Anschutz firm buys website for $25m
EXAMINER.COM, a media company controlled by US billionaire and O2 owner Philip Anschutz, yesterday bought citizen journalist firm NowPublic in a $25m (£15.3m) deal and told City PM it plans to launch its site in the UK in the first quarter of next year.
Examiner.com, a citizen journalist site with over 15,000 contributors, has tripled its readership to 17m a month to become the fastest growing local news content provider in the US. It has recently been put in the spotlight after its rapid coverage of the Californian wildfires.
The firm hopes to benefit from Nowpublic’s innovative search and publishing technology for user-generated content. Fox News, Glam Media and Technorati and AP were all believed to be interested bidders for NowPublic after it was nominated for an Emmy Award for its real-time search engine.
Examiner.com chief executive Rick Blair said: “With the acquisition of NowPublic we will be able to use its technology to further engage our readership and roll out into the UK and the rest of the world.”
The deal signals the growing influence of citizen journalism as the world moves into a 24-hour news society, with a demand for instant news.
Industry observer at Ariadne Capital David Scholtz said: “At a time when news agencies are slashing jobs for on-the-ground staff, these sites provide grass roots news for the community.” The deal also follows AOL acquiring two local start-up content sites in June and MSNBC.com, buying EveryBlock, a local citizen journalism site.