People will read again!

In order to add a plethora of online offerings with greater speed, magazines are buying existing sites instead of growing content organically, reports AdAge.

Publishers like Hearst, Time-Warner and others are looking at sites that offer complimentary content, and snatching them up. The acquisitions represent a renewed awareness that online is not just a place to add print subscribers, but a property in and of itself.

Not only have full-service sites been purchased, but blogs that come equipped with established audiences have become targets as well. In some cases, blogs and their writers have been brought fully in-house, while others remain independent excepting the thinnest of corporate ties.
The buying spree also represents a tacit acknowledgment that major media companies aren't necessarily the best at deciding what the public wants to see. Many have tried to build sites that replicate what's going on elsewhere, only to have to shut them down due to consumer disinterest.
Still, the companion site for the print title remains, in most cases, the hub of the online universe for publishers. Add-on sites often represent niche efforts that enhance, but don't necessarily replace, these main sites.