MSNBC.com "Knows a Trend When It Sees One"

TechFlash reports: First user-generated content, then hyperlocal news, now Twitter. Say this for MSNBC.com: It knows a trend when it sees one.

After acquiring Seattle-based user-generated news site Newsvine in 2007, and hyperlocal pioneer EveryBlock in August, the Microsoft-NBC Universal joint venture has worked out an arrangement to manage the popular @BreakingNews feed, which boasts more than 1.43 million Twitter followers—about 1.39 million more followers than MSNBC.com's own breaking-news Twitter feed. Unlike its previous deals, it's not an acquisition, but it's a notable move by MSNBC.com further into the world of real-time news.

BNO News, the company behind @BreakingNews, announced the collaboration today as it outlined plans for a full-fledged international wire service. BNO explained that MSNBC.com's assumption of the Twitter feed would let it "focus on building and delivering this new enhanced service to media companies and publishers."

MSNBC.com will be the first client for that wire service, the company said. The new BNO News wire service, in turn, will be one of the sources of content for the MSNBC.com-managed @BreakingNews feed.

Even though MSNBC.com will be taking over the Twitter feed, BNO News says @BreakingNews will still "incorporate breaking news from many media sources, original reporting on developing situations, and links to more information across the Web."