LOS ANGELES –Hiring a small group of enterprising sports reporters four years ago, who grabbed headlines with scoops, was a clear indication of the value of original journalism in driving traffic and attracting advertising dollars.

The traditional value of enterprising reporting is central to the evolving media strategy at Yahoo, according says Jimmy Pitaro who heads media content at Yahoo!  The company is hiring journalists for several beats, including news, finance, and entertainment.

I interviewed him last week at the All Things Digital conference.

In this video interview, he explains the other element of content creation: crowd-sourced material.  He says that Shine, the popular women's site, is made up of one third of user-generated content. 

He talks about how the recent acquisition of Associated Content will allow Yahoo to scale quickly in many special interest and general topic areas.

Update:  Yahoo has hired entertainment blogger Mark Lisanti, the Business Insider reports.

Andy Plesser, Managing Editor