Ongo

Ongo is a news site that compiles stories from newspapers and major media outlets including the New York Times, USA Today, the Washington Post, the Associated Press, Reuters, ProPublica, the Financial Times and over 50 other sites^[1]. The site received $12 million in initial financing from Gannett Company, Inc., The New York Times Company and The Washington Post Company.
The site is divided into eight sections: U.S., world, business, science and technology, sports, arts and entertainment, life and opinion.

History

Ongo was founded by CEO Alex Kazim, who devised the idea for the site after growing “frustrated with the low quality of most news sites”^[2]. Kazim, who had previously held executive positions at Skype, PayPal and eBay, looked to improve the online news-reading experience by combining news sites in one place, implementing a reader-friendly design and removing advertisements.
Ongo launched January 25, 2011. It is headquartered in Cupertino, California.
Ongo more than doubled its number of available publications in May 2011, when the site announced it had added the Los Angeles Times, Reuters, regional New York Times company papers, the Chicago Tribune and other papers owned by the Tribune Company^[3]. It also launched a redesigned site in July 2011, introducing features such as the “Day in Photos” and “Must Reads.”

Purpose

Ongo aims to compile news from “trusted titles” in one location, while also looking to provide a premium user experience^[4]. The user experience is based on design (stories are presented in columns) and a lack of advertisements on site.
Ongo uses both a proprietary relevance engine and a staff of professional editors to find and highlight important stories. In addition to focusing on top stories, Ongo’s editorial staff selects interesting stories and editorial pieces that are showcased for Ongo subscribers.

Features

A standard Ongo package includes the New York Times Picks, USA Today, the Associated Press, Financial Times Selected Content, the Washington Post, ProPublica and Reuters. The basic package typically contains over 800 stories per day. Users can add other publications to their individual packages.
Other features include the following:

• Topics - News playlists, which compile all stories pertaining to certain key words or phrases the subscriber has specified.
• Clips - An option that allows readers to store articles to read at a later time. All clipped stories are compiled in one page for readers.
• Clubs - Subscriber-created groups where members can share and comment on stories. The groups may relate to a certain topic. Members of clubs do not need to be Ongo subscribers.

Ongo editors also highlight stories on Twitter and Facebook. The site has posted over 1 million stories since launching.

Funding and Partnerships

In September 2010, the Gannett Company, Inc., The New York Times Company and The Washington Post Company each invested $4 million initial financing in Ongo, making for a total of $12 million^[5]. Representatives from the three companies sit on Ongo’s Board of Directors.

Publications

Ongo offers readers over 50 publication options to choose from. The New York Times and Financial Times both offer limited content on Ongo. With the New York Times Picks, users can access the top 20 stories of the day (10 picked by the newspaper and 10 by Ongo editors).The Financial Times offers subscribers 20 stories per week, all hand-picked by Ongo staff.
Other publications, such as the Boston Globe, provide “top story” versions for as well as full editions of the paper.
Listed below are all publication options.

• The New York Times Picks
  
• USA Today
  
• The Washington Post
  
• The Associated Press
  
• Financial Times Selected Content
  
• ProPublica
  
• Anchorage Daily News
  
• The Baltimore Sun
  
• The Boston Globe
  
• The Boston Globe Editors Choice
  
• Charlotte Observer
  
• Chicago Tribune
  
• The Cincinnati Enquirer
  
• The Courier-Journal (Louisville, KY)
  
• Daily Press
  
• The Democrat and Chronicle (Rochester, NY)
  
• The Des Moines Register
  
• Detroit Free Press
  
• The Dispatch (Lexington, NC)
  
• Fort Worth Star-Telegram
  
• The Gadsden Times
  
• The Gainesville Sun
  
• The Guardian
  
• The Guardian International
  
• Hartford Courant
  
• Times-News (Hendersonville, North Carolina)
  
• Herald-Journal (Spartanburg, SC)
  
• The Houma Courier
  
• The Indianapolis Star
  
• The Kansas City Star
  
• The Ledger (Lakeland, FL)
  
• Los Angeles Times
  
• The Miami Herald
  
• The Morning Call
  
• The News Chief (Winter Haven, FL)
  
• Ocala Star-Banner
  
• Orlando Sentinel
  
• Orlando Sentinel Top Stories
  
• Petaluma Argus-Courier
  
• Press Democrat (Santa Rosa, CA)
  
• Raleigh News & Observer
  
• Reuters Top Stories
  
• Reuters Full Edition
  
• The Sacramento Bee
  
• Sarasota Herald-Tribune
  
• Slate
  
• Star-News (Wilmington, NC)
  
• Sun Sentinel
  
• Sun Sentinel Top Stories
  
• The Tennessean (Nashville, TN)
  
• The Thibodaux Daily Comet
  
• The Tuscaloosa News
  

Devices

Ongo’s iPad app was initially released in January 2011 and last updated in June of that same year. The app is free to download and also offers a a free one-day pass for non-subscribers.
Ongo currently offers a mobile version of the site for smart phone users. In an interview published by smart phone app website Appolicious, Kazim said the company is “evaluating” creating a native iPhone app. Such an app would be designed for users who check their phones for news throughout the day^[6].

Reception

Ongo was listed on The Next Web as one of “8 Social Media Apps to Watch in 2011.”^[7] On the site’s release, the New York Times wrote “Ongo is for readers who peruse a variety of publications every day and want to read them all in one place.”^[8] In a press release, Ovum Ltd analyst Adrian Drury was quoted saying, “Ongo is bringing a web application to market that delivers a slick interface for reading news onscreen. In exchange, Ongo seeks to package content from premium news publishers and get a monthly subscription from users for the service.”^[9]
USA Today reviewed Ongo’s iPad app, giving it three out of four stars and complimenting the interface and variety of publications available^[10]. Poynter praised the site for its ability to find interesting stories, also citing its increased relevance in the wake of the New York Times’ implementation of a paywall for online reading^[11]. Ongo was also featured by Appolicious.

References

1. ^ Indvid, Lauren, "Would You Pay a Monthly Fee for Ad-Free News?" Mashable, 25 Jan. 2011
2. ^ Bercovici, Jeff, "You Go For Ongo?" Forbes, 28 Feb. 2011
3. ^ "Press Room" Ongo
4. ^ "About" Ongo
5. ^ Lefkow, Chris, "Startup Ongo enters online news arena" AFP, 25 Jan. 2011
6. ^ Spirrison, Brad, "Why newspaper publishers embrace Ongo as their iPad app of choice" Appolicious, 3 July 2011
7. ^ Fisher, Lauren, "8 Social Media Apps to Watch in 2011" The Next Web, 27 Dec. 2011
8. ^ Miller, Claire Cain, "Start-Up Opens a One-Stop Shop for the News" The New York Times, 25 Jan. 2011
9. ^ "Ongo Launches Personal News Service, Redefining Reading and Discovering Digital News" PR Newswire, 25 Jan. 2011
10. ^ Saltzman, Marc, "Ongo: An article aggregator for news junkies" USA Today, 1 July 2011
11. ^ Edmonds, Rick, "Ongo aimed at old-school users who have migrated online, not digital natives" Poynter, 23 May 2011

External Links

Ongo website
Ongo Facebook page
Ongo Twitter