Mediagazer: Money, Volunteers, Money, Patch, and Money (Lauren Kirchner/CJR)

1:45 AM ET, September 29, 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.

Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:

Why We Sold TechCrunch To AOL, And Where We Go From Here — By now you must have heard the news that AOL has acquired us. Here are videos of the on stage signing of the agreement and an interview with AOL CEO Tim Armstrong immediately afterwards. — So how did all this happen?

Discussion: Scott Rosenberg's Wordyard, MediaNama, WebNewser and The Wrap, more at Techmeme »

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.

more at Techmeme »

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

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

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

Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:

Condé 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 Condé Nast's newest iPad app, from the New Yorker, isn't much better …

Discussion: eMedia Vitals and Folio

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: VentureBeat, MediaPost, New York Observer, AdAge, Online Video News, All Things Digital, Deal Journal, The Huffington Post, paidContent, VC Cafe and Silicon Alley Insider, more at Techmeme »

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

Discussion: MediaMemo, Business Wire, NewTeeVee and Online Video News

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: paidContent, The Wire, The Wrap, MediaPost Raw and Tech Trader Daily, more at Techmeme »

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: MediaNama and ReadWriteWeb, more at Techmeme »

Patrick Smith / psmith, journalist:

Say hello to TheMediaBriefing.com: a new algorithm publishing model for the media industry — I've been rather quiet in recent weeks and with good cause: I've been helping to build a new digital media business, Briefing Media Ltd, and its first site www.themediabriefing.com, which goes live today (Tuesday).

Discussion: Neil Thackray's Business …

Steve Rosenbaum / The Wire:

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.

Joseph Tartakoff / paidContent:

Tech Blog Ad Network NetShelter Raises $15 Million — Longtime blog ad network NetShelter has raised $15 million in its latest round of funding. The company counts more than 200 independent technology news sites, including Neowin.it, MacRumors, and Slashgear, among the sites it sells ads for.

Discussion: WebNewser

Bill Mitchell / Newspay:

Post-Gazette's Premium PG+ Service Profitable But No ‘Holy Grail’ — A year into its subscription-based PG+ service, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has learned a few things about charging for content online: — Profitability is possible, if only modestly so, with incremental online services that control costs.

Discussion: Editors Weblog and eMedia Vitals

Keach Hagey / On Media's Blog:

Walcott leaves McClatchy for SmartBrief — John Walcott, formerly the Washington bureau chief of McClatchy, has left to join the DC-based online business information company SmartBrief. — Before McClatchy, Walcott led the Washington bureau of Knight Ridder.

Discussion: Romenesko

Mimi Turner / Hollywood Reporter:

Jeff Bewkes: Beware of Apple, Amazon deals — TW chief says low-cost digital giveaways devalue TV fare — LONDON — Time Warner boss Jeff Bewkes told British media execs that television is entering a second golden age of creativity and reward but warned against the danger of low-cost digital giveaways.

Lauren Kirchner / CJR:

Money, Volunteers, Money, Patch, and Money — Last week, some of the busiest people in journalism pried themselves away from their laptops, stood up from their kitchen table offices, and met face to face. It was the Block by Block Community News Summit, where the publishers …

Discussion: J-Lab, RJI and Vtdigger.org

Russell Adams / Digits:

New York Times Backs News-Aggregation Software Company — The New York Times Co. is joining a group of news organizations in backing the maker of software that helps publishers aggregate news, according to a person familiar with the matter. — The company, called Ongo, filed a trademark registration in April.

Discussion: USA Today and paidContent

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: The Wire, Mediaite and Inside Cable News

John Koblin / New York Observer:

It's Autumn. Do You Know Where Your Magazine Editors Are? — Over the summer, two weeklies announced job searches for two editors. It's autumn now, and The New York Times Magazine and Newsweek are still on the hunt. So where do things stand with the two biggest media stories of the moment?

Nadine Cheung / TVNewser:

This Just In: MTV Seeks Vice President of Daily News — Calling all newshounds! MTV is on the hunt for a new vice president of daily news to not only create on-air and online video content, but to also supervise the managing editors of News & Movies and the directors of video, field and digital production.

Discussion: WebNewser