NBC News and Radio One’s Interactive One announced a partnership that will form a major African-American digital news alliance. The partnership uses complementary assets from NBC News’ TheGrio.com and Interactive One’s NewsOne.com to create an expanded platform for African-American journalism.
Under the partnership that went into effect 7/1, TheGrio.com and NewsOne.com will coordinate and share editorial content for both websites, and Interactive One will provide sales representation and oversee ad sales operations for both entities. The relationship also opens up the potential for co-marketing and promotional opportunities in a shared portfolio that includes Interactive One’s digital assets, Radio One’s 52 radio stations, TV One and Reach Media, and the platforms of NBC News.
Interactive One was launched by Radio One in 2008 to complement Radio One’s existing portfolio of media companies targeting the African American community. Since its launch, Interactive One has quickly become the #1 online platform for the African American community. It has more than 15 million members and reaches millions of Black Americans each month. With some 3 billion annual page views on its sites the company has become a major social network destination for Black America via BlackPlanet, as well as a number of content sites:
• NewsOne (NewsOne.com), which provides up to the minute, comprehensive coverage of newsworthy events relevant to Black Americans across the country and the world
• TheUrbanDaily (TheUrbanDaily.com), the eyes and ears for Black Americans looking for what’s hot online, on the airwaves, in theaters, and on the street
• HelloBeautiful (HelloBeautiful.com), a lifestyle resource for today’s Black woman; and Elev8 (www.Elev8.com) a site devoted to elevating the mind, body and spirit.
TheGrio.com is a daily online news and opinion platform devoted to delivering stories and perspectives that reflect and affect African-American audiences. The video-centric interactive community is populated with both aggregated and original content on topics ranging from breaking news and politics to health, business, and entertainment.
Based on comScore measurement, the combined net audience of NewsOne and TheGrio was 2.1 million in May 2011, up from 661,500 in May 2010.
RBR-TVBR observation: Seems like this is all the sites needed to become the biggest, most robust player in reaching African-American audiences online. Add Radio One’s radio stations and TV One with NBCU/NBC News’s broad list of cable and online properties and you’ve got major traditional media cross-platforming packages to offer up, post-haste. NBCU is on a string of making outside partnerships these days (see related story with the NHL) and they all are looking to be the right ones!
