May 22, 2007 10:37 AM
CNN to Drive More Advertising through Local News
Looks like Google, Yahoo and Microsoft are not the only web companies who are getting into the profitable business of online advertising. CNN online, known for delivering national and international news will be refocusing on local news.
In a Wall Street Journal article, CNN was reported to have reached a deal with Internet Broadcasting, a Minneapolis based company that publishes websites of 70 local TV stations. With the said deal, CNN will be given the right to publish local stories from these 70 local TV stations.
CNN is hoping to drive more traffic to their main site coming from surfers who are redirected by the local sites. Likewise, traffic of these local sites will be given a boost by the redirected traffic coming from CNN’s main site.
Hence, with this arrangement, both sites would generate more advertising which will in turn generate more income for both CNN and the local sites.
What does this mean to CNN news readers? Nothing much according to the WSJ report. But on the business perspective, the deal could backfire on CNN’s user base that is primarily concern about international news rather than knowing about local headlines.
But who knows, international readers might find interesting bits and pieces of news information from these local sites after all. And local readers would be thrilled to get coverage from CNN as well.
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