Mediagazer: Barnes & Noble on Block (Wall Street Journal)

4:45 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 and Runnin' Scared

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

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

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, AOL Corp and MediaPost, more at Techmeme »

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

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

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

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, more at Techmeme »

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

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

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

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

Wall Street Journal:

Barnes & Noble on Block — Bookseller Explores Options, Pressured by Low Stock Price and Digital Onslaught — Barnes & Noble Inc., put itself up for sale Tuesday, succumbing to pressure from shareholder activists as digital books erode the traditional business of the nation's largest bookstore chain.

Discussion: DealBook, Business Wire, Gawker, bookforum.com, Kindle Review, GalleyCat, Between the Lines Blog, New York Magazine and Voices on All Things Digital

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.

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 …

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

Daniel Lyons / Newsweek:

It's All About the Web — To hear Dan Abrams tell it, the TV business is about to be radically disrupted by the Internet, just as the print media business has been. And he's dying to be a part of the disruption. “In five years, anyone who is not actively involved in the Web is not in media …

Discussion: Mediaite, Gawker and New York Magazine

Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:

AOL Gets Out of Kayak — Forgive me if this is old news, but it seemed new to me: AOL says it has sold off its stake in Kayak, the giant travel site (okay, not giant, but big among the iPad-owning tech set, at least), for $19 million. The company mentions the deal as an aside …

Discussion: paidContent:UK and Voices on All Things Digital

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 …