Yahoo ties up with CNBC on financial news

[June 13, 2012]  LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Yahoo is taking another step toward original news programming.

The website is partnering with CNBC to produce original financial news stories and video. It will feature CNBC content prominently on the Yahoo Finance page.

CNBC, the cable TV channel owned by Comcast Corp.'s NBCUniversal, airs shows such as "Fast Money," `'Mad Money with Jim Cramer" and "Squawk on the Street."

Starting immediately, Yahoo will feature a breaking news ticker, new material on stock quote pages and other content produced by the CNBC newsroom.

In one of the first examples of the partnership, CNBC international correspondent Michelle Caruso-Cabrera will collaborate with Yahoo to cover the upcoming Greek parliamentary elections and investor concerns about the euro zone.

Yahoo vice president of news and finance Rob Barrett said the partnership is similar to Yahoo's deal with ABC News, which began in October.

"This partnership represents a paradigm shift for Yahoo," Barrett said in an interview. "We're really moving from having many partnerships in which Yahoo has a small amount of original content to building up our own original profile and partnering with the best in each category to build a premium experience."

The companies will be able to use search data to help determine the content they'll produce for visitors. They also aim to match original video with the interests of advertisers.

The two companies will bear their own costs of paying reporters and other staff but will share revenue. Barrett said the combined offering should take advantage of growing demand for online video advertising and command higher ad rates.

Combined, the companies reach more than 40 million people in the U.S. online every month.

CNBC digital senior vice president Kevin Krim said the tie-up represents more than just a way to expand CNBC's online audience. The partnership will combine its Web presence with TV offerings and enable it to reach the highly informed businesspeople advertisers value. He said third party research has shown that CNBC and Yahoo reach 71 percent of all active traders and 54 percent of top company executives in the U.S.

"It's not just empty calories, as we call it," Krim said. "We are able to deliver very high quality content to a very high quality audience at an unprecedented scale."

[Associated Press; By RYAN NAKASHIMA]

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