Yahoo! News Named News Service Brand of the Year By Harris Poll EquiTrend

(Newsroom America) -- Yahoo! News has been named the 2012 Harris Poll EquiTrend News Service Brand of the Year.

Harris said the free, online news service performed well on equity metrics such as Fit, Trust, and Positive Emotional Connection.

Harris Poll EquiTrend is an annual brand health assessment of over 1,500 product, service, and lifestyle brands from Harris Interactive .

Yahoo! News makes its debut appearance in Harris Poll EquiTrend's News Service category this year; it and nine other newcomers join three veteran brands: Associated Press (AP), Reuters, and United Press International (UPI).

"We expanded the News Service category to reflect the abundance of media choices facing consumers. These inclusions let us monitor a bigger slice of the market and see how well the veteran brands perform against new rivals," says Jill Gress, Vice President, Harris Interactive.

"Overall, AP is holding strong; however our Brand Momentum metric gives us a hint as to which brands may be contenders next year."

Google News has the top Brand Momentum score this year, followed by Yahoo! News, AP, USA Today, BBC News, and CNN Online.

In addition to overall news service organizations, Harris Poll EquiTrend also measures and awards Brand of the Year distinctions in four magazine categories: General Interest Magazine, Women's Magazine, Business Magazine, and Weekly News Magazine.

For the second consecutive year, National Geographic Magazine is the General Interest Magazine Brand of the Year in the Harris Poll EquiTrend study.

Reader's Digest Magazine and AARP The Magazine follow in this category, along with the somewhat less familiar Wired Magazine and The Atlantic Monthly Magazine.

Launched in 2000 by Time, Inc. and known for its tidy editorial style, Real Simple Magazine is the inaugural Women's Magazine Brand of the Year. Southern Living Magazine and Hallmark Magazine are the closest contenders in this crowded, new Harris Poll EquiTrend category.

Money Magazine and The Economist are the only two brands to rank above their respective category averages, earning each of them the 2012 Harris Poll EquiTrend Brand of the Year distinction.