In a move that has been coming for a couple of weeks CNN have just snapped up the social news magazine Zite. Announced on the Zite blog this is a huge deal for an app that only launched earlier this year for the iPhone and of course iPad where it has had most of it’s success. Zite gets smarter as you read it and starts to learn the content that it should be serving you up while pulling in news from Twitter and Facebook and displaying it beautifully in much the same way as Flipboard does. There CEO Mark Johnson said…
Why CNN? First of all, CNN has a history of innovation in the marketplace. CNN was the first organization to launch a 24-hour all-news network – embracing people’s love of news on their terms. Secondly, a modern news organization like CNN isn’t just about reporting. CNN.com is one of the largest web sites in the world and the CNN mobile applications boast well over 12 million downloads. CNN knows that they are competing not only in high-quality reporting, but in delivering you the best news possible. Finally, our interactions with CNN leadership, including KC Estenson, have made it clear that they are visionaries who are voraciously pursuing next-generation technologies to give CNN.com an edge over its competition.
It makes complete sense for CNN to acquire this news delivery platform of the future and we’ve seen AOL enter the same space with their own start up recently. The big question is how much they lock it down to include their own content at the expense of others but at least they already have the partnerships with advertisers to make this work financially. It’s a very young market but an exciting space and this feels like a great deal for both sides.
Zite: Personalized Magazine for iPad from zite.com on Vimeo.
