Los Angeles - Digital business news publisher PaidContent's parent company ContentNext has been acquired by U.K.-based Guardian News & Media (GNM), for a price "north of $30 million," All Things D reported. "We were planning another round of funding and were not out shopping the company but when Guardian approached us, all the pegs fit into the right holes: a company that will help us scale, add to our existing portfolio of products, and most importantly, help keep 'Our Essence of Being' intact," PaidContent founder Rafat Ali said in a post on the site.

Los Angeles - PaidContent, an online publisher of business and technology news, announced this week that it has hired Nathan Richardson as the new chief executive of parent company ContentNext Media. Founding CEO Rafat Ali will step aside, while retaining his roles as chairman, editor and publisher. Richardson was most recently head of Dow Jones Online, and before that led Yahoo Finance. "I am stepping out of my position as CEO (something I was never comfortable with, as people who know me can attest...I always liked the Editor and Publisher title better); but will keep the role of Chairman," Ali wrote on PaidContent.org.