Mediagazer: $40-million round for Vox seals it: Venture capital likes media (PandoDaily)

9:40 PM ET, October 15, 2013

Top News:

Ben Smith / BuzzFeed:

Exclusive: Glenn Greenwald Will Leave Guardian To Create New News Organization — Glenn Greenwald, the lawyer and blogger who brought the Guardian the biggest scoop of the decade, is departing the London-based news organization, for a brand new, large-scale, broadly-focused media outlet, he told BuzzFeed Tuesday.

Mark Hosenball / Reuters:

Exclusive: Greenwald exits Guardian for new Omidyar media venture — (Reuters) - Glenn Greenwald, who has made headlines around the world with his reporting on U.S. electronic surveillance programs, is leaving the Guardian newspaper to join a new media venture funded by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar …

Discussion: Mediaite, GigaOM, @qhardy and Pressing Issues

PandoDaily:

$40-million round for Vox seals it: Venture capital likes media — Vox's new mega-round puts a bow on content's holy-s**t moment — Today it was revealed that Vox Media, owner of The Verge, SB Nation, and Polygon has raised another $40 million of funding.

Discussion: @emilybell, @editorialiste, @codytoshiro, @elegantlywasted, @hsmittman, @robpegoraro and @rafat

Eric Eldon / TechCrunch:

Why Accel Is Leading A $40M Round In Vox Media, A Digital Content Company (!) — “At some level, it is still contrarian,” Accel Partners' Andrew Braccia admits about leading a $40 million fourth round of funding in Vox Media, the publisher of hundreds of major league sports fan blogs …

Discussion: @rafat, @markos, @reckless and Digital Media Wire

Tim Peterson / AdAge:

Vox Media Raises $34 Million to Expand Video Business — Company's Tech Site Out-Traffics TechCrunch, Wired, Engadget — Vox Media may only have three sites to its name — The Verge, SB Nation and Polygon — but that hasn't stopped the D.C.-based company from stuffing its pockets.

Discussion: VentureBeat, Fortune, TechCrunch, AllThingsD, bizjournals, Reuters, @hblodget, VideoInk, @jorilallo, @pkafka, @reckless, GigaOM, @jeffjohnroberts, @agolis, @justinnxt and @mattbuchanan

Casey Newton / The Verge:

This just in: why news is Twitter's next frontier — A new ‘experiment’ and a high-profile hire suggest big plans — Twitter is moving more aggressively into the world of journalism, building a new alert system for breaking news and hiring someone to build new partnerships with the media industry.

Discussion: @mcproulx

Joshua Benton / Nieman Journalism Lab:

Twitter's changing its direct messaging policy, some journalists are ready to take advantage — Twitter is changing an old policy that meant that you could be DM'd — that is, you could only receive a direct message — from users that you follow. (So if I follow John Doe, John Doe can DM me …

Discussion: Mashable and Pocket-lint

The Smoking Gun:

Arianna Huffington made just $21 million from sale of Huffington Post, new document reveals — HuffPost founder pocketed “only” $21 million from web site sale — In a new court filing, lawyers for two men suing Arianna Huffington for allegedly denying them credit and cash for their role …

Discussion: Poynter, Gawker, @romenesko, @drudge_report, Deadline.com, FishbowlNY, JIMROMENESKO.COM and New York Magazine

Kara Swisher / AllThingsD:

Earnings and Revenue Down — Yahoo Delivers on Expected Lackluster Third Quarter — Yahoo met weak financial expectations, turning in what can only be described as lackluster performance in its third-quarter earnings report today. — The Silicon Valley Internet giant said it earned 34 cents …

Discussion: AllThingsD, The Wrap, AllThingsD, Digits, AdAge, The Wrap, Forbes, Globe and Mail, VentureBeat, Hollywood Reporter, bizjournals, Reuters, ZDNet, @pkafka and TechnoBuffalo

Josh Sternberg / Digiday:

Can Journalists Cut It as CEOs? — Reporters are notorious procrastinators, cynical to the core, often disorganized and frequently drunk. Sounds like CEO material. — But there are exceptions to the crude stereotype above. On Sunday, Jim VandeHei, co-founder and executive editor …

Discussion: @digiday and @juliemmoos

Brent Lang / The Wrap:
Politico CEO Jim VandeHei Talks Capital New York Relaunch, Jeff Bezos' WaPo Purchase

Discussion: Folio, FishbowlDC and Adweek

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York:

‘IHT’ publisher gets a promotion as ‘International New York Times’ debuts — As we reported yesterday, The New York Times is doing a big promotional push for its new global edition, The International New York Times, which debuted this morning as a rebranded version of The International Herald Tribune.

Discussion: Poynter, @joepompeo and FRANCE 24

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:
The International New York Times debuts

Discussion: New York Times, FishbowlNY, Forbes, Associated Press and @poynter

Sarah Frier / Bloomberg:

Twitter Revenue More Than Doubles in Third Quarter — Twitter Inc.'s revenue more than doubled in the third quarter, as the microblogging company prepares to go public. The San Francisco-based company said in a filing that its revenue was $168.6 million in the third quarter, up from $82.3 million in the same period a year ago.

Discussion: Forbes, CNBC, VentureBeat, GeekWire and @pkafka

Martin Belam:

How UsVsTh3m shows the Royal Charter regulation farce is not fit for purpose in the digital age — Well, wouldn't you know, after years of blogging about how press regulation didn't work in the digital era, I find myself having just helped launch the very epitome of why the current proposals are completely unfit for the 21st century.

Discussion: @flashboy and @jimwaterson

Patrick Smith / TheMediaBriefing.com:
All these media organisations won't be covered by the press regulation Royal Charter

Discussion: Daily Mail, @joannahiggins and Guardian

Leslie Kaufman / New York Times:

Viral Content With a Liberal Bent — There is conventional wisdom about what kind of material will go viral on the Internet: celebrity slide shows, lists like 10 tips for losing belly fat, and quirky kitten antics. — Then there is the path of Upworthy.com, whose goal is to make more serious content …

Discussion: TED Blog, Thanks:@joshluger

Ira Teinowitz / The Wrap:

FilmOn Threatened With Contempt of Court — A district court judge on Tuesday threatened to find FilmOn X in contempt of court for beginning to air network affiliates from Boston despite her injunction barring the company from airing network stations outside New York and Massachusetts.

Discussion: Variety, Deadline.com and Hollywood Reporter

Lucas Shaw / The Wrap:

YouTube Partner: We Are ‘Not Happy’ With Money From Subscription Channels — Alchemy Networks CEO Peter Griffith was one of the first media executives to bet YouTube viewers would pay to access certain channels. His company was one of the YouTube's initial partners when it debuted subscription channels …

Discussion: @niemanlab