{"id":748352,"date":"2013-04-25T18:02:14","date_gmt":"2013-04-25T22:02:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/paidcontent.org\/?p=228517"},"modified":"2013-04-25T18:02:14","modified_gmt":"2013-04-25T22:02:14","slug":"betaworks-acquires-marco-arments-read-it-later-platform-instapaper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/748352","title":{"rendered":"Betaworks acquires Marco Arment\u2019s read-it-later platform Instapaper"},"content":{"rendered":"

New media incubator and venture firm Betaworks has acquired Marco Arment’s read-it-later platform Instapaper, the companies announced Thursday evening<\/a>. Other Betaworks companies and projects include bit.ly, Chartbeat and Done Not Done. The firm acquired Digg<\/a> for a reported $500,000 last year.<\/p>

Unlike Digg at the time it was acquired, however, Instapaper has a business model: It’s a paid product. The iPhone and iPad apps are $3.99, and the Android app is $2.99. Users can also install a bookmarklet to save articles.<\/p>

Betaworks’ acquisition of Instapaper fits with the firm’s strategy of investing in both short and long-form content. Betaworks CEO John Borthwick said at the paidContent conference last week<\/a> that companies shouldn’t favor one over the other: They need to invest in both. Digg is planning to launch a Google Reader replacement<\/a>, and Instapaper’s technology could possibly be put to work on that project.<\/p>

Here’s a video of Borthwick talking to Om Malik at paidContent Live:<\/p>

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