31 March 2010 | Author: J. Morton News Editor

Yahoo! beefs up news staff

With Google running far ahead as the world's search engine of choice, Yahoo! is strengthening in other areas, including its web-leading news services. The elder statesman of the internet has reportedly pulled in several big names in journalism, and has opened an office in Washington, DC, to generate more original content.

According to the New York Times, Yahoo! has beefed up its staff with Politico blogger Michael Calderone, Good Morning America's Anna Robertson and Jane Sasseen of Business Week. With a reported 43 million visitors in February alone, the news site already leads the web in popularity. The new hires signal a move to put a lock on that pole position by the search engine.

Yahoo! enacted a similar plan several years ago in sports coverage, when then-chief executive Jerry Yang acquired Rivals.com, and the company boosted its original sports news section. Following that success, it seems that the company is gunning for a similar result with political and general news coverage.

"My hopes are to continue to build out a voice for our media properties and to replicate the success we have had in Yahoo Sports," Yahoo!'s head of media, James Pitaro, said.

But the company's news and sports services still face significant challenges from rival and search leader Google as well as a new challenger Bing, who is currently rising in popularity.

The move by Yahoo! could be one to strengthen the company against any future journalistic bids by Google by being first to the fence. The timing could work to Yahoo!'s advantage, as Google has recently had to deflect claims of trust-building activities and

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