Tuesday, May 22, 2007
CNN.com to Get Redesigned; Adding More Local Content
Source: Wall Street Journal In a strategy shift, CNN, known primarily for national and international news, is expected to announce a deal that will allow it to offer more local news on its Web site and, it hopes, land a bigger slice of the fast-growing market for local online ads.The deal, with Internet Broadcasting, a privately held Minneapolis-based company that publishes the Web sites of 70 local TV stations, allows CNN to use local stories from any of those sites, and vice versa. As part of the deal, CNN is also taking a minority equity stake in the company.
From a consumer perspective, the new arrangement won't look much different from what now exists on the sites of CNN's chief rivals in online news, MSNBC and Yahoo. Like those sites, CNN.com will include local news among its top stories of the day, and surfers will be able to move back and forth between national, international and local news.
The big difference will be in the business arrangement that CNN has struck with its partner. MSNBC and Yahoo syndicate stories from outlets such as the Associated Press and Reuters. CNN, by contrast, hopes that the content-swap arrangement will drive up user traffic both on CNN.com and the local sites, allowing all parties involved to charge higher advertising rates. That would theoretically pave the way for Internet Broadcasting affiliates to expand their national ad sales.
# posted by ATN @ 10:22 AM 
