Newsvine Acquired by MSNBC.com

clipmarks on October 8th, 2007 filed in Blog On, Newsvine

I haven’t posted anything about this up until now because I had to give myself time to get used to the idea… get over the shock. It looks as though the motivation behind this is to enhance msnbc.com, not to change Newsvine into anything it isn’t right now. And it looks as if msnbc.com publisher and president Charlie Tillinghast is well aware and sensitive to the concerns of the Newsvine community.

I’m still not sure what to think, but I am hopeful because I think Newsvine is now on sound financial footing, and that’s a good thing. Still, even in this state of shock I’m still in, I almost feel like dancing… we’ve hit the big time and that’s very, very cool. And I am proud to be a part of such a vibrant community and news site.

Woohaw!

MSNBC.com, the joint venture of Microsoft and NBC, is purchasing Newsvine, a startup that enlists “citizen” journalists to post and comment on mainstream media stories, and write articles of their own.

It’s the first acquisition in Redmond-based MSNBC.com’s 11-year history. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Newsvine’s investors, who were happy about the deal, put up $1.5 million to get the service going two years ago.

Clipped from seattletimes.nwsource.com

Technorati Tags: citizen journalism, Mike Davidson, MSNBC, new media, Newsvine