Mediagazer: AOL's Turnaround Turns Into a Tough Slog (Michael Learmonth/AdAge)

6:50 PM ET, August 4, 2010

Top News:

Michael Learmonth / AdAge:

AOL's Turnaround Turns Into a Tough Slog — Ad Revenue Down Steeply at CEO Armstrong's ‘Sick Patient’ — NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — Need a reminder how tough AOL's turnaround is going to be for CEO Tim Armstrong and his team? Look no further than the company's second quarter …

Discussion: AOL Corp

Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:
AOL Earnings Train Wreck Driven By Bebo and Ad Revenue Shortfall

Discussion: The Social and MediaPost, more at Techmeme »

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

Discussion: MediaMemo and The Wrap

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

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: Digits and paidContent, more at Techmeme »

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: MediaPost, TechCrunch, The Social and Media Buyer Planner, more at Techmeme »

Dylan Stableford / The Wrap:

News Corp.'s Full-Year Profits Soar on Back of ‘Avatar’ — News Corp. said on Wednesday that the company finished its 2010 fiscal year with $4 billion in operating income - an increase of 11 percent - thanks, mostly, to the ridiculous box office success of “Avatar” and a recovering ad market.

Discussion: Broadcasting & Cable, paidContent, Dow Jones Newswires, TheStreet.com, NEWS.com.au, Business Wire, BBC and FOXBusiness.com

Joe Pompeo / The Business Insider:
Rupert Murdoch Really Does Love Those iPads, Thinks London Times …

Discussion: Show Tracker

John Koblin / New York Observer:

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

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

Discussion: Silicon Alley Insider and Runnin' Scared

Patrick Gavin / The Politico:

WHY BRISTOL WENT TO PEOPLE — As the Bristol Palin and Levi Johnston relationship drama has unfolded in the public spotlight, especially in the past few months, People and Us Magazine have duked it out for exclusive interviews and scoops on the Alaskan couple. — People reported on July 26 that Bristol was “taking Levi Back.”

Discussion: New York Observer, On Media's Blog and Indecision Forever

Tim Carmody / Snarkmarket:

The generative web event — Last week, a bunch of digital humanists got together at the Center for History and New Media to make a new tech tool that the broader academic AND nonacademic communities could use for their work. The catch: they had to conceive, design, and ship the thing in JUST one week.

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, DailyFinance, On Media's Blog, eMedia Vitals and Silicon Alley Insider

Jeff Bercovici / DailyFinance:

Deadspin Pushes Ethical Envelope Again With Brett Favre Story — Fading football star Brett Favre is all over the news today thanks to another one of his patented “Will he or won't he?” performances. If you're a sports blogger, what better time to whip out a meaty bit of gossip …

Discussion: Deadspin, Romenesko, NBC Sports and The Big Lead

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

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

Aaron Rutkoff / Metropolis:

So What Will Happen to the Conde Nast Cafeteria? … When Condé Nast vacates its current home at 4 Times Square, an outcome the company now considers “highly likely,” as The Journal reported this week, the publishing giant will be leaving behind what is perhaps the most famous corporate cafeteria in New York City.

Discussion: Gawker and Curbed NY

Keith J. Kelly / New York Post:
Down-town & country

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

John Cook / Yahoo! News:

Federal records show CNN, Chicago Tribune hosted active-duty Marines as interns — Much has been made of the media's practice of “embedding” reporters in military units, allowing them to file immersive reports on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan while under the total care and control …

Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:

Judge Strikes Down CA's Prop 8, Leaked Ruling Sends Scribd Traffic Skyrocketing — Minutes ago, San Francisco federal judge Vaughn Walker struck down the infamous Proposition 8, a measure that banned same-sex marriage in California. Twitter and Facebook are abuzz with the news (as you'd expect) …

Discussion: Gawker, Mediaite, New York Magazine, Culture, The Wrap, LA Observed and GigaOM

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, paidContent and DailyFinance

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: MediaMemo, Media Money …, paidContent, The Huffington Post, Press Gazette, TeleRead, Silicon Alley Insider, Garcia Media, Gawker, MediaPost, Poynter Online and TheAustralian

Jim Romenesko / Poynter Online:

Poynter Forums — Kevin Purdy's highly informative story about the effects of caffeine on the brain in Lifehacker was the breakout story of July. And the reader interest in the piece highlights — do we really need a reminder? — the draw of the explanation. There's too much news on the web; and way too little explanation.

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, Deal Journal and Voices on All Things Digital

Nielsen Wire:

Report: How People Watch - The Global State of Video Consumption — Video consumption across multiple platforms is now a global phenomenon. Consumers in all regions are proving their insatiable appetite for video information and entertainment - thus far adding screens to their media mix, not replacing them.

Discussion: rbr.com

Joseph Frydl / AdAge:

How HSN and ‘Eat Pray Love’ Turn Content Into Commerce — Shopping Network's Promotion of Upcoming Julia Roberts Film Offers Marketers Lessons in Branded Entertainment — The business of marketing and the business of entertainment are fundamentally about the same thing: Turning audience attention into commerce.