CNN is working on a new digital news aggregator similar to Apple News, Google or News Corp.’s Knewz.
Internally, the unnamed project is called NewsCo, according to the Information, which first reported on the existence of the project. Representatives for CNN did not immediately respond to a request for comment from TheWrap, but CNN’s Brian Stelter highlighted the Information’s scoop in the Wednesday edition of his newsletter.
According to the Information, citing digital chief Andrew Morse, CNN is “discussing paying news organizations to feature their content on the platform, which will likely be a mix of subscription-based and advertising-based content.”
Digital leaders are jumping into the aggregation platform game. In August, there reports that News Corp. was gearing up to take on Facebook and Google with its own app.
Facebook itself will announce a curated “news tab” on Friday during a fireside chat between Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and News Corp. CEO Robert Thomson, a Facebook company spokesperson confirmed to The Wrap.
The news tab will primarily be populated by stories chosen for individuals based on an algorithm, but the company is looking to assemble a group of journalists who will personally choose the most relevant national news stories to include in a “Top News” section of the tab, Campbell Brown, vice president of global news partnerships, said in August. The team will solely be focused on selecting breaking and top news stories and will not be involved with editing headlines or writing content, according to the spokesperson.