Mediagazer: ESPN Challenger Will Try to Punch Above Its Weight (Richard Sandomir/New York Times)

11:45 PM ET, August 16, 2013

Top News:

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:

AOL Starts Patch Cuts, and Up to 500 People May Lose Their Jobs — AOL has begun making mass layoffs at its Patch unit. — By the time the cuts are over, AOL could end up reducing the local news network's 1,000-worker labor force by half, according to people familiar with the plans.

Tom Gara / Corporate Intelligence:

Anyone Want a Patch? Going Once, Going Twice... Hundreds will be laid off and many sites are set to be closed down, but AOL still seems to believe in the potential of Patch, its network of local news sites. Alongside its announcement of the job cuts today, it sent out figures saying …

Discussion: AdAge and Talking New Media

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:

New Media Pink Slips Cost Less Than Old Media Pink Slips — One of the many differences between old media companies and new media companies: It's a lot cheaper to fire people at new media companies. — AOL said it will spend between $14 million and $18 million on “cash restructuring charges” …

Discussion: @edmundlee

Steve Kovach / Business Insider:
Here's The Story Of How AOL Fired 350 Patch Employees Today

Discussion: @stevekovach

Kim Masters / Hollywood Reporter:

Fox TV Studios Won't Produce NBC Hillary Clinton Miniseries (Exclusive) — The project has prompted the Republican National Committee to ban the network from hosting 2016 presidential debates. — The tantalizing spectacle of Fox Television Studios producing a Hillary Clinton miniseries …

Discussion: Deadline.com, New York Times, National Enquirer, @seanspicer, @hellion1111, @jbflint, Politico, @logandobson, Inside TV and The Huffington Post

Dylan Byers / Politico:

RNC's NBC, CNN boycott win for Univision — In a highly anticipated move, the Republican National Committee voted unanimously on Friday to deny NBC and CNN the rights to host or sponsor a Republican primary debate unless they cancel their respective Hillary Clinton film projects.

Discussion: Mediaite, The Week, The Huffington Post, @theplumlinegs and @thisisjorge

Zeke J Miller / TIME:
GOP Votes To Punish Networks Over Clinton Projects Read more: http://swampland.time.com/2013/08/16/ gop …

Discussion: Mediaite, Reuters, The Huffington Post, Variety, Vanity Fair, New York Magazine, @poniewozik and TheBlaze.com

Matthew Garrahan / Financial Times:

‘Gonzo’ Vice sells stake to 21st Century Fox — Vice Media, the digital media and publishing group that took basketball player Dennis Rodman to North Korea, has sold a 5 per cent stake to 21st Century Fox in a deal that values the company at $1.4bn. — The $70m deal, which will be announced on Monday …

Alex Weprin / TVNewser:

Al Jazeera America HQ Flooded Shortly After Studio Tour — Al Jazeera America's New York City headquarters was temporarily evacuated and staffers were blocked from entering this afternoon due to flooding in the building. The incident comes just four days before AJAM is scheduled to launch across the country.

Discussion: TVNewser, Politico, FishbowlNY, UnBeige and AdAge

Janko Roettgers / GigaOM:

Ahead of cable channel launch, Al Jazeera starts blocking videos on YouTube — When violence erupted in Cairo this week, Al Jazeera once again became the go-to source for on-the-ground news coverage. The network streamed live from Egypt's capital, and uploaded dozens of videos to its YouTube channel.

Discussion: The Huffington Post

Derek Thompson / The Atlantic Online:

The Global Dominance of ESPN — Why hasn't anybody figured out how to beat “The Worldwide Leader in Sports”? — “This is the chart I was talking about. This is powerful.” — Artie Bulgrin, ESPN's director of research, is hunched over an iPad in a wood-paneled conference room …

Discussion: Fast Company, The Atlantic Online and The Verge

Richard Sandomir / New York Times:

ESPN Challenger Will Try to Punch Above Its Weight — On Saturday at 6 a.m. Eastern, Fox Sports 1 will spring into existence, propelled by a portfolio of major events purchased over the past few years, a gaggle of studio shows and plenty of hype about being the “fun” alternative to ESPN.

Discussion: New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Engadget and Fox Sports

Jack Shafer:

News never made money, and is unlikely to — Sometime in the mid-1990s, the Web began to peel from the daily American newspaper bundle its most commercial elements, essentially the editorial sections against which advertisements could be reliably sold. Coverage of sports, business and market news …

Discussion: FishbowlDC and The FJP

Reuters:

Former Sun-Times owner ordered to pay $4.1 million — The Securities and Exchange Commission has banned former Sun-Times owner Conrad Black from acting as a director of a U.S. company and said he must pay $4.1 million in restitution in a settlement that ends a long-standing lawsuit …

Discussion: Guardian, GlobalPost and @kevglobal

BBC: Conrad Black fined and banned by US

Anna Clark / Columbia Journalism Review:

Does Gannett think its own papers matter? — As job cuts hit the chain, coverage—and answers—are in short supply — DETROIT, MI — Want to learn what the deal is with the hundreds of layoffs unfolding at Gannett newspapers across the country? You can get slivers of the story …

Discussion: Gannett Blog

Laura Hazard Owen / GigaOM:

Bad sign for e-readers? E Ink sales plunge — Here's a sign that e-readers are struggling in the U.S.: E Ink Holdings, the Taiwan-based company that makes e-reader screens for companies such as Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Sony, just had its worst quarter in four years.

Discussion: Taipei Times and TechCrunch

Katherine Rushton / Telegraph:

News UK could face corporate charges in Britain — Rupert Murdoch's UK newspaper business is being investigated over complicity with alleged phone-hacking and bribery of police and public officials by its journalists, raising the likelihood that it will face corporate charges in Britain.

Discussion: @davidfolkenflik, The Independent and @davidfolkenflik

Kelly McBride / Poynter:

NPR ombud's latest report raises important questions, but it's not without flaws — The modern ombudsman has been a prominent fixture in a few of the largest American newsrooms since The New York Times instituted its public editor in the wake of the Jayson Blair debacle a decade ago.

Discussion: @poynter and TIME

Lucy A. Dalglish / City Desk:

The Transparent Trap: Will Jeff Bezos Continue the Graham Family's Fights for Open Government? — The Washington Post is one of the rare news organizations in America that has spent more than 40 years trying to serve two distinct audiences: its diverse local community and …

Discussion: Gawker, @mchertock, @wcp, Politico, The Daily Caller, FishbowlDC and The Wrap

Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:

Meet the man who is building a hyperlocal aggregation platform for the Chicago Sun-Times — Newspaper publishers everywhere are trying to do more with less, and the battle for local readers is a big part of their struggle, since it is one area where larger players aren't as competitive …

Discussion: Poynter and @jason_pontin

Gavriel Hollander / Press Gazette:

Nick Davies joins Paul Lewis in Guardian's US team as paper bolsters stateside reporting corps — Investigative reporter Nick Davies is set to move to Los Angeles to join The Guardian's burgeoning US team. — Davies, the author of Flat Earth News, shot to prominence with his revelations …

Discussion: FishbowlNY

Rebecca Grant / VentureBeat:

Tastemade spoons up $10M to become the Food Network of the digital era — Tastemade has raised $10 million to grow its online video food network. Cofounder Larry Fitzgibbon said the company's goal is to become a major global brand for food and lifestyle content.

Discussion: TechCrunch, Pulse 2.0, The Wrap and GigaOM