MSNBC.com Acquires Social Media News Site Newsvine

Authored by Scott Goldberg on October 7, 2007 - 2:28pm.

New York – Newsvine, a company that displays news via the contributions of its community, has been acquired by MSNBC.com.

"Our vision has always been to create an environment where mainstream media and independent media live together and frankly make each other better," said Mike Davidson, who co-founded the company in March 2006. “We set out to create an environment where big and little media could live in one place and make each other better.”

Newsvine, said Davidson, has approximately 1 million unique users per month, compared to MSNBC.com’s 29 million per month. But it is a competitive advantage that MSNBC.com seeks more than traffic. Big media companies like AOL News, Yahoo News, CNN, Gannet, and The Tribune Company all have a user-generated content or social media aspect of some kind.

One issue will be how MSNBC.com integrates Newsvine’s shoot-from-the-hip approach to news coverage. The company has gained a reputation for breaking important stories well ahead of big media counterparts. Charlie Tillinghast, GM of MSNBC.com, said the only change will be greater scrutiny over the validity of stories – something that will indeed require more time, and will be a departure from the speedy advantage the 6-member team at Newsvine has had to this point.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed, nor was much of MSNBC.com’s strategy for integrating its acquisition. "We think that community is a cornerstone of Internet news going forward," said Tillinghast.