Private Label RSS - Newsgator's hosted solutions for Newsweek and Macworld
NewsGator announced today that Newsweek and Macworld have selected NewsGator Hosted Solution (NGHS) Private Label RSS Aggregators will become increasingly common to integrate RSS aggregation into their online sites. NGHS is a user interface that allows online properties to build an RSS aggregator into their sites. So Newsweek and Macworld will select the features they want and then deploy the aggregator in their own brand. Their readers can then customize how they want to get news and information.
As J.B. Holston, president and CEO of NewsGator, said in the press release: “Online publishers are all looking to move beyond the orange ‘RSS’ button to enrich their brands with scalable, feature-rich personalization, driven by the publisher’s unique editorial voice."
Mark Walters, global director of Newsweek.com, thinks integrating RSS aggregation into their online website will increase advertising and brand awareness, as well as enhance the online experience of their readers. Macworld plans to release a private branded version (with full synchronization) of NetNewsWire, NewsGator’s market-leading RSS aggregator for the Mac.
I think these kind of "Private Label" RSS Aggregators will become increasingly common, as mainstream media companies continue to ramp up their online and RSS strategies. RSS Aggregators are almost a commodity these days, especially since all the big 3 (Microsoft, Google, Yahoo!) have RSS Readers. So there aren't too many technical or competitive barriers for new entrants to the RSS Aggregator market - and little (if any) money to be made with basic RSS aggregation products.
A company like Newsgator on the other hand, has built up an actual 'platform' for RSS aggregation - with many web services on top of the basic aggregation layer. That's attractive for media companies like Newsweek, that want to take advantage of a fully-featured RSS aggregation platform while keeping control of their branding.
Watch out for many more private label media RSS Aggregators in 2006.