• Diversification of risk.  When we have a portfolio, all our eggs are not in one basket.  If traffic is down on one website for a reason (e.g. traffic on Lindisima.com drops significantly around Christmas due to the warm weather in most of Latin America and passionate attitude towards Christmas), we have other websites that can bring stability to revenue.  The same argument can be applied to advertising, nature of content, etc.
• Customer segmentation.  While a portal approach is not necessarily bad, it is not the best approach for startups with limited resources.  Yahoo can have just one domain and serve multiple segments, for small businesses, it makes sense that they develop segment-specific websites.  It is, however, a great idea to develop a network by putting links and allowing visitors to enjoy other websites.
• Entry/exit businesses.  A portfolio management approach enables us to enter new markets (with a new website) fairly quickly with small startup cost.  Similarly, if a website does not meet our target metrics, we can restructure the portfolio by either shutting it down, selling it, or readjusting resource allocation.
• Leveraging resources.  Having a portfolio of properties, we can leverage some of the resources, particularly our research staff, writers, and the content generated.  No matter what segment you are targeting, an article on healthy cooking recipes can be used on multiple websites.  Similarly, when an analyst conducts research on weight loss after 30, it can also be easily customized for several different websites.

How to manage a portfolio of media properties?

1. Keep the portfolio structure dynamic.  Be ready to redesign the portfolio without much pain.
2. Have an organization structure that can support a portfolio management strategy.  This will require a pool of generalists whose efforts can be used for all properties while a few specialists should focus on each media property.