Phil McCarten/ReutersSteve Capus, president of NBC News.

NBC News and Interactive One, a network of Web sites aimed at African-Americans, plan to announce a partnership on Monday that will combine the editorial and sales resources of both properties. The partnership will focus on aligning NBC’s African-American news site, TheGrio.com, and Interactive One’s news Web site, NewsOne.com.

“Now, for the first time, you have a news-gathering and producing organization solely dedicated to African-Americans at scale, and that really has not happened for decades,” said Tom Newman, the president of Interactive One, a digital subsidiary of Radio One.

While there are no staff changes imminent for either Web site — editorial staffs in the newsrooms of each site range from two to 10 people — reporters on both sites will be able to collaborate with one another on content.

The looming election season of 2012 and the increase in niche Web sites and advertising to African-Americans and other minority groups helped to propel the alliance. TheGrio will coordinate the sharing of content from one site to the next, and NewsOne will take the lead on advertising sales efforts, a critical part of the alliance.

“Election coverage is going to be our watershed moment,” Mr. Newman said.

According to comScore, from May 2010 to May 2011, the total audience for TheGrio grew 300 percent, to 1.3 million viewers from 319,000. NewsOne also had significant growth in the same period, increasing its viewership to 881,000 from 356,000.

“They are basically offering a more robust sales proposition, bigger audiences and the opportunity to get ads in front of more eyeballs,” said Steve Capus, the president of NBC News. “We instantly grew the business as a result of this partnership.”

Some of the top advertisers for Interactive One include Ford, American Airlines, Home Depot and Hewlett-Packard.

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