Mediagazer: Web Video Rivalry Sparks U.S. Probe (Thomas Catan/Wall Street Journal)

1:15 PM ET, March 4, 2011

Top News:

Dan Frommer / SAI: Silicon Alley Insider:

AOL Buys Outside.In, Less Than $10 Million — AOL will announce today that it has acquired “hyper-local” blog aggregator startup Outside.In, an industry source tells us. — We don't know if AOL will announce how much it is paying for the company — probably not — but we're told that it is less than $10 million.

Discussion: TechCrunch, Mashable!, paidContent, ReadWriteWeb, Lost Remote, Noted, Digital Trends, MediaMemo and NYConvergence.com

Andy Plesser / Beet.TV:

Arianna Huffington: We Won't “Mess with” TechCrunch or Engadget: Tim Armstrong Has Big Plans for Video — As the Huffington Post merges with AOL, the company will leave its successful brands to operate as independent entities. Arianna Huffington, who will be editorial chief of the new company …

Discussion: paidContent, WebProNews and NYConvergence.com

Nicholas Carlson / The Business Insider:

How AOL's Patch Can Win And Prove Us Wrong When We Say It's A Horrible, Doomed Idea — AOL CEO Tim Armstrong's whole turnaround plan is to take cash flow from the company's dying subscriber business, and make big bets on content businesses. — As a framework, this is a good plan.

Discussion: CNET News, Poynter and SAI

Lacey Rose / Hollywood Reporter:
CEO Tim Armstrong, Arianna Huffington Reveal AOL's Ambitious Hollywood Strategy

Discussion: GigaOM

PR Newswire:

Jim Lanzone Named President of CBS Interactive … CBS Interactive to Acquire Clicker.com — Jim Lanzone, co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Clicker Media Inc., has been named President of CBS Interactive, it was announced today by Leslie Moonves, President and Chief Executive Officer, CBS Corporation.

Discussion: CNET News, Lost Remote, The Wrap, TechCrunch, Beet.TV, @hunterwalk, Search Engine Land, SAI, @jlanzone and @brianstelter, more at Techmeme »

David Kaplan / paidContent:

CBS Interactive Acquires Clicker; Lanzone Replaces Ashe As New President — CBS Interactive (NYSE: CBS) is acquiring Clicker, the self-styled “TV Guide” for online video, and is installing Jim Lanzone, the company's co-founder and CEO as its new president, succeeding Neil Ashe.

Discussion: WebNewser, ReadWriteWeb, GigaOM and Media Buyer Planner

Thomas Catan / Wall Street Journal:

Web Video Rivalry Sparks U.S. Probe — The Justice Department is investigating whether a group representing some top technology firms is unfairly trying to smother a free rival technology for delivering online video that is backed by Google Inc., according to people familiar with the matter.

Discussion: Fortune, CNET News, Guardian, GigaOM, paidContent and Post Tech, more at Techmeme »

Joe Pompeo / Yahoo! News:

New York Times online pay model details coming in ‘matter of weeks’ — If you were the executive editor of one of the world's most prestigious and widely read newspapers, how would you justify billing a reader for a print version that he's no longer reading?

Discussion: MediaPost, The Wire, TVNewser, FishbowlNY, The Huffington Post, Gawker, On Media's Blog, UnBeige and Poynter

Megan Garber / Nieman Journalism Lab:
Baseless speculation! Frank Rich and the price of paywalls for writers

Discussion: Felix Salmon, The Huffington Post and Future of Journalism

Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:

No More Digital Discount: Conde Nast Raises Prices For Two iPad Magazines — iPad magazines haven't been huge hits. At least in part because readers say they're too expensive. — So this one's a bit of a head-scratcher: Conde Nast is going to raise the prices of two of its tablet titles.

Discussion: mediabistro.com, The Next Web, FishbowlNY and Poynter

James Wolcott / Vanity Fair:

It's Morgan In America — Where did Piers Morgan come from? And is there any way to send him back? Reviewing the debut “gets”—Oprah! Rudy! Condoleezza!—of Larry King's blustery British heir, the author examines the failures behind Morgan's success. — If you're going to go in, go in big.

Discussion: Mediaite, TVNewser and Yahoo! News

David Kaplan / paidContent:

@ pC2011: Keith Olbermann: I'm Not Crazy For Joining Current Media — So here's the deal Current TV has for its new chief news officer: Keith Olbermann, who in addition to crafting the behind the scenes content for the cable channel will be back in his old 8pm time slot this summer, gets to say whatever he wants.

Discussion: The Wire, Mixed Media, The Wrap, Yahoo! News and FOK News Channel

Andy Plesser / Beet.TV: Current TV Building New York Studio For Keith Olbermann Show

Steve Buttry / The Buttry Diary:

TBD has made mistakes, but we understand our community(ies) — It is against my nature to hold my tongue. Or my keyboard. — I have refrained from saying much publicly about the recent cutbacks at TBD because ... well, because. The reasons are complicated and I still work here.

Bill Reader / E.W. Scripps School of Journalism:
TBD is CTD: The fast rise and fall of a CJ startup

Discussion: The Buttry Diary and Poynter

Jay Rosen / Pressthink:

Why “Bloggers vs. Journalists” is Still With Us — A pre-conference post. Ideas in motion. These are notes in preparation for my talk at South by Southwest in Austin next week. You can help me make it better! — I am going to be doing a solo presentation at South by Southwest in Austin this year.

Discussion: Poynter

Lore Sjöberg / Underwire:

Alt Text: Going Undercover at an Unregulated Content Farm — Google has declared war on content farms. Controversy rages over what's best for Google, for business, for the honest, hard-working porn-seeker. But who's worrying about what's best for the content?

Bloomberg:

Murdoch's News Corp. May Have to Pay $17.4 Billion for Its BSkyB Purchase — Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. (NWSA) may have to raise its bid for British Sky Broadcasting Plc to as much as 10.7 billion pounds ($17.4 billion) to win over the pay- television operator's shareholders.

Discussion: Guardian, Guardian and Company Town

Joe Pompeo / Yahoo! News:
Downloads for The Daily are in ‘hundreds of thousands’

Discussion: Editors Weblog

Jack Shafer / Slate:

Credit Score What's with the New York Times Magazine adding editor credits to the end of features? — The March 6 issue of the redesigned New York Times Magazine will contain—among many other changes—this new wrinkle: credits at the end of features that name the piece's editor.

Discussion: Poynter, Editors Weblog and New York Times

David Kaplan / paidContent:

@ pC2011: Denton: The Internet Is A Mass Medium, Not A Niche One — In a very amiable dialogue about the nature of “internet success,” Gawker founderNick Denton told Reuters' finance blogger Felix Salmon that revenues were expected to be flat this year. Though Salmon floated a number ("It's about $2 million a month, right?")

Discussion: Between the Lines Blog, CJR, The Wrap, Rex Hammock's RexBlog.com, Beet.TV, Soup, Felix Salmon and Yahoo! News, more at Techmeme »

Felix Gillette / Business Week:

Ben Silverman, Advertainer — The TV dealmaker is selling a new entertainment vision in which advertising and content are inextricably mixed. Is anyone buying it? — On his recent honeymoon in India, Ben Silverman sold an idea to his wife. Any tourist could go sightseeing …

Discussion: Company Town

Robinsloan / Twitter Media:

Live-tweeting with @NoReservations — On Monday night, the Travel Channel demonstrated an on-air Twitter integration that was simple but powerful—a new template for any TV show. Here's how it worked. — Seven times during the season premiere of No Reservations, the Travel Channel told …

Discussion: parislemon