Mediagazer: Algorithmic Journalism & The Rise of Corporate Content Farms (Aaron Wall/SEO Book.com)

3:00 AM ET, September 13, 2011

Top News:

“Deciding” To Move On — AOL has issued the following statement: “The TechCrunch acquisition has been a success for AOL and for our shareholders, and we are very excited about its future. Michael Arrington, the founder of TechCrunch has decided to move on from TechCrunch and AOL to his newly formed venture fund.

Kara Swisher / AllThingsD:

It's Official: Arrington Out at AOL; Schonfeld New TechCrunch Editor (Plus Armstrong Internal Memo Too!) — AOL and TechCrunch founder and editor Michael Arrington have officially parted ways, almost exactly one year from the New York Internet portal's acquisition of the popular tech news site.

Discussion: VentureBeat, Forbes, MediaFile, @benpopper, paidContent, Adweek, NYConvergence.com, NetNewsCheck Latest, PC Magazine and Future of Journalism, more at Techmeme »

Arianna Huffington / The Huffington Post:

The Wall Street Journal's Shoddy Journalism on TechCrunch: It's Not About the Personalities, It's About the Principle — Now that the TechCrunch editorial dispute has been resolved, let me turn my attention to the Wall Street Journal's coverage of it. — In the most egregious case …

Discussion: CNNMoney.com, On Media's Blog, Boing Boing and Forbes

Ben Popper / Betabeat:
Mike Arrington Goes Nuclear: Says NY Times Is Conflicted Tech Investor via True Ventures

Discussion: Medacity, Business Insider and Future of Journalism

Wall Street Journal:
A Business Model Based on Conflict of Interest

Discussion: Guardian, NBC Bay Area and Talking Biz News, more at Techmeme »

Joshua Benton / Nieman Journalism Lab:

Four observations (and lots of questions) on The Boston Globe's lovely new paywalled site — This morning, The Boston Globe took the cloak off its brand new website, BostonGlobe.com. And I really do mean “brand new” — this is no redesign. Years ago, rather than building …

Discussion: Prof Chris Daly's Blog, AdPulp, CBS Boston, NetNewsCheck Latest, Boston Globe, Editors Weblog, Daring Fireball and Poynter

Staci D. Kramer / paidContent:
BostonGlobe.Com Launches Today; Shifts To Paying Subscribers Only Oct. 1

Discussion: Boston Globe, Andy Boyle, MediaPost, The Huffington Post, Nieman Journalism Lab, 10,000 Words, Erik Wemple, Media Nation, Poynter, WBUR, The New York Observer, VentureBeat, FishbowlNY and eMedia Vitals, more at Techmeme »

Jim Romenesko / Poynter:

Pierce leaves Boston Globe for Esquire — Romenesko+ Misc. — Charles P. Pierce, who has been an Esquire contributing editor since 1997, will be the full-time lead writer on Esquire.com's “The Politics Blog.” He's stepped down from the Boston Globe after nine years as a reporter …

Discussion: FishbowlNY, Media Nation and The New York Observer

Electronic Frontier Foundation:

From the Ashes of Righthaven, the Promising Future of Digital Media — Copyright troll Righthaven's flawed business model—suing hundreds of bloggers and small websites for dubious cases of alleged copyright infringement of newspaper articles—appears to be grinding to an inexorable finish.

Discussion: Threat Level, Adweek and WebProNews

Steve Myers / Poynter:

Americans spend just a fraction of online time with news compared to social media — In a report on social media published Monday, Nielsen breaks down how Americans spend their time on the Internet. The results are sobering for the online news industry. Americans spend 22.5 percent …

Discussion: ZDNet, FishbowlNY, Nielsen Wire, iMediaConnection Blog, Forbes, Noted, digiday:DAILY, NetNewsCheck Latest and Adweek, more at Techmeme »

Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:

Why the idea of a Netflix for e-books makes sense — According to several reports, including one from the Wall Street Journal quoting several unnamed people “familiar with the matter,” Amazon is considering launching a Netflix-style subscription service in which users would pay a monthly fee for access to a virtual library of e-books.

Discussion: Wired.com, paidContent and Electronista, Thanks:mathewi

Wall Street Journal:
Amazon in Talks to Launch Digital-Book Library

Adweek:

New Details on Philly Papers' Bold Tablet Plan Android tablets to spur digital content adoption By Lucia Moses — Making a big bet on the tablet market, the Philadelphia Inquirer and sibling paper Philadelphia Daily News in July announced a plan to sell deeply discounted tablets containing subscriptions to its digital editions.

Discussion: PC Magazine

Julie Moos / Poynter:

Why do newspapers use different figures for fatalities of Sept. 11 attacks? — An astute viewer of our front page collection from Sunday's best 10th anniversary coverage of 9/11 noted that at least three of the newspapers used different figures for the number of people who died as a result of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

Discussion: Charles Apple

Aaron Wall / SEO Book.com:

Algorithmic Journalism & The Rise of Corporate Content Farms — The “Best” of Big Media — Large publishers who lobbied Google hard for a ranking boost got it when Panda launched: … At the same time, said “premium publishers” were backfilling their websites padding …

Discussion: Bits

Jason Del Rey / AdAge:

Tremor Video Lands $37 Million to Fuel Acquisitions — Following Latest Round Led by W Capital Partners, Video Ad Network Has Raised More Than $115 Million — Tremor Video, the largest independent video ad network according to ComScore, has landed another $37 million in funding in a round led by New York-based W Capital Partners.

Discussion: AdExchanger.com, GigaOM, MediaPost, digiday:DAILY, Medacity and Beet.TV, Thanks:beet_tv

Brian Stelter / New York Times:

Campaign Trains Viewers for ‘TV Everywhere’ — PUTTING in place TV Everywhere, a long-promised system for online television, calls for new contracts between channels and distributors and for new technology to check that viewers have paid their cable bills. And it takes something else: training.

Matt Kinsman / Folio:

McGraw-Hill To Split Into Two Companies: McGraw-Hill Markets and McGraw-Hill Education — Publishing assets will be rolled into McGraw-Hill Markets. — Following the call for a break-up and reorganization of McGraw-Hill Cos. by investors last month, McGraw-Hill announced today that it will split …

Discussion: rbr.com, mediabistro.com, MediaPost, GalleyCat and Forbes

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:

Last Night's Amazing 9/11 Memorial Photo Is a Year Old — John de Guzman's photo of New York's “Tribute in Light” memorial, which commemorates the September 11 attacks, is astonishing, ghostly and majestic. And it is resonating widely online: Some 500,000 people have viewed it in the last 12 hours.

Discussion: Runnin' Scared

Stuart Elliott / Media Decoder:

Ad Spending Grows Again, Albeit More Slowly — Advertising spending is still increasing, according to a report to be released Monday morning, but the rate of growth has slowed again. — The report, by Kantar Media, part of WPP, found that ad spending in major media in the United States …

Discussion: Multichannel, MediaPost, MarketingVox News & Trends, paidContent, rbr.com, NetNewsCheck Latest and Business Insider

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:
Another 2008 Flashback: Ad Spending Already Contracting

Discussion: AdAge and Wall Street Journal

John Harrington / Photo Business News & Forum:

US Presswire Confirmed Sold to Gannett, Name Change — According to the Florida Department of State Division of Corporations, US Presswire's mailing address has changed to that of Gannett (NYSE: GCI) headquarters in McLean, VA on September 7, 2011: … Also changed, US Presswire …

Discussion: Poynter and Gannett Blog

Adweek:

First Mover: Ed Henry — Why did you leave CNN after seven years to join Fox? — I loved just about every minute of CNN. I was turning 40 on July 20, my contract was up, and I needed a change. I had been talking to Fox for a time. They expressed an interest and I expressed an interest and we had some conversations.

Discussion: Mediaite, FishbowlDC and Inside Cable News