The Wall Street Journal
CNN.com is investing in Outside.In, a start-up that feeds neighborhood blogs and other local news and information to the Web sites of newspapers, TV stations and other media.
The investment, whose size the Time Warner Inc. Web site declined to disclose, comes as news organizations seek more local information about high school sports, eateries and social events, in which they see an untapped market. Outside.In and a growing cadre of start-ups either hire people to write neighborhood news, or collect and organize dispatches from local citizens, news outlets or bloggers.
MSNBC.com, a joint venture of NBC Universal and Microsoft Corp., this summer acquired EveryBlock, which feeds crime reports, restaurant health inspections and other data to news organizations’ Web sites. AOL Inc. recently acquired the local-news network Patch.
CNN.com, which is part of Time Warner’s Turner Broadcasting, plans to carry the Outside.In dispatches on its own Web site–the biggest push into local news so far by one of the most popular national news outlets in the country. More…