Mediagazer: Demand Media Buys IndieClick, RSS Graffiti; Expands Google Ad Deal (David Kaplan/paidContent)

5:25 PM ET, August 9, 2011

Top News:

Erin Griffith / Adweek:

The Trouble With Back-Ends — No publication has a better story about back-end chaos than BusinessWeek. — Before it was acquired by Bloomberg LP, the publication sank a shocking $20 million into the back-end development of Business Exchange, a professional social networking site …

Discussion: @fromedome, @mikeydigital, @andymboyle, @osder, @jonathanstray, @fromedome and @codybrown

Yinka Adegoke / Reuters:

Murdoch to face Wall Street on News Corp earnings call — (Reuters) - News Corp is taking a risk in putting boss Rupert Murdoch, famous for his off-script comments, on the media conglomerate's quarterly earnings call on Wednesday with succession questions sure to be asked.

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Company Town, Runnin' Scared and Free Press

Jeremy W. Peters / Media Decoder:

News Corp.'s Independent Directors Have Strong Ties to Murdoch — When the News Corporation board convenes on the 20th Century Fox Studios lot Tuesday for its first meeting since a phone hacking scandal overseas plunged the company into turmoil, the participants will include many people with deep and personal ties to Rupert Murdoch.

Discussion: Poynter

Ian Burrell / The Independent:
‘NOTW’ staff offered lucrative severance pay

Discussion: Press Gazette and Adweek

Michael Wolff / Adweek:
How Bad Is News Corp.?

Discussion: Guardian and Mixed Media

Steve Myers / Poynter:

U.K. photographer explains how she captured dramatic photo during riots — All the major newspapers in the U.K. published a dramatic photo of a woman jumping from a burning building during the riots that have terrorized the country, captured by Amy Weston of the photo agency WENN.

Discussion: Guardian, Guardian, Mashable!, Disruptors, Yahoo! News, The Daily What, Barbara Krasnoff's blog, Boston Globe, Telegraph, Adweek and Guardian, more at Techmeme »

Guardian:

London riots: Sky, ITN and CNN reporters attacked — Broadcasters' vans smashed in Croydon and Sky News reporter Mark Stone forced to flee in Clapham disturbance — Journalists and photographers came under attack on Monday as London faced its third consecutive day of violent riots in the capital.

Discussion: BBC, Journalism.co.uk, The Wire, The Lede, Fast Company, The Huffington Post, Forbes, PC World, NBC Bay Area, Press Gazette, WebProNews, Guardian and Jon Slattery

Telegraph:
How technology fuelled Britain's first 21st century riot

Discussion: Gawker, TechCrunch Europe, ReadWriteWeb, Gizmodo, Techland and The Lede

Mark Milian / CNN:

Newspaper giant Tribune Co. developing tablet device — (CNN) — Hoping to take a small slice from Apple's big pie, newspaper publishers are developing tablet computers of their own. — The Tribune Co., one of the largest U.S. news enterprises, is working on a touchscreen tablet that it plans …

Discussion: paidContent, Poynter, Poynter, TechCrunch, eBookNewser, Liliputing, Gizmodo, LAPTOP Mag, PC World, 9to5Google, rbr.com, 9to5Mac and NetNewsCheck Latest, more at Techmeme »

Kara Swisher / AllThingsD:

Wall Street's Demand for Demand Media Falls Off — After the markets close tomorrow, Demand Media will report its second-quarter earnings. — Wall Street is expecting a solid performance from the Santa Monica, Calif.-based online content maker compared to last year.

Discussion: TechCrunch and paidContent

David Kaplan / paidContent:
Demand Media Buys IndieClick, RSS Graffiti; Expands Google Ad Deal

Discussion: AllThingsD, more at Techmeme »

Jeff Bercovici / Mixed Media:

AOL Earnings: Shares Plummet Despite Ad Revenue Gains — The addition of the Huffington Post and other acquisitions allowed AOL chairman Tim Armstrong to tell Wall Street what it has long waited to hear: the internet company's global advertising revenues grew in the second quarter, the first time that's happened since 2008.

Nicholas Carlson / The Business Insider: AOL CEO Says The Ad Side Of The Company Doesn't Have Enough “Operational Scale”

Joe Pompeo / Yahoo! News:

Phone-hacking scoopster Nick Davies may join Guardian's planned U.S. operation — When not tirelessly chronicling the ongoing British phone-hacking saga, The Guardian has been lining up journalists to staff the U.S.-based website that the U.K. broadsheet plans to have up and running sometime this fall.

Discussion: The New York Observer and Jon Slattery

Laura Hazard Owen / paidContent:

Brooklyn's Latest Local News Site Aims For Gritty, Not Trendy — The world isn't lacking for news about Brooklyn's artisanal pickles, flea markets and beekeeping, but a new site, Brooklyn Bureau, aims to focus on the less hip side of New York City's largest borough.

Discussion: Brooklyn Community Foundation

Laura Hazard Owen / paidContent:

New Stats: Book Publishing Is Growing; E-Book Revs and Sales Up Over 1000% — One positive story in a week of terrible economic news: BookStats, a new annual statistical survey of raw sales revenue and unit data provided by nearly 2,000 publishers that is being released today …

Discussion: GalleyCat and Techland

Alison Kitchens / American Journalism Review:

On the Beet — Beet.TV makes its mark with video interviews of media and technology executives. Tues., Aug. 9, 2011 — Alison Kitchens (akitchens@ajr.umd.edu) is an AJR editorial assistant. — If your job has something to do with digital media, chances are Andy Plesser is looking for you.

Discussion: Beet.TV

Steve Buttry / The Buttry Diary:

A year after launch, lessons from the TBD experience — A year ago, my TBD colleagues and I launched one of the great adventures of my career. — Few remain there. TBD barely remains, its staff and mission diminished and redefined. Founding leader Jim Brady parted ways with owner Robert Allbritton last November.

D.M. Levine / Adweek:

Fast Chat: CNN President Ken Jautz — Since taking over as president of U.S. operations at CNN last September, Ken Jautz has been struggling to jazz-up what had become a snoozing network—at least by the clamorous standards of the cable news universe—with high-profile hires like Erin Burnett …

Discussion: TVNewser and Inside Cable News

James Parker / The Atlantic Online:

Valley of the Trolls — It's the rare star who can withstand the predatory cameras of TMZ on TV. — AM I ON some kind of Web site for nuts and stalkers?" asked Paris Hilton, rhetorically (I think), during the premier episode of her new reality show, The World According to Paris.