Mediagazer: Armstrong Confirms “Hundreds” Of Layoffs At Patch, 400 Sites Shuttered Or Partnered Off, And A New CEO (Darrell Etherington/TechCrunch)

5:05 PM ET, August 9, 2013

Top News:

Darrell Etherington / TechCrunch:

Armstrong Confirms “Hundreds” Of Layoffs At Patch, 400 Sites Shuttered Or Partnered Off, And A New CEO — We reported yesterday that AOL's hyper-local news service would lose hundreds of employees today, and now we have confirmation from a well-placed Patcher privy to the call …

Discussion: Fast Company, Adweek, LA Observed, streetfightmag.com, FishbowlNY, ZDNet, New York Magazine, Business Insider, CNNMoney.com, @talkingnewmedia, @passantino, WebProNews, Kirk LaPointe's … and Boing Boing

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

No layoffs at Patch today — AOL CEO Tim Armstrong told Patch editors Friday there would be no “impacts,” or layoffs announced today. The “impacts” will arrive on a rolling basis over the next week, he said. — Armstrong said in an earnings call earlier this week that AOL would sell …

Discussion: AdAge, Pressfolios Blog, Newsday and @loislane79

Sam Biddle / Valleywag:
AOL CEO Tim Armstrong Fires Employee for Taking His Picture

Discussion: JIMROMENESKO.COM, Betabeat and Mashable

Nicholas Carlson / Business Insider:
AOL Won't Deny The Rumor That Patch's CEO Is Out After Just Two Months On The Job

Discussion: Forbes, The Wrap, TechCrunch, AllThingsD, TechCrunch, The New York Observer, JIMROMENESKO.COM and FishbowlNY

Reuters:

Murdoch Shakes Up News Corp.'s Australian Operation — CANBERRA — Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. appointed a new chief executive for its Australian operation Friday, a move that Prime Minister Kevin Rudd linked to mounting attacks on his government by Mr. Murdoch's local newspapers during a divisive election campaign.

Kim Stephens / Brisbane Times:
Brisbane cafe bans Murdoch press

Discussion: ninemsn, @funwithstuff and @vermeera

Neil Chenoweth / Australian Financial Review:
Murdoch's News Corp empire turns on itself

Discussion: Guardian, The Conversation and Guardian

Margaret Simons / Guardian:
Kim Williams departure a victory for Murdoch's Australian editors

Discussion: Guardian

Herald Sun:
Former HWT chairman Julian Clarke appointed News Corp Australia CEO as Kim Williams resigns

Discussion: Reuters, mUmBRELLA, Business Review Weekly, SINA English, Guardian, ABC, TheAustralian, Sydney Morning Herald, Business Spectator and @smh

Brian Beutler / Salon:

Glenn Greenwald offered Brazilian protection from U.S. — Greenwald tells Salon he intends to visit the U.S. soon — but says the risk of prosecution against him is real — A Brazilian official has taken the unusual step of publicly announcing that the Brazilian government …

Discussion: The Huffington Post

Jack Mirkinson / The Huffington Post:

Obama's NSA Conference Could Be Subtitled ‘The Guardian Gets Results’ — President Obama's press conference on Friday was full of headline-making news about new proposals to reform the American surveillance system. But another headline could also be appropriate: “Journalism gets results.”

The New Republic:

Newspapers Should Be More Like Amazon — By Julius Genachowski and Steven Waldman What Jeff Bezos can teach The Washington Post What's intriguing about Jeff Bezos, who purchased The Washington Post this week, is not that he's a digital guy or that he has a lot of money—though both certainly help …

Discussion: Garcia Media, @brianstelter, Businessweek, @stevenwaldman and @mathewi

Pew Research Center for the People and the Press:

Amid Criticism, Support for Media's ‘Watchdog’ Role Stands Out — Overview — Public evaluations of news organizations' performance on key measures such as accuracy, fairness and independence remain mired near all-time lows. But there is a bright spot among these otherwise gloomy ratings …

Discussion: Poynter, USA Today, Big News Network.com, Adweek, TVSpy, Mediaite and The Huffington Post

Greg Sandoval / The Verge:

Consumer watchdog says Apple did ‘considerable harm’ with ebook pricing, supports DOJ ruling — Eddy Cue, the Apple exec accused of orchestrating the price fixing (right), leaves court. — The Consumer Federation of America (CFA) said in papers filed in federal court that Apple caused considerable …

Laura Hazard Owen / GigaOM:
In ebook case, Apple wants a stay, and DOJ argues publishers are conspiring again

Discussion: AppleInsider, Engadget, Electronista, 9to5Mac, MacRumors, iClarified, Hillicon Valley and ZDNet

Associated Press:

Tumblr Founder to Get $81M to Remain at Yahoo — Yahoo's recently completed acquisition of Internet blogging service Tumblr includes an $81 million payment to Tumblr founder David Karp as long as he remains on the job for the next four years. — The retention payment disclosed …

Discussion: Softpedia News

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:
Tumblr Had $16.6 Million Left When Yahoo Bought It

Discussion: Quartz, Betabeat, Business Insider, Valleywag, Forbes, Sky News, Softpedia News, Reuters, Digits, The Next Web and GigaOM

Christy Choi / South China Morning Post:

Wikimedians should fix ‘broken journalism’, Jimmy Wales tells Hong Kong conference — Journalism is broken and Wikimedians should think about how to fix it, said Jimmy Wales at the opening of the 9th annual Wikimania conference in Hong Kong on Friday. — Harnessing the power of public discussion …

Discussion: Digits, Digits, @kirstystyles1, @jchristychoi and @fabriceflorin

Mark Sweney / Guardian:

BBC calls in auditors to widen search for improper executive payoffs — BBC director general Tony Hall appoints KPMG to investigate potentially improper payoffs to senior BBC executives — Tony Hall, the BBC director general, has called in external auditors KPMG to widen the search …

Discussion: Telegraph

Mike Reynolds / Multichannel:

TWC Customers File Lawsuit over Retrans Disconnect with Milwaukee Station — Plaintiffs Seek Class-Action Status over Disconnect with Journal Broadcast's WTMJ — A trio of Time Warner Cable customers has filed a lawsuit against the cable operator over its retransmission-consent dispute with WTMJ-TV in Milwaukee.

Discussion: JSOnline, Radio & Television …, TMJ4 and FierceCable

Meg James / Los Angeles Times:

Rupert Murdoch keeps succession plan a secret — At the end of an investor conference designed to shed light on the financial future of Rupert Murdoch's 21st Century Fox, the 82-year-old media baron was asked how long he planned to stick around as chief executive officer.

Discussion: Variety

Mark Sweney / Guardian:

More than half of Britons access news online — Figures show 55% of adults use internet to read or download content from papers, broadcasters and online-only websites — Read the full ONS report — More than half of UK adults are accessing news content online, another milestone …

Discussion: ons.gov.uk and The Next Web

Laura Hazard Owen / GigaOM:

Google rolls out digital textbooks, to buy and rent — but students should shop around — Google has launched a digital textbooks section of Books on Google Play in the U.S., as promised. The textbooks are available through the Play website, Android and iOS apps.

Discussion: TechCrunch, Softpedia News and Android Police

Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:

Jack Dorsey on Twitter's turning point as a news entity: The day a plane landed in the Hudson — After seven years with Twitter as a part of the social-media ecosystem, we've become pretty accustomed by now to the idea that the service functions as a real-time news platform …