Mediagazer: From blog to B2B platform: Business of Fashion lands $2.1 million VC funding (Jasper Jackson/TheMediaBriefing)

9:20 AM ET, February 18, 2013

Top News:

Frédéric Filloux / Monday Note:

The Need for a Digital “New Journalism” — The survival of quality news calls for a new approach to writing and reporting. Inspiration could come from blogging and magazine storytelling and also bring back memories of the 70′s New Journalism movement. — News reporting is aging badly.

Discussion: @konradweber, @zimbalist, @bobbiejohnson, @rafat, @_arianna, @noruweijin, @rajunarisetti, @kcorrick, @wblau and @moorehn

Brian Stelter / Media Decoder:

Business Insider Names Joe Weisenthal Executive Editor — Business Insider, the online news franchise started by Henry Blodget nearly six years ago, is appointing an executive editor for the first time as it grapples with a good problem: growth. — The editor is Joe Weisenthal …

Discussion: @moorehn, @thestalwart and New York Magazine

Michael Wolff / Guardian:

The fall of Time Inc is more about bad leadership than a dying industry — Even in the context of the general decline of the magazine business, Time Inc warrants special shame and humiliation — I remember when the 34th floor of the Time Life building was the most vaunted real estate in journalism.

Discussion: @palafo, @michaelwolffnyc and @smalera

Keach Hagey / Wall Street Journal:

A New King of Magazines Emerges — In 1922, the same year Henry Luce and Briton Hadden founded Time magazine in New York City, Edwin Thomas Meredith launched a title called Fruit, Garden and Home in Des Moines, Iowa. — Two years later, the magazine changed its name to Better Homes and Gardens …

Jasper Jackson / TheMediaBriefing:

From blog to B2B platform: Business of Fashion lands $2.1 million VC funding — Why are some of the biggest names in venture capital pumping $2.1 million (£1.35 million) into a fashion blog called Business of Fashion? Because it's got all the ingredients to become a successful publishing business catering to a niche audience.

Martin Bryant / The Next Web:

Risk of a ‘Pando problem’? The Business of Fashion blog lands $2.1m from backers including Louis Vuitton — In these harsh economic times where B2B enterprise plays make the safest bets, newly venture-backed media companies are a rarity. That's why it's interesting to see that fashion blog …

Discussion: Guardian, BoF and growthbusiness.co.uk

Dawn McCarty / Bloomberg:

Reader's Digest Files Bankruptcy to Cut $465 Mln Debt — RDA Holding Co., publisher of the 91-year-old Reader's Digest magazine, filed for bankruptcy to cut $465 million in debt and focus on North American operations as consumers shift from print to electronic media.

Discussion: @m_mcdonough and Reader's Digest Association

Patrick B. Pexton / Washington Post:

The Post's last ombudsman? — It is possible that I'll be The Washington Post's last independent ombudsman and that this chair will empty at the conclusion of my two-year term Feb. 28. If so, that will end nearly 43 years of this publication having enough courage and confidence to employ a full-time reader representative and critic.

Discussion: Daily Download, The Wrap, @jcstearns, @wapoombudsman and @jeffjarvis

Felix Salmon:

Maria Popova's blogonomics, part 2 — By a curious coincidence, Maria Popova was scheduled to give a speech about blog business models the day after Tom Bleymaier and I wrote about hers. I went along to hear what she had to say, and caught up with her afterwards. — Popova is making changes to her site.

Discussion: @kashhill, @xeni, @moorehn, @jayrosen_nyu and @felixsalmon

Kit Eaton / Fast Company:

Apple TV Rumors Boosted With “High Priority” Job Posting — Another Apple job posting hints that Apple has interesting tech en route. — Apple job postings are one place the usually secretive company has to reveal a few details about its plans, and a fresh one has added some serious spin to the rumors about an Apple TV.

Discussion: Monday Note, TUAW and BGR

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

McGrory: Boston Globe will ‘untangle’ its two websites — The difference between BostonGlobe.com and Boston.com isn't clear to “many people in this community and people in this newsroom,” Boston Globe Editor Brian McGrory told Poynter in a phone interview Friday. “That's understandable,” he said.

Discussion: @jayrosen_nyu

John R. Bohrer / Capital New York:

F.B.I. destroyed file on Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, ‘Times’ publisher behind the Pentagon Papers — Arthur Ochs Sulzberger. — The Federal Bureau of Investigation has destroyed its file on Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, the late New York Times publisher who defied the federal government in the twilight …

Discussion: Gothamist and @jackshafer