The New York Times and a group of venture/private equity firms, including Polaris Venture Partners, True Ventures, and Radar have invested $29.5 million in Automattic, the commercial arm of the popular blog platform WordPress. The New York Times’ stake is reportedly the smallest in this new round, and the other 3 firms invested $1.1 million 2 years ago. The deal makes good sense for multiple reasons, and it’s another example of why the New York Times, The Washington Post (see related stories here and here), the Wall Street Journal, and Scripps will certainly be among the small, small number of daily newspaper publishers that survive the annihilation taking place in their industry.

Tags: Automattic, WordPress, Blog Platforms, Publishing Companies Diversifying, New York Times, NYT Invests in Automattic, Blogs Becoming Traditional Media, Washington Post, Scripps, the Wall Street Journal, Some Dailies Will Survive