Posted by chicagomedia.org on August 17, 2009 at 14:31:09:
By Wailin Wong
Tribune staff reporter
MSNBC.com has acquired EveryBlock, a Chicago-based Web site that collects local news and public information on a block-by-block level for 15 cities.
Financial terms of the all-cash deal, which was announced Monday, were not disclosed. MSNBC.com is a joint venture between Microsoft and NBC Universal.
Adrian Holovaty, a Naperville native, founded EveryBlock in 2007 and has funded the site with a two-year, $1.1 million grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. The funding ran out in July.
"We've known that the end was near for a long time because our grant was for a fixed period of time," Holovaty said in a Monday interview. "I've been out there talking to funders in various shapes and forms for a while now."
Holovaty was eventually introduced to MSNBC.com through mutual industry contacts.
Charlie Tillinghast, president of MSNBC.com, said the company was looking to work with EveryBlock and considered an investment, but ultimately decided on an acquisition because such a deal would make the transfer of intellectual property and technology easier. Holovaty said he also preferred an acquisition, which would free him up to focus on developing the Web site rather than running a business.
"I'm a product guy and pretty much everyone on the team is focused on the product," he said. "We're not that excited about filing expenses and doing the day-to-day grind of running a start-up. (The deal) gives us more freedom to do what we're really good at."
EveryBlock amasses local news stories, as well as public information on crime, property and business licenses, and makes the data searchable by address, zip code and neighborhood. The site also aggregates reviews of local businesses from Yelp, photos from Flickr and Craigslist listings.
Tillinghast said the EveryBlock site will retain its original look and feel. MSNBC.com will integrate certain EveryBlock-powered features into its existing local news section.
"We're not trying to harness EveryBlock to be a distribution point for national news," Tillinghast said, adding that he's also seeking relationships with other local news outlets.
"We're not trying to be in direct competition with other local media, or even a threat to them," he said. "We see opportunities to share information with local organizations as some kind of partnership."
For his part, Holovaty said he would like to add more features to EveryBlock and expand the site to other cities. EveryBlock has six employees, four of whom are based in Chicago and will stay. Holovaty said he may hire a few more Chicago-based designers, but that he's planning to keep his staff small and efficient.
"We try to look at one-time costs – setting up a new data set and then never worrying about it again," he said. "That's a big philosophy of ours. That lets us scale out without getting a ton of people."