Mediagazer: Oprah costs Discovery a fortune (Maxine Shen/New York Post)

4:15 PM ET, August 4, 2010

Top News:

The Savior of Condé Nast: Scott Dadich Is The New It Boy of the Mag World — Someday, when they tell the story of how digital magazines saved Conde Nast, it will begin in San Francisco's Caffé Centro sometime in May 2009. — It was there that Wired creative director Scott …

Discussion: FishbowlNY, Crain's New York Business, Romenesko, MediaMemo, MediaPost, paidContent and New York Magazine

John Koblin / New York Observer:
Conde Nast Hires Joe Simon to New Executive Tech Position

Discussion: Silicon Alley Insider

Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:

iPad Apps Are Fun! But Boring Old Magazines Are Still Big Business For Time Inc. — iPad apps are fun to talk about. They may even but the future of the magazine business! But for now, magazine publishing is still a print and ink proposition, and that's not necessarily a terrible thing.

Discussion: paidContent and Digits

Joe Pompeo / The Wire:

Time Warner CEO Talks Up Conan, iPad Apps, Broadband HBO On Demand — On a conference call this morning, Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes talked up the “strong ad uptick” that helped boost his company's second quarter profits to $562 million, up 7% from $524 million a year earlier …

Discussion: Variety, paidContent, The Wrap, Company Town and Crain's New York Business

Brian Womack / Bloomberg:

Facebook Advertisers Boost Spending 10-Fold, Sandberg Says — Facebook Inc.'s biggest advertisers have boosted spending by at least 10-fold in the past year as the social network crossed the half- billion user mark, becoming more alluring to marketers that want to reach a broad online audience.

Discussion: TechCrunch, Voices on All Things Digital, Noted and Media Buyer Planner, more at Techmeme »

Rebecca Dana / The Daily Beast:

Newsweek's Hidden Problem — Not only is Newsweek's new owner new to the media world, the money-losing magazine is holding on to the CEO who devised its business strategy. Plus, view the confidential memo obtained by The Daily Beast. — As 91-year-old radio magnate Sidney Harman begins …

Discussion: Los Angeles Times, The Politico, On Media's Blog, eMedia Vitals, Silicon Alley Insider and Press Gazette

Keith J. Kelly / New York Post:

Down-town & country — CondÉ Nast didn't win over any employees as friends when it formally announced yesterday that it is in “active discussions” with the Durst Organization and the Port Authority of New York to move into 1 World Trade Center by 2014, vacating its current headquarters at 4 Times Square.

Discussion: WWD, Gawker, MinOnline, New York Observer, Gothamist, New York Times and New York Magazine

Aaron Rutkoff / Metropolis:
So What Will Happen to the Conde Nast Cafeteria?

Discussion: Gawker and Curbed NY

Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:

AOL Earnings Train Wreck Driven By Bebo and Ad Revenue Shortfall — After warning analysts that its financial results for the latest quarter would be disappointing, AOL couldn't even manage to hit those lowered expectations, thanks in part to a $1.4 billion writedown on assets — primarily Bebo …

Discussion: AdAge, MediaPost and Business Wire, more at Techmeme »

Mike Taylor / FishbowlNY:
AOL Swings to a 2Q Loss on Charges; Ad Revenue Falls 27%

Discussion: The Wrap and MediaMemo

The Huffington Post:

Michael Hastings, Reporter Whose Rolling Stone Article Felled McChrystal, Denied Afghan Embed — WASHINGTON — The author of the Rolling Stone article that ended the military career of Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the former top commander in Afghanistan, has been denied permission …

Discussion: Mediaite and Gawker

Nancy A. Youssef / McClatchy Washington Bureau: Army probing McChrystal staff over Rolling Stone interview

Wall Street Journal:

On the Web's Cutting Edge, Anonymity in Name Only — You may not know a company called [x+1] Inc., but it may well know a lot about you. — From a single click on a web site, [x+1] correctly identified Carrie Isaac as a young Colorado Springs parent who lives on about $50,000 a year, shops at Wal-Mart and rents kids' videos.

Discussion: Stephen Baker and Deal Journal

Los Angeles Times:

On the Media: Struggling KCET examines its options — The public TV station might form a consortium with other area PBS affiliates, sell its studios or even leave the network to improve its financial fortunes, programming slate and public profile. — ByJames Rainey

Discussion: Show Tracker, TVWeek.com and L.A. NOW

Robin Wauters / TechCrunch:

Forbes Sells Investopedia To ValueClick In $42 Million Deal — Online marketing services company ValueClick is buying financial information and investing education website Investopedia from Forbes for approximately $42 million in cash. — The reasons for the purchase: content, traffic …

Discussion: Business Wire and paidContent

Simon Dumenco / AdAge:

Boy, Could the Former Editor of Maxim Ever Tell You Some Stories — Q&A With Keith Blanchard, Now of Story Worldwide — For this latest edition of Dumenco's Media People — an ongoing series of conversations with media grandees — I interviewed longtime print guy Keith Blanchard …

Discussion: FishbowlNY and Romenesko

Andy Carvin / NPR:

Results From Our Survey Of NPR Facebook Fans — NPR's presence on Facebook is growing. Earlier this month, our Facebook page surpassed one million fans. — We recently turned to those fans to get to know them better, to learn what types of stories they like, and to find out what they think of each other …

Discussion: Romenesko and New York Observer

Jemima Kiss / Guardian:

Murdoch: Tablets are the future for News Corp — Rupert Murdoch was cosying up to Apple again today as he spoke at a media debate in Sydney earlier today, saying tablets are “a perfect platform” for cheap, convenient and up-to-date News Corp content. — News Corp has “tens of thousands of readers” …

Discussion: Press Gazette, TeleRead, MediaPost, Garcia Media, Silicon Alley Insider, Gawker and Poynter Online

Charlie Savage / New York Times:

After Afghan War Leaks, Revisions in a Shield Bill — WASHINGTON — Democratic senators who have been working on legislation providing greater protections to reporters who refuse to identify confidential sources are backpedaling from WikiLeaks, the Web site that recently disclosed …

Matthew Belloni / Hollywood Reporter:

GAWKER PAYS TO SETTLE ‘MCSTEAMY’ COPYRIGHT SUIT — A legal battle on the cutting edge of celebrity media and copyright law has ended with gossip blog conglom Gawker Media agreeing to pay actors Eric Dane and Rebecca Gayheart and take down a homemade threesome video featuring the couple.

Discussion: Mediaite

Lauren Goode / Digits:

Groupon Moves Into TV Land, Does Deals With Top Chefs — Groupon.com, a website that offers local daily deals through group coupons, is teaming up with restaurants owned by Top Chef contestants from the show on the Bravo TV network. — From August 4 through August 8 …

Financial Times:

Motorola and Verizon team up for TV tablet — Motorola is developing a digital tablet device that will allow users to watch television on it, as the US mobile phone group attempts to chip away at a market established by Apple's popular iPad. — The device, which will have a 10-inch screen …

Discussion: NewTeeVee, 901am, Techland, Jacket Copy, Fortune, Multichannel News, Fast Company, Engadget, CrunchGear, Silicon Alley Insider, Gizmodo and Digital Daily

Joseph Tartakoff / paidContent:

What The New York Times' Meter Page Could Look Like — The New York Times, which is set to put up an online paywall early next year, is now surveying readers to determine how they would react when a screen popped up asking them to pay up after they had exceeded their “quota of free articles” for the month.