Mediagazer: Michael Arrington launching venture fund (Dan Primack/Fortune)

6:55 AM ET, September 2, 2011

Top News:

Dan Primack / Fortune:

Michael Arrington launching venture fund — America's most powerful tech blogger is taking a major step into the world of venture capital. — Michael Arrington, founder and co-editor of TechCrunch, is raising a venture capital fund to invest in early-stage technology companies, Fortune has learned.

Nicholas Carlson / SAI:

AOL Is Replacing Michael Arrington At TechCrunch - He'll Still Write — Now that Michael Arrington has started a venture capital fund, AOL is conducting an external and internal search to replace him. — Arrington will continue to write for AOL's technology blog, TechCrunch, but he will …

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Future of Journalism, The Business Insider and Gizmodo, more at Techmeme »

Mat Honan / Gizmodo:
Aol: You've Got Conflicts

Discussion: L.A. Times Tech Blog, @kemcke, @zee and @fromedome, more at Techmeme »

Tim Currie / Nieman Journalism Lab:

Chats don't have to be online: A newspaper finds success with its downtown news cafe — Not long ago, the Winnipeg Free Press's social media editor hosted an online chat from her desk at the paper's downtown news cafe. She had done it many times in recent months but something unexpected happened.

Discussion: Fast Company and Winnipeg Free Press

Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:

It's not just nice for media to be social — it's imperative — By now, plenty of people have written about the need for traditional media entities to embrace social media as a way to engage with their readers, or what journalism professor Jay Rosen has called “the people formerly known as the audience.”

Thanks:ejbarbwilkinson

Ben Fritz / Company Town:

Netflix offered $300 million-plus, but Starz wanted higher consumer prices — Starz didn't just want Netflix to pay more money for its content. It wanted Netflix consumers to pay more too. — Netflix offered Starz more than $300 million per year to renew their agreement …

Discussion: VentureBeat, Electronista, VatorNews, Engadget, PC Magazine, paidContent, CNNMoney.com, Media Maverick and Gizmodo, more at Techmeme »

Shira Ovide / Deal Journal:
Netflix Stock Sinks as Starz Ends Deal Talks

Discussion: AllThingsD, PR Newswire, The Business Insider, CNET News, Reuters, TechCrunch, Variety, Between the Lines Blog, msnbc.com, Mashable, ReadWriteWeb, SplatF, @brianstelter, @brianstelter, @felixsalmon, @jtoeman and Hollywood Reporter, more at Techmeme »

The Politico:

Washington Post to close all but two local bureaus — The Washington Post is closing all of its local bureaus except two, in the state capitals of Virginia and Maryland, according to a note posted on the Post Guild website. — “As some of you have probably heard already …

Discussion: Poynter, Street Fight, The Atlantic Wire and Future of Journalism

Amy Gardner / @amyegardner:

A sad day at The Washington Post, with the news that we're closing all of our local bureaus except Richmond and Annapolis.

Discussion: Poynter, @wapoombudsman, The Wrap, Salon, paidContent, Adweek, FishbowlDC, @wapoombudsman, New York Magazine and National Review

Felix Gillette / Business Week:

Matthew Freud Will See You Now — If the PR whiz can steer himself and his wife, Elisabeth Murdoch, through the News Corp. scandal, he could emerge as a central force in the empire — In the night of July 2, Elisabeth Murdoch and her husband, Matthew Freud, threw a party at their country estate on the outskirts of London.

Discussion: Felix Salmon, more at Techmeme »

MediaShift Idea Lab:

Journalists Should Join Google+ to Understand What Comes Next — This month's Carnival of Journalism, a site that I've organized where bloggers can convene to all write about the same topic, was hosted by Kathy Gill, a social media consultant and senior lecturer at the University of Washington …

West Side Rag:

ABC NEWS INSTALLS NEWS TICKER ON WEST 66TH, BECAUSE OUR EYES NEED MORE STIMULATION — In case your retinas aren't burning from all the news, ads, tweets, emails, texts, and facebook updates that flash before your eyes all day, ABC News just installed a wraparound news ticker on the company's offices at 66th Street and Columbus Avenue.

Sara Horowitz / The Atlantic Online:

The Freelance Surge Is the Industrial Revolution of Our Time — Welcome to the Gig Life. The boom in independent work is changing the way we think about jobs and careers. Does Washington get it? — REUTERS — It's been called the Gig Economy, Freelance Nation, the Rise of the Creative Class …

Maurice Cherry / 10,000 Words:

What Happens When A City Loses Its Newspaper? — On November 2, Oakland will join the ranks of Denver, Tuscon, Cincinnati and Seattle as a large metropolitan city that has lost a daily newspaper. According to the official blog of the John S. & James L. Knight Foundation, the Oakland Tribune will be …

Discussion: TVSpy

Felix Salmon:

How journalists deal with economists' ethics — Craig Silverman emails with some questions about the proposed economists' code of ethics, which I think is an excellent idea. He has an interesting angle: how does this affect journalists? Here are his questions, with my answers. … Absolutely.

Reuters:

Insight: Murdoch's tough guy Carlucci under pressure — (Reuters) - Paul Carlucci's name doesn't appear on any public list of News Corp's power players. As CEO of News America Marketing and publisher of the New York Post, he is the most influential executive you've never heard of inside Rupert Murdoch's empire.

Discussion: The Slog and Crikey

Ben Popper / Betabeat:

Fashion Week Flameout: Why the Industry Is Erupting at Tumblr and Rich Tong — Earlier this year Tumblr was the toast of fashion week. The company's fashion director, Rich Tong, negotiated access for influential Tumblr users to cover swanky events. The bloggers, once the red headed step children …

Amy Gahran / Knight Digital Media Center All-Site Feed:

Why the “scoop” mentality is bad for news — “The scoop” has long been a hallmark of news culture. However, being first on a story usually matters far more to journalists than it does to anyone else. — Scoops can be great, but prizing them blindly skews the priorities of a news organization badly …

Ben Elowitz / AllThingsD:

Are You a Media Company or a Technology Company? — Two Truths — Let's start with two truths. — First, publishers need cutting-edge technology to hook an audience through today's digital media channels of the Web, mobile, social, and search. — And, second, the breakthrough technology …

Zachary M. Seward / Speakeasy:

When It Rains, It Pours: Yes, August Really Was a Huge News Month — Ah, August: time to kick back, take some vacation, soak in the end of summer and enjoy a brief respite from the otherwise relentless news cycle. But not this August. From Gadhafi to Irene, the month that ended yesterday …

Discussion: Poynter, The Huffington Post and Future Journalism Project