Type of site news website Created by Rafat Ali Commercial Yes | Available in English Website paidcontent.org | |
Launched 2002; 15 years ago (2002) | ||
paidContent was an online media hub that covered news, information and analysis of the business of digital media. It was founded in 2002 by journalist Rafat Ali to "chronicle the evolution of digital content that is shaping the future of the media, information and entertainment industries."
Funded by Alan Patricof's Greycroft Partners in 2006, Rafat Ali's umbrella company, ContentNext, formerly had offices in Santa Monica, California and New York. ContentNext operated the PaidContent.org, PaidContent.org:UK, MocoNews.net, which covered the business of mobile content, and ContentSutra.com, which covered India's digital media markets.
In 2008, ContentNext was purchased by Guardian Media Group for a reported $30 million. It became a member of the Guardian Professional Group, though founder/editor Ali and CEO Richardson, formerly of Yahoo! Finance, continued to run the media website as an independent business.
On February 8, 2012, paidContent was acquired by GigaOM through the acquisition of ContentNext Media. On November 12, paidContent was merged into GigaOm.