Ebay founder to launch independent mass-market news venture

EBay Inc founder Pierre Omidyar on Wednesday said he is building an independent media organization covering news from sports to politics for mainstream readers, spearheaded by big names including ex-Guardian correspondent Glenn Greenwald.

Omidyar, the 46-year-old French-born Iranian-American who remains chairman of the e-commerce giant he founded, wrote in a blog post that he considered buying the Washington Post - which Amazon.com Inc founder Jeff Bezos eventually snapped up - but decided he wanted to build a news organization from the ground up. “Right now, I’m in the very early stages of creating a new mass media organization. I don’t yet know how or when it will be rolled out, or what it will look like,” he wrote.

Omidyar to launch independent mass-market news venture

“I developed an interest in supporting independent journalists in a way that leverages their work to the greatest extent possible, all in support of the public interest. And, I want to find ways to convert mainstream readers into engaged citizens. I think there’s more that can be done in this space, and I’m eager to explore the possibilities.”

Omidyar’s active Twitter feed suggests he is very concerned about government-spying programs exposed by Greenwald and former U.S. government contractor Edward Snowden. In his blog post, Omidyar spoke of his growing interest in the role that journalism plays in society, and his own support of efforts to promote government accountability and transparency.

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Omidyar, who is no longer involved in day-to-day operations at eBay, stressed that his venture would remain separate from his numerous philanthropic, business and political interests, run mainly through an entity called the Omidyar Network.

Forbes pegged Omidyar’s net worth at $8.5 billion. Among his ventures is Honolulu Civil Beat, a news website covering public affairs in Hawaii. Civil Beat aims to create a new online journalism model with paid subscriptions and respectful comment threads, though it is unclear how successful it has been.

Omidyar also founded the Democracy Fund to support “social entrepreneurs working to ensure that our political system is responsive to the public,” according to its website. Omidyar added that Greenwald’s former colleagues, Laura Poitras and Jeremy Scahill, would also join his media project. “I’ll be sure to update you along the way as the new organization progresses,” he said.

Meanwhile, it was reported that EBay Inc has shown a higher quarterly profit on Wednesday as consumers made greater use of its PayPal service, but the e-commerce company gave a disappointing holiday quarter forecast, sending shares down 4.5 percent in after-hours trading.

EBay expects revenue of between $4.5 billion and $4.6 billion for the quarter ending December 31, compared with the $4.64 billion estimated by analysts, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. EBay lagged behind rival Amazon.com Inc for several years, but Chief Executive John Donahoe has led a turnaround in recent years that focuses on mobile shoppers, international expansion and tie-ups with local physical stores.

Net income for the third quarter was $689 million, or 53 cents a share, up from $597 million, or 45 cents a share, a year earlier. Excluding the benefit of its sales of stakes in e-commerce companies RueLaLa and ShopRunner, eBay earned 64 cents, one cent better then expected. For the holiday quarter, eBay expects a profit of 79 cents to 81 cents a share, while Wall Street analysts estimate 83 cents. Revenue rose 14.3 percent to $3.89 billion.

PayPal, eBay’s online payments division, reported that total payments volume rose 24.7 percent to $43.8 billion. EBay said that gross merchandise volume, or the dollar value of merchandise sold on its marketplaces, rose 12.7 percent to $18.4 billion in the United States, excluding auto sales.

Reuters