Mediagazer: VCs Are Blowing It And Will Totally Miss The Web Video Revolution (Steve Rosenbaum/Silicon Alley Insider)

5:55 PM ET, September 28, 2010

Top News:

Tim Armstrong: We Got TechCrunch! — I'm very pleased to announce that we have acquired TechCrunch. Details are in the press release below, and I'm sure founder Michael Arrington will have a few words to say as well. This is a great complement to our continued investment in world class content.

Edmund Lee / AdAge:

Why AOL Bought TechCrunch — Tim Armstrong Explains Why AOL Decided to Buy This Time Rather Than Build — NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — AOL CEO Tim Armstrong told Ad Age today that he wants a “build-first” culture at his company, in which the growth is sparked internally, like the world's oldest startup.

Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:
We Nailed It! AOL Has Bought TechCrunch

Discussion: TechCrunch and The Snitch, more at Techmeme »

journalists.org:

Finalists for the 2010 Online Journalism Awards announced — Finalists for the 2010 Online Journalism Awards, many pushing the envelope of innovation and excellence in digital storytelling and distribution, were announced today by the Online News Association and its partner, the School of Communication at the University of Miami.

Discussion: Lost Remote, Journalism.co.uk, West Seattle Blog, Romenesko, The Texas Tribune, Salon and ProPublica

Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:

Exclusive: Here's a Deal That Is Happening-AOL Buying Web Video Distributor 5Min — Here's a deal we can confirm: AOL is buying Web video start-up 5Min Media. — The price for the deal is between $50 million and $65 million, sources close to the situation said. AOL (AOL) plans to announce the deal Tuesday morning.

Discussion: MediaPost, AdAge, The Wrap, New York Observer, Online Video News, Deal Journal, The Huffington Post, paidContent, VC Cafe and Silicon Alley Insider

Robin Wauters / TechCrunch:
Confirmed: AOL Buys Video Syndication Company 5min (For $65 Million)

Discussion: Business Wire, MediaMemo, Online Video News and NewTeeVee, more at Techmeme »

Jay Rosen / Pressthink:

Why I am Not a Journalist: A True Story — The short answer is: I wanted to be, but I screwed it up, so I couldn't be. — Discovering journalism in college saved me. At the time (1976) I was on a track that would have led to an assistant manager's job at an Applebees.

Discussion: CJR, Romenesko and Media Nation

Michael Calderone / Yahoo! News:

Huffington Post fires back at ex-blogger Fowler — The Huffington Post is firing back at Mayhill Fowler, one of the site's many unpaid bloggers, who scored a major political scoop during the 2008 presidential campaign. — Huffington Post spokesman Mario Ruiz took issue with Fowler's decision Monday …

Discussion: Mediaite, Gawker, Romenesko, DailyFinance, LA Observed, Ben Smith's Blog and Mayhill Fowler

Kara Swisher / BoomTown:

Exclusive: Yahoo Exec Churn Continues, With Media Head Pitaro Ready to Bolt — Last week at a Goldman Sachs investment conference, voluble Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz tried to minimize the impact of the recent spate of significant executive departures at the Internet giant.

Discussion: The Wrap, The Wire, paidContent, MediaPost Raw and Tech Trader Daily

Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:

Conde Nast's iPad Apps Are Too Portly. Blame Adobe. — The Wired iPad app has a weight problem. — The first one came in at about half a gigabyte of memory, and it hasn't shrunk that much since. — And Conde Nast's newest iPad app, from the New Yorker, isn't much better …

Discussion: Folio, eMedia Vitals, Apple and kottke.org

David Kaplan / paidContent:

AOL's Project Devil Aims To Update The Banner Once And For All — Just in time for the first day of New York City's Advertising Week, AOL (NYSE: AOL) sought to get a jump on attention getting news with its latest effort to build a better advertising business.

Discussion: Burst Media Company Blog

Georg Szalai / Hollywood Reporter:

Analyst: NBC Network Is Worth ‘Negative $600 Million’ — USA's estimated value: $11.7 billion. — NEW YORK — USA Network is the most valuable part of NBC Universal at $11.7 billion, but the NBC network is worth a negative $600 million, according to Wunderlich Securities analyst Matthew Harrigan.

Discussion: Company Town, NewTeeVee, TVbytheNumbers and Mediaweek

Staci D. Kramer / paidContent:

Knight Promises To Cover Journalism Online Costs For Some News Orgs — The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation has funded any number of experiments to create sustainable journalism, investing millions of dollars in startups, academics and more. The latest effort offers …

Discussion: WebNewser

Lauren Indvik / Mashable!:

Twitter Shelves @EarlyBird Deals — At today's IAB Mixx conference in Manhattan, Twitter COO Dick Costolo announced that Twitter would be retiring its Early Bird advertising product, at least for now. — Early Bird allowed select advertisers to promote exclusive offers for Twitter users through …

Discussion: ReadWriteWeb, more at Techmeme »

Steve Rosenbaum / Silicon Alley Insider:

VCs Are Blowing It And Will Totally Miss The Web Video Revolution — Venture Capitalists did the right thing five years ago—they got excited about video. Back then, video meant hardware. Pipe. Technology. It was a big problem, and for lots of folks, it seemed like there could be a big winner.

Joe Pompeo / The Wire:

TheWeek.com Staffs Up With Radar Refugees — For years, The Week didn't concern itself much with the web. It's a publication, after all, that already performs the same basic function as most blogs and aggregators — curating and contextualizing the news cycle; only it does so in print, and on a weekly basis rather than a daily one.

Discussion: Romenesko, mediabistro.com and Most Recent Home Page Posts …

Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg / Wall Street Journal:

Authors Feel Pinch in Age of E-Books — Author John Pipkin worries about the e-book business model: 'I've had to rethink my plans in terms of supporting my family full time as a writer.' — When literary agent Sarah Yake shopped around Kirsten Kaschock's debut novel “Sleight” this year …

Discussion: The Awl

James Hibberd / The Hollywood Reporter:

Another Twitter feed gets CBS comedy deal — Exclu: Call it “$#*! My Roommate Says.” — CBS is developing two new comedies, including a project based off a Twitter feed produced by social-media master Ashton Kutcher. — Following on the successful launch of its Twitter-inspired comedy “$#*!

Discussion: PopWatch, Vanity Fair, Gawker, The Marquee Blog, Splitsider, Mediaite, From Inside the Box, MediaPost Raw, WebNewser, Movieline, New York Magazine and TV Tattle

Georg Szalai / Hollywood Reporter:

How Ken Jautz plans to boost CNN ratings — Calls Piers Morgan, Eliot Spitzer ‘excellent communicators’ … The Hollywood Reporter: What has been the biggest problem for CNN, and how do you fix it? — Ken Jautz: The biggest issue is to improve our primetime ratings.

Discussion: Mediaite, The Wire and Inside Cable News

Maureen O'Connor / Gawker:

Which Tabloids Lie the Most? — In the constantly-contradicting world of tabloid journalism, is anyone reliable? We analyzed 20 months of reported break-ups, marriages, and pregnancies to tabulate our first-ever Tabloid Reality Index, batting averages for America's five major celebrity glossies and the rumors they monger.

Discussion: Mediaite and The Consumerist

Dan Zak / Washington Post:

‘The Wire’ writer David Simon among MacArthur genius grant winners — David Simon bristled as he listened to the voice mail. A lawyer in Washington wanted to talk about a “personal matter.” Expecting a lawsuit or subpoena or worse, Simon dialed her back after a lunch in Baltimore two weeks ago.

Discussion: New York Observer, New York Times, Reuters, From Inside the Box, New York Press, TV Tattle and New York Magazine

Jack Shafer / Slate:

The Op-Ed Page's Back Pages — Upon turning 40 years old last week, the New York Times op-ed page threw an 18-page party for itself in its print edition (Sept. 26) and staged a weeklong—Sept. 20-27—celebration on the Web. As self-lionizing shindigs go, the Times affair was fairly sedate.

Discussion: The Learning Network and New York Times

Georg Szalai / Hollywood Reporter:

CBS, NBC upset PBS at News & Doc Emmys — Nominated Letterman extortionist loses to ‘60 Minutes’ — NEW YORK — In an upset at Monday night's 31st annual News & Documentary Emmy Awards, CBS News with seven honors and NBC News with six wins plus a CNBC award edged out usual frontrunner PBS, which earned five awards.

Discussion: TVNewser and TVWeek.com

Sue Zeidler / Reuters:

Disney's ABC looks inside and outside for ABC News chief — * Looks for person with technology experience — * Considers internal and external candidates — Will Silicon Valley digerati shape the destiny of Walt Disney Co's (DIS.N) ABC News? — That's the question that Anne Sweeney …