Top News:
New York Times:
Betting on News, AOL Is Buying The Huffington Post — The Huffington Post, which began in 2005 with a meager $1 million investment and has grown into one of the most heavily visited news Web sites in the country, is being acquired by AOL in a deal that creates an unlikely pairing of two online media giants.
Discussion:
GigaOM, Slate, Media Decoder, Mixed Media, VentureBeat, Mashable!, The Awl, Poynter, The Daily Beast, Press Gazette, Reason, Guardian, Daring Fireball, broadstuff, Reflections of a Newsosaur, CNNMoney.com, Epicenter, Guardian, @stamos, Twist Image, @stevecase, Rebooting The News, Newspaper Death Watch, FT Alphaville, Tuned In, TechEye, Guardian, Mark Evans Tech, Gearlog, BBC College of Journalism Blog, Editors Weblog, The Next Web, PSFK, @agahran, New York Magazine, @loic, @turoczy, @gabrielsnyder, Feministing, The Big Picture, DCist, Indecision Forever, The Daily Dish, Vanity Fair, @mediatwit, @iwantmedia, @carr2n, @mediatwit, eMedia Vitals and Gannett Blog, more at Techmeme »
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Kara Swisher / BoomTown:
You've Got Arianna: AOL Buys Huffington Post for $315 Million in Cash and Stock, Appoints Huffington Editor in Chief — In a bold and definitive move, AOL is paying $315 million, mostly in cash, to buy the Huffington Post, one of the Web's most prominent news and opinion sites.
Discussion:
Deal Journal, Guardian, The Awl, Scott Rosenberg's Wordyard, VentureBeat, MinnPost, ReadWriteWeb, Wall Street Journal, AOL Corp, MediaMemo, SAI, Salon, @rafat, PC World, TechCrunch, Los Angeles Times, L.A. Times Tech Blog, Digits, Mashable!, AdExchanger.com, SAI, The Daily Beast, New York Observer, Between the Lines Blog, Mediaite, paidContent, AdAge, SAI, Softpedia News, Media Nation, DNAinfo, Neowin.net, @ischafer, @ariannahuff, Computerworld, Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim, The Huffington Post, newsfeed.time.com, Reuters, Bloomberg, @rafat, CNET News, @dannysullivan, @megan, L.A. Times Tech Blog, @ariannahuff, The Wrap, Howard Lindzon, LA Observed, News Desk, virtualeconomics, Mixed Media, FishbowlNY, SAI, ConversionRater, Geekosystem, SAI, @ericjackson, The Next Web, @palafo and Search Engine Watch, more at Techmeme »
Arianna Huffington / The Huffington Post:
When HuffPost Met AOL: ‘A Merger of Visions’ — I've used this space to make all sorts of important HuffPost announcements: new sections, new additions to the HuffPost team, new HuffPost features and new apps. But none of them can hold a candle to what we are announcing today.
Discussion:
BuzzMachine, Mediactive, The Daily Fix, DealBook, BlogPost, FT Alphaville, L.A. Times Tech Blog, Mediaweek, Tech Trader Daily, Deadline.com, Company Town, Tech Trader Daily, Vanity Fair, MediaPost, Online NewsHour, Politics Daily, newsfeed.time.com, Chickaboomer, HighTalk, NetNewsCheck Latest, BBC, Runnin' Scared, The Startup Foundry, Talking Biz News, MinOnline, Disruptors, Washington Post, The Huffington Post, TBD All News, Post Tech, Benjamin Cohen on Technology, New York Observer, Fast Company, Media News, TheMediaBriefing, Big Journalism, paidContent:UK, rbr.com, Beet.TV, Future of Journalism, Yahoo! News and thinq_, more at Techmeme »
Dan Lyons / The Daily Beast:
Huffington Post and AOL: You've Got a Mess — AOL's pseudo journalism, Huffington Post's miniscule ad rates, and editors with big egos and a tough boss will doom the just-created media company. Dan Lyons on the disastrous deal. — It is no surprise that AOL is buying Huffington Post.
Discussion:
Newsonomics, Adweek, Felix Salmon, Hot Air, SAI and Ben Smith's Blog, more at Techmeme »
Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:
AOL + Huffington Post Won't Go to 11. But It Does Make Sense. — There are lots of Web M&As that don't make much sense. But after you get past the “OMG!!!!!” novelty of AOL's $315 million Huffington Post buy, this one has a straightforward logic to it: Old, big, slow company buys new …
Discussion:
CJR, @stevecase, Guardian, BlogPost, @espiers, The Now/ledge, GigaOM, TechCrunch, BoomTown, USA Today and @latimesrainey
Kara Swisher / BoomTown:
Exclusive Video: AOL's Tim Armstrong and HuffPo's Arianna Huffington Talk About Their Acquisition Touchdown From the Super Bowl — Here's an exclusive video interview BoomTown did with Huffington Post co-founder and Editor in Chief Arianna Huffington and AOL CEO Tim Armstrong this morning …
Discussion:
Gawker, Venture Capital Dispatch, Guardian, SAI and Screenwerk
Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:
Arianna Huffington on Her New AOL Job: “I Want to Stay Here Forever” — Tim Armstrong and company spent yesterday explaining their $315 million Huffington Post purchase to the press. Now they're doing the same for Wall Street, via a conference call. — AOL CFO Artie Minson prepped investors …
Discussion:
SAI and On Media's Blog
Ken Auletta / News Desk:
Tim Armstrong's Hail Mary Pass — AOL's purchase of the Huffington Post is the equivalent of a fourth-quarter Hail Mary pass. The game clock was ticking down on C.E.O. Tim Armstrong's pledge to demonstrate by the second half of this year that AOL could mount a comeback from the near dead.
Discussion:
Guardian, Adweek, Brooks in Beta, CNET News and SAI
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
Armstrong's Internal Memo To AOLers About The HuffPo Deal — At midnight, AOL announced that it will buy the Huffington Post for $315 million. Below is the internal memo AOL CEO Tim Armstrong sent to all AOL employees (except us, they don't trust us with anything) about the transaction.
Discussion:
Guardian, Lost Remote, The Wire, SAI, Newsbook, Media News International, VoIP Watch, Fortune, @arrington, @rabois and The Huffington Post, more at Techmeme »
Bill Kirtz / Poynter:
Zucker: NBC tried to buy Huffington Post for 18 months, couldn't agree on price — Just-ousted NBC Universal president and chief executive Jeff Zucker today praised AOL's $ 315 million acquisition of The Huffington Post. He said NBC had tried for 18 months to buy the popular blog but “could never agree on price.”
Discussion:
New York Observer
Felix Salmon:
HuffPo's future — The $315 million that AOL is paying …
HuffPo's future — The $315 million that AOL is paying …
Discussion:
Yahoo! News, Most Recent Home Page Posts …, The Daily Beast, DealBook and DealBook
Alexis Madrigal / The Atlantic Online:
The Note Arianna Huffington Sent to Her Bloggers About the AOL Acquisition
The Note Arianna Huffington Sent to Her Bloggers About the AOL Acquisition
Discussion:
Poynter, The Huffington Post, SAI, PC World, tag me with a spoon and Soup
Paul Carr / TechCrunch:
I, For One, Welcome Our New Huffington Overlord
I, For One, Welcome Our New Huffington Overlord
Discussion:
@arrington, Faster Future, @rabois, Reuters and AdExchanger.com
Megan Garber / Nieman Journalism Lab:
“It just feels inevitable”: Nick Denton on Gawker Media sites' long-in-the-works new layout — This morning, “the biggest event in Gawker Media history” took place: Gawker's sites have officially launched their redesigns. Go to gawker.com — or jezebel.com or deadspin.com or lifehacker.com …
Discussion:
New York Observer, SAI, Poynter, Snarkmarket, Black Web 2.0, Digits and The Wire
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Remy Stern / Gawker:
Welcome to the New Gawker — Gawker has a brand new look as of today.
Welcome to the New Gawker — Gawker has a brand new look as of today.
Discussion:
WebNewser, Fimoculous, Mediaite, @owenthomas and @iwantmedia
John Hudson / The Atlantic Wire:
Nick Denton: What I Read
Nick Denton: What I Read
Discussion:
FishbowlNY and The Editorialiste
Richard MacManus / ReadWriteWeb:
The Daily vs. Flipboard: One of These is The Future of Newspapers... Last week Rupert Murdoch's iPad-only newspaper The Daily was launched. The Daily is a newspaper app available to U.S. users on the iPad for 99c per week (the first 2 weeks are free; non-U.S. people can download it for trial via this method).
Discussion:
Future of Journalism and Top Digital Journal News
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Matthew Hawn / Last.fm:
Last.fm Radio becomes a premium feature on mobile and home entertainment devices — On February 15, the radio service built into Last.fm mobile apps and on home entertainment devices will become an ad-free, subscriber-only feature. — Last.fm Radio will remain free on the Last.fm website in the US …
Discussion:
VentureBeat, rbr.com, Fast Company, Evolver.fm, ReadWriteWeb, The Next Web, paidContent:UK, Download Squad, MacStories, SlashGear and Electronista, more at Techmeme »
Jose Zamora / KnightBlog:
Knight and Mozilla Foundations launch partnership to advance media innovation — Technology changes fast. Technology companies are built to handle continuous change. News organizations, even new ones, often are not. These facts are a challenge, but also a great opportunity to promote quality journalism and media innovation.
Discussion:
Phillip Smith, Knight Foundation News …, NathanielJames.org, Journalism.co.uk, Poynter and The Mozilla Blog
Brian Stelter / New York Times:
Al Jazeera Hopes Reports From Egypt Open Doors in U.S. — DOHA, Qatar — “Our bureau in Cairo has been attacked.” — Phone calls and e-mail on Friday spread that short message through the Doha headquarters of Al Jazeera, the satellite news network. It was an ominous start to the day …
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Greg Sandoval / Media Maverick:
If Hulu loses CEO, who would want that gig? — Toast. — That's what Jason Kilar's career at Hulu is supposed to be soon if all the media speculation is correct. — Hulu is controlled by broadcast networks, NBC, ABC, and Fox, but that didn't stop Kilar, Hulu's CEO …
Discussion:
NetNewsCheck Latest
Dan Frommer / SAI: Silicon Alley Insider:
Sarah Chubb is leaving Condé Nast, the company just announced internally. — Chubb was president of Condé Nast Digital, which she has led since 1996. — More to come. — Join the conversation about this story »
Discussion:
MediaMemo
Cory Bergman / Lost Remote:
Best (and worst) Super Bowl social media moments — More people than ever watched the Super Bowl with an eye on their Twitter stream, making this the most social of all Super Sundays to date. From the commercials to the halftime show, here are some of the best (and worst) social moments of the Super Bowl:
Discussion:
TVNewser, B&C, AdAge, WebNewser, Mediaite, ReadWriteWeb, Tower Ticker, rbr.com, The Wire, Show Tracker, CNNMoney.com, Moraes on TV, Faster Forward, NetNewsCheck Latest, TechCrunch, Groublogpon, News Desk, eBookNewser, the Econsultancy blog, AdFreak, Broadcasting & Cable, eMoney and I4U News
Ravi Somaiya / New York Times:
Former WikiLeaks Colleagues Forming New Web Site, OpenLeaks — LONDON — As the WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange fights extradition to Sweden to face allegations of sexual wrongdoing, a dozen of his former colleagues are creating an alternative Web site for leaks to be governed …
Discussion:
The Nation
RELATED:
Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:
NYT's Keller Almost Ready to Admit WikiLeaks Is Journalism
NYT's Keller Almost Ready to Admit WikiLeaks Is Journalism
Discussion:
Guardian and The Huffington Post, Thanks:mathewi