CNN Buys iPad Magazine Zite For $25 Million [iOS Magazine Zite Gets Picked Up By CNN, Will Be Kept Separate From CNN's Main Operations]

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Back in March, we brought you the launch story of Zite, an iPad magazine that checked your Google Reader and Twitter feeds to figure out just what it was you wanted to read, and then delivered it to your iPad as best the news of the day allowed. And apparently, the crew out at CNN liked what it was they saw, because just south of six months to the day later, they bought it, and dropped fully $25 million on it.

But don’t expect CNN to go shaking things up or even really getting involved in Zite’s operations, as they look to run the company as a separate, distinct entity, even down to keeping the current CEO of Zite, Mark Johnson, on as head along with several other key staffers at Zite. The difference now, of course, is that they will now be reporting to the general manager of CNN Digital, KC Estenson.

Indeed, CNN is, at last report, not looking to make a lot of changes to Zite but rather looking to cannibalize Zite a bit to use its style of reading and delivering for its own content, which would actually be a pretty welcome change. Naturally, opinion is mixed in the wider reception, with some hoping that CNN’s resources and news-gathering capability will improve Zite, but many being concerned that CNN will executive meddle Zite into a hole from which it will never recover. Either is a possibility, but I like to think that, given that CNN kept most of Zite’s staff on, it’s simply a case of CNN saw something clearly working and wanted to get in on it to make its own operations better, which is, frankly, how things should be.

But what do you guys think? How many Zite users out there are sad to see CNN get involved and see this as the beginning of the end? How many of you think that CNN’s involvement will make Zite better, and possibly, even make CNN better in response? Either way, we want to hear from you, so head on down to the comments section and tell us what you think!

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