TheStreet.com CEO DeMarse discusses earnings

Here are excerpts from the Friday conference call by Elisabeth DeMarse, the CEO of TheStreet.com, discussing its earnings:

Now that we’re beyond TheStreet’s reorganization period we anticipate that the company’s financial results will become more predictable, stronger and more clearly indicative of the value that exist within TheStreet. We are eagerly looking forward to a new stage of growth for TheStreet one that built on great product momentum, a strengthen team, and improved business model and clear strategic direction.

While many of our competitors have struggled with the shifting sands of online advertising, we have refined our free site as an acquisition funnel for our subscription newsletters. It turns out TheStreet.com is a great way to introduce our lucrative subscription products to more than 10 million people who visit us each month. Remember, we have an asymmetrical competitive advantage because we have dual monetization of the audience coming to our flagship free site TheStreet.com. One of the biggest achievements since I arrived is our ability to generate leads from our subscription business from TheStreet.com. In 2011, 8% of our subscribers were acquired via the free site. Today that percentage is 33%.

People who follow the markets want to know as much as they can, as quickly as they can so they can react and make decisions on their investments. The people are coming to TheStreet TV for financial news and investing ideas are similar to the audience’s sports fanatics they spend time on ESPN, they want analysis immediately. The online and video opportunity is pretty compelling. TheStreet TV produces 15 to 20 digital videos every trading day (indiscernible) market updates, interviews and stories of interest to investors. Our Wall Street location makes it very easy for CEOs to visit our studios when they visit the New York Stock Exchange. Our Virtual Studio allows us to prove HD quality content at a low cost.

Video is a great opportunity to take our brands The Deal, TheStreet and MainStreet and the trust that our leaders place at us and bring it to the video space building on the type of information TheStreet is already known for accurate, fast, actionable investment information and ideas. Also advertisers pay high CPMs on video to reach our audience. We are sold out until the end of the year at a $28 CPM; our advertisers include WisdomTree, Oppenheimer, TradeStation, Spider, Prudential, Schwab, BlackRock and Emirates.

Read the entire transcript here.