aiming to see profits of $50 million by the end of this year. The all-stock deal was first set in motion last September, though its exact terms were not disclosed. “Vinnie and I have known each other for about four years and I’ve admired the way he’s methodically built Some Spider into an identity-based media company defined by brands that people genuinely care about,” says Fatherly CEO Michael Rothman, who notes that the brands’ identities are “highly complementary.” “Fatherly is search and email first; Scary Mommy and The Dad have been social [and] engagement first,” Rothman adds. The brands’ audiences are 90 percent unduplicated, according to Comscore. Rothman notes that the Some Spider and Fatherly teams will be “joining forces with little redundancy,” resulting in no editorial layoffs.

Some Spider acquires Fatherly to form largest online parenting media group

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