The twelfth birthday is often the moment when a child jumps from childhood into full-fledged adolescence, morphing into the next phase of his or her existence. Essential daily read indieWIRE is no exception. Yesterday on its twelfth anniversary, the independent film news and community site announced that it was being acquired by SnagFilms, a new company founded by Ted Leonsis and backed by Steve Case and Miles Gilburne.

SnagFilms is went into beta yesterday morning as well, and aims to bring nonfiction films to a global web audience via web distribution. Virtual movie theater widgets are a key part of their strategy. Snag will also provide links to related nonprofits and DVD sales sites for its docus, which now include more than 225 titles from PBS, National Geographic, IndiePix, Koch Lorber and other companies. IndieWIRE will provide archival and news content for SnagFilms.com, but will continue to function as a standalone site.

Ted Leonsis, SnagFilms’ founder and chairman said in a release, "We love combining SnagFilms' revolutionary offering of free films, widgetized sharing, and easy connections to causes with indieWIRE's iconic heritage and journalistic excellence. Together, indieWIRE and SnagFilms can offer everything the industry and consumers need to know about these important films, while also giving viewers an opportunity to see and share the films they love."

The voice of iW will remain the same. Eugene Hernandez, Editor in Chief and co-Founder of indieWIRE, will also become Editorial Vice President of SnagFilms, overseeing journalistic content on both sites. iW’s Brian Brooks and James Israel will also remain on board.

Said Hernandez, "We created indieWIRE twelve years ago to fill a gap for filmmakers and the industry. We wanted to create a platform to deliver news, information and other resources. Along the way, indieWIRE emerged as a hub for the community... In Ted, Rick and the entire team at Snag Films, we have found partners similarly aimed at developing indieWIRE as an even more vital link during this dynamic moment for our community."

It's thrilling to see indieWIRE's future tied together with a site promoting documentaries. Despite the rather horrific year non-fiction has been having at the box office, this deal is evidence that docs are still relevant - they just have to find new and different ways of getting out to the world. Best of luck to the entire iW team as they go forth on this new adventure!

For more on the iW/Snag deal:
-Thoughts from Eugene Hernandez in First Person: A Letter to indieWIRE Readers
-On the birth of SnagFilms: SnagFilms press release
-Mark Rabinowitz's new iW/SnagFilms documentary blog: Docsider
-Ted Leonsis's blog: TedsTake