Top News:
Tim Rutten / Los Angeles Times:
AOL ♥ HuffPo. The loser? Journalism — To grasp the Huffington Post's business model, picture a galley rowed by slaves and commanded by pirates. — Whatever the ultimate impact of AOL's $315-million acquisition of the Huffington Post on the new-media landscape …
Discussion:
Washington Post, About.com Journalism, Mediaite, Big News Network.com, Poynter and LA Observed
RELATED:
Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:
Why Didn't a Newspaper Create The Huffington Post? — Amid all the discussion about whether AOL overpaid for The Huffington Post, how much founder Arianna Huffington made from the deal, and whether the kind of search-engine optimization the site does is losing its relevance …
Discussion:
Mixed Media, @chucktodd, Los Angeles Times, Kempton, The Wire, New York Observer and New York Magazine, Thanks:mathewi
Matt Welch / Reason:
Arianna Huffington, Slavemaster? — Tim Rutten, the L.A. Times media critic/columnist, has reacted to the AOL/Huffington Post merger with the kind of race-to-the-journalistic-bottom wail that only an overpaid newspaper lifer can really air out. In the process he gets some key things wrong in a way that I think has broader interest.
New York Post:
AOL stock sheds $315M — HuffPo price tag — You pay for what you get. — Arianna Huffington and Ken Lerer, co-founders of the Huffington Post, are said to be walking away with a combined $80 million to $100 million from an original $2 million per person investment — but so far AOL stockholders aren't seeing that kind of return.
Discussion:
Mixed Media, Future of Journalism and FishbowlNY
Associated Press:
Newspaper stocks jump on content hopes
Newspaper stocks jump on content hopes
Discussion:
New York Observer and blogs.journalism.co.uk
Keith Richman / AdAge:
Now That AOL Has Huffpo, Where's the Video?
Now That AOL Has Huffpo, Where's the Video?
Discussion:
The Wire, NetNewsCheck Latest, GigaOM, LA Observed, Drudge Report and Search Engine Land
David Kaplan / paidContent:
AOL-HuffPo: A Lot Of Scale—But Will Advertisers Care?
AOL-HuffPo: A Lot Of Scale—But Will Advertisers Care?
Discussion:
Ken Doctor's Instablog, The Wire, Future of Journalism and Burst Media Company Blog
Farhad Manjoo / Slate:
Search engine optimization won't work forever.
Search engine optimization won't work forever.
Discussion:
Guardian, The Atlantic Online, Webmetricsguru and Editors Weblog
Post Now:
WJLA to take over TBD.com — This story has been updated. — Allbritton Communications will reorganize its fledgling local news site, TBD.com, by naming a new boss for the operation, and restoring the Newschannel 8 name to the cable TV station it rebranded as TBD TV last summer, Paul Farhi reports.
Discussion:
Lost Remote, The Wrap, Poynter, @jimbradysp, NetNewsCheck Latest, bizjournals, DCist, @jimbradysp, @dangillmor, @lavrusik and @jayrosen_nyu
RELATED:
Megan Garber / Nieman Journalism Lab:
Wait, everyone! TBD's not dead, but changes coming with TV takeover — Big news for TBD today: The site, the Washington Post reported, is being taken over by owner Allbritton Communications' TV station, WJLA. (On its six-month birthday, no less.) — This seemed, at first blush, dire news.
Discussion:
Recovering Journalist and TBD All News
Howard Kurtz / The Daily Beast:
CBS Wants Contract Extension for Katie Couric — The network, which is shaking up its management, has asked anchor Katie Couric to stay on through the 2012 elections—for significantly less money than her original $15 million deal, a source tells Howard Kurtz.
Discussion:
Yahoo! News, TVNewser, The Daily Beast, Mediaite, mediabistro.com and The Huffington Post
RELATED:
Andrea Morabito / Broadcasting & Cable:
New CBS News Chair: 'I Don't Know Whether' Couric Wants To Stay — Jeff Fager says splitting news and sports jobs represents a recommitment to news by the network — On the day his new position as Chairman of CBS News was announced, Jeff Fager says he doesn't know yet whether Katie Couric wants …
Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:
Time Inc. Gets the Tablet Magazine Subscriptions It Wants-With HP — Time Inc., which has been unable to come to terms with Apple over subscriptions for digitized magazines, has found a company it can work with: Hewlett-Packard. — HP has agreed to let Time Warner's publishing unit provide subscriptions …
Discussion:
Mediaweek, FishbowlNY, NetNewsCheck Latest and Digital Daily
RELATED:
Media Decoder:
For Current TV, Adding Olbermann Is Way to Gain an Identity — The small cable channel Current TV hopes that Keith Olbermann can do for it what he did for MSNBC: give it a clear identity. — The channel, co-founded by Al Gore five years ago, said Tuesday that Mr. Olbermann would start producing …
RELATED:
Andrea Morabito / Broadcasting & Cable:
Upfronts 2011: Current TV Positions Itself as ‘Real’ Reality Network
Upfronts 2011: Current TV Positions Itself as ‘Real’ Reality Network
Discussion:
The Wrap, Mediaite and The Huffington Post
Dan Sabbagh / Guardian:
Rupert Murdoch's News Corp closes in on daughter's Shine Television — Key meetings due in coming days to consider takeover of Elisabeth Murdoch's London-based company — Rupert Murdoch's News Corp is closing in on the takeover of his daughter's Shine Television - the £300m-plus …
Discussion:
Media Matters for America
Newsosaur / Reflections of a Newsosaur:
Not all content is king on Wall Street — While journalists and other media types like to think professionally produced content is king, our friends in the financial community apparently don't agree. — Recent deals like the Facebook financing, the Demand Media IPO and the Huffington Post sale show …
Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:
Local TV News + Twitter's Talking Heads = NBC's “The 20″ — If you're reading this, there are decent odds you don't watch your local TV news broadcast. Would you be any more inclined if it featured a dollop of Twitter? — NBC will find out. Its Local Media unit …
Danny Sullivan / Search Engine Land:
Mahalo's Calacanis: Time To End The Content Farm Arms Race — No stranger to controversy, Mahalo CEO Jason Calacanis threw down a gauntlet at his “content farm” competitors, arguing they're polluting the web and angering Google, to the detriment of searchers and their own companies.
Discussion:
Adam Sherk and SAI, more at Techmeme »
RELATED:
Danny Sullivan / Search Engine Land:
Demand Media & Being “The Best Click” On Google
Ronald Grover / Bloomberg:
News Corp.'s Fox Says It May Drop Stations in Dispute Over Fees — News Corp.'s Fox network said it may drop some affiliates if the local TV stations are unwilling to pay a program fee sought by the broadcaster. — Without an agreement on a new fee schedule, Fox “will have to pursue …
Discussion:
Online Video News
Jay A. Fernandez / Hollywood Reporter:
GeekDad Blog and Books to Be Adapted for Film, TV (Exclusive) … Michael J. Gaeta and Alison Rosenzweig of Gaeta/Rosenzweig Films have picked up rights to the GeekDad brand, which they plan to develop into film and TV projects. — What began as a popular blog on the Wired website devoted …
Discussion:
@iwantmedia, GeekDad and Talking Biz News
Adam Hochberg / Poynter:
Maddow, MSNBC chase ‘two-screen viewers’ to increase engagement, ratings — For Susan Brannigan, watching television is a community experience, even though she's usually home alone when she does it. — Brannigan — an Annapolis, Maryland legal researcher — rarely turns on her TV without also booting up her laptop computer.