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Thanks to popular websites like Digg, Propeller (rebranded from Netscape in September) and Reddit, the idea of crowd-sourced, user submitted, news sites have become a staple of the “Web 2.0” Internet-era.   Mixx, a later entrant to the market that launched in October, has reportedly just closed a $2m financing led by prior investor Intersouth Partners.

It’s unclear if the round is formally a Series B or an extension of their prior A round financing.

Mixx is based out of Maclean, Virginia.  It was founded by Chris McGill, the former General Manager of Yahoo News and former VP of Strategy for USA Today.   They initially raised $1.5m from Intersouth.   A small equity investment was also sold to the LA Times as part of a larger syndication and partnership struck in early December.

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Bracing for the possibility of further economic downturn and to reduce exposure to related volatility in the ad markets, Anglo Dutch media powerhouse Reed Elsevier announced a surprise plan to sell off their publishing arm, Reed Business Information (RBI), Thursday.  The group is home to a number of high profile online/offline specialty news outlets including the entertainment industry staple Variety and the publishing trade magazine Publisher’s Weekly.

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In 1998 Patrick McGovern and John Battelle launched the Industry Standard as a news magazine covering Internet business.  They called it “the news magazine of the Internet economy.”  The audience grew along with the Internet industry and by 2000, with high volume ad sales, the publication had annual revenue north of $100m and staffing in the hundreds (450 by some accounts).  Then, as rapidly as they climbed, they fell.  Victim of the same bubble they were reporting on. The Industry Standard shut its door in August 2001.  Today, the magazine is being reborn; reinventing itself from a Web 1.0 publication to Web 2.0 social news website.

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Amazon was a pioneer in establishing internet based e-commerce.  Now, in their second act, they look like they are trying to blaze a similar trail in the sale of digital goods.  Today, in line with those efforts, Amazon announced they will buy spoken word (audiobook) publisher Audible for $11.50 a share in cash. 

At the $11.50 a share price Amazon is paying a 24% premium over Audible’s Wednesday closing price of $9.33 a share.   Two months ago Audible traded upwards of $14 a share.  Last quarter they did sales of $27m and lost $192k.  Those metrics may make the purchase look like a bargain (and it probably is), but views on that are likely to be divergent.  Part of the reason: last month, Audible’s largest shareholder, Apax, signaled a lack of confidence in the company when they (and affiliates) began selling off their 23% stake in the company. 

Probably the best near term gauge for valuing this deal as an Amazon shareholder lies in measuring the strategy it reflects rather than the approximately $300m purchase price.

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After 8 months, Sam Zell is finally in control of the Chicago Tribune and the rest of the Tribune companies. The $8.2b buyout of the newspaper and media conglomerate that operates the LA Times, Chicago Tribune, and twenty three TV stations around the country closed Thursday without a hitch. Shares ceased trading at the close of market.

The second cash installment for the leveraged buyout was provided by JP Morgan Chase, Merrill Lynch, Citibank and Bank of America.

Including the assumption and repayment of existing debt, the LBO will have a value in excess of $14b.

In consideration of the substantial debt load, Standard and Poors and Fitch both lowered the corporate credit rating. Click to Read More

Lots of people know of news aggregator services like Digg.  Fewer are familiar with Mixx, a competitor launched in October.  That may soon begin to change.  Today, the LA Times Media Group struck a content and marketing partnership with the Web 2.0 news site.  The Times also made a small equity investment, the size of which was not disclosed.

Mixx is based in McLean Virginia and owned by Recommended Reading, Inc.  Like social news sites Digg, Propeller or Thoof, Mixx is built around users submitting links to web content and voting on those links.  It is entirely “crowd sourced.”  There are no editors. More popular submissions get higher profile displays.

The strength of Mixx is their user interface. Compared to other sites, there is a greater opportunity and more intuitive tools to customize the look and feel of your landing page as a subscriber.   It’s more a cross with a personalized home page and a news aggregator than competitors.

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In early August the NY Post ran a story citing “sources briefed on the matter” saying that rival NY paper, The Times would discontinue their paid subscription service Times Select.  The rumor fell into the category of “more likely true than not” but for the last month it languished without update or official comment. Now it’s official. Times Select is done. Effective midnight Tuesday Times Select will cease being selective and revert to freely available, publicly accessible content. 

The Select service began two years ago as a value added service. They charged $49.95 a year (or $7.95 a month) for online access to the work of some columnists.  Click to Read More