Mediagazer: Leaving AOL (Futurepaul/paul j. miller)

12:15 PM ET, February 19, 2011

Top News:

Jeff Bercovici / Mixed Media:

How Much Severance Does Axed Time Inc. CEO Have Coming? — Jack Griffin, far right, with ex-colleagues from Time Inc. Image by via @daylife — Time Warner hired Jack Griffin last summer to be the CEO of its magazine division, Time Inc., home to People, Time and Sports Illustrated, among other titles.

Mike Shields / Adweek:

Sources: IAB Considering Rehiring Rothenberg — Held president/CEO post from 2007 to last December — Does Randall Rothenberg want his old job back? — He may soon get the chance. Given Time Inc.'s ouster of Jack Griffin yesterday (Feb. 17), The Interactive Advertising Bureau …

David Carr / New York Times:

Time Inc.: The Anatomy of a Fiasco — Like most bad news, the departure of Jack Griffin — the chief executive of Time Inc. for less than six months — dropped at the end of the day, leaving the publishing community scratching its head and wondering how things had gone so wrong.

Staci D. Kramer / paidContent:

Insiders: Bewkes Fired Griffin Over Poor Communication, Talent-Drain Fears — My first thought when I heard that Jeff Bewkes fired Time Inc. CEO Jack Griffin was a sentence I can't print here. The second one: maybe he learned something from AOL (NYSE: AOL) after all.

Discussion: MinOnline, Media & Entertainment, The Daily Beast, MinOnline, Deal Journal, Media Decoder, John Gapper's blog and The Wire

Keith J. Kelly / New York Post: Ousted Time Inc CEO Griffin fires back about reason for departure

Abbey Klaassen / AdAge: Jack Griffin: ‘My Exit Was Clearly Not About Management Style or Results’

Brad McCarty / The Next Web:

The AOL Way claims its first victim: Engadget editor Paul Miller resigns — A few weeks ago, in case you've missed the news, AOL released an internal document to its staff that was entitled The AOL Way. The documents contained what could be taken as a manifesto, of sorts, but really showed how AOL was intending to do business.

Discussion: Talking Biz News, more at Techmeme »

Futurepaul / paul j. miller:

Leaving AOL — Today was my last day at Engadget. — I've been writing for Engadget for more than five years. What an insane thing to be able to say! In my time as Contributing Editor / Associate Editor / Senior Associate Editor / Pixel Density Enthusiast, I've written 1.5 million words on roughly 5,500 posts.

Discussion: VentureBeat and SAI, more at Techmeme »

Brian Stelter / Media Decoder:

BBC Charts New Course for its U.S. Newscast — Tapping into what it sees as a need for impartial international news on cable, the BBC said Friday that it would aggressively seek distribution in the United States for BBC World News America, its 24-hour news channel. — But that's in the long term.

Mark Joyella / Mediaite:

BBC Plans To Boost News Coverage In The U.S.: “Never Been A Greater Need For Impartial News” — The BBC has announced changes in its American news efforts, including changes for the network's flagship U.S. newscast, BBC World News America, expanded ties to PBS stations …

Discussion: Multichannel, TVNewser and New York Magazine

Felix Salmon / CJR:

Business Insider's Barcelona Junket — Victoria Barret reports on the nice little deal that Dan Frommer has going on in Barcelona: “Samsung was generous enough to sponsor our trip”, in the words of Frommer himself. — Barret is reasonably sympathetic, and likes the fact that Frommer inserts …

Discussion: Upside Potential

Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:

Gawker's Gulp Moment: Big Redesign Is Driving People Away — About ten days ago, gossip blog Gawker and its sister sites Gizmodo, Lifehacker and others switched over to a drastic redesign which was met with plenty of jeers. People always complain about design changes …

Discussion: Poynter, Future of Journalism, Yahoo! News, The Raw Feed, New York Post and The Wire

Terry Heaton / Terry Heaton's PoMo Blog: Pick one: Gawker takes a hit/Gawker is coming back

Erik Sass / MediaPost:

By Design: ‘Time,’ ‘Newsweek’ Plan Another Revamp — There seems to be a deep-seated belief in the consumer magazine industry that a new look can give a beleaguered publication a new lease on life — but the evidence suggests that superficial (or even more substantial) redesigns actually have little impact on circulation or ad sales.

Michael Calderone / Yahoo! News:

NY Times reinventing ‘Week in Review’ section — The New York Times is overhauling the paper's Sunday “Week in Review” section, a “reinvention project that will involve staff from both the newsroom and the editorial department.” — Times editor's aren't just tinkering with the existing “Week in Review.”

Discussion: Poynter

David Folkenflik / @davidfolkenflik:
NYT announces overhaul of Week in Review - will draw upon journalists from both the news and editorial sections.

Discussion: @davidakaplan and @mlcalderone

Bill Barol / Buzz, Boom & Sizzle:

The Atavist: Building a home for longform in the digital landscape — I don't understand some of the specific grievances registered against The Atavist, an intriguing new news product out of Brooklyn. “I thought journalism was about news and not an avenue for someone to sell their non-fiction to the public …

Joe Pompeo / Yahoo! News:

Violence against journalists escalating in the Middle East — Several weeks after journalists in Egypt were attacked by pro-government mobs, a similar dynamic is playing out in the neighboring Arab countries now staging popular protests against their own ruling regimes.

Discussion: The Lede, Committee to Protect … and AOL News

New York Times:
Security Forces in Bahrain Open Fire on Protesters

Discussion: BBC, News Desk, Guardian, Time, ProPublica, CNN, AOL News, Salon, Most Recent Home Page Posts …, The New Yorker Blog, The Daily Beast, New York Magazine, Big News Network.com, The Daily Dish, Indecision Forever and Soup

Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:

ESPN Gives Web Star Bill Simmons His Own Site — Here's Bill Simmons' reward for sticking with ESPN: His own piece of turf, where the star columnist/multimedia experimenter can cultivate a new sports/pop culture site. — Simmons already has his own page on ESPN.com, but this is something …