The Armstrong Post

AOL’s purchase of HuffPo is more about its CEO than anything else

When Tim Armstrong arrived at AOL in March 2009, employees were ecstatic—so much so that some adorned the company’s walls with posters featuring Armstrong’s image above the word Hope, modeled after the famous campaign posters of a certain president.

Mike Shields at Adweek.com writes, like President Obama, Armstrong’s arrival was followed by a celebrated first 100 days. The much-maligned company was ready for change it could believe in after the disastrous Randy Falco and Ron Grant era—AOL’s Bush and Cheney. “Ron and Randy were not well-liked guys,” said a former AOL staffer. “So when Tim came in, people were literally jumping up and applauding. The guy comes in; he looks like Superman. It felt like a coronation

But the believers’ faith has been severely tested. While many are still devoted to Armstrong and his vision, some former supporters question his readiness for the role and his ability to stick to strategy rather than reacting to changing conditions on the ground. Some have even questioned whether Armstrong really wants this job and believe that Armstrong is using AOL to paint himself as a turnaround hero—someone who should be the next CEO of giant media company X.

Last week, Armstrong made his most daring move yet, as AOL acquired The Huffington Post for $315 million, while putting founder Arianna Huffington in charge of editorial operations. It remains to be seen whether this move will become Armstrong’s Sputnik moment or his stimulus bill.

What seems clear is that this move is about Armstrong creating a new platform, and perhaps destiny, for himself, cobbled from the inchoate parts of AOL and the headliner brand of his new partner. His hope may be to create The Armstrong Post.

As soon as he began his prespinoff tour in ’09 to meet with investors and advertisers, Armstrong was preaching the new AOL mantra: content, content and content. Premium advertisers. The biggest display ad company on the Web. But questions about his commitment are in the air. When asked to grade Armstrong’s execution of his strategy, one former staffer replied, “Which one?”

Read more here.

Republicans Put NPR, PBS on Chopping Block

As the House prepares for debate today on the budget, Republicans are trying to cut off public funding for NPR and the Public Broadcasting Service, which run such iconic programs as "Sesame Street" and "Morning Edition."

ABCNews.com report the House Republicans' budget would rescind any funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting -- which funds these two organizations -- for the remainder of the year, and zero out millions in funds after that.

This is not the first attempt by Congress to cut funding for what many Republicans see as liberal-leaning broadcast operations.

House Republicans made a proposal in November to strip federal funding for NPR after the radio station fired controversial commentator Juan Williams for comments he made about Muslims.

That bill didn't pass, but this time, Republicans are in the majority in the House, and many say the cuts are needed to balance the burgeoning U.S. deficit.

"I think they are dead serious. There's a real concern about budget among lots of people and they're looking for ways to cut," said Christopher Sterling, a professor of media and public affairs and public policy at George Washington University.

If funding indeed gets put on the chopping block, it could have a detrimental impact on PBS and NPR affiliates, many of which are already struggling financially.

"It would diminish stations' ability to bring high-quality local, national and international news to their communities, as well as local arts, music and cultural programming that other media don't present," NPR chief executive and president Vivian Schiller said in a statement. "Rural and economically distressed communities could lose access to this programming altogether if their stations go dark."

PBS president and chief executive Paula Kerger, pointing to the network's educational programming, said, "It's America's children who will feel the greatest loss, especially those who can't attend preschool."

Read more here.


Must Read:

POYNTER:  NPR grateful to Obama Administration for ‘vote of confidence’

Charlie Sheen Slams CBS

For Not Allowing Him To Return To Work

Charlie Sheen made another bizarre public statement this morning, this time on live radio.

According to Nellie Andreeva at deadline.com,  the Two and a Half Men star, who is undergoing rehab treatment at home, called into the Dan Patrick Show to complain that CBS and Men producer Warner Bros. TV would not allow him to return to work despite, according to him, being ready to do so.

"They said 'You get ready and we'll get ready'," he said. "I got ready and went back and nobody was there ... I don't know what to tell ya," Sheen said, adding that he lost his voice banging on the show's stage doors.

He insisted he is now "100%" clean and urged CBS and WBTV to take advantage of that. "I heal really quickly but I also unravel pretty quickly," Sheen said. "So get me right now, guys."

Read more here.

Reporter’s On-Air Gibberish May Signal Stroke

CBS 2 News (Los Angeles) reporter Serene Branson was reporting live from the Grammy Awards Sunday night and  while during her report her speech quickly degenerated into slurred words and gibberish.



Branson was taken to the hospital after the report and may have suffered a stroke.

Liz Trotta Rips CNN's Anderson Cooper's

Is USA Today For Sale?

From John Reinan, minnpost.com:

In an era when there was no Internet and no other nationally distributed daily publications, USA Today provided a great, lively roundup of information. It was a fun read. And as it matured, it regularly ran ambitious, in-depth stories on national issues, often using computer-assisted reporting when that was a new technique.

But now, according to the Gannett Blog — a site run by former USA Today reporter Jim Hopkins — Gannett may be considering either selling USA Today or spinning it off as an independent company.

Gannett is better at making money than any other newspaper company. So even discussion of such a move tells you all you need to know about the health of its flagship property. USA Today’s circulation, which consistently averaged about 2.3 million daily during the past decade, is down more than 20 percent, to about 1.8 million. The Wall Street Journal has overtaken it as America’s largest paper.

Ad pages are down even more sharply, from 1,045 in the fourth quarter of 2007 to 680 in the fourth quarter of 2010 — a drop of 35 percent. And, according to Hopkins, USA Today’s newsroom staff has been cut by about 25 percent during that same period.

Read more here.

CBS, Couric Talks Draw Near

Katie Couric may end up doing something seen as unlikely just a few years ago: stay on as anchor of "CBS Evening News," write Sam Schechner at wsj.com.

Both CBS Corp. and Ms. Couric appear open to a new deal that would keep her at the network's news division beyond her current five-year deal, which expires at the end of May, according to people briefed on the matter.

CBS has indicated that it would like Ms. Couric to continue as evening-news anchor, but wants to pare the cost of her annual base salary of roughly $15 million, the people said. Ms. Couric could potentially structure a deal that gives her other business opportunities—like a syndicated show, or creating more content online—on top of the evening news, one of those people added.

There is no certainty that Ms. Couric and CBS will reach a deal. Formal negotiations haven't yet started, people briefed on the matter said, and Ms. Couric and the network are still evaluating their options.
Read more here.

Grammys: Arcade Fire Wins Album of the Year

Lady Antebellum beats Lady Gaga in wins

A Lady took the most awards at Sunday night's Grammys - but not the one we're used to talking about. writes music critic Jim Farber at nydailynews.com.

Lady Antebellum, the harmony-based Nashville trio, snapped up the top Song and Record of the Year prizes for their lilting hit "Need You Now." The dual gender group also took Best Country Album, Best Country Song and Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group, bringing their total tally to five awards.

The down-home act triumphed over far more favored nominees, including Lady Gaga, Cee-Lo and - the seeming shoe-in winner - Eminem, who marched in with the most nominations (10).

Lady A's triumph was hardly Sunday night's only left-field decision.

No one expected the arty Canadian alt-rock band Arcade Fire to command the Album of the Year prize, least of all the group. "What the hell," commented lead singer Win Butler, upon receiving the prize.

Another jaw-dropper came in the Best New Artist category. The least known, and worst selling, performer in the pack got the win: jazz bassist/singer Esperanza Spalding. She took the coveted prize over names as commercially potent as Justin Bieber and the rapper Drake.

Lady Antebellum's big win marks the second year in a row that country lassoed major honors. Last year, Taylor Swift won four big statuettes, including "Album of the Year."

Read more here.

Must Reads:

More Grammys coverage (grammys.com)

Grammys 2011: 15 Things You Didn't See on TV (Billboard)

Best and worst performances; Lady Gaga loses to Cee Lo Green (NYDailyNews)

The Winners:

Album of the Year: The Suburbs, Arcade Fire

Record of the Year: "Need You Now," Lady Antebellum

Rap Album: Recovery, Eminem

New Artist: Esperanza Spalding

Song of the Year: "Need You Now," Lady Antebellum

POP:
Pop Vocal Album: Lady Gaga, The Fame Monster
Pop Performance by a Duo or Group With Vocals: Train, "Hey, Soul Sister (Live)"
Traditional Pop Vocal Album: Michael Bublé, Crazy Love
Female Pop Vocal Performance: Lady Gaga, "Bad Romance," The Fame Monster
Male Pop Vocal Performance: Bruno Mars, "Just The Way You Are," Doo-Wops & Hooligans
Pop Collaboration With Vocals: "Imagine," Herbie Hancock, Pink, India.Arie, Seal, Konono No 1, Jeff Beck & Oumou Sangare, The Imagine Project
Pop Instrumental Performance: "Nessun Dorma," Jeff Beck, Emotion & Commotion
Pop Instrumental Album: Take Your Pick, Larry Carlton & Tak Matsumoto

R&B:
Female R&B Vocal Performance: Fantasia, "Bittersweet," Back to Me
Male R&B Vocal Performance: Usher, "There Goes My Baby," Raymond V Raymond
R&B Performance by a Duo or Group With Vocals: Sade, "Soldier of Love," Soldier of Love
Traditional R&B Vocal Performance: John Legend & The Roots, "Hang On In There," Wake Up!
R&B Song: John Legend & The Roots, "Shine," Wake Up!
R&B Album: Wake Up!, John Legend & The Roots
Contemporary R&B Album: Raymond V Raymond, Usher

RAP:
Rap Song: Jay-Z & Alicia Keys, "Empire State of Mind," The Blueprint 3
Rap/Sung Collaboration: Jay-Z & Alicia Keys, "Empire State of Mind," The Blueprint 3
Rap Performance by a Duo or Group: Jay-Z & Swizz Beatz, "On to the Next One," The Blueprint 3
Rap Solo Performance: Eminem, "Not Afraid," Recovery
Urban/Alternative Performance: "F*** You," Cee Lo Green

ROCK:
Rock Album: Muse, The Resistance
Solo Rock Vocal Performance: Paul McCartney, "Helter Skelter," Good Evening New York City
Rock Performance by a Duo or Group With Vocals: The Black Keys, "Tighten Up," Brothers
Rock Song: "Angry World," Neil Young, Le Noise
Hard Rock Performance: New Fang, "Them Crooked Vultures," Them Crooked Vultures
Metal Performance: "El Dorado," Iron Maiden, The Final Frontier
Rock Instrumental Performance: Jeff Beck, "Hammerhead," Emotion & Commotion

COUNTRY:
Country Album: Lady Antebellum, Need You Now
Female Country Vocal Performance: Miranda Lambert, " The House That Built Me," Revolution
Male Country Vocal Performance: Keith Urban, "'Til Summer Comes Around"
Country Song: "Need You Now," Dave Haywood, Josh Kear, Charles Kelley & Hillary Scott, songwriters (Lady Antebellum) (Need You Now)
Country Performance by a Duo or Group With Vocals: Lady Antebellum, "Need You Now"
Country Instrumental Performance: Marty Stuart, "Hummingbyrd" (Ghost Train: The Studio B Sessions)Studio B Sessions)

2011 Grammy Performance - Aretha Franklin Tribute

Pandora Eyes Global Market, Talk Radio

Pandora is making some noise about its future plans

Pandora Media aims to eventually expand its internet radio service to other countries and move into areas beyond music, such as news, talk and sports, according to Mark Milian at cnn.com.

The long-term goals, along with illuminating details about the company's financials and adoption rates, were outlined in a proposal for an initial public offering filed on Friday.

The service, currently focused exclusively on music, is all about catering to each listener's unique tastes.

After signing up for an account, users can type in the names of favorite bands, and Pandora will create a customized radio station that spins similar songs. But there are limitations, such as the number of tracks by a single musician that can be played during a set period.

While Pandora suggested that music will remain its core focus, the new filing shows that the company is looking to other areas for growth.

"Many radio listeners are drawn to sports, talk, news and other forms of content beyond music," the company wrote. "We think there is an opportunity over the long term to offer these types of content in addition to music."

Pandora founder Tim Westergren named these as possible areas the service could cover in the future, he said in a little-seen video posted in August 2009.

Offering news, talk and sports content is "something that we've talked quite a bit about as a company and something we intend to deliver to listeners eventually," Westergren said.

Not surprisingly, the service would personalize programming for each person. In this case, the ZIP code tied to your account or information from your phone's GPS could trigger the service to provide local news or updates about a hometown sports team.

Read more here.

Social Media Plays Role in Egypt

Some expected in Iran

As Egyptians celebrated in the streets of Cairo Friday, CNN's Wolf Blitzer posed a question to activist Wael Ghonim: "First Tunisia, now Egypt, what's next? "

According to Michael Calderone at The Cutline Blog at news.yahoo.com, Ghonim, a 30-year-old Google executive who became a symbol of the country's democratic uprising against Hosni Mubarak's authoritarian regime, replied with two words: "Ask Facebook."

"I want to meet [Facebook founder] Mark Zuckerberg one day and thank him, actually," Ghonim said.

Dictators are toppled by people, not by media platforms. But Egyptian activists, especially the young, clearly harnessed the power and potential of social media, leading to the mass mobilizations in Tahrir Square and throughout Egypt. The Mubarak regime recognized early on that social media could loosen its grip on power. The government began disrupting Facebook and Twitter as protesters hit the streets on Jan. 25 before shutting down the Internet two days later.

In addition to organizing, Egyptian activists used Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter to share information and videos. Many of these digital offerings made the rounds online but were later amplified by Al Jazeera and news outlets around the world. "This revolution started online," Ghonim told Blitzer. "This revolution started on Facebook."

Read more here.

When the News Gets Old

Mark Potts, Recovering Journalist Blog: 

It's no secret that in a world of news at Twitter speed, print seems to be getting left farther and farther behind. Like others, I've written about this a couple times previously, and of course there was the Daily Show's fabulously snarky take on "aged news" a couple of years ago.

But the stunning, thrilling events of the past few hours in Egypt have highlighted, yet again, how much the news business has changed, and how bad newspapers look as a result. Newspapers were printed last night—barely making deadline as it was, because the story broke fairly late—with headlines blaring that Hosni Mubarak was refused to step down in Egypt.

But with the ink still drying this morning, those papers quickly became woefully out of date. Their Web sites have been updated with the news of Mubarak's resignation, of course, but the papers were still selling print editions that were, well, wrong. Guess they'll correct it in tomorrow's paper. (To give credit where credit is due, incidentally, Rupert Murdoch's iPad news app, The Daily, has quickly broken free of the strictures of its name and begun offering more frequent updates.)

This wasn't really a problem for newspapers a generation or so ago. Back then, they were pretty much the only source of news, save for TV coverage (at least of important events) and radio news. But the advent of the Web, Twitter, mobile news apps, multiple cable news channels and any number of other new competitors is more and more rendering print newspapers, in their traditional form, obsolete.

The fast-breaking Mubarak story is an unfortunate example of how horribly behind the times newspapers can seem (and I don't just mean their management).

Read more here.

Mark Potts spent nearly 20 years at the intersection of traditional and digital journalism. He's helped to invent ways to read and interact with the news and advertising on computer screens and iPads, and before that, he wrote news stories on typewriters and six-ply paper. He co-founded WashingtonPost.com and hyperlocal pioneers Backfence.com and GrowthSpur; served as editor of Philly.com; and do product-development and strategy consulting for all sorts of media and Internet companies. You can read more about me here.