Newspaper chain Gannett on Tuesday announced it was buying social media marketing firm Blinq Media to help position itself as a "leader in local and global social media marketing."
The acquisition gives Gannett access to Blinq's 600 advertisers and to BAM 2.0, Blinq's technology platform for social media campaign planning, set-up, management, optimization and metrics. Terms were not disclosed.
Though its business is still closely aligned with print, Gannett in recent years has sought to expand its digital offerings to advertisers, most notably via its $100 million acquisition of PointRoll in 2005. PointRoll is best known for offering rich media banner ads.
The Blinq purchase is one of several acquisitions in the category this year, including Oracle's $300 million purchase of Vitrue, Salesforce.com's BuddyMedia buy and Google's acquisition of Wildfire Interactive.
The impetus for the activity appears to be rooted in the belief that chief marketing officers are having growing purchase power for such services within blue chip companies.