Washington Post Purchases iCurrent and Goes on an Online Offensive

A small piece of news passed by the newswire last week, overshadowed by an Apple press conference, a big DECISION, and a positive occurrence in the BP oil spill. The purchase of iCurrent by the Washington Post Company (which owns the Washington Post, Cable One, Newsweek, Kaplan, Slate, express and The Root) is just another step in their efforts to create a strong presence online, specifically in the news and political genres. iCurrent is an online tool that allows users to collect news automatically according to their interest. Purchase price is rumored to be more than $5 million dollars which is not a large amount when it comes to acquisitions. However, due to the fact that this is The Washington Post Company’s first acquisition of an automated news tool of this kind, this is another clear sign of how the company plans to compensate for a declining online advertising market.

There are a few other factors to consider as we evaluate the Washington Post’s new direction. They recently partnered with Bloomberg and launched a new online business section. The section is co-branded and maximzes the Post’s expertise in national poltics and policy with the strength of Bloomberg’s international business content creating a potentially powerful partnership. The combination of iCurrent’s technology and the existing “The Bloomberg Watchlist” feature (which lets users customize and look up the latest stock information from the business section homepage) shows that the Post is entering into the online aggregation business and bringing all the requested information to the users instead of vice versa.

The next piece of the puzzle puts these moves into focus as to the Washington Post’s ultimate goal. On July 19, 2010, the Washington Post announced the creation of “Top Secret America“. Details on this new segment by the Post are still forthcoming, but they have just created a community where almost 2,000 of the countries top secret organizations are being discussed and “exposed”. The details as to what companies are involved and what exactly goes on in these organizations and companies is accessible in the live database with additional “breaking” news revelations coming soon. There is also a Top Secret America blog set up to have frequent updates sparking more conversation.

The icing on the cake would be two blogs that will also now be under the Washington Post umbrella. Political Economy (which will provide breaking news on economic policy decisions and how Wall Street is affected) and “The Company Beat” (which covers policy issues that impact corporate America) are now members of the family. It sure seems like the Washington Post has The Huffington Post as a target on their radar and are looking to create an online powerhouse similar to their old school newspaper stranglehold on the news industry. What do you think? Does the Washington Post have a chance? Meet us in the comments section.

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I am a developing social and digital media junkie on an adventure through life. Right now I am on the chapter in the book where I live in Los Angeles. Reach me on twitter @ahr19. Thanks for reading my post.
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