Mediagazer: Christmas Coming Early For AOL Shareholders With $445M Dividend (Jeff Bercovici/Forbes)

4:55 PM ET, November 6, 2012

Top News:

Jeff Sonderman / Poynter:

News orgs innovate with election coverage — Tuesday night will be the most interactive election night ever. — Millions of Americans won't just be watching results come in, they'll be participating in new ways thanks to news organizations doing just about everything they can think of to enhance live coverage tonight.

Discussion: Lost Remote, GeekWire, @jaredbkeller, Forbes, Online NewsHour, New York Times, CNET, NetNewsCheck Latest and WebProNews

Lisa Richwine / Reuters:

Major TV News Networks Agree To Shield Early Exit Poll Data On Election Day — LOS ANGELES, Nov 5 (Reuters) - U.S. television networks face a new challenge in covering this year's excruciatingly close presidential election: prevent closely guarded exit poll results from leaking onto Twitter, Facebook and other social media platforms.

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Poynter, The Daily Caller, JIMROMENESKO.COM and New York Times

Janko Roettgers / GigaOM:

Where to watch the 2012 presidential election live online — Millions of people all over the U.S. will flock to the polls Tuesday to make their vote count; and later, everyone will be glued to the screen to find out how the country has voted. Pretty much all the big news organizations …

Discussion: Mediaite, PC Magazine, The Week, ReadWrite and TechCrunch

Brian Stelter / New York Times:
Facing an Election Night Clamor

Discussion: Poynter, The Huffington Post, JIMROMENESKO.COM, New York Magazine, Media Decoder, TVNewser, Los Angeles Times, SocialTimes, Chickaboomer, Prof Chris Daly's Blog, BuzzFeed, Bloomberg and FishbowlNY

Marc Tracy / The New Republic:

Nate Silver Is a One-Man Traffic Machine for the Times — “FiveThirtyEight is drawing huge traffic,” New York Times executive editor Jill Abramson told me yesterday. She added, “What's interesting is a lot of the traffic is coming just for Nate.” — There has been plenty of controversy …

Discussion: CNET, Mashable!, Daily Download, Mediaite, Mother Jones and The Huffington Post

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

Voters gather to decide Nate Silver's fate — Yes, today's rather important for President Obama and Mitt Romney, as well as their families and supporters. But New York Times poll-blogger Nate Silver's predictions have made him a target for the ire of conservatives and pundits protecting …

Tom Kludt / Talking Points Memo:

Nate Silver Accounted For 20 Percent Of NYT's Web Traffic On Monday — Nate Silver's polling analysis has been both manna for political junkies and a lightning rod for criticism from conservatives during the 2012 campaign. A new report out Tuesday indicates that it's also been a major driver of the New York Times' web traffic.

Discussion: Mediaite

Bloomberg:

Pearson Said Exploring Financial Times Sale as CEO Leaves — Pearson Plc (PSON) is planning to explore a sale of the Financial Times newspaper, as the company focuses on its faster-growing education business, people with knowledge of the situation said. — The company has decided …

Discussion: Reuters, FT Alphaville, @felixsalmon, @dansabbagh and @dansabbagh

Michael de la Merced / DealBook:
F.T. Up for Sale, Report Says, but Pearson Says Not So Fast

Discussion: Talking Biz News

Jeff Bercovici / Forbes:

Christmas Coming Early For AOL Shareholders With $445M Dividend — Mark your calendar, AOL shareholders: Dec. 14 is your lucky day. — On that date, almost exactly three years to the day after the internet giant spun out from Time Warner, AOL will pay out a one-time dividend of $5.15 per share, or $445 million total.

Discussion: @jeffjohnroberts, Media Decoder, MediaPost, AllThingsD, PandoDaily, AdAge, The Next Web, FishbowlNY and Poynter

Jeff John Roberts / paidContent:

How video will provide a third act for AOL — AOL has been down forever but it's still far from out. After towering as an internet giant a decade ago and then crawling along as a zombie spin-off since 2009, the muddled media giant is ready for a third act.

Discussion: Beet.TV

Steven Jacobs / Street Fight: AOL: Patch Remains on Path to Profitability, Expenses Cut 30%

Christine Haughney / Media Decoder:

Senior Executive at The Times Will Retire — A senior executive of The New York Times Company responsible for key business results is retiring, and the company is eliminating the position entirely. — Scott Heekin-Canedy, president and general manager of The New York Times, will retire by year's end.

Discussion: Capital New York, @edmundlee, FishbowlNY, The Wrap, @edmundlee, @pkafka and @edmundlee

Edmund Lee / Bloomberg:

News Corp. Boosts Profit After Making Gains in TV Advertising — News Corp. (NWSA), the media company run by billionaire Rupert Murdoch, reported profit that topped analysts' estimates after making gains in TV advertising and licensing revenue at its cable channels.

John Jannarone / Wall Street Journal:
News Corp. Earnings Boosted by Gain

Discussion: AllThingsD and Sydney Morning Herald

New York Times:

Election Night: Live-Blogging the Media Coverage — The Media Decoder staff looks at the media coverage of the 2012 presidential election. — AOL reported a strong third quarter on Tuesday, helped in large part by improved ad sales. — The company, which makes Budweiser beer …

On The Media: On The Media's Election Night Bingo

Dylan Byers / Politico:

Shadow of 2008 looms over CNN — Four years ago, more people watched election night coverage on CNN than on any other network, cable or broadcast. — But in the interim period, CNN has struggled. As I wrote in June, the network is registering its lowest ratings since the first Gulf War.

Chris O'Shea / FishbowlNY:
CNN to Display Election Results on The Empire State Building

Discussion: Poynter, Gawker, CNN and Mediaite

Foo Yun Chee / Reuters:

Exclusive: Amazon to win out over Apple in e-book price tussle — (Reuters) - European Union regulators are to accept an offer by Apple and four publishers to end an antitrust probe into their e-book prices, two sources said, handing Amazon victory in a bid to sell online books cheaper than its rivals, sources said.

Discussion: Los Angeles Times, Reuters, The Verge, CNET, paidContent, MacRumors, 9to5Mac, Mashable!, Engadget and Mercury News

Laura Hazard Owen / GigaOM:

Amazon Prime tests $7.99/month option to compete with Hulu+, Netflix — Amazon is offering some users who don't want to drop $79 on an annual Prime membership another option: Paying $7.99 a month. While that actually adds up to more money on a yearly basis ($95.88), it may bring new users into the fold …

Discussion: Hacking NetFlix, AllThingsD, NetNewsCheck Latest and WebProNews

Kara Swisher / AllThingsD:

Marissa Mayer Will “Talk About Where She Is Taking Yahoo” in First Media Interview Since Becoming CEO — Marissa Mayer — the typically press-loving Silicon Valley exec who has avoided much media interaction since she took over as CEO of Yahoo — will be doing her first sit-down interview …

Jamie Condliffe / Gizmodo:
Samsung Teams Up With Yahoo For Interactive TV Service

Discussion: Engadget

Don Jeffrey / Bloomberg:

Pandora Media Sues Ascap Seeking Lower Songwriter Fees — Pandora Media Inc. (P), the biggest Internet radio service, sued the organization representing songwriters and composers to seek lower license fees for playing their songs. — Pandora, which is also lobbying the U.S. Congress …

Discussion: Hillicon Valley, PC Magazine and The Verge