Firstpost buys current affairs satire portal FakingNews.com
Firstpost, a news portal of the Network 18 group, has acquired FakingNews.com, a news satire portal that is in operations for last five years, for an undisclosed amount.
Firstpost, a news portal of the Network 18 group, has acquired FakingNews.com, a news satire portal that is in operations for last five years, for an undisclosed amount.
“In last two years we have realised that people who are strongly news addicts are also people who have strong appetite for satire. I think faking news has built a strong brand recall. Firstpost is a strong news and views site,” a Firstpost spokesperson told HT.
She also said that Firstpost was launched with a belief that people want a site that is social, ie, shareworthy. Hence FakingNews comes as a great addition to it.
“I can not disclose the financials,” said Raghunath.
FakingNews was launched by Rahul Roushan about five years ago and he will remain its editor post acquisition.
“While the brand Faking News grew stronger, especially on social media, it faced the challenge of growth. It had to outgrow me. It had to sustain a team that could do justice to the idea of popular web-based news satire,” said Roushan.
News satire requires a reference point of real news, and with Firstpost, FakingNews could afford to continue its focus on ‘news satire’ and get the right environment to grow in the digital space.”
Firstpost.com has an alexa ranking of 1896 (Global) and 117 (India). It is one of the popular news portals in India. FakingNews.com has an alexa ranking of 17,045 (global) and 2101 (India). Lower the ranking, higher the popularity of the site.