Mediagazer: The Company That's Buying Up All the Key Pieces of the Online News Ecosystem (Robinson Meyer/The Atlantic Online)

4:20 AM ET, May 1, 2013

Top News:

The Company That's Buying Up All the Key Pieces of the Online News Ecosystem — Betaworks has its tentacles in nearly every part of how stories are made, read, and measured. — In the past couple years, an ecology of sorts has come into being among online news sites.

Discussion: @lexilewtan, @axb21, @mededitor, @stilgherrian, @richgor and @berkowitzrtrs

The Advocate:

Georges buys The Advocate — John Georges, who took over a small family company and transformed it into a billion-dollar business, completed a deal Tuesday to buy The Advocate, the largest daily newspaper in Louisiana. The Advocate, which dates back 171 years and serves readers from Lafayette …

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

Former Times-Picayune editors will lead Baton Rouge Advocate, which has a new owner — Former New Orleans Times-Picayune managing editors Dan Shea and Peter Kovacs will serve as General Manager and Editor, respectively, of the Baton Rouge Advocate, which announced it had been purchased …

Discussion: Columbia Journalism Review, WWL-TV, Blog of New Orleans, Gambit and WWL

Edmund Lee / Bloomberg:

New York Times Tops USA Today to Become No. 2 Paper in U.S. — The New York Times posted an 18 percent gain in daily circulation, vaulting it past USA Today as the second-largest U.S. newspaper, according to figures released today by the Alliance for Audited Media.

Discussion: JIMROMENESKO.COM, Gannett Blog and INMA

Chris O'Shea / FishbowlNY:
NY Times Circulation Jumps 18 Percent, Daily News and Post See Declines

Discussion: Tampabay.com, 10,000 Words, New York Times, Poynter, Media & Entertainment, Capital New York, AdAge, Talking Biz News, The Next Web, NetNewsCheck Latest, AppNewser, The Newspaper Guild and Kirk LaPointe's …

Kathleen Miles / The Huffington Post:

If Koch Brothers Buy Major Paper, Half of Staff May Quit — At a Los Angeles Times in-house awards ceremony a week ago, columnist Steve Lopez addressed the elephant in the room. — Speaking to the entire staff, he said, “Raise your hand if you would quit if the paper was bought by Austin Beutner's group.”

Discussion: Forbes, Poynter, JIMROMENESKO.COM, The Daily Pulp, Los Angeles Times, The Daily Caller, The Raw Story, The Newspaper Guild and Change of Subject

The Newspaper Guild: Guild Calls on Tribune Sellers to Protect Papers' Integrity

Kurt Opsahl / Electronic Frontier Foundation:

Craigslist Owns What You Did Last Summer — Did you post an ad on craigslist between July 26, 2012 and August 8, 2012? If so, bad news for you. Turns out that craigslist, and not you, owns that ad. In other words, if you try to repost it to another site, you could actually be infringing craigslist's copyright.

Discussion: Bloomberg, CNET and TechCrunch

Sarah Marshall / Journalism.co.uk:

Washington Post trials ThingLink Mobile — The Washington Post is the first news outlet to use a pre-release version of the ThingLink Mobile app, creating interactive images of the White House Correspondents' Dinner — The Washington Post is the first news outlet to use ThingLink Mobile, a new iOS app due to launch next month.

Discussion: AppNewser

Marisa Guthrie / Hollywood Reporter:

Chris Matthews Signs New Long-Term Deal with MSNBC (Exclusive) — The contract will keep him at “Hardball” through the next presidential election, but the 67-year-old will retire from his syndicated “Chris Matthews Show” in July. — Chris Matthews has re-upped with MSNBC …

Discussion: TVNewser, Politico, New York Times and The Huffington Post

Dan Kennedy / Media Nation:

In latest circulation numbers, the difference is digital — Print circulation at the Boston Globe and the Boston Herald continues to slide, according to the latest data from the Alliance for Audited Media (formerly the Audit Bureau of Circulations). — But the Globe's success …

Jeff Bercovici / Forbes:
Despite Digital Gains, Newspaper Circulation Backslides

Discussion: Alliance for Audited Media and LA Biz Observed

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:

DreamWorks Close to Buying AwesomenessTV, YouTube's Would-Be Nickelodeon — Lots of big media companies have been investing in YouTube video makers. Now it looks like one of them is going to buy one. — DreamWorks Animation is close to a deal to acquire AwesomenessTV …

Discussion: Dreamworks Animation, Deadline.com and Los Angeles Times

Danny Yadron / Wall Street Journal:

Obama to Name Wheeler to Head FCC — President Barack Obama is expected to soon nominate a former top lobbyist for the cable and wireless industries to lead the Federal Communications Commission, two people familiar with the matter said. — Tom Wheeler, a venture capitalist …

Discussion: Politico, Radio & Television …, Broadcasting & Cable, GigaOM, New Republic, VentureBeat, VatorNews, TechCrunch, Bloomberg, Mashable, Deadline.com, Engadget, BGR and New Republic

Brian Fung / The Atlantic Online:

Retwact: A Tool for Fixing Twitter's Misinformation Problem — Can an enterprising developer striking out on his own solve one of the social network's biggest flaws? — Even worse than the pornbots and trolls, one of Twitter's enduring drawbacks is that there's no reliable way to issue corrections with the service.

Discussion: The Next Web

Shara Tibken / CNET:

Twitter ads now available for all U.S. users — The microblogging site opened up advertising to all businesses, not just those who were invited, like in the past. — NEW YORK—Twitter on Tuesday opened up advertising on its site to all businesses and individuals, rather than limiting …

Discussion: Twitter Advertising, TechCrunch, TechCrunch, Marketing Pilgrim, AdExchanger, VatorNews, Engadget, Softpedia News, WebProNews, AdExchanger, AllThingsD, VentureBeat, The Next Web, SocialTimes and Fast Company

Wall Street Journal:

Yahoo Scraps Deal for French Video Site — By SAM SCHECHNER in Paris and AMIR EFRATI in San Francisco — Dailymotion was on track to be the first big acquisition for Yahoo Inc. Chief Executive Marissa Mayer, after her company signed a provisional deal to buy control of the online-video website from France Télécom SA.

Discussion: Reuters, VatorNews and VentureBeat

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

AOL's Video Hat Trick: A Slate Of Original Content, Be On Creative Studio, And A Deal With FreeWheel + Mediaocean For Multiscreen Ad Buys — Online video is booming, and today AOL (owner of TechCrunch) unveiled three new initiatives that spell out how it plans to tackle it: 15 original …

Discussion: CNET, New York Times, Tubefilter, Media Week and The Next Web

Peter Delevett / SiliconBeat:

Mobile video startup tout inks deal with Digital First Media — As many a frustrated PR person will tell you, I typically don't write much about product or partnership deals. Then again, it's not every day that my own company inks one. — Digital First Media, the corporate parent of the Mercury News …

Discussion: Mercury News and Delaware County Times

Emil Protalinski / The Next Web:

Digg finds over 40% of respondents are willing to pay for a Google Reader replacement, beta coming in June — Digg on Tuesday released the results of its second Google Reader survey, which it conducted last week. In the process, the company revealed what sharing and “Read later” …

Discussion: Digg Blog, Softpedia News, The Droid Guy, BetaNews, CNET, WebProNews, The Atlantic Wire and paidContent

Erik Gruenwedel / Home Media Magazine:

Study: 45 Million People Watch TV, Original Programs Online Monthly — About 45 million Americans, or 19% of the domestic 238.5 million adult population, watches repurposed TV shows and original video programs online on a monthly basis, according to new data from the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) from research firm GfK.

Discussion: Variety, FierceCable, Tubefilter, PYMNTS.com and bizjournals