The New York Times Co., Washington Post Co. and Gannett have each invested $4 million in a yet-to-launch news startup called Ongo, described as a “consumer service for reading and sharing digital news and information from multiple publishers.”
Ongo is run by Alex Kazim, who headed up Skype while he worked at eBay. “We are building Ongo to reflect the many ways consumers prefer to read, organize and share digital news,” he said in a rather cryptic press release. The Wall Street Journal reports that Ongo filed for a patent that described itself as a “computer and telecommunications software for use in aggregating and viewing news and syndication feeds.”
So perhaps, a social aggregator that protects its partners’ interests? Publishers are increasingly wary of the Huffington Post, which has moved from an aggregator to more of a news competitor. Ongo says they’ll launch later this year.
Ongo press release follows below…
Cupertino, Calif. — September 29, 2010 — Ongo Inc., a start-up company soon to launch a consumer service for reading and sharing digital news and information from multiple publishers, today announced it has received a $12 million initial round of financing from Gannett Company, Inc. (NYSE: GCI), The New York Times Company (NYSE: NYT) and The Washington Post Company (NYSE: WPO).
Ongo Inc. will introduce the Ongo service before the end of the year.
“We are building Ongo to reflect the many ways consumers prefer to read, organize and share digital news,” said Alex Kazim, Ongo Inc.’s founder and chief executive officer. “We’re gratified three such influential media companies recognize the value of what Ongo is creating, and we look forward to opening our doors soon.”
Kazim is an accomplished Silicon Valley leader and technologist. During nine years at eBay, he served as president of the company’s Skype subsidiary; senior vice president of new ventures; and head of marketing and business operations for the company’s PayPal subsidiary. Prior to joining eBay, Kazim held senior engineering and management positions at Apple and other technology companies.
Ongo is an independent company based in Cupertino, Calif. Terms of the initial round of financing are confidential. The Ongo service will be launched at www.ongo.com.
