| Industry | News agency, Internet |
|---|---|
| Founded | Tilburg, the Netherlands (May 14, 2007) |
| Headquarters | Tilburg, the Netherlands |
| Key people | Michael van Poppel (Founder) |
| Website | http://www.bnonews.com |
BNO News is a news agency based in Tilburg, the Netherlands. It currently provides news wire services to companies and managed a popular Twitter account until December 2009, when it had approximately 1.5 million users.
The company was founded by Michael van Poppel of the Netherlands in May 2007, and the company was mainly based on the Twitter social networking site until December 2009 when it announced plans to launch a subscription-based news wire service to media organizations.
The company also announced it would end its Twitter-based news service and transfer the management of the account to MSNBC.com as of December 1, 2009. It had nearly 1.5 million followers on its last day, making it one of the most popular news services on Twitter at that time. The Twitter service was maintained by a number of journalists from the Netherlands, Ireland, Mexico, and the United States.
The subscription-based news wire service was launched in late January 2010 and provides news coverage to MSNBC.com, Thaindian News, W. R. Berkley and other companies. A Mauritian-based news website, Island Crisis News, announced on May 31, 2010 that it has also become a client of BNO News and is the company's first client from Africa.[1].
The company said it is currently in talks with other publishers and media distributors.
On September 7, 2007, BNO News reportedly obtained an unpublished videotape featuring Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, which was later sold to the Reuters news agency[2].