CNN reportedly buys iPad magazine app Zite

Techvibes is reporting that CNN is buying Vancouver-based iPad magazine app Zite for up to US$25 million. Zite is an iPad magazine app that aggregates news based on your personal preferences.

Personalized magazine aggregator apps are becoming increasingly popular on the iPad. Other similar apps to Zite include Pulse, Flipboard, AOL Editions, and more. All the apps basically work in the same way: you input your preferences for the stories you want to read, or the app reads your preferences from social media sites and presents you with news stories.

CNN's interest in Zite as a stand-alone news aggregator would be an interesting departure from its video-heavy iPad app. While that app does also have print stories, it's possible CNN wants Zite for its underlying technology to incorporate into its existing iPad app, allowing for a more personalized experience for its users. Or, who knows, perhaps CNN wants to get into the magazine aggregator business on all its own, though it would be rather self-limiting if CNN only used its own sources for the aggregator app. After all, the appeal of such apps is that they pull news from multiple news sources around the web. At this time, Zite is still available as a free download from the App Store.