Related news:
Soros Net venture links with CNNfn
CNNfn's Web site has agreed to offer business and industry news
and information aggregated by an Alexandria, Va,.-based firm
backed by Soros Fund Management, the investment management firm
controlled by billionaire investor George Soros. The site
(cnnfn.news-real.com) will offer visitors a co-branded version of
IndustryWatch, developed and marketed by NewsReal Inc.
NewsReal culls news and information about 20 industries from more
than 500 sources, including wire services, newspapers, trade
magazines and newsletters. "We put together many of the
industry-specific kinds of things you would expect to see on a
site and pay for," explained Jeff Massa, the company's senior VP
of technology. "But it's completely free."
He pointed out many of NewsReal's management team members have
experience in services which deliver news and information to
companies on a subscription basis. "We reviewed which industries
spend the most money for these services, and then began to offer
that material," he told CBS Marketwatch.
The technology executive pointed out visitors to the company's own
site (www.news-real.com) don't have to click on headlines to see
details on items which catch their interest. Pausing the mouse on
the headline prompts display of the item's first several
sentences. "You can scan as many as a hundred articles in half an
hour," he said.
NewsReal was originally chartered by InfoSeek Inc. (SEEK) to
develop a corporate information division. In December of last
year, management bought the business. "It didn't take very long
for us to find backers," Massa said. He agreed that, like many Net
ventures, turning a profit may not happen soon. "There is a piece
of the business plan which says we have to go and get market
share. We don't intend to build that ourselves. But we will
provide our service free to Web sites which have access to
millions of users, in return for a share of the advertising
revenue." |
