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:
Slate, GigaOM, Capital New York, Media Decoder, CJR, Mixed Media, The Daily Beast, VentureBeat, Guardian, New York Times, Mashable!, CNNMoney.com, Poynter, Memex 1.1, ReveNews, Guardian, Twist Image, Epicenter, Scocca, FT Alphaville, Tuned In, TechEye, @stamos, BBC College of Journalism Blog, The Awl, Rebooting The News, Daring Fireball, Press Gazette, Reason, Editors Weblog, Reflections of a Newsosaur, The Next Web, Guardian, @agahran, Gearlog, Newspaper Death Watch, Mark Evans Tech, DCist, @loic, @turoczy, @gabrielsnyder, The Huffington Post, Indecision Forever, PSFK and @stevecase, more at Techmeme »
RELATED:
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, Salon, Mixed Media, MinnPost, DNAinfo, Scott Rosenberg's Wordyard, MediaMemo, Wall Street Journal, VentureBeat, @rafat, The Daily Beast, SAI, Los Angeles Times, Bloomberg, ReadWriteWeb, AOL Corp, New York Observer, Softpedia News, The Wire, Digits, AdExchanger.com, Neowin.net, PC World, @ischafer, @ariannahuff, Mediaite, L.A. Times Tech Blog, PC World, Media Nation, TechCrunch, Computerworld, Between the Lines Blog, News Desk, Mashable!, FishbowlNY, SAI, Reuters, @rafat, CNET News, @dannysullivan, @megan, @ariannahuff, San Francisco Peninsula …, Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim, newsfeed.time.com and paidContent, 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:
Guardian, Newsonomics, Mediaweek, Felix Salmon, Adweek, New York Magazine, Runnin' Scared, Ben Smith's Blog, Hot Air and SAI, 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:
Mediactive, BuzzMachine, SAI, CJR, Washington Post, The Daily Fix, Computerworld, BlogPost, Fortune, The Atlantic, Politics Daily, DealBook, Vanity Fair, Online NewsHour, newsfeed.time.com, Mediaweek, Company Town, HighTalk, L.A. Times Tech Blog, Tech Trader Daily, Tech Trader Daily, BBC, Runnin' Scared, FT Alphaville, Talking Biz News, TBD All News, MinOnline, Post Tech, MediaPost, Disruptors, NetNewsCheck Latest, Hot Air, Fast Company, The Huffington Post, The Startup Foundry, Chickaboomer, New York Observer, Benjamin Cohen on Technology, Deadline.com, Media News, Big Journalism and TheMediaBriefing
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:
The Wrap and New York Observer
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, paidContent, GigaOM, The Wire, @stevecase, The Now/ledge, Salon, TechCrunch, @espiers, BoomTown, BlogPost, USA Today and @latimesrainey
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:
CNET News, Brooks in Beta and Online NewsHour
Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:
Arianna Huffington on Her New AOL Job: “I Want to Stay Here Forever”
Arianna Huffington on Her New AOL Job: “I Want to Stay Here Forever”
Discussion:
SAI
Kara Swisher / BoomTown:
Exclusive Video: AOL's Tim Armstrong and HuffPo's Arianna Huffington …
Exclusive Video: AOL's Tim Armstrong and HuffPo's Arianna Huffington …
Discussion:
Venture Capital Dispatch, Guardian, Gawker and SAI
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, Future of Journalism, mediabistro.com, The Wire and tag me with a spoon
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, GigaOM, Most Recent Home Page Posts …, DealBook and The Daily Beast
Paul Carr / TechCrunch:
I, For One, Welcome Our New Huffington Overlord
I, For One, Welcome Our New Huffington Overlord
Discussion:
@arrington, Reuters, @rabois and Faster Future
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, @omg_ponies, @jstrevino, Poynter, AOL News, Black Web 2.0, The Wire and NYConvergence.com
RELATED:
Remy Stern / Gawker:
Welcome to the New Gawker — Gawker has a brand new look as of today. Let's take a look around, shall we? More »
Discussion:
Mediaite, @owenthomas, @iwantmedia, WebNewser, Deadspin and tag me with a spoon
Jay Yarow / The Wire:
Nick Denton Makes A Cash Bet Gawker Media Won't Lose Pageviews With New Format
Nick Denton Makes A Cash Bet Gawker Media Won't Lose Pageviews With New Format
Discussion:
Fimoculous and Digits
Dan Frommer / SAI: Silicon Alley Insider:
Sarah Chubb Is Leaving Condé Nast After 20 Years — Condé Nast Digital head Sarah Chubb is leaving, the company just announced internally. — No successor has been named; Condé will name one in the “coming weeks.” — Condé has been shuffling its digital structure …
Discussion:
MediaMemo
RELATED:
Nat Ives / AdAge:
Why Conde Nast Digital Chief Sarah Chubb is Leaving — Veteran of Glossy Publisher's Digital Efforts Talks to Ad Age About Her Departure — NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — Sarah Chubb, a 20 year veteran of Conde Nast and head of its digital efforts for 15 years, is leaving to “explore other opportunities,” the company said today.
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:
paidContent, Ars Technica, ReadWriteWeb, Fast Company, VentureBeat, rbr.com, Evolver.fm, Download Squad, MacStories, The Next Web, SlashGear, Electronista and Neowin.net, more at Techmeme »
Robinsloan / Twitter Media:
I Want My AJZ — As Egypt turns upside down, Al Jazeera has found its moment. It's the right network in the right place at the right time; the Qatar-based news organization has unique access and a unique audience. From the Middle East to the White House, all eyes are on Al Jazeera.
RELATED:
Brian Stelter / New York Times:
Al Jazeera Hopes Reports From Egypt Open Doors in U.S.
Al Jazeera Hopes Reports From Egypt Open Doors in U.S.
Discussion:
The Huffington Post, Los Angeles Times, USA Today, Yahoo! News, TVNewser, Terry Heaton's PoMo Blog, Guardian and Wall Street Journal
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
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, NathanielJames.org, Knight Foundation News …, NetNewsCheck Latest, Poynter and Journalism.co.uk
Brian Morrissey / Mediaweek:
Brown's Web Woes — The Daily Beast's execs are stars of the magazine world, but do they know what they're doing online? — The site, which merged with Newsweek last November, continues to ignite buzz with high-profile hires, most recently The New Yorker's Peter Boyer and The Village Voice's Wayne Barrett.
Discussion:
On Media's Blog and NYConvergence.com
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).
RELATED:
John Gapper / John Gapper's blog:
The Daily lacks news stories, not multimedia
The Daily lacks news stories, not multimedia
Discussion:
Poynter and Podcasting News