Intel Gets into the "News" Business

Intel now is a content publisher. Intel has launched what it calls the "Free Press," a beta news section on its website that hopes to generate articles that are good enough for professional media outlets to republish. The subject matter is generally related to Intel, or technology generally.

“We are Intel geeks at heart, taking an editorial approach to producing stories with journalistic style and integrity, and doing it as objectively as possible while being transparent about who we work for,” according to a mission statement on the site.

If you think about it, this was always inevitable. The Web now democratizes publishing, music and video. But where most people focus on how this makes "user-generated" content possible, that usually refers to citizens and consumers adding their content.

But in a world where any Web portal is highly accessible to people and companies that want to use them, there is no reason why any single company cannot become the equivalent of its own "media." Where firms used to rely on third parties ("media") to aggregate audiences, and then spend money on advertising to reach those audiences, in today's world firms can simply aggregate audiences directly.

Efforts such as Intel's will be routine, in the future.

Intel Establishes Its Own Free Press - Digits - WSJ (link will open properly if you have a subscription to the Wall Street Journal electronic edition)