Mediagazer: Cord-Cutting No Longer an ‘Urban Myth’: Pay TV Operators Drop 316,000 Subs in Past Year (Todd Spangler/Variety)

5:41 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, NetNewsCheck Latest, FishbowlNY, The Atlantic Wire, Street Fight, Business Insider and CNET

Anthony Ha / TechCrunch:

AOL Is Acquiring Video Ad Platform Adap.tv For $405M — TechCrunch-owner AOL just announced that it has reached an agreement to acquire video advertising platform Adap.tv in a deal that should be worth a total of $405 million — $322 million in cash and $83 million in AOL common stock.

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 Q2 Comes In (Slightly) Above Estimates With $541M Revenue, $0.35 Earnings Per Share — AOL just released its earnings report for the second quarter of the year, coming in ahead of Wall Street expectations with revenue of $541 million, up 2 percent percent from the same period last year, and diluted earnings per share of $0.35.

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

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: @blakehounshell, @ron_fournier, @kvox, @abeaujon and Forbes

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

Discussion: VentureBeat

Staci D. Kramer / Nieman Journalism Lab:
Don Graham on the sale of The Washington Post, Jeff Bezos, and the pace of newsroom innovation

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

Discussion: The Daily Beast, Mediaite, Beyond Search and Broadcasting & Cable

The Huffington Post:
Washington Post Sale Turns Attention To Sulzbergers' Ownership Of The New York Times

Discussion: Washington Post, Poynter, Online NewsHour, Bloomberg, FishbowlNY and @thelloydgrove

Chris Kirkham / The Huffington Post:
Washington Post Co.'s Kaplan Bet May Have Cost It The Paper

Discussion: New Republic

Lynne Marek / Crain's Chicago Business:
How will Globe, Post sales affect Tribune?

Discussion: The Huffington Post

Om Malik / GigaOM:
A new Babylon and the rise of the tech tycoon

Discussion: Nieman Journalism Lab, New York Times, The New Yorker Blog, News Desk and New Yorker

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: TVNewser, multichannel.com/rss, CNN 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.

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:

Discussion: Poynter, @nabjdigital and @deggans

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

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, @robpegoraro, Erik Wemple and @clarajeffery

Philip Bump / The Atlantic Wire:

This Year's Yemen Leak Isn't Angering Congress as Much as Last Year's — Someone in the government told the press confidential details of a terror operation centered on Yemen. In 2012, that meant broad outcry, with members of Congress calling for investigations and criminal charges. In 2013: crickets.

Discussion: The Huffington Post, CBS News and Guardian

Michael Calderone / The Huffington Post:
McClatchy Editor Defends Publishing Al Qaeda Detail CNN, NY Times Held Back

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

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

Todd Spangler / Variety:

Cord-Cutting No Longer an ‘Urban Myth’: Pay TV Operators Drop 316,000 Subs in Past Year — Industry faces steeper losses even as housing market shows signs of recovery, according to Wall Street analyst Craig Moffett — The number of Americans jettisoning pay TV is still fairly small …

Discussion: Wall Street Journal and Multichannel.com

Greg Bensinger / Digits:

Groupon Boosts Sales; Lefkofsky to Be Permanent CEO — Groupon said its second-quarter revenue grew 7% thanks to a surge in North American sales, and named Co-Chief Executive Eric Lefkofsky as sole chief of the company. — The news sent shares in the local commerce company soaring 18% in after-hours trading.

Discussion: Forbes, ZDNet and Wall Street Journal

Erik Sass / MediaPost:

Saga, Salem Reports Uptick In Radio Results — Radio's sluggish first quarter was followed by modest improvement in the second quarter, judging by the results from several broadcast radio groups. Saga Communications and Salem Communications both reported revenue increases, following positive results from Clear Channel and Cumulus.

Discussion: Radio & Television …

Sam Thielman / Adweek:

Fox Will Invest $150 Million in Broadcast Programming — The newly-created 21st Century Fox had its first earnings call on Tuesday afternoon, and, perhaps befitting its status as half of the old News Corp., took half as long as most earnings calls with 15 minutes of presentation and another 15 minutes allotted for a Q&A.

Discussion: Financial Times and Sydney Morning Herald