About.com carries its weight for NY Times Co. As revenue steadily climbs and blue chips buy spots, purchase looks like smart move for Times.(About Inc)(New York Times Corp)

Advertising Age, February, 2006 by Oser, Kris

Byline: Kris Oser

New York Times Corp. was a laughingstock when it bought About.com for about $410 million last March. But a year after the deal was sealed, the Old Gray Lady is looking pretty hip-not only as a seer into making money in the interactive future, but as a bona fide digital player in the present.

About.com, a collection of 500 online "guide sites'' run by experts informing consumers about 57,000 topics ranging from gadgets to baby care, was ridiculed as a mishmash of pedestrian info-junk-a poor fit for the high-brow, elite news-gathering machine that is The New York Times.

At the time of the purchase, Janet Robinson, president of The New York Times Co., summed up the rationale: "About doubled its ad revenues last year. ... [W]e...

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