February 17, 2005

Grey Lady In the Weblog Biz

The NY Times bought About.com from Primedia for $410 million. This is BIG, BIG news because the Times has just bought its way into the weblog business. I hesitate to say the blogosphere because I've seen few people link to About.com weblogs. Those weblogs may get traffic but they aren't part of the weblogging vibe.

In a company press release one of the reasons for the purchase is

Providing an important platform for future growth on the Internet by adding an alternate model of content creation and aggregation.

The BIG, BIG question is how will the newspaper integrate About.com's platform and content into its website? Will there be a Times "guide" on Iraq, or terrorism, or Social Security just like there are guides on portable entertainment, cellphones, and conservative politics? (Why isn't Ryan Woodhams at CPAC?) Who will the guides be, reporters or outsiders? Will there be group weblogs and/or individual ones? Will columnists start posting? How hard will Times execs and editors push their employees to weblog?

RapidLingo.com thinks the Times won't try to merge the two companies. "After the Jason Blair scandal, among others, they cannot afford to have the public view them as anything other than a hard nosed news outlet." But doing that will show the newspaper refuses to accept the fact that webloggers aren't going away.

B. L. Ochman writes, "Having such a vast network of blogs and bloggers certainly positions the Times well for incorporating blogging into its infrastructure."

For loads of info read PaidContent.org. [via Jeff Jarvis]

"NY Times Agrees to Buy About.com"