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The latest of citizen journalism sites to be acquired by a traditional media group is Newsvine, which was snatched up by MSNBC.com for an undisclosed amount. This says a lot towards MSNBC's growing online presence and the quality of Newsvine as a user-generated network. This is MSNBC's first acquisition since its inception nearly 11 years ago. Newsvine will remain largely independent, though its technology will be integrated into MSNBC.
It's clear that traditional media companies are seeing the value in citizen journalism sites, with some like Wired taking part in the production of a user-generated work. Will these companies eventually begin attempts to integrate advertising or content into these networks at some point, similar to the manner in which acquired media-sharing social networks have been leveraged for advertising purposes? Whatever the case may be, Newsvine already had a more mature and well self-regulated user base, and was heavily tied to content coming from traditional media sources. It seemed like a prime network for acquisition.