Major Newspaper Companies Open Wallets To News Aggregator Topix.net

Three major newspaper companies have invested an additional $15 million in online news aggregator Topix.net.

The Palo Alto, Calif., news service plans to use the money from Gannett Co., The McClatchy Co., and Tribune Co. to help expand content and fund development and marketing of new online consumer news services. Topix.net monitors more than 10,000 news sources, including newspapers, magazines, radio, television, and blogs.

Rich Skrenta, chief executive of Topix.net, said Monday that the latest investment is a "huge vote of confidence" from three of the nation's largest newspaper companies. Over the last year, the site has tried to bring consumers back to the site regularly by offering online forums for people to discuss local news. Launched last December, the forums have attracted 500,000 people and 2.5 million posts, the company said.

With the latest investment, Gannett and Tribune each have a 33.7% stake in Topix.net, while McClatchy holds 11.9%.