Monday, September 12, 2005

Yahoo Turns News Provider

Yahoo's Santa Monica-based content division announced today that it has entered into the news business, with a new site focused on coverage of armed conflict. The company said that it was launching a new site, Kevin Sites in the Hot Zone, which will feature coverage of armed conflict across the world. It will tap veteran war correspondent Kevin Sites to provide multimedia content, including text, video, photos, audio, and user interactivity in war zones. Sites has worked as a producer and correspondent for NBC and CNN, and was the source of the controverial footage last year of a U.S. Marine shooting an unarmed Iraqi in Fallujah last year. Sites will travel as a solo journalists without a camera crew, and will start filing reports on September 26th. The move is the portal's first into providing news content and original video programming for the web site. The move comes as Yahoo has started ramping up its Santa Monica-based content division, after appointing Lloyd Braun, former chair of ABC's entertainment group to head its media group.