Flipboard on Tuesday will announce a new “Local initiative” to gather regional sources and national stories of local interest to users in 23 North American metropolitan areas, including Washington D.C., New York City, Los Angeles, Austin, Seattle, Toronto and Dallas. Where Flipboard thinks it can be useful is to provide local communities with a curated mix of not just news, but also lifestyle information about local sports, dining, weather, real estate, transportation and more.
Twitter has been engaged in an ongoing series of talks to acquire Flipboard, according to multiple sources with knowledge of the situation, in an all-stock deal that would value the company at more than $1 billion.
About a year ago, NBC News established an account on news reading app Flipboard and has since grown its presence to 1.3 million monthly active readers. Starting today, the news organization will be running its first third-party ads, purchased by General Electric; and NBC News says it is currently talking to other brands about buying in.
