I find it somewhat surprising that Yahoo! is apparently scaling back its original content ambitions.

“We don’t have the ambition to do a lot” of original content, Semel said at a meeting with industry analysts, executives and reporters. “We have the ambition to help lead the way and encourage others to do it for us. … We don’t aspire to have 2,000 creative people working for Yahoo. We are an Internet company.”

That makes some sense, but it’s also a mixed signal. For the past two years, Yahoo! has given every indication it wanted to produce more original content, from hiring Lloyd Braun to launching the Hot Zone.

I’m not sure I agree with the assertion that Yahoo! is an Internet company. It is, I think, first and foremost, a media company. I see no reason, with its resource and ability to attract talent, that it can’t become a very competitive source of original content.