Mediagazer: Buzzfeed Raises $19.3 Million to Make LOL Content for the Social Web (Jason Del Rey/AdAge)

5:25 PM ET, January 3, 2013

Top News:

Brian Stelter / Media Decoder:

Time Warner Cable Says It Will Keep ‘Open Mind’ on Reinstating Al Jazeera — Time Warner Cable minced no words when it announced on Wednesday night that it was dropping Current TV, just hours after Al Jazeera acquired the channel. “Our agreement with Current has been terminated …

Discussion: Guardian, Media Decoder, Tampa Bay Times, The Huffington Post, The Wrap, @jackshafer, Mediaite, Los Angeles Times and The Week

Michael Calderone / The Huffington Post:

Time Warner Cable Drops Current TV Upon Sale To Al Jazeera — NEW YORK — Time Warner Cable pulled the plug on Current TV just hours after news of the cable channel's sale to Al Jazeera became official. “This channel is no longer available on Time Warner Cable,” read an on-screen message where Current TV used to be found.

Discussion: Los Angeles Times, Business Insider, The Daily Dish, Kirk LaPointe's …, Media Decoder, Forbes, Deadline.com, Mashable! and Media Decoder

Joe Flint / Los Angeles Times:

Al Jazeera will face hurdles to succeeding with Current TV — Al Jazeera hopes the acquisition of cable channel Current TV will finally give the Qatar-based news service a substantial footprint in the U.S. (AFP/Getty Images) — Al Jazeera hopes it can succeed where Al Gore failed with Current TV.

Discussion: ABCNEWS, @rafat and Guardian

Janko Roettgers / GigaOM:
Bad news for cord cutters: Al Jazeera America won't be live streamed online

Discussion: AllThingsD, The Stream and DealBook

Nicholas Carlson / Business Insider:
Glenn Beck Tried To Buy Al Gore's Current TV, Which Instead Sold To Al-Jazeera For $500 Million

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, Glenn Beck and @mlcalderone

Jeff Bercovici / Forbes:

The Atlantic Will Experiment With Online Pay Models In 2013 — The Atlantic is two things every legacy publishing company would like to be: profitable and more reliant on digital advertising revenues than on print. But while that may have been good enough in 2012, for 2013 the magazine has a new goal …

Discussion: Capital New York, FishbowlNY, Media & Entertainment, NetNewsCheck Latest, Poynter, Politico, @dylanbyers, @rajunarisetti and @keachhagey

Laura Hazard Owen / paidContent:

Sullivan's new Dish raises $333,000 from over 11K people in first 24 hours — On Thursday, Andrew Sullivan pronounced himself “somewhat gob-smacked” by readers' response to his immensely popular blog the Dish leaving the Daily Beast, going independent and charging $19.99 a year.

Discussion: The Daily Dish, VentureBeat, The New York Observer, The Next Web, NetNewsCheck Latest, PSFK and Guardian

Felix Salmon:

Andrew Sullivan goes it alone — The big media news of the day is that Andrew Sullivan is taking his team, going independent, and running the Daily Dish as a standalone business. It's a risky move, but it's not that risky. And I like the direction he's moving in, for a number of reasons.

Adi Robertson / The Verge:
Andrew Sullivan raises over $100,000 for ad-free blog in first six hours

Discussion: TechCrunch, @binarybits, Guardian, parislemon and PandoDaily

Jason Del Rey / AdAge:

Buzzfeed Raises $19.3 Million to Make LOL Content for the Social Web — Building a Giant War Chest That Signals Greater Ambitions — Buzzfeed set out to re-invent the notion of content for the social web by allowing pictures of cute animals to co-exist with serious political coverage.

Alyson Shontell / Business Insider:

BuzzFeed Is Now Valued At ~$200 Million, But Investors Think It Has Billion-Dollar Potential — BuzzFeed, a media company that makes viral content, announced a $19.3 million fundraise this morning. — Last January, it announced a $15.5 million round, and it has raised $46.3 million to date.

Discussion: NetNewsCheck Latest

Nat Ives / AdAge:

Digital Cracks 50% of Ad Revenue at Wired Magazine — First for the Title Is an Encouraging Sign for the Industry — Digital contributed half of all ad revenue at Wired magazine in the final three months of 2012, a first for the title and an encouraging sign for an industry …

Leslie Kaufman / Media Decoder:

Decline in Holiday Sales Is Ominous Sign for Barnes & Noble — 4:41 p.m. | Updated For Barnes & Noble, the digital future isn't what it used to be. — Eight months after affirming its commitment to build its business through its Nook division, Barnes & Noble announced holiday sales …

Discussion: Barnes & Noble, Inc., PublishersWeekly.com, AllThingsD, Electronista, TechCrunch, paidContent and AppNewser

Michael Calderone / The Huffington Post:

Washington Post Video Channel To Launch Online — NEW YORK — The Washington Post announced plans Thursday to launch an online political channel in Summer 2013. Marty Baron, who took over this week as the paper's executive editor, told staff in a memo that the channel's …

Discussion: Politico, @wapoombudsman and @jeffsonderman

Brian Stelter / Media Decoder:

Michele Norris to Return to NPR in New Role — Updated Michele Norris, the NPR host who took a 15-month leave of absence while her husband worked for the Obama campaign, will return to the public radio network in February, NPR said Thursday. — But Ms. Norris, one of NPR's most familiar voices …

Discussion: JIMROMENESKO.COM and FishbowlDC

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York:

The first stirrings of Rupert Murdoch's new company, nickname: ‘PubCo’ — The leadership of the “new” News Corp., which is being referred to internally as “PubCo,” continues to fall into place. — Heading up communications for the standalone publishing company now led …