The New York Times Company has acquired About.com, a network of hundreds of targeted guide sites. Primedia, which sold About to the Times Company, originally acquired About.com in October, 2000. About the
acquisition the Red Herringsays, "will gain About.com’s advertising base,
which has a cost-per-click component, the currently popular and
fast-growing model of online advertising. It will also broaden its
reach. According to Neilsen/Net Ratings, the acquisition will create
the twelfth-largest entity on the Internet." Paid Content has a section with information about what experts are saying about the
purchase. It will be interesting to see whether the New York Times
Company can generate more traffic and revenues from the guide network than
Primedia could.
