US: NYTimes.com targets business readers with LinkedIn deal

The New York Times and social networking site LinkedIn have signed a deal aimed at providing targeted web stories to readers looking for business and technology stories.

NYTimes.com will show five targeted headlines in a right-hand box, with the stories selected based on the industry, location, role, company and gender of the user’s LinkedIn profile.

To activate the service, users simply need to activate their LinkedIn account within NYTimes.com.

This project is aimed at attracting more readers from the business world and entrepreneurs to the site, which will obviously please advertisers on the site.

NYTimes.com’s objective is to increase the volume of traffic from business executives and the entrepreneurial community, which is a valuable audience for advertisers.

Denise Warren, the senior vice-president and chief advertising officer for the New York Times Media Group said:  “Advertisers are constantly looking for context, content and quality brands and this approach delivers just that.”

NEWS: LinkedIn Connects To $1 Billion Valuation

LinkedIn Valued at $1 Billion

from PC World: Latest Technology News

The professional networking site draws members, attention, investment.

LinkedIn Gets Its $1 Billion Valuation – And $53 Million In Cash

from Silicon Alley Insider by Peter Kafka

LinkedIn has finally announced its long-rumored $1 billion valuation, via a fourth round of investment led by Bain Capital. Bain, a new investor for the social network for grownups, lead a $53 million round; previous investors Sequoia, Greylock and Bessemer also kicked in. Last fall, when News Corp./LinkedIn rumors were floating around, CEO Dan Nye said the company would need “a lot more than” a billion to consider a sale.

LinkedIn is supposed to generate $100 millon this year, and breaks down the revenue stream for theNYT:

LinkedIn will get only a quarter of its projected $100 million in revenue this year from ads. (It places ads from companies like Microsoft and Southwest Airlines on profile pages.) Other moneymakers include premium subscriptions, which let users directly contact any user on the site instead of requiring an introduction from another member.

A third source of revenue is recruitment tools that companies can use to find people who may not even be actively looking for new jobs. Companies pay to search for candidates with specific skills, and each day, they get new prospects as people who fit their criteria join LinkedIn.

LinkedIn Connects To $1 Billion Valuation

from Wired Top Stories

Four VC firms are betting that LinkedIn, the social network for your business contacts, is worth a cool $1 billion. Bain Capital Ventures, Sequoia Capital, Greylock Partners and Bessemer Venture Partners announced today that they are taking a 5 percent stake in the company for $53 million.

NEWS: CrunchBase Now Integrated With LinkedIn API

CrunchBase Now Integrated With LinkedIn API

from TechCrunch by Michael Arrington

We will shortly be releasing a new version ofCrunchBase, the company and people database wiki that you often see linked to here on TechCrunch.

In the meantime, though, we’ve added a few new features to the product, including integration with LinkedIn via their API. You can now click a button and see if you are linked to any of the employees at any particular startup. The image to the left shows Google, but you may be surprised to find a connection to someone at even the smaller new companieswe cover. The integration is identical to what Business Week announced last December.

More news from CrunchBase coming soon. And if you haven’t put in your own bio and picture yet, or information about your startup, please add it. We’re now tracking 4,460 startups and over 10,000 people.

If you want to add the LinkedIn widget to your own site, there’s more information here.

Ed: a widget that links names with LinkedIn search for that profile and it’s social graph. 

NEWS: What’s happening at LinkedIn? Is it getting bought?

What’s happening at LinkedIn? Is it getting bought?

Something’s up at business social network LinkedIn. The Mountain View, Calif. company’s board meeting last week went way over the scheduled time, and sources tell us there’s some “good” news coming. The details are still hazy, but worth noting because of the ongoing rumors swirling about the company’s long-term plans.

Last fall, reliable sources said that News Corp was negotiating to buy LinkedIn. The purpose of that acquisition, we heard then, would have been to integrate LinkedIn’s network with News Corp. newspapers like the Wall Street Journal. Hopefully, this would help New Corp to revive its declining print-media ad revenue through online initiatives.

However, we’re told that deal was dead of last week, because of News Corp.’s purchase of Newsday. Its stockholders would likely look down on yet another purchase. It’s possible, however, that that the deal has been resurrected.

Here’s why LinkedIn may be considered valuable to a suitor. Its user base doubled last year to more than 20 million active users worldwide, and it claims that 1.3 million new members are joining per month. The average user is 41 years old and makes around $110,000 — which the company says allows it to charge advertisers $75 per thousand impressions (which is exceptionally high).

In recent months, the company has rolled out a developer platform for integration with third-party applications and web sites, an expert research network, company profile pages, and other features that may help it make more money. It is already projecting total revenue of between $75 million and $100 million this year.

This past January, cofounder and board chairman Reid Hoffman (pictured) told the Sydney Morning Herald that the company will most likely file for an IPO before 2010 if “he isn’t first tempted to sell to one of the suitors that have inquired about buying LinkedIn. Hoffman wouldn’t identify the suitors.”

HOW-TO: Submit RSS Feeds at LinkedIn – Coming Soon!

LinkedIn News: Submit RSS Feeds!
Eishay Smith Apr 18, 2008
Jen Granito

…Today, Eishay and I would like to announce a couple more changes to the LinkedIn News experience that we have started rolling out from today. …

LinkedIn News always had this healthy mix of traditional media articles as well as blogosphere feeds. Starting this week, you should start seeing content from RSS feeds of blogs you have mentioned in your public LinkedIn Profiles.

How can I include my blog as LinkedIn News content?

Add those links to the “Website” section within your LinkedIn Profile and make it public. Here are the two simple steps to do exactly that:

1. “Edit my Profile” within the “Profile” tab

2. Edit “Websites” under “Additional Information” by adding your blog details

Ed: Another canal to direct your blog feed to circles of friends. Similar to Facebook, MyBlogLog, Tumblr. Myspace has it’s own pathetic blog. No import feature.