Yahoo Inc. is buying freelance news site Associated Content in a deal that will add a more folksy touch to one of the world’s biggest websites.
Financial terms weren’t disclosed.
The acquisition announced Tuesday will enable Yahoo to supplement its regular lineup of stories by full-time reporters with independently produced material that typically isn’t covered by traditional media outlets.
Associated Content, launched in 2005 by Luke Beatty, bills itself as “the people’s media company.” It has developed a low-cost news model that relies on about 380,000 freelancers who share their expertise on a variety of subjects.
The material includes how-to advice, review, opinion pieces and coverage about what’s happening in neighborhoods around the United States.
The stories evidently are striking a chord: Associated Content attracted 16 million visitors last month, according to comScore Inc. That exceeded the roughly 14 million people who visited The New York Times’ Web site last month, comScore said.
Yahoo plans to sprinkle Associated Content’s contributions throughout its news, sports, finance and entertainment sections. Yahoo will continue to publish stories that it gets from newspapers, its own editorial staff and outlets that include The Associated Press.
Associated Content “gives us more local gravitas,” Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz said in a Tuesday interview.
By providing more parochial stories, Yahoo hopes to widen its audience and create more opportunities to sell online ads tied to the neighborhoods or topics that Associated Content’s freelancers are covering. Yahoo has been slumping for most of the past four years because it has been losing online ad revenue to rivals such as Google Inc. and Facebook.
Yahoo’s decision to expand the breadth of its local coverage is similar to a strategy being pursued by AOL Inc. as its CEO, Tim Armstrong, tries to turn around that company.
AOL is trying to build two low-cost local news sites, Seed.com and Patch.com.
Armstrong stands to personally profit from Associated Content’s sale because he is among the startup’s early investors and even served as its chairman until two years ago. He helped fund Associated Content while he was still a top advertising executive at Google.
Associated Content’s CEO, Patrick Keane, used to work at Google with Armstrong.
Yahoo plans to close Associated Content’s website after it completes the acquisition in the third quarter.
Curatorial Committee Roster Is Set For The 2025 AICP Post Awards
The AICP has set the full roster for the Curatorial Committee for the 2025 AICP Post Awards. The group, representing experts from the full gamut of postproduction crafts as well as from the agency and brand ranks, will meet this spring under the leadership of AICP Post Awards chairperson James Razzall, U.S. president of advertising, Framestore.
The extended entry deadline for the full suite of AICP Awards--which includes The AICP Show: The Art & Technique of the Commercial, and the AICP Next Awards--is Wednesday, March 5. Full entry details can be found here. The results of each show will debut during AICP Week in New York this June, and be featured at a gala celebration at The Museum of Modern Art.
One of Razzall’s key responsibilities as chair is to form the AICP Post Awards Curatorial Committee, which will determine the selection of the final winners and choose the Post Awards Best of Show from among the category winners. “I was looking for the best people at the top level in all their respective crafts,” explained Razzall. “We aimed to be as diverse and geographically as broad as possible. And we looked for cross-discipline opinions. We strove for a mix of people, including those who curate the work, not just our peers in post but also the best people we have worked with on the brand and agency side.
“Across the board, we were looking for people with a strong voice,” Razzall continued. “Our goal is to have a proper conversation, so we can filter through to make sure the best work is being recognized. When you consider the amount of effort that’s gone into these entries and the level of craft that they exhibit, we owe them that respect and honor of judging the work... Read More