GoCityKids Finds a Buyer

I read in PaidContent that family-oriented city site GoCityKids.com had been acquired by Viacom-owned cable channel Nickelodeon.

I met with founder Clare Ellis years ago when the network of sites had just launched (in 2000). Her concept was great — a Citysearch for families — but her timing, through no fault of her own, was lousy. The bottom fell out of the economy shortly after the site was founded. GoCityKids survived largely on good will and through a network of volunteer editors who believed in the concept and valued the content, which was highly unique (at a network level). Among the really valuable elments of the site was its user-generated content (parent reviews), long before this was in vogue, and its local events guides, which were almost unique online.

In my conversations with Internet companies in the local arena, I often pointed to GoCityKids in the context of discussing local events as a missing element. I'm glad to see the site will now get the resources it needs to deliver on its original promise.