By: Aseem Gaurav on August 31, 2011
Going aggressive in the digital content space, CNN, the Cable News Network founded by Ted Turner in 1980, has acquired Zite, a news app for the iPad that gives users a personalized magazine-like experience. Financials of the details were not revealed.
Jim Walton, president of CNN Worldwide, said the acquisition would remain as a separate, stand-alone business that will continue to provide users with the news and information they want.
Like other iPad news aggregators such as Pulse, Flipboard, and Taptu, Zite learns about readers interests through an algorthim and customizes stories from hundreds of different websites.
CNN digital manager KC Estenson said with this acquisition the company can advance the industry in a meaningful way. He said it would help CNN's websites and apps serve more personalised content.
Currently CNN has an app which allows users with a cable television subscription to watch the channel on the smartphone for free and the Zite buy will help it to compete against other news giants in the digital content related services.
CNN already has a very successful application for the Apple iPhone that allows users with a cable television subscription to watch the channel on the smartphone for free.
Mark Johnson, CEO of Zite, said the company’s partnership with CNN would create a world-class news discovery platform and now being part of the CNN family would help it in innovating the space.
