Mediagazer: LEAKED MEMO: Patch Execs Tell Employees Patch Is Not Dead, Despite What They Read In The New York Times (Nicholas Carlson/Business Insider)

3:40 PM ET, December 16, 2013

Top News:

AOL's Tim Armstrong reluctantly lets go of Patch as shareholder pressures mount — AOL Chief's White Whale Finally Slips His Grasp — Tim Armstrong, the chief executive of AOL, is finally winding down Patch, a network of local news sites that he helped invent and that AOL bought after he took over.

Jeff Jarvis / BuzzMachine:

The almost-post mortem for Patch — David Carr all but writes the obit for Patch today. One could quibble and say it's not quite dead, that Aol plans partnerships for the ill-fated ganglion of local sites. Fine, but it's still not wrong to look back and ask what went wrong.

Discussion: @the_fjp, @dangillmor, @jeffjarvis and @jayrosen_nyu

Nicholas Carlson / Business Insider:

LEAKED MEMO: Patch Execs Tell Employees Patch Is Not Dead, Despite What They Read In The New York Times — In his weekly Sunday night column, “The Media Equation,” New York Times reporter David Carr seemed to pronounce AOL local news network Patch dead. — His headline: “AOL Chief's White Whale Finally Slips His Grasp.”

Discussion: Forbes, Businessweek, TechCrunch, New York Magazine, @joepompeo, @kantrowitz, SocialTimes, @tracewall, @ali and Kirk LaPointe's …

Richard Johnson / New York Post:

60 Minutes reporter John Miller currently negotiating new intelligence job with NYPD — CBS newsman John Miller is negotiating his exit as a senior correspondent to join his old friend Bill Bratton back at the Police Department, a reliable source tells me.

Discussion: TVNewser, Deadline.com, TVWeek.com, NewsMax.com, Talking Points Memo, Business Insider, @dandrezner, @antderosa, @onekade, @csoghoian, @dailynewshack, @moorehn, Gothamist, @jeffreycarr and @antderosa

Sara Morrison / The Wire:

‘60 Minutes’: NSA Good, Snowden Bad — As if that whole retracted Benghazi report and the Amazon commercial/drone reveal didn't undermine 60 Minutes' credibility enough in the last few weeks, here's another gem: a report on how the NSA has simply been misunderstood by all those Snowden leaks and is a good guy, really.

Discussion: CBS News, The Nation, The Huffington Post, Hit & Run, @jeffjarvis, Gigaom, @martin_u, @carlmalamud, @paulxharris, @davechensky, @carr2n and @ggreenwald

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

‘60 Minutes’ reporter didn't want NSA story to be ‘a puff piece’ — In an interview with “60 Minutes Overtime” producer Ann Silvio, John Miller talks about his intentions with “60 Minutes"' two-part NSA story, which ran Sunday. Miller said the disclosure that he used to work in the Office …

Lucia Moses / Adweek:

Almost Half of The Huffington Post's Traffic Comes From Overseas — The Huffington Post is fast becoming an international media brand. It now publishes eight editions outside the U.S. and expects to export its celebrity, news and aggregation model to Brazil, South Korea, India and possibly the Middle East in 2014.

Discussion: @muckety, @aoladvertising, @justin_b_smith and @niemanlab

Brian R. Fitzgerald / Digits:

WSJ hires editors from ABC News and NBC News as gadget reviewer Walt Mossberg leaves the team — WSJ Announces Personal Tech Reviewing Team — Today we are announcing expanded Wall Street Journal coverage of personal technology, to help readers everywhere understand and choose among …

Discussion: @joannastern, @linecook, @scottmaustin, @geoffreyfowler, @reckless, @fmanjoo and Talking Biz News

Elizabeth Jensen / New York Times:

NPR Gets $17 Million in Grants to Expand Coverage and Develop Digital Platform — NPR has amassed nearly $17 million in grants to increase substantially its coverage of education and global health and development, and finance creation of a new mobile and web platform that is expected to allow …

Discussion: The Wrap, Los Angeles Times, @vivianschiller, @rbole, @ibarguen, @lenkendall, @chuckatnpr, AllAccess.com, @goodberger, @lucasoconnor, Poynter, @nprglobalhealth, @slcarothers, @nycjim, @nprmonkeysee, @ceciliamarie, @j_schiff and @romenesko

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York:

Guardian U.S. C.E.O. out after short stint — Guardian Media Group's U.S. boss is leaving the company after just a little more than a year on the job. — Michael Bloom, C.E.O. of Guardian U.S., The Guardian's American-facing digital website, “will leave the company to pursue other opportunities …

Discussion: Media Guido and @joepompeo

Lara O'Reilly / Marketing Week:
Guardian promotes chief commercial officer David Pemsel to deputy chief executive

Discussion: Guardian and @marketingweeked

Capital New York:

The ‘Times Magazine’ problem — New York Times executive editor Jill Abramson had given herself until the end of the year to name a new editor for The New York Times Magazine to replace Hugo Lindgren, whose imminent departure was first reported by Capital last month.

Discussion: @capitalnewyork, @drmabuse and @joepompeo

Brian Braiker / Digiday:

Is This a Preview of Medium's Business Model? — In a move that suggests possible monetization plans for the future, blogging platform Medium has teamed up with ESPN's soccer network to build a new place for fans to write and read about the sport in the run-up to the 2014 World Cup.

Discussion: @niemanlab and @digiday