Mediagazer: IGN and GameStop Combine Online Content and Media Sites (Kara Swisher/BoomTown)

Nadia Damouni / Reuters:

Exclusive: AOL mulls breakup, then merger with Yahoo — (Reuters) - AOL Inc, undergoing a radical transformation into the king of content on the Internet, is actively exploring a breakup involving a complicated series of transactions that may lead to a merger with Yahoo Inc, sources close to the plans told Reuters.

Discussion: The Social, Mashable!, SAI, TechCrunch, Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim, Tech Trader Daily, Techland, Fast Company, VentureBeat, Search Engine Land, The Next Web, New York Magazine and AfterDawn.com, more at Techmeme »

Jeremy W. Peters / Media Decoder:

Dan Abrams Plans 3 Web Sites — After a successful run with his Web sites that cover media, sports, gossip and technology, Dan Abrams, perhaps best known not as an Internet entrepreneur but as an MSNBC personality, is expanding. — Mr. Abrams will start three online properties early next year …

Discussion: On Media's Blog and Poynter

Amy Larocca / New York Magazine:

Planet Monocle — Tyler Brûlé ushered in a design revolution with Wallpaper magazine. His new global media strategy is equally rarefied, and only occasionally ridiculous. Listen to him for a while, and the world seems positively aglow with possibility.

Andrew Wallenstein / paidContent:

How Mark Zuckerberg Fooled ‘60 Minutes’ — Leave it to 60 Minutes to pass off Facebook's utterly meaningless redesign of the site's profile pages as some kind of “exclusive” worth leading a segment on the company's founder, Mark Zuckerberg. It's not just that correspondent Lesley Stahl …

Discussion: Guardian, Social Medium, SelectStart, New York Magazine, Venture Capital Dispatch, The Social, Facebook Blog, The Wire, VentureBeat, International Media and Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim, more at Techmeme »

Wall Street Journal:

No Longer Tiny, Netflix Gets Respect—and Creates Fear — As Rivals Look to Counter Its Online Movie-Streaming Service, Hollywood Cautiously Cuts Deals to Provide Some Content — After years as a bit player in entertainment, Netflix Inc. is being eyed for a new role by Hollywood: industry hulk.

Discussion: New York Times, GigaOM, Engadget, DSLreports and SAI, more at Techmeme »

Brian Stelter / New York Times:

ESPN Says Study Shows Little Effort to Cut Cable — Seeking to understand the cutting of cable cords, ESPN has waded into the Nielsen Company's audience sample and concluded that the cancellations are currently a “very minor” phenomenon. — The sports network's study provides a new answer …

Discussion: Online Video News, The Next Web and Company Town

David Carr / New York Times:

To Beat ‘Today,’ Look to Tomorrow — When a sports team loses long enough, fans get restless and soon enough, the coach ends up getting the gate. After all, you can't fire the whole team, right? — Unless you work in television. Last week, every single member of the perennially last place “Early Show” on CBS was shown the door.

Discussion: TVNewser

Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:

Hulu Orders Up a New Bite-Size Show. It's Going to Taste a Lot Like “Talk Soup.” — Hulu is a great place to see shows that just ran on TV. Is it a good place to see Internet shows that talk about shows that just ran on TV? — Stay tuned! — Plans are underway for a Hulu …

Discussion: mediabistro.com and The Next Web

Lucia Moses / Brandweek:

Apps as Money Pit — Magazine publishers are pouring money into apps, seduced by the notion that tablet computers can open a new avenue to make money from their content. But will they ever make it back? Certainly not in the near term and, perhaps, never.

Jeremy W. Peters / Media Decoder:

Cosmo Sets Sights on Mongolia — Coming to a newsstand most likely not near you: Cosmo Mongolia. — Cosmopolitan, which has been helping women all over the world unlock the secrets to better sex, tighter tushes and the enigmatic male psyche for four decades, will begin to sell a Mongolia edition this week.

Discussion: New York Observer and New York Magazine

Dominic Ponsford / Press Gazette:

KPMG: Print media ‘very resilient’, paywalls unpopular — Just two per cent of users would pay for a website that they currently use for free, according to a new survey published today KPMG. — The KPMG media and entertainment barometer study also revealed that despite growing use of digital media …

Discussion: paidContent:UK

Kara Swisher / BoomTown:

IGN and GameStop Combine Online Content and Media Sites — IGN Entertainment, the online gaming content site and largely offline games retailer GameStop are integrating their online media and retail offerings, in an effort to target video gamers from discovery to purchase.

Lucia Moses / Mediaweek:

Salon's Swan Song? — Popular site seeks buyer amidst tough market — Who will buy Salon.com? The site's search for a buyer has drawn attention to its troubled business model as a standalone news site, but its content and audience could be valuable to a company willing to assume its losses.