Mediagazer: Thrillist Expands, Becomes a Blend of Frommer's and Foursquare (Tim Peterson/AdAge)

9:20 PM ET, August 7, 2013

Top News:

Jeff Bercovici / Forbes:

AOL Bets On Programmatic With Adap.TV, Pulls Back On Patch — Here's a sign that Tim Armstrong feels he's regained control of the narrative at AOL : He's back in the market for big-ticket items. — AOL's $405 million purchase of the video advertising platform Adap.TV is the biggest acquisition …

Discussion: Poynter, Business Insider, paidContent, The Atlantic Wire, NetNewsCheck Latest, AdExchanger, FishbowlNY, Street Fight and CNET

Jeff Jarvis / BuzzMachine:

Patches — Tim Armstrong says he will close, sell, or find partners for 300 local Patch sites to reach profitability. — I have a fourth option, Tim: Invest. Set up independent entrepreneurs — your employees, my entrepreneurial graduates, unemployed newspaper folks — to take over the sites.

Anthony Ha / TechCrunch:
AOL Is Acquiring Video Ad Platform Adap.tv For $405M

Anthony Ha / TechCrunch:
AOL Q2 Comes In (Slightly) Above Estimates With $541M Revenue, $0.35 Earnings Per Share

Discussion: ZDNet, @pkafka, Forbes, @jeffjohnroberts, NetNewsCheck Latest, Media Money …, Broadcasting & Cable, AdExchanger and The Wrap

Kara Swisher / AllThingsD:

Dear Jeff Bezos, Here's What I Saw as an Analog Nobody in the Mailroom of the Washington Post — While it might seem an awful cliche, the fact of the matter is — if you go back to a time long before the commercial Internet existed, and well before you became so rich that you have $250 million …

Discussion: Nieman Journalism Lab, The Wrap, Forbes, @joannastern, @tcarmody, @jtemple, @codinghorror, @chrislkeller, @mattbuchanan, @mat, @sdkstl, @ron_fournier, @blakehounshell, @kvox and @abeaujon

Bloomberg:
Bezos's E-Book Overhaul Provides Blueprint for Post

Discussion: VentureBeat, Mashable and Washington Post

Jennifer Saba / Reuters:
Amazon's Bezos pays hefty price for Washington Post

Discussion: New York Times, The Daily Beast, Mediaite, Beyond Search, Bloomberg and Broadcasting & Cable

Christine Haughney / New York Times:

Times Co. Chairman Declares Paper Not for Sale — After a week in which both the Boston Globe and The Washington Post were purchased by new owners, the publisher of The New York Times Company emphatically declared Wednesday night that his company was not for sale.

Discussion: Mediaite, Politico, @fmanjoo and The Huffington Post

Laura Hazard Owen / GigaOM:

Amazon, Kobo and Sony petition FCC to exempt e-readers from accessibility laws — Amazon, Kobo and Sony are petitioning the Federal Communications Commission to permanently exempt e-readers from certain federal accessibility laws for the disabled, arguing that e-readers are barebones devices designed for a single purpose: reading text.

Dylan Byers / Politico:

CNN taps Bloomberg TV head to oversee new digital integration effort — In a new effort to “connect digital and television,” CNN Worldwide president Jeff Zucker has announced that Bloomberg TV head Andrew Morse will join the network as Senior Vice President overseeing domestic newsgathering …

Discussion: multichannel.com/rss, TVNewser, CNN and The Huffington Post

Alastair Reid / Journalism.co.uk:

Why negative comments are like broken windows — A look at how and why the quality of content below the line can affect readers, editorial and a publication's brand — Copyright: By Luton Anderson on Flickr. Some rights reserved. — The topic of online abuse has been coming under scrutiny …

Jim Romenesko:

Mark Russell out as editor of Tribune-owned Orlando Sentinel — Mark Russell, who was promoted to Orlando Sentinel editor in October of 2010, is being replaced by content director Avido Khahaifa. Here is publisher Howard Greenberg's memo: … * Russell is leaving as part of a restructuring, the paper says (orlandosentinel.com)

Discussion: Poynter, @nabjdigital, @fsutoby, @johnrobinson, @deggans and Orlando Sentinel

AdAge:

Time Inc. Spinoff Delayed Until Early Next Year — Publishing Revenue Slips While TV Grows — Time Warner said Tuesday that it won't complete its plan to separate Time Inc. division into an independent company this year as anticipated, prolonging a period of uncertainty at the publishing division just a little bit longer.

Discussion: FishbowlNY

Associated Press:
Time Warner 2Q net income jumps 87 pct

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

Knight gives $345,000 to Philadelphia media incubator — The Knight Foundation is putting $345,000 into Project Liberty, a digital media incubator housed in the headquarters of Interstate General Media, which owns The Philadelphia Inquirer, the Philadelphia Daily News and Philly.com.

Discussion: Knight Foundation, Knight Foundation, blogs.phillymag.com and ArkansasBusiness.com

Tim Peterson / AdAge:

Thrillist Expands, Becomes a Blend of Frommer's and Foursquare — Dude Media Company Adds Travel Vertical, New Cities — Thrillist Media Group has been telling young, urban makes what to eat, drink and buy since it launched as a daily newsletter in 2005. Now it wants to tell them where to go.

Discussion: FishbowlNY, Street Fight and eMedia Vitals

Erik Wemple / Washington Post:

DCist editor fired after freelancing spat — In a testament to the cachet of a BuzzFeed byline, DCist Editor-in-Chief Ben Freed has been dismissed from his position after he placed a freelance piece with the popular news site. Speaking about the matter last night, Freed sounded a bit dazed by the ouster …

Discussion: FishbowlDC, @clarajeffery, @robpegoraro and Erik Wemple

Chad Bray / Wall Street Journal:

Publishers Object to E-Book Plan for Apple — Provisions of Proposal Would Punish Them, They Said — Five major U.S. publishers objected to the Justice Department's proposal to limit Apple's influence in the electronic books market, saying it would effectively alter their existing settlements with the U.S. government.

Discussion: Associated Press, Reuters, AppleInsider, 9to5Mac and @counternotions

Tom Vanderbilt / Wired:

The Science Behind the Netflix Algorithms That Decide What You'll Watch Next — If you liked 1960s Star Trek, the first non-Trek title that Netflix is likely to suggest to you is the original Mission: Impossible series (the one with the cool Lalo Schifrin soundtrack).

Discussion: @stephenfollows, Betabeat, WebProNews and GigaOM

Michael Calderone / The Huffington Post:

McClatchy Editor Defends Publishing Al Qaeda Detail CNN, NY Times Held Back — On Sunday, McClatchy reported that the decision to close U.S. embassies and issue a travel warning last week was prompted by an intercepted communication between Al Qaeda leader Ayman al Zawahiri and Nasir al-Wuhayshi …

Discussion: The Daily Beast, TIME, Techdirt, @mitchellreports and Guardian