Media News - Thursday, January 24, 2008

Times Company in group investing in blog publisher

Automattic, the commercial arm of the popular WordPress publishing platform for blogs, has received USD 29.5m (EUR 20.2m) in financing from four companies, including a small portion from The New York Times Company. WordPress is open-source software used by bloggers to publish posts. Its chief competitors are Blogger (owned by Google) and TypePad (owned by the software company Six Apart). Automattic received USD 1.1m in financing about two years ago. Polaris Venture Partners, True Ventures and Radar Partners were joined by the Times Company in the second round of financing. Toni Schneider, the chief executive of Automattic, said the additional funds would provide the profitable company with a buffer as it invests in other services, including an antispam filter and an online-identity product. The companies did not disclose the size of each firm’s investment, although the Times Company’s stake is the smallest. The Times Company had previously maintained a business relationship with Automattic. The About.com guide site, which was purchased by the Times Company in 2005, is published using the WordPress platform. The New York Times has also produced more than 50 blogs using the platform. (New York Times)

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