Yahoo! & ABC News Form Information Alliance

Michael Garrity — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 20:35:00 GMT

In a huge announcement made early this morning, two global media powerhouses, Yahoo! and ABC News, revealed that they will be combining their journalistic forces. This unprecedented move could have major ramifications in the news and search industries, potentially forcing other major search engines to establish similar partnerships with news organizations.

Currently, the two companies reach a combined audience of over 100 million people in the United States on PCs and various mobile devices.

This interesting, multifaceted relationship should prove to be a boon for both organizations. Yahoo! will provide a huge, unique and new audience to ABC News, a well-respected and trusted news enterprise with decades of experience.

The biggest part of this "information alliance," in addition to providing far more people with far greater access to news, is that the companies will establish more original news videos online than ever before.

Today saw the launch of GoodMorningAmerica.com on Yahoo!, the official beginning of the partnership. Also debuting today will be the first of three new, online-first video series featuring some of ABC News' most popular anchors and correspondents. The new shows include Newsmakers, which presents online-first video conversations with top ABC anchors, like Diane Sawyer, Katie Couric or Barbara Walters, interviewing "everyone from politicians to global leaders to celebrities." Today's installment, which airs live at 2:35 p.m. ET, features George Stephanopoulos talking with President Obama. No big deal, right?

The two other new shows are Around the World with Christiane Amanpour, which spotlights the internationally-renowned host bringing her special background to light as she explains, contextualizes and analyzes the biggest stories around the world, and This Could Be Big, a show, hosted by Nightline anchor Bill Weir, about future innovations that could drastically alter the world. Other shows will debut in the coming months and throughout 2012.

A headline making announcement like this is bound to really change the way many people around the world get their news. For instance, ABC News will now be Yahoo! News' premier provider, which really alters the makeup of Yahoo! News for its millions of readers. Also, the aforementioned GoodMorningAmerica.com will exist as a co-branded site that offers a wide variety of video and news so that the huge audience of the GMA morning broadcast can engage with the content online before, during and after the show airs.

The two companies will also begin collaborating on news content and co-producing coverage for major events. There will be "integrated bureaus" in the cities of New York, Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles.

And lest we forget that there is also money involved, the two enterprises will be creating a suite of premium online video advertising opportunities, as well as new enhanced sponsorships that will allow advertisers to benefit from the unique strengths of each sales organization.

Yahoo!'s recent struggles have been well-noted, so it should be interesting to see how this new partnership affects the company in this period of transition.

The two organizations promise to "deliver the latest breaking news, the biggest exclusives and award-winning investigative journalism from a powerful lineup of journalists -- all with the ability to extend across TV and online like never before."

'Net Features : ABC news

Yahoo! & ABC News Form Information Alliance