MediaFile

Belo Corp, publisher of the Providence Journal and Dallas Morning News, has taken a stake in Mochila, an online content syndication marketplace. In English, this means that Mochila lets editors and bloggers use its content for a fee or on an advertising-supported basis.

Neither Belo nor Mochila would say how much the stake is worth, though Mochila Chief Executive Keith McAllister described it as a “significant amount.” Mochila previously raised $8 million in a round of financing by Charles River Ventures, as well as Mission Ventures, Greenspun Corp and Jerry Colonna.

Belo also will sign on as a content partner, providing text from its papers to Mochila, while Mochila will supply content from other partners to Belo’s television stations.

Mochila adds the Dallas-based company to its roster of partners that include Hearst Magazines, the Associated Press, Hachette Filipacchi Media, the Los Angeles Times/Washington Post News Service and, I might add, the wire that runs this blog.

Belo’s investment is among the newspaper publisher and broadcaster’s attempts to prove to an increasingly skeptical investment community — not to mention its wired audience — that it’s looking beyond the world of newsprint. Maybe it will surprise them yet.