New media incubator and venture firm Betaworks has acquired Marco Arment’s read-it-later platform Instapaper, the companies announced Thursday evening. Other Betaworks companies and projects include bit.ly, Chartbeat and Done Not Done. The firm acquired Digg for a reported $500,000 last year.
Unlike Digg at the time it was acquired, however, Instapaper has a business model: It’s a paid product. The iPhone and iPad apps are $3.99, and the Android app is $2.99. Users can also install a bookmarklet to save articles.
Betaworks’ acquisition of Instapaper fits with the firm’s strategy of investing in both short and long-form content. Betaworks CEO John Borthwick said at the paidContent conference last week that companies shouldn’t favor one over the other: They need to invest in both. Digg is planning to launch a Google Reader replacement, and Instapaper’s technology could possibly be put to work on that project.
Here’s a video of Borthwick talking to Om Malik at paidContent Live:
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