When Yahoo! makes news these days, it's usually not good news. But today there's a bright spot for the portal, which has managed to capture the No. 1 spot for internet news, ahead of rival Google.

According to comScore, Yahoo reaches 50 million people per month between its news, finance and sports channels. Although TV still has a greater daily reach, portals like MSN, AOL and Yahoo are quickly becoming news heavyweights.

Scott Moore, vice president of news and information, told Forbes.com that Yahoo has built its news empire by cutting deals with an array of news providers.

"Our news product is very leanly staffed," Moore said. "The MSNBC news room has 150 to 200 people. Yahoo News is a fraction of that. We have lower costs and that makes us more profitable."

Despite the popularity of the news division, Yahoo executives continue to look for a solution to the company's struggles.

Last week, Yahoo unveiled its next-generation search, which it hopes will rival Google's universal search. In the meantime, Yahoo engineers continue to test Mash, a social network built to replace Yahoo 360. The company hopes Mash could find itself wedged between MySpace and Facebook for a share of the growing social networking market.