Mediagazer: Barry Diller: Ask.com Has No Value Inside Of IAC (Leena Rao/TechCrunch)

AOL Shifts Emphasis, Bit by Bit — AOL Inc. went on a shopping binge Tuesday, announcing three acquisitions, as it tries to redefine itself as a hub for Internet videos and articles on various trendy topics. — Back when it was called America Online, AOL was the first introduction to the Internet for many Americans.

Discussion: GigaOM, Venture Capital Dispatch, New York Times, Deal Journal and Digits

Keith J. Kelly / New York Post: AOL feels the Crunch

Jim Romenesko / Romenesko:

WSJ memo touts ad, circulation revenue gains — From: Krafinski, Marianne On Behalf Of Hinton, Les — Subject: FW: to be sent from Les's inbox - HOLD FOR MY CALL — This Saturday we launched WSJ Weekend to positive reviews and great enthusiasm from a broad set of readers and advertisers.

Discussion: MediaFile, Gawker and paidContent

Alexander Howard / ReadWriteWeb:

Katie Couric: We Need Better Filters for a “Tsunami of News” — Will hanging out with the geeks improve network news? Judging from CBS News anchor Katie Couric's comments at the Web 2.0 Expo yesterday, the potential is there. — Will it matter? In a news environment …

CNN:

Fake pimp from ACORN videos tries to ‘punk’ CNN correspondent — Editor's note: CNN takes an unprecedented look inside the young conservative activist movement in the documentary “Right On The Edge,” which airs Oct. 2 and 3 at 8 p.m. and 11 p.m. EST. — Lusby, Maryland (CNN) …

David Kaplan / paidContent:

Facebook's Sandberg: In The Future, All Media Will Be Personalized — There will always be a place for mass marketing, but in the next three- to five years, a website that isn't tailored to a specific user's interest will be an anachronism, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg told Arianna Huffington at the latter's Advertising Week event.

Discussion: ReadWriteWeb, more at Techmeme »

Frederic Lardinois / ReadWriteWeb:

The Short Lifespan of a Tweet: Retweets Only Happen Within the First Hour — For some, Twitter is a social network and for others it is just a broadcast medium. Judging from the latest data from social media analytics and monitoring service Sysomos, for the majority of users, Twitter is indeed mostly a broadcast medium.

Discussion: Mashable!, Web Analytics World and broadstuff, more at Techmeme »

Mark Leibovich / New York Times:

Being Glenn Beck — Glenn Beck was sprawled out on his office couch a couple of weeks ago, taking — as self-helpers like to say — an inventory. “I think what the country is going through right now is, in a way, what I went through with my alcoholism,” he told me. “You can either live or die.

Discussion: MediaPost, The Huffington Post, BAGnewsNotes, New York Magazine, Mediaite, Think Progress, Vanity Fair, Strupp, TVNewser, The Wire, Inside Cable News and Ben Smith's Blog

Celeste Katz / The Daily Politics:

Breaking: Carl Paladino Gets Into Confrontation With Albany Reporter: Updated With Video — Now it's REALLY personal. — Actually, he really IS mad tonight. — Our Glenn Blain is up in Lake George at the Sagamore Hotel, where GOP gubernatorial candidate Carl Paladino is making a stop …

Discussion: New York Observer, Mediaite, MyFox New York, Talking Points Memo and TPMMuckraker

Lymari Morales / Gallup:

Distrust in U.S. Media Edges Up to Record High — Perceptions of liberal bias still far outnumber perceptions of conservative bias — WASHINGTON, D.C. — For the fourth straight year, the majority of Americans say they have little or no trust in the mass media to report the news fully, accurately, and fairly.

Discussion: Top Digital Journal News, The Atlantic Online, BrauBlog and Top of the Ticket

Ben Kuchera / Ars Technica:

Scared to open the package: adventures in game writer bribery — One of the best perks of my job is the ability to play games before they come out, and of course I get copies sent to my door. It's not a bad deal. Most of the time the games come in nondescript boxes containing nothing more than the game …

Jim Romenesko / Romenesko:

Boston.com's Beard named National Journal Group online editor — David Beard Joins National Journal Group as Deputy Editor-in-Chief and Online Editor — Washington, D.C. (September 29, 2010) — National Journal Group announced today that online news specialist David Beard is joining …

Discussion: Nieman Journalism Lab, FishbowlNY and The Wrap

Robinsloan / Twitter Blog:

Tweets in your media, media in your Tweets — On a sunny September Sunday inside a non-descript trailer in downtown Los Angeles, media evolved. — There—in the shadow of the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards, next to an outdoor stage where Justin Bieber would soon perform …

Foster Kamer / Runnin' Scared:

New York Post, Rupert Murdoch Media Empire Fooled by the Old “UN Ambassador to Aliens” Hoax — If you're anything like the many New Yorkers who pick up the New York Post on Sunday mornings, you might have noticed a pretty fun story in those first few pages: in the event we're ever contacted …

Kara Swisher / BoomTown:

Exclusive: Major Meltdown at Yahoo As More Top Execs To Depart, Including U.S. Head Hilary Schneider — The executive turmoil at the very top of Yahoo continues, with the company poised to announce the resignations of three top execs, including U.S. head Hilary Schneider (pictured here), according to sources close to the situation.

Discussion: paidContent, AdExchanger.com, VentureBeat, Silicon Alley Insider and Tech Trader Daily, more at Techmeme »

Leena Rao / TechCrunch:

Barry Diller: Ask.com Has No Value Inside Of IAC — Many of us may have forgotten that Ask.com is a search engine just like Google and Bing. It seems that IAC's Barry Diller, who owns Ask.com, seems to have no memory of Ask's value as well. Diller sat down with Michael Arrington today …

Discussion: MediaFile, Search Engine Land and New York Observer, more at Techmeme »

Joe Pompeo / The Wire:

Mediaite's Dan Abrams: “I'm Doing This Because We're Making A Profit” — Abrams Media, which publishes Mediaite and a handful of other news aggregation websites, will launch three additional sites and turn a profit at the beginning of next year, said the company's founder, Dan Abrams …

Discussion: WebNewser

Melissa Maerz / Show Tracker:

An FCC complaint takes aim at TV news ‘experts’ paid to promote products — Earlier today, the nonprofit watchdog group Free Press filed a complaint with Federal Communications Commission based on Los Angeles Times columnist James Rainey's complaints about hidden advertising embedded in newscasts.

Discussion: Save the News Blog

David Kaplan / paidContent:

Pandora's Ad Network Jumps From PC, Phone To TV, BluRay Players — After launching its own ad platform for the iPad this past summer, streaming radio player Pandora is making its ad system more at home. Later this morning, the company will announce that it's expanding its audio ad network …

Discussion: media.fordvehicles.com

Jill Ambroz / Folio:

Putting the ‘Ad’ in iPad — What formats drive the best results? — Some have referred to the current marketplace as the ‘golden age’ of online advertising, with the advent of 3G technology and the iPad craze. But the publishing industry seems to be missing out on at least part of what could be a $50 billion ad spend.

Joshua Benton / Nieman Journalism Lab:

Margaret Atwood on Twitter-as-performance, and why you should keep your Kindle in a lead-lined box — Continuing our impromptu series Literary Figures Talk About Twitter: The terrific Canadian novelist Margaret Atwood did an interview with Big Think about (among other things) her usage of and thoughts about Twitter.

AT Internet Institute:

News websites: Facebook ahead of Twitter in terms of traffic source — Social networks are at the heart of breaking news, playing an increasingly essential role in this field. What level of traffic do social networks such as Facebook and Twitter generate for websites?

Discussion: paidContent, eMedia Vitals and Shaping the Future …

Rob O'Regan / eMedia Vitals:

Consumer Reports, Sporting News tinker with paid content models — Reactions: — Publishers continue to experiment with paid content models - even paywall pioneer Consumer Reports, which has been charging for online content since 1997. — Consumer Reports, which has 3.3 million paid online subscribers …

Nicholas Carlson / The Wire:

Ex-AOL Media Boss Bill Wilson Takes On $144.9 Billion Local Ad Market As Chief Digital Officer At Townsquare — Bill Wilson has a new gig. The former AOL EVP, who started formulating that company's turnaround as a twenty-first century Time Inc. even before Tim Armstrong joined …

Discussion: paidContent and WebNewser