Under the deal, Quickish founder Dan Shanoff is joining USA Today's Sports Department as an audience development executive, reporting to Dave Morgan, editor in chief of USA Today Sports Media Group.
Terms, including a purchase price, weren't included in the news release announcing the deal this morning.
This is a variation on your basic “acqhire,” the difference being that GCI intends to keep Quickish operating once Shanoff starts working for the company, AllThingsD's Peter Kafka notes in a post.
"Quickish is a fairly straightforward aggegrator that offers a summary and a link for sports stories throughout the day,'' Kafka says. "Unlike aggregators like Techmeme, there’s no special algorithm here — just Shanoff or one of his freelancers picking stories to highlight and sources to link to."
Today's deal is one of a string of acquisitions made by the Sports Media Group, a network launched last year that combines content from USAT, GCI's U.S. community papers, plus 23 TV stations and associated businesses.
This is a variation on your basic “acqhire,” the difference being that GCI intends to keep Quickish operating once Shanoff starts working for the company, AllThingsD's Peter Kafka notes in a post.
"Quickish is a fairly straightforward aggegrator that offers a summary and a link for sports stories throughout the day,'' Kafka says. "Unlike aggregators like Techmeme, there’s no special algorithm here — just Shanoff or one of his freelancers picking stories to highlight and sources to link to."
Today's deal is one of a string of acquisitions made by the Sports Media Group, a network launched last year that combines content from USAT, GCI's U.S. community papers, plus 23 TV stations and associated businesses.
As someone once might have said:
ReplyDelete"Millions for expansion - not ONE PENNY for improvement."
I heard they were toying with buying out little known wire service The Sports Network. This will likely put an end to that.m
ReplyDeleteHow does All things D scoop the acquirer on this news? That's ironic.
ReplyDeleteAnyone else ever heard of Quickish?
That's our Beusse -- spend, spend, spend when he's not firing, firing, firing.
ReplyDeleteFunny how few comments here on something that is so major.
ReplyDeleteProof again that the company (or USA TODAY Sports at least), is going in directions that few understand but which might be exactly right.
If aggregating others' content and building some kind of must-read Sports Machine is the future (a Huffington Post of Sports?), you can see why getting rid of seasoned sportswriters and editors and designers was a big shrug for the new leadership.
Or, is this mindless reaching back into AOL's past for a comfort level that doesn't matter anymore?
News is so everyplace now that not sure just another aggergator, even a smart aggregator, will be worth that much.
It is what Sports can develop on its own that matters. delivery systems are a dime a hundred.
Very amateurish looking site. But hey, the guy did go to Harvard.
ReplyDeleteThe Sports Network?? I had to deal with them not too long ago. The sales staff are a bunch of buffoons. Very, very shortsighted. They would be out in a heart beat if Buesse takes that operation over. The product itself though is pretty solid. Actually would fall right in line with what USA Today is doing.
ReplyDeleteAnd this adds what to revenue?
ReplyDelete