Mediagazer: AOL Discounted Gets Last, Best Hope in Private Equity (Bloomberg)

11:45 AM ET, August 18, 2011

Top News:

Amelia Hill / Guardian:

First US-based NoW reporter is arrested — James Desborough is arrested by London police investigating UK hacking allegations — James Desborough, an award-winning reporter at the former News of the World newspaper, has been arrested by officers investigating the phone-hacking scandal.

Discussion: Adweek, The Wire, Deadline.com, New York Magazine, The First Post, The New Yorker Blog and Gawker

Michael A. Memoli / Los Angeles Times:

In China, reporters covering Biden get the heave-ho — Only minutes into the vice president's remarks, Chinese officials began directing journalists toward the exits. Soon the shooing became shoving. — Reporting from Beijing— Vice President Joe Biden's famously loquacious style …

Discussion: The Huffington Post, TPMDC and The New Yorker Blog

Ed Pilkington / Guardian:

A life unravelled ... whistleblower who incurred wrath of the Murdoch empire — Relentless legal pursuit of ex-News Corp employee likened to ‘Rambo tactics’ — Five years ago Robert Emmel was enjoying the American dream. He lived in a detached house in a suburb of Atlanta, Georgia …

Discussion: The New York Observer and Company Town

Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:

Memo to newspapers: The future of media is a two-way street — Plenty of newspapers and other mainstream media entities are happy to use social tools like Twitter and Facebook to promote their content, host comments on their news stories in order to build traffic, and otherwise try and take advantage of the web.

Discussion: mediabistro.com and JackLail.com, Thanks:mathewi

Georg Szalai / Hollywood Reporter:

Questions Surround Hulu Auction … With first bids for online video provider Hulu believed to be due late this week, there is a slew of open questions about the auction. — Among them: Will Google bid for the joint venture now that it has already agreed to acquire Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion in its biggest deal ever?

Bloomberg:

AOL Discounted Gets Last, Best Hope in Private Equity — For a private equity firm that's looking for the cheapest way to get online, AOL Inc. (AOL) is trading for 57 cents on the dollar. — The Internet pioneer spun off from Time Warner Inc. (TWX) in 2009 plunged to a record low last week …

Discussion: Betabeat and The Business Insider, more at Techmeme »

David Hiltbrand / Sacramento Bee:

CNN anchor Don Lemon: Talented, imperious, scarred, publicly out — PHILADELPHIA - Want a yardstick for how far into the post-ironic era we have drifted? — This summer, TV newsman Don Lemon published a memoir, “Transparent,” in which he came out as gay and talked about being sexually abused as a boy.

Discussion: Inside Cable News

Zeke Turner / WWD:

Times Magazine Hires Jon Kelly — Photo By CLINT SPAULDING/PatrickMcMullan.com … New York Times Sunday Magazine editor Hugo Lindgren has hired Jon Kelly away from Bloomberg Businessweek. — Kelly, 29, will run the front of the Sunday Magazine and Greg Veis will become politics editor.

David W. Chen / New York Times:

Discrimination Suit Against Bloomberg L.P. Is Rejected — In a major victory for Bloomberg L.P., the financial and media services giant founded by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, a federal judge has dismissed claims that the company engaged in a pattern of discrimination against pregnant women who took maternity leaves.

Discussion: City Room, TPMDC, Gawker, On Media's Blog, New York Magazine and SAI

Greg Sandoval / Media Maverick:

YouTube, music publishers settle copyright beef — A group of music publishers that joined a class action lawsuit filed against YouTube in 2007 have reached a settlement with Google's video-sharing site. — David Israelite, CEO of the National Music Publishers Association, in a photo taken earlier this summer

Discussion: paidContent, YouTube Blog, Techland and Electronista, more at Techmeme »

David Streitfeld / New York Times:

Amazon Set to Publish Pop Author — SAN FRANCISCO — Amazon moved aggressively Tuesday to fulfill its new ambition to publish books as well as sell them, announcing that it had signed Timothy Ferriss, the wildly popular self-help guru for young men. — The terms were not disclosed.

Discussion: Guardian, Future of Journalism, The Next Web, Adweek, Pulse2, Gawker, The New York Observer, bookforum.com, mocoNews, eBookNewser, FT Tech Hub, Amazon.com and GeekWire, more at Techmeme »

blogs.journalism.co.uk:

Facebook study finds Independent's content was shared and liked 136,000 times in one month — Facebook has published a report on the way the Independent uses the social network to share content. The study has found people liked or shared content from the Independent 136,000 during a “recent” month.

Adrianne Jeffries / Betabeat:

Jumo ‘Acquired’ for $0 and a Graceful Exit — Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes has struggled with his ambitious solo start-up, the social network for activism Jumo, ever since its bumpy launch. Waning traffic and disinterested users were making it obvious that the site was not going to catch on …

Discussion: The Next Web, New York Times, Fortune, @betabeat, @chrishughes, Pulse2, @betabeat, @betabeat, @pkafka, Working In Boxer Shorts, GOOD, paidContent and Fast Company

Joe Mullin / paidContent:

Court Rejects Freelancer Settlement: Still No Payment From Tasini Court Win — Jonathan Tasini was a hero to many writers when he won his battle to get additional payments from publishers like The New York Times who had included his freelance work in databases like LexisNexis.