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Reddit gets to Digg-ify Conde Nast

Posted by Mathew @ 3:00 pm on October 31 2006 | |

More acquisition news: Reddit, the Digg-style social bookmarking or social-news site, has been acquired by Conde Nast, the magazine publisher behind Wired, The New Yorker, Vogue, GQ and a bunch of other magazines. The announcement from the Reddit team — which includes just four people — is here. No word so far on whether the rumoured price of $65-million has any relationship to reality (I would be suprised if it was anything close to that).

Reddit is to become part of Wired media, and its voting-style service is expected to be incorporated into or Digg-ify some of Conde Nast’s other sites. As more than one observer has commented, it seems likely that the magazine empire got to know the guys at Reddit — including Alexis Ohanian, who I did a short email interview with last year — when they put together lipstick.com, a celebrity news site. They also did a similar kind of private label thing for Slate.

reddit

Maybe it’s just because I work for an old-fashioned media entity, but I happen to think that the kind of thing Digg and Reddit and Netscape.com are doing makes a lot of sense as part of a media property of some kind. The interesting thing to watch will be whether the magazine sites that Conde Nast tries to Digg-ify will be restricted to content from those magazines, or whether they will open them up.

In any case, congrats to Alexis and his team (who got their start working in someone’s apartment as part of Paul Graham’s Y Combinator, a kind of summer camp for startups). I hope the deal works out for them. Matt Sparkes has an email interview with Alexis here.

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Mathew posted this article under Digg, Media, Web2.0 on Tuesday, October 31st, 2006 at 3:00 pm. . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. View Technorati Linkbacks.

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14 comments for “Reddit gets to Digg-ify Conde Nast”

  1. Does this mean we’re one step closer to journalists being paid by the clicks?
    Ed

    Posted by Ed Lee | October 31, 2006, 3:20 pm

  2. […] From the blogosphere: Download Squad, Mathew Ingram, CyberNet Technology News, The Bivings Report, Bloggers Blog, Andy Beal’s Marketing Pilgrim, digg A dvance Publications, Advance.net, Conde Nast, CondeNet, Reddit, Steve Newhouse, Wired Digital […]

    Posted by The Blogging Times » Wired bags Reddit | October 31, 2006, 3:24 pm

  3. I hope not, Ed. If it is, then I would expect more of my posts to involve Star Wars and/or the Sports lllustrated Swimsuit edition :-)

    Posted by Mathew Ingram | October 31, 2006, 3:43 pm

  4. : “a new form of online scam in which you make all the content, and we keep all the money.” Media Wire Daily: “a clear sign that Charles Townsend is making sure that Conde’s digital dick is solid enough to swing with the big boys.” Matthew Ingram: “No word so far on whether the rumoured price of $65-million has any relationship to reality” Gawker: “merging with the ickle kiddies … the Nasties decided they needed more of that Reddit magic.

    Posted by Raw Thought: Aaron Swartz's weblog | October 31, 2006, 3:47 pm

  5. Very smart move. I’m a Vanity Fair fan.

    Posted by Chartreuse | October 31, 2006, 4:16 pm

  6. Nice — although I do remember reading something from somewhere about the problem with popularity-inspired journalism. Most stories ended up being about sex scandals, explosions, or gratuitous sexy explosions.

    Not that much different than today’s news … but, more so, I suppose ;)

    Posted by Tony | October 31, 2006, 4:23 pm

  7. […] Breaking News: Condé Nast/Wired Acquires Reddit Found 2 hours ago on techcrunch.com We just received confirmation that Condé Nast , owner of Wired and other magazines/websites, acquired Boston-based Reddit earlier this morning, and will make the announcement later today. The price is not being disclosed. … 16 blogs link to this thread track this thread Tagged: Reddit gets to Digg-ify Conde Nast mathewingram.com Found 24 minutes ago More acquisition news: Reddit, the Digg-style social bookmarking or social-news site, has been acquired by Conde Nast, the magazine publisher behind Wired, The New Yorker, Vogue, GQ and a bunch of other magazines. … # News for nerds, stuff that matters slashdot.org Found 58 days ago slimrabbit writes “LinuxDevices is reporting on a truly silent home theater PC that comes with its own Fedora 5 based quick install Linux DVD capable of installing a fully-configured FC5 system with LIRC , KDETV , TV-Time and Kradio in about 15 minutes . … # Wired Acquires Reddit (instead of just white labeling it) readwriteweb.com Found 37 minutes ago In other acquisition news today, Techcrunch reported that Condé Nast , owner of Wired and other magazines/websites, has acquired Boston-based Reddit . I pinged Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian about this and he confirmed to me that they have been acquired, “for an undisclosed sum”. … # Reddit cofounder talks about Wired buyout valleywag.com Found 8 minutes ago The Wired News director who will oversee Reddit now that it’s owned by Wired parent Condé Nast, already explained Wired’s plan for the social bookmark site to Valleywag. Now Reddit cofounder Alexis Ohanian offers Reddit’s take on the news coverage and the site’s future. … #   see all 16 blog links to this story » […]

    Posted by Tailrank - Top News for Today | October 31, 2006, 4:53 pm

  8. http://reddit.com/info/olu8/comments/combx

    One of the foundes (I think) said the 65 million claim was [pulled out of] “Thin Air”.

    Posted by Seth Finkelstein | October 31, 2006, 5:37 pm

  9. That sounds about right.

    Posted by Mathew Ingram | October 31, 2006, 5:44 pm

  10. I agree that it’s a very interesting acquisition, Mathew. I’m fascinated to see how much potential there is/will be for social news verticals, or players to fill in space that digg isn’t covering (perhaps that’s a better way to phrase it!).

    Reddit does what it does very well: very simple, clean, and a good mix of stories (tech, non-tech, political, odd ball). I hope they continue to do well.

    Posted by Eric Berlin | October 31, 2006, 7:18 pm

  11. […] Mathew Ingram function tgb_closewindow () { window.location.href = “http://www.mathewingram.com/work/2006/10/31/reddit-gets-to-digg-ify-conde-nast/”; } […]

    Posted by Mathew Ingram | October 31, 2006, 8:08 pm

  12. Conde Nast buys Reddit.com, but have you seen Lipstick.com?…

    TechCrunch is breaking the news that Conde Nast (big media company) is acquiring Reddit.com (little technology company). Print media is struggling as readership for newspapers and magazines is declining, and consumers are finding new and more engaging …

    Posted by Voodoo Ventures - Idea Fuel Blog | November 1, 2006, 7:42 am

  13. Reddit Acquired: A Personal View…

    Here’s a neat little trick of the interweb. I get a link to my Reddit post from a blog I’ve never heard of before (Raw Thought by Aaron Swartz), and it turns out Swartz is a Reddit employee (well, technically now Wired employee). He has a p…

    Posted by Webomatica | November 2, 2006, 10:12 am

  14. […] Reddit gets to Digg-ify Conde Nast » Mathew Ingram: mathewingram.com/work wrote: […]

    Posted by Matt Sparkes / Interview - Alexis Ohanian, Reddit Co-Founder | January 18, 2007, 7:07 pm

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