This evening I turned down an offer to buy one of our publications. Today I also publicly announced that we sold one of our publications, FinancialMarketingBiz, to Bill Martin of eFinance Insider. So why was one a go-for-it and the other a no- chance? Company focus.

In the case of the first product, it's near our core promise to all readers that we'll help them improve their online marketing.
It fits and is easier to produce, sell and cross-sell. Whereas the second product was off-focus for us. It was a fun launch that didn't affect most folks at our core. When it turned into a distracting product, our core suffered. Not worth it to us.

However, Bill's core is eFinance business topics. Worth it to him.

My old boss used to draw a circle on a big sheet of paper whenever I wanted to acquire or launch something (which was pretty much constantly). The circle was our core audience and our core buyers. He'd say, "Ok, so draw where your circle intersects." If my circle didn't include enough overlap, he say, "No way." Law of the land.

http://www.efinanceinsider.com