Updated: AOL grows again on solid ad sales
AOL continues its surprising turnaround with another quarter of growth in its content and advertising segment. The company is still, however, depending on its legacy business for all its profit. Read more »
NewFronts news roundup: a big week for Yahoo, AOL, Blip, Hulu and Crackle
This week, famous faces, new shows and pleas for advertising dollars brought many web video companies to web video’s version of TV’s upfronts. Here are just a few of the biggest stories to emerge. Read more »
Why online advertising will get easier for publishers (and why it won’t)
photo: nmedia
The process of selling digital ads is notoriously complicated and involves a lengthy list of competing companies and technologies. A recent ad tech conference explored if things will ever change – here’s some highlights. Read more »
AOL’s CEO to haters: Our content strategy was right after all (and Patch is fine too)
photo: EDHAR
Back from near-death, AOL feels vindicated that it bet on a content strategy when everyone else was turning to platforms and technology. CEO Tim Armstrong shared some thoughts on content, hyper-local site Patch and whether AOL might buy Time’s magazines. Read more »
Judge allows case over HuffPo ownership to go forward, adds fraud claim
A bitter fight over who started the Huffington Post took a major twist today after a judge not only refused for the second time to dismiss the case, but also expanded it. Read more »
What Nextdoor is doing right with hyperlocal and Patch is doing wrong
photo: Flickr user Jason Parks
Most of the startups and networks focused on hyperlocal or community news and information try to be as open as possible, but Nextdoor is taking the exact opposite approach and making the barrier to entry for users as high as it can. Read more at GigaOM »
LOL no more: it’s time to take AOL seriously as shares soar again
photo: Rob Hainer via shutterstock
Looking for the turnaround story of 2013? Stop looking at Yahoo — it’s AOL that’s the real deal. The company has quietly put in place a powerful strategy based on media, technology and advertising. And investors like what they see. Read more »
How video will provide a third act for AOL
AOL has been a basket case for years as it tried to figure out if was a tech or a content company. But today it announced earnings and a strategy that suggest it may finally have found a way forward. Read more »
HuffPost Live’s new iPad app could be a second screen breakthrough
photo: HuffPo Live
HuffPost Live’s new app could help usher in an era where content producers seek to dominate not just our TV but our tablet devices — at the same time. Read more at GigaOM »
Debate sponsor taps YouTube, Yahoo and AOL to quiz, inform voters
The Commission on Presidential Debates is partnering with three online media companies to stream debates and educate voters. The platforms will also give the companies a way to showcase their other content. Read more at GigaOM »
In Patch redesign, more focus on users — and less on editors
In a move to increase community and social networking and decrease reliance on paid editors and writers, Aol’s struggling hyperlocal site Patch is rolling out a redesign today in five Long Island towns. The redesign will spread to 50 more communities this year. Read more »
Simon & Schuster to stream book videos on Roku and Blinkx
Book publisher Simon & Schuster is ramping up video distribution, creating content channels and signing with partners like Roku, Blinkx and Taboola. For now, the videos are intended to promote books and authors, not to drive advertising revenue. Read more »
Top digital exec leaves News Corp ahead of company’s split
photo: Corbis / Phil McCarten
Jon Miller, the well-respected chief digital officer of News Corp, is on the way out after presiding over the company’s sprawling digital properties. The move comes at a time that News Corp is splitting into distinct entertainment and publishing companies. Read more »
There’s only one truly open platform: the web
This week marks the 21st anniversary of the world’s first website, and as new social-web platforms like Twitter and Facebook spend more and more of their energy trying to control and monetize their networks, it’s worth remembering some of the choices that the web’s creator made. Read more at GigaOM »
Bleacher Report and the evolution of the content farm
The purchase of the sports-blogging site Bleacher Report by Turner Broadcasting unit fills a content hole for the Time Warner unit, but it is also a validation of the user-generated-content model behind the sports-blogging network, and a sign of the disruptive effects that model can have. Read more at GigaOM »
paidContent turns 10: A brief history of digital media
Remember when Friendster was the hot social network, publishers doubted that ebooks would ever sell, and Netflix thought DVDs in red envelopes was the future? We do — that was that state of digital media when paidContent launched in 2002. Read more »
Armstrong still bullish on Patch; up to $50M revenue in 2012
photo: Getty Images / Michael Kovac
Tim Armstrong continues to believe local news network Patch is not only viable, it is vital to Aol’s future. He promises a new data-driven product in development now will wow Patch watchers and users in the fall. Read more »
Aol tells a better earnings story for Q2
Aol has been in turnaround mode for years — this time, it looks like the turns are in the right direction. Advertising up, revenue decline almost flat, subscription churn lowest in a decade, latest re-org underway. Read more »
Why Marissa Mayer may not be a good fit for Yahoo
Former Google executive Marissa Mayer looks to some like the savior Yahoo and its shareholders have been waiting for. But her focus in the past has been on technology and product development, and that may not be what a media company like Yahoo really needs. Read more at GigaOM »
Huffington: Smart experiment, or old-media mistake?
Huffington Post now looks less like a blog network and more like a traditional media entity, having launched its own weekly digital magazine for the iPad — but is launching a subscription app a smart way of branching out, or a sign of old-media thinking? Read more at GigaOM »
Analyst: Digital Newfronts will fail to take TV dollars
Sanford Bernstein senior analyst Todd Juenger doesn’t believe digital media companies like YouTube, Yahoo and AOL can entice advertisers into committing huge portions of dollars all in one buying session, a la TV’s traditional upfront market. Read more »
TV nets wrap upfront week: “The biz still goes through us”
Two weeks after the digital media giants stormed Madison Avenue with their Newfront blitz, television’s indigenous programmers showed up in Manhattan to defend their turf. For now, their share of ad dollars appears to be safe. Read more »
The decline of social-news apps and Facebook as a gatekeeper
The recent dramatic declines in users of some Facebook social-reading apps from newspapers like the Washington Post reinforces a lesson that media companies need to keep in mind at all times — namely, that Facebook is the information gatekeeper now, and you are just a provider. Read more at GigaOM »
Streaming start-up NimbleTV taps Lou Borrelli CMO
Cable and broadband business veteran Lou Borrelli will head marketing for a start-up trying to make good on the promise of TV Everywhere. NimbleTV wants to make multi-channel subscribers pay a fee on top of what they’re already shelling out to stream their video anywhere. Read more »
Does AOL need HuffPost more than HuffPost needs AOL?
Arianna Huffington says everything is fine at AOL and she doesn’t mind having her power reduced, but she also admits that private-equity firms have raised the idea of a spin-off of Huffington Post. Could this be the beginning of the end for the faded former portal? Read more at GigaOM »
New Facebook patents cover IM, search
The 650 patents that Facebook acquired from Microsoft are “web-related” said a source with knowledge of the deal and listed some specific examples. The source said the portfolio includes patents related to: instant-messaging, e-commerce, LTE, mobile, handsets, search and advertising. Read more »
Facebook acquires AOL patents from Microsoft
photo: Background: Shutterstock/Thomas Pajot & Zuckerberg: Jason McELweenie/Flickr
Facebook announced today that it will pay $550 million for the right to 650 patents and patent applications from Microsoft.
Microsoft acquired those patents and hundreds of others in a deal with AOL earlier this month. Read more »
Armstrong: Billion-dollar patent sale isn’t about breaking up AOL
photo: Getty Images / Michael Kovac
AOL CEO Tim Armstrong insists the $1 billion patent deal with Microsoft is about profiting while simplifying the company, not the start of the last sell off. Read more »
Tim Armstrong may have saved AOL, but at what cost?
Just over a year after AOL acquired the Huffington Post, much of the integration between the two is being unwound, and control over key elements of the business are reverting to founder Arianna Huffington. Should AOL chief executive Tim Armstrong be watching his back? Read more at GigaOM »
Judge Turfs Blogger Lawsuit Against HuffPo
photo: AP Images
A New York judge ruled on Friday that Arianna Huffington’s army of unpaid bloggers will remain just that .. unpaid. Read more »
Mail.ru Yanks Domestic Ads From ICQ
Mail.ru’s DST may have spent $187.5 million taking ICQ off AOL’s hands, but it’s in no rush to make a direct return on the veteran IM servic… Read more »
As Staff Flees, TechCrunch’s Traffic Plummets
photo: Shutterstock / James Blinn
TechCrunch, the long-time darling of the digerati, is smashed to bits and all of AOL’s horses and men will be hard-pressed to put it togethe… Read more »
As Staff Flees, TechCrunch's Traffic Plummets
photo: Shutterstock / James Blinn
TechCrunch, the long-time darling of the digerati, is smashed to bits and all of AOL’s horses and men will be hard-pressed to put it togethe… Read more »
The Plan By Yahoo, Hulu, Other Big Video Firms To Grab Upfront TV Ad Money
photo: Corbis / Jonathan Gelber
Madison Avenue’s upfront ad markets are the place where TV broadcasters and cable companies sell the bulk of their billions of dollars in co… Read more »
Big Tech, Obama And The Politics Of Privacy
photo: Flickr / Thomas Leuthard
The White House announced major privacy initiatives this week amidst a growing hubbub over how technology companies use consumers’ personal… Read more »
HuffPo Blog Formerly Known As Parentlode Will Now Be Called ‘Parentry’
It’s always tough to come up with a unique name for your offspring, but a little lawsuit sure can get the creative juices flowing. And so st… Read more »
Where Does Arianna Fit Into AOL’s New Patch Plans?
photo: AP Images
AOL (NYSE: AOL) has hired a new Chief Content Officer in its latest attempt to reboot Patch, the network of hundreds of sites that offer “hy… Read more »
AOL Q4: Ads Up By 10%; Beats Street Estimates But Still Slumping
AOL (NYSE: AOL) today reported that its strategy to turn around its advertising business is definitely paying off, with sale up by 10 percen… Read more »
Yahoo: Revenues Slightly Down, Investors Await Words Of Wisdom From New CEO
photo: Corbis
In its first earnings announcement since recently appointing Scott Thompson as its new CEO and the seeing off founder Jerry Yang, Yahoo (NSD… Read more »
David Kenny Replacing Mike Kelly As CEO Of The Weather Channel Companies
In a surprise move, The Weather Channel Companies is swapping out CEOs. David Kenny is replacing Mike Kelly as CEO effective immediately; th… Read more »
