Mediagazer: TechCrunch, Engadget and AOL: Great Theater, Great Dysfunction or Both? (Frank Reed/Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim)

9:55 AM ET, January 13, 2011

Top News:

AOL'S NEW PROBLEM: Mike Arrington — When AOL bought TechCrunch last September, the first question on everyone's lips was, “How long could Mike Arrington possibly last as an AOL employee?” — Yesterday, four months after the deal, we may have begun to learn the answer to that question.

Discussion: Darren Herman and TechCrunch

Frank Reed / Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim:

TechCrunch, Engadget and AOL: Great Theater, Great Dysfunction or Both? — Here at Marketing Pilgrim we have carved out a very specific niche in the Internet marketing blog space. We are not here to break stories. Why? Because that takes a different skill set than we have and, honestly, it's a lot of work.

Discussion: SAI

Marshall Kirkpatrick / ReadWriteWeb:

How Media Will Relate to Facebook in the Future — All media will be personalized in three to five years, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg said in September. One of the ways that's likely to happen everywhere just appeared on the UK Independent. — The site announced last night that it now offers granular subscriptions by Facebook.

Discussion: blogs.independent.co.uk, Poynter and Editors Weblog

Paul Bradshaw / Online Journalism Blog:

The Independent's Facebook innovation — The Independent newspaper has introduced a fascinating new feature on the site that allows users to follow articles by individual writers and news about specific football teams via Facebook. — It's one of those ideas so simple you wonder …

Discussion: Future of Media

The Staggers:

Exclusive interview: Julian Assange on Murdoch, Manning and the threat from China — The WikiLeaks founder talks to John Pilger. — In this week's New Statesman, the WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange talks to John Pilger about Bradley Manning, his “insurance” files on Rupert Murdoch and News Corp …

Discussion: Poynter, New York Magazine, News: News blog, The First Post, Gawker, Yahoo! News, Runnin' Scared, The Daily Caller, Press Gazette, The Wire and The Huffington Post

Josh Halliday / Guardian:
WikiLeaks: Julian Assange has Rupert Murdoch ‘insurance files’

Discussion: The Staggers, Future Perfect Publishing, Crikey and News: News blog

Read It Later Blog:

Is Mobile Affecting When We Read? — Printed media used to allow us to read in the places we found most comfortable. When you imagine yourself reading the newspaper it's probably in your favorite chair, at the breakfast table, or at the cafe with an orange mocha frappuccino in your hand.

Discussion: ReadWriteWeb, Media Decoder, eMedia Vitals, paidContent, Yahoo! News, The Next Web and Poynter, more at Techmeme »

Damon Kiesow / Poynter:

The first look at The Daily, Rupert Murdoch's iPad newspaper — An official introduction to The Daily, Rupert Murdoch's new iPad newspaper, is expected on Jan. 19, possibly at an event with Apple's Steve Jobs. — But peeking inside the source code of its recently-launched companion website …

Discussion: Yahoo! News, The Huffington Post and MinOnline

Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:

Google Acquires eBook Technologies — Google has just acquired eBook Technologies, according to a notice that is currently appearing on the company's homepage. — Google confirmed the acquisition, with a spokesperson giving us this statement: … So what exactly is eBook Technologies?

Discussion: Softpedia News, PC World, Electricpig.co.uk, eMedia Vitals, SlashGear, ReadWriteWeb and eBookNewser

/ Paul Kedrosky's Infectious Greed:

Curation is the New Search is the New Curation — In the beginning there was curation, and it was good. People found interesting things on the web, created directories of those things, and then you found what you were looking for inside those curated lists.

Discussion: VentureBeat, more at Techmeme »

Felix Salmon: Algo-powered curation — Paul Kedrosky has a great little essay today …

Chris Rovzar / New York Magazine:

Piers Morgan Debuts on the New York Cocktail Scene With Jabs at O'Reilly, Fox — Last week, new CNN host Piers Morgan e-mailed his old boss Rupert Murdoch, who'd helped him get his start as an editor at the London Sun and then the News of the World. “You made me an editor at 28 and gave …

Discussion: Media Decoder, Gretawire, The Awl, Mediaite, Inside Cable News, The Wire and FishbowlDC

Jeff Bercovici / Mixed Media:
How CNN's Piers Morgan Cut Bill O'Reilly Down to Size

Discussion: The Daily Beast

Tracy Samantha Schmidt / Chicago Online Marketing:

Social Media Icon: @JayRosen_NYU explains how he tweets — Jay Rosen teaches journalism at NYU and is a leading media critic. He blogs at Press Think and produces a weekly podcast on news and technology called Rebooting The News. He has almost 50,000 followers on Twitter.

Discussion: Poynter

Bill Carter / Media Decoder:

Conan Talks About Ratings, Leno and NBC — Pasadena, Ca.— Conan O'Brien had a brief message Wednesday about his relocation from NBC to the cable channel TBS: “Everything has worked out great for me.” — To reinforce that point - and perhaps to attempt to pre-empt any analysis from competitors …

Discussion: Media & Entertainment, The Wrap, New York Magazine, Speakeasy, Moraes on TV, Mediaite, The Wire and Flavorwire

C.W. Anderson / Nieman Journalism Lab:

“Blood libel”: How language evolves and spreads within online worlds — When Sarah Palin used the term “blood libel” to describe purported attacks on her and the Tea Party movement in the wake of Saturday's tragic shooting in Tucson, some were left wondering why the former governor would use …

Discussion: National Review, Mediaite, PostPartisan, Poynter, The Plum Line, Human Events, TPMMuckraker, The Caucus and Media Matters for America

Greg Sandoval / CNET News:

Bye-bye, physical media? Sony closes CD plant — Sony Corp., the company that brought us the Walkman and the parent company of music label Sony Music Entertainment, plans to shut down a CD-manufacturing plant in South New Jersey in March. — About 300 employees will be laid off once …

Ethan / ...My heart's in Accra:

What if Tunisia had a revolution, but nobody watched? — On December 17, a 26 year old Tunisian man named Mohamed Bouazizi reached the end of his rope. An unemployed university graduate, Bouazizi had become a seller of fruits and vegetables in the southern Tunisian town of Sidi Bouzid.

Discussion: Global Voices in English, ReadWriteWeb and New York Times

Stuart Elliott / Media Decoder:

‘Promotion’ Plus ‘Commercial’ Equals ‘Promercial’? — By now, it is common for television viewers to watch a segment of a show in which a brand or product is integrated into the plot. The goal among marketers for such branded entertainment, as it is known, is to replace commercials …

Tim Carmody / Snarkmarket:

Multiple intelligences (or Why smart TVs should be more like PCs) — Like Robin, I love the counter-conventional wisdom John Herrman brings to “I Just Want A Dumb TV.” And I really like Frank Chimero's distinction between “steadfast,” long-enduring, simple tools and “hot-swap” components of a system that you can change on the fly.

Jeff Bercovici / Mixed Media:

Why Is Mayor Bloomberg Mixing Business and Philanthropy? — Billionaire Michael Bloomberg has a lot on his plate: He's mayor of America's largest city, owner of one of the world's largest and fastest-growing news organizations and patron of a $1.75 billion charitable foundation.

Discussion: Poynter

Howard Kurtz / The Daily Beast:

Correction on My Darrell Issa Story — I'd like to set the record straight on one of my stories. — In late November, I asked Rep. Darrell Issa's spokesman, Kurt Bardella, for an interview with the congressman. He said he would see what he could do. — That afternoon my phone rang …

Discussion: Mediaite, On Media's Blog, TPM LiveWire, The Huffington Post, Salon and Poynter

Hamilton Nolan / Gawker:
Why Did Howard Kurtz Sit on an Embarrassing Correction for Six Weeks?

Discussion: Regret the Error, FishbowlDC, The Huffington Post and Chickaboomer

Andrew Martin / New York Times:

As the Web Turns — Hey, fellas, want to spice things up with your lady? Procter & Gamble, the consumer products giant, has some ideas. — A Web site created by the company for husbands and fathers offers articles with titles like “Conquering Sex Problems.”

Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:

YouTube Brings More Ads To Your Phone, Next To Justin Bieber and Lady GaGa — YouTube on your phone is popular, but until now it hasn't made Google much money. The search giant has only been able to slap ads on the home page of its mobile version, and on search results.

Discussion: GigaOM and TechCrunch

Sarah Lacy / TechCrunch:

First Amazon Took Down Booksellers...Are Publishers Next? — It's not that Amazon set out to destroy small book stores. They just offered a better option for a large number of people. Now, Amazon is increasingly offering small features here and there that taken together may start …

Edmund Lee / AdAge:

MacWorld Publisher IDG Launches Private Advertising Exchange — Tech Giant Set to Prove Publishers Can Launch Ad Exchanges, Too — NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — More publishers are looking to claim ownership over digital advertising to combat the growing dominance of Wall Street-like trading desks …

Discussion: Publishing Executive News and AdExchanger.com

ProPublica:

What Do 50 Cent, Carmen Electra & Shaquille O'Neal Have in Common? Touting Penny Stocks — Over the weekend, the popular rapper 50 Cent urged his 3.8 million Twitter followers to buy the stock of a microscopic company in Florida. The penny stock jumped 290 percent on Monday.

Discussion: DealBook, Gawker, Dealbreaker and PopEater

The Insider / Digital Music News:

Sorry, You're Still Married to MySpace Music... So what should your next move be with MySpace Music? The following is a guest post from Caren Kelleher, head of business development at Songkick, manager of unsigned band The Lighthouse and the Whaler, and an HBS grad to boot.

Discussion: SAI and MediaMemo