Why is The Media Business 'Collapsing'

Saul Hansell, formerly of The New York Times and now at AOL's Seed, believes it's because "we've simply given consumers too much choice."

Speaking this week at the OMMA Behavioral conference, Hansell added that because the "supply of things you can read has increased multifold," a "Starbuck's model" for journalism is needed.  That model entails "assigning semi-professional journalists to supply a multitude of content that is much more niche than anything professional content companies could possibly imagine."

MediaPost Raw

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>'NY Times'' Hansell Joins Aol.'s 'Seed.com'

AOL To Build Tech 'Newsroom of the Future'

AOL plans to rely on a combination of the know-how of the more than 500 full-time journalists it has thus far hired, the contributions of its freelancers, and "judicious" use of Web-analytics software to build a high-tech newsroom in its Manhattan headquarters located in Manhattan's Cooper Square neighborhood.  

The software employed by the company determines which articles need to be written by its journalists based on what topics are "hot on the Web, based on activity on such sites as Google and Facebook," and gives its journalists up-to-the minute data on how much traffic those articles generate.  

Its Seed service, which we have written about previously, pays its freelance contributors to write on subjects in demand.

Bloomberg BusinessWeek

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> Aol.'s Seed.com Lacks Speed

Patch.com Looking to Expand in 2010

AOL owned hyperlocal news site Patch.com is planing to expand and open more community news blogs. Patch currently has 33 sites for towns in the New York metro area., but according to the company, they expect to grow into "hundreds" by the end of 2010. 

digitalmediawire

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> Patch.com Moves Beyond Maplewood 

> Patch Launches Web Sites in Summit, NJ & Darien, CT

Aol. To Open New York Technology Center

Jeff Reynar has been hired as aol.'s new head of technology for engineering and products and will be responsible for the management of aol.'s New York Technology center where he will work on developments for the company's content business.  

Reynar previously worked at Google and Microsoft; he co-founded DBT Labs.

FishbowlNY

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> Patch.com Moves Beyond Maplewood

Patch.com Moves Beyond Maplewood

Recently on Poynter.org Joe Strupp, the editor of hyperlocal Web site Maplewoodian.com,  wrote a comprehensive post about the hyperlocal news invasion of his town in Northern New Jersey.  The focus of the article is the success of Patch.com, which is expanding to cover towns in Connecticut and New York that either do not have a local paper or are ignored by most regional papers.

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> Patch Launches Web Sites in Summit, NJ & Darien, CT

> Patch Seeks Add'l Reporters to Cover LI, Westchester

AOL to Launch New Food Web Site in February

Collen Curtis, AOL's editorial director of women's and lifestyle programming, is launching a new AOL food site in February and has looked to the former editorial staff of Gourmet magazine to write for it.  According to an article in the New York Post, Curits is hiring about dozen editors from the magazine including Cheryl Brown, who will be editor of the new site.  

Gourmet magazine ceased operations in November of 2009. February

New York Post

Aol.'s Seed.com Lacks Speed

aol.'s recently launched content platform Seed.com is already getting negative feedback from writers. eConsultancy reports that writers who submit articles to its platform are not getting timely acceptances or rejections for their work. The Seed.com Publishing Agreement says that all articles will be approved or rejected within five business days of the assignment due date.

eConsultancy

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>  'NY Times'' Hansell Joins Aol.'s 'Seed.com'

Flurry Raises $7 Million in Series B Funding

Mobile analytics company Flurry announced today that it has raised $7 million in Series B round funding from several VC firms, including New York based Union Square Ventures and First Round Capital, which is opening an office in the city.

The funding round comes not long after the company merged with New York based competitor Pinch Media in December.

The New York Times 

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> NY's Pinch Media Merges with Flurry

> First Round Capital Tours NYC Startup Scene on Foot

How Effectively Do Hyperlocal Sites Cover Westchester?

David A. Singer, a NY-based lawyer discusses in a recent op-ed for The Huffington Post how hyperlocal news site Patch recently launched several new sites for towns in Westchester County.  In his examination as to whether or not Patch will fill the local news void that is missing from the county, he also notes the current state of the news outlets in Westchester, finding that The Journal News local news coverage has been "decimated" and that Patch has some hyperlocal competition with Larchmont Gazette, www.myrye.com, and  www.crotonblog.com.  

The Huffington Post

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> Patch Seeks Add'l Reporters to Cover LI, Westchester

Cashmore: 'Mashable' to Focus on CES This Week

Responding to the news about Mashable's possible acquisition by aol., publisher Pete Cashmore writes on the news site's Tumblr that:

"[They're] very open to partnerships and always talk with those that get in touch.  [They've] certainly spoken to lots of potential partners, some of those conversations more significant than others.  But I don’t feel that any of those conversations reached a point at which Mashable is likely to cease being independent in the near term."

The possible acquisition of the Web 2.0 and social-networking news focused Web site has been reported by Valleywag and blogger Robert Scoble.

Digital Media Wire | Mashable on Tumblr

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> Bloggers Refrain from 'Insidery' Comments

CNBC to Present CES Related Tech Specials

New Jersey based financial news network CNBC plans to broadcast a series of specials leading up to the CES conference in the beginning of January.  Under a "Tech Week" banner, CNBC will be presenting a series of documentaries from Jan. 4 through Jan. 8, including live broadcasts from the show in Las Vegas. 

The specials include a focus on Apple, the breakup of AOL Time Warner and  a special on apps,

Multichannel News

Aol. Has 'Rough First Day' on Wall Street

aol., which hosted an event at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) last night (pictured) to celebrate its reemergence as an independent company, officially debuted on the NYSE today.  Its shares closed Thursday at $23.52, down 0.6%, after a "rough day" overall according to aol.-owned Bloggingstocks.

Time Warner, the NY-based owner of the Warner Bros. studios and CNN, spun off aol. nine years after their $124 billion combination triggered record losses.  An Internet pioneer founded in 1985, aol. now faces declines in subscribers to its online access service and in advertising revenue, according to Bloomberg.

AllThingsD | BloggingStocks | Bloomberg | Wall Street Journal

[Editor's Note: The photo was provided courtesy of AllThingsD.]