Screenshot of Topix website
News aggregation service Topix has signed deals with six new content partners to expand its local information offering, TechCrunch reports.

Partnerships with sites Eventful and Zap2It will bring event, television and film listings to the sites, which filter content on a topical or geographic basis and are opening for editing by registered users.

In addition a deal with mailing list firm InfoUSA will supply business directories, while local classifieds company LiveDeal will provide pet ad listings.

New content streams from Apartments.com and Informa Research Services will add apartment listings and information on mortgage rates to the Topix network.

Chris Tolles, CEO of Topix, described the move as 'a milestone for us on a the way to becoming more central to local life online' in a comment on the TechCrunch article.

“[R]epackaging other folks info isn’t a complete story, which is why the central focus of our site has been to draw users into engaging into commentary with each other on our site," he said.

Last year the network met with criticism after entering into a deal with MediaNewsGroup to run the forums on the publishers' newspaper websites.

Topix has also discussed launching an editing platform for publishers to produce quick-fire news pages for hyperlocal coverage.

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