Topix, the local news community that allows readers to submit and edit stories, has secured deals with six content providers as it moves to establish itself as a one-stop-shop for local information.
Topix will now use Eventful as an events database, and will offer current TV and movie listings through Zap2It. InfoUSA will supply business directories, and the site will begin using LiveDeal for pet classifieds. Topix will be using Apartments.com to flesh out their apartment listings, and will use Informa Research Services to provide mortgage rate information.
The company originally launched Topix.net (now Topix.com) in 2004 as an automated aggregator of local news. In 2007 the site relaunched to allow users to add and modify news stories.
Topix is clearly moving towards becoming a central hub for localized information rather than simply a news site. While the new features are logical extensions to what they’ve offered in the past, Topix may be trying to differentiate itself from Google News, which introduced local news earlier this year and has a much higher readership.
ya i am Also Using and Read topix.com Nice one
That’s definitely a great step forward for Topix. I’ve only used Topix randomly but a weather information provider seems like a good company for them to partner with too.
Peter Epstein
http://www.thewebwar.com
Nevermind I take that weather information comment back - woops! Good job Topix
Congrats Chris and the boys!
Just repackaging other people’s information won’t make for a compelling user experience.
Thnaks for the writeup Jason — This is a milestone for us on a the way to becoming more central to local life online.
Thomas — I agree with you that repackaging other folks info isn’t a complete story, whcih is why we the central focus of our site has been to draw users into engaging into commentary with each other on our site — and we’re now at around 125k comments a day coming in from over 20k cities and towns across the US.
Those people also seem to like other local resources, which is why we did the deals mentioned by Jason above. These were good hygene for us, and we’re pleased that we’re getting an opportunity to work with some top tier folks like Eventful to connect our local users with great information.
Chris Tolles
CEO, Topix
@Thomas: I guess that is why Topix moved from a primary focus on local news aggregation to one based on localized forums and user-generated content with local news to spark conversation more than a year ago…
I felt that Thomas Yan has done an excellent job at pursuing this right to put topix on the next level of Web 2.0, if not further and above. This was a brilliant approach and strategy to integrate users with more possibilities to insure that topix will become not only a reliable news source, but rather something more innovative and beyond. Good job Thomas!
Congrats to Chris and the team. I have been a big fan of Topix for many years. Keep up the good work!
Victor
thats a innovative idea paying off and connectedness and gumption taking center stage.
Say What,
Rajeev Vashisht
http://tekno-world.blogspot.com
Great to hear that topix kicking some butt. The site is very valuable. Chris Tolles must of read “The Answer”… Thanks for the article TechCrunch. .. http://www.readtheanswer.com/index.php?rta=blog
I think really good aggregation of local content from multiple other sources in this way could become very popular, particularly with more ‘casual’ web users. More and more local content is being made available via APIs, so I can see the current partnerships being just the start. Good luck to Topix.
Interesting that only one Classified Ventures site is on there (Apartments.com) and no CareerBuilder, given that Topix, Classified Ventures and CareerBuilder have almost the same roster of owners/investors - McClatchy, Tribune and Gannett appearing consistently throughout all three lists.
Topix’ expansion into local information affirms what we have observed for some time – that people will use hyper-local information that’s helpful and informative to their daily lives. (Full disclosure: We’ve established a relationship with Topix to carry their news and to provide Topix with our unique database of 10 million local community events featured per year.) Our experience is that local tools, resources and information are a very effective way both to engage local users and ultimately to monetize the hyper-local space. For both reasons (engaging users and monetization), we would expect to see more aggressive movement in this direction. (At the end of this quarter, we’ll publish internal data on traffic and revenue metrics that will illuminate this trend.)
Ted Buerger, Chairman
AmericanTowns.com, LLC
Topix.com
I think topix.com is a very bandly run forum. Its called a “news forum” but does not ask people to register to use it, and does not pro-activly manage its forum posts. I and others ,have been harassed and stalked by internet trolls on the forums. When we have complained to topix we do not even get a reply. People can post anything they like on the forums even if it offends others.
They do not ban people or have any filters on their system. Their whole forum on all forums has been destroyed by crazy posts and they have lost all credability as a worthy adult news forum.
If you can help in any way or want to know more emil me. Thanks.