Guardian plans on giving paidContent.org free reign
A respect for journalistic integrity. Check. A progressive strategy for building out online media. Check. A long-term perspective on growth (rather than plans to flip the company within the next three-to-five years). Check. A commitment to stay out of the way. Check. For Rafat Ali, founder and editor of paidcontent.org, all the constellations are properly aligned regarding the sale of his Web site to U.K.-based Guardian Media Group.
Guardian late last week acquired paidContent.org for an undisclosed sum (although one report pegged the price at $30 million). Ali could not comment on the sale price but, as one of the toughest editors covering the online-media beat, he could hardly blame us for asking.
Ali was quite candid about other aspects of the deal, namely the ability of paidContent.org to expand its presence in the U.S., U.K. and India and ramp up its social-media tools. He said the deal will also give paidContent.org the ability to launch new verticals that dovetail with the Web site’s media and marketing coverage. The deal is not expected to have an adverse affect on paidContent.org’s content partnerships (The New York Times, Forbes, et al.) and, if anything, will probably give Ali the resources to expand such relationships.
PaidContent.org is now part of Guardian Media Group, the news media division of Guardian Media Group, which is owned by the Scott Trust.
Ali said being owned, ultimately, by a Trust gives him a great deal of comfort. To wit, he knows the new owner is in it for the long haul (and that he doesn’t have to chase numbers for an owner with a more short-term outlook). So he’ll continue to do what he does best: chase stories about all of the changes that are engulfing media.
Fulll disclosure: paidContent.org is a customer of ScribeMedia.org’s media-services division.
Matthew Schwartz is Senior Editor of ScribeMedia.org and host of the WebTV series, From Print to Digital.
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