Andre Yoskowitz
20 May 2010 0:00
Yahoo has announced this week that it will acquire the user-generated publishing company Associated Content in an effort to add more pages and in turn attract more advertising revenue.
AC pays all of its 380,000 contributors nominal fees to write niche-related articles on tons of different topics ranging from finance, to health, to travel and beyond. While the financial details of the deal were not revealed, Yahoo will receive a gigantic amount of content and pages that were created for very little money.
"We feel that a contributor-driven model is absolutely part of the future of media," adds Matthew Idema, a VP for Yahoo (via Reuters).
The more content Yahoo has available, the more attractive their pages are to advertisers, many of which have been conservative with their expenditures since 2007.
Adds news industry analyst Ken Doctor of the deal: "It makes them a publisher, essentially. Now they have a lot more content they can serve advertising against."
Rival portal AOL was widely expected to purchase AC, but it appears Yahoo stepped in first.