Yahoo Inc. has hired a roster of popular authors to write financial columns for its Web site, marking one of the company's biggest moves into original content.
The Internet company today will begin publishing columns about personal finance and investing by an array of writers, including such well-known names in the business press as Ben Stein, Robert Kiyosaki and Stephen Covey. The Sunnyvale, Calif., company has signed nine new columnists to write for its Yahoo Finance site and plans to hire as many as 30.
Yahoo's move is part of a larger effort to add original news and entertainment programming to a Web portal that has long relied on media content provided by partners. The company hopes the original content will make its site more compelling to visitors and help it bolster advertising revenue, though it says it has no plans to become a traditional news organization.
The finance columns follow Yahoo's announcement this month that it had hired journalist Kevin Sites, who has worked as an international correspondent for CNN and others, to report on global conflicts using video, audio and Web logs, or blogs. Mr. Sites's first dispatches, from Africa, also are scheduled to be published on Yahoo's site today. Yahoo's sports pages already feature original commentary from a team of writers, including the former pro basketball players Clark Kellogg and Steve Kerr.
"It's about a deeper engagement with our core audience, and about attracting key demographics that we know are attractive to our advertisers," said Scott Moore, vice president of content operations for the Yahoo Media Group, based in Santa Monica, Calif. One of Yahoo's goals, he said, will be to attract more women in their 30s and 40s who are interested in personal finance.
For the venture, Yahoo tapped authors of business books, rather than plucking business columnists from newspapers and wire services, which might have caused friction with some of its news partners, which include the Associated Press, Reuters, the Los Angeles Times, USA Today and The Wall Street Journal.
Mr. Kiyosaki, author of the best-selling book "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" and a series of sequels, will write a column on "Why the Rich Get Richer." In an interview, he said the opportunity to write for Yahoo's large audience "was a match made in heaven."
Columnists will write one or two articles a month, a Yahoo spokesman said, and will be considered freelance employees. Yahoo declined to discuss details about the authors' compensation.
Yahoo Finance was the most popular online destination for financial news and information in the U.S. in August, attracting 12.2 million unique visitors, according to tracker Nielsen/NetRatings. That was slightly ahead of Microsoft Corp.'s MSN Money site, which drew 12 million.
