Newsvine founder Mike Davidson announced on his blog today that the company had been acquired by MSNBC.com. Newsvine is a social news site that offers a combination of user-generated and professional content. Newsvine was started in 2006.
The Newsvine blog added it "will continue operating independently, just as it has been since launching in March of 2006. Msnbc.com is committed to maintaining and growing the community and features that have made Newsvine what it is today. In other words, Newsvine will be the same Newsvine you've always known, only stronger. Over the next few years, Newsvine technology and content will make its way onto msnbc.com, and vice-versa where it makes sense. Our users' columns and content will remain as they have been, as we work hard with msnbc.com to implement improvements and enhancements."
Trying to cut off the obvious comments that will come his way that he sold out, Davidson commented on his blog: "We never set out to prove that grassroots media was better than mainstream media or vice-versa. The theory, in fact, has been quite the opposite: that given the right environment, an ecosystem where big and little media make each other stronger can be developed. This has been proven out on the Newsvine site itself since we launched about a year and a half ago."
On MSNBC.com's side of it, they say they're buying if for the technology behind the site, as well as the buzz factor.
It sounds like this is only going to turn into a gradually changing platform for prefessional content. With Davidson saying they're going to spend the next few months trying to figure out ways to get the best content in front of the largest audiences possible, it's a very traditional media comment and way of looking at things.
Is he implying that the past content on the site has been poor content, that they've been providing inferior content to users and now MSNBC.com is going to save the day with their content? That's seems to be what Davidson is pointing out, that Newsvine will be integrating the MSNBC content into the community.
Personally I don't see the value of this for Newsvine or its users.
I don't think Mike is saying that the content quality is poor, but there is a lot of what people call meta content and general social content as opposed to what most would consider news content. When it comes to social media, I think there will always be a question of quality since some people will be journalists who understand news value and others who don't. This is an ongoing debate for Newsvine: How do we judge quality without gatekeepers?
It has also been my experience that while being a new media social news site, the Newsvine admins and community both have traditional media views which they simply want to integrate into a new medium. There was already the AP wire but in general, the users provide the content and to call it inferior would defeat Newsvine's purpose. I believe he was talking about getting more traffic and visibility for some of Newsvine's most active and prolific writers, which to me is more valuable and important than the integration of MSNBC content in Newsvine.
Posted by: Kimberlee Morrison | October 9, 2007 12:47 PM | Permalink to Comment