Report: Disney buys 'green' newsletter Ideal Bite

I guess this is what Disney would consider edgy: the company has reportedly acquired Ideal Bite, a "sassy" eco-focused e-mail newsletter that explicitly states it's "not for readers under age 18." The price was about $15 million, PaidContent reported. That's a lot smaller than Club Penguin, which Disney acquired for $350 million last year.

Ideal Bite is small even as far as e-mail lists go--it's no DailyCandy--but its demographic was likely of interest to a buyer like Disney. The site's median household income is $82,000, press materials state; the median age is 35; and the target demographic is the sort that "drinks organic wine after yoga." In other words, yuppie moms.

And "green" media is unsurprisingly a hot niche. Last year, Discovery Communications acquired the blog TreeHugger to accompany its Planet Green cable network, and the TreeHugger-Discovery partnership was recently selected to power the new eco-news division at the Huffington Post.

When we last heard from Ideal Bite, it was throwing a chic launch party in New York last year following an investment by the Pilot Group, the firm headed by MTV co-founder and former AOL exec Bob Pittman. The celebration featured a mechanical bull and dancers clad entirely in leaves, which I expect won't be featured in any kind of Disney-bought-us gala.

Then again, Disney is responsible for Desperate Housewives.