Kara Swisher posted the scoop just after 1 am:

In what will be seen as a new media coup, sources tell BoomTown that Britain’s Guardian Media Group is set to announce this morning that it will buy the company that runs the high-profile digital media news site paidContent for a price “north of $30 million.”

That price, though, includes an earn-out, sources said, which will depend on future performance of the company.

paidContent made the official announcement a few hours later. One key point: it's very much a "business to business" (B2B) deal.

We will be part of Guardian Professional group, which is the B2B media division for GNM, and runs targeted sites such the MediaGuardian, as well as online data businesses and conferences.

More from the included press release:

Guardian News & Media today announces a significant expansion of its US presence with the acquisition of ContentNext Media, the leading B2B media company which covers digital media, the entertainment and technology sectors, and publishes the influential paidContent.org.

Om Malik has further background:

In a very early morning call [Rafat Ali] explained that a sale had not been part of his plan; he had been raising another big round of funding to grow his company. The company had previously raised $1 million for Graycroft Ventures. But the offer to be acquired by a company he respects as much as GMG was simply too good to pass up.

Marshall Kirkpatrick digs up an old number:

All the way back in 2006 Business 2.0 magazine reported that PaidContent was set to bring in $1 million in annual ad revenue.

Back in March we covered staff changes. It appears that everyone remains in place.

Some updated stats:

		Blog		T Rank		Alexa
		paidContent.org		444		37,634
		paidContent:UK		19,042		171,937
		mocoNews.net		3,271		81,352
		contentSutra		19,812		41,165
		Legend
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