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CNN Acquires iPad App Company Zite

Amit Chowdhry — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 19:02:42 +0000

CNN has acquired Zite, a company that developed an iPad that has a personalized magazine-like interface. The announcement was made by Jim Walton, the president of CNN Worldwide.

“Zite represents the next generation of content discovery and personalized publishing, and CNN wants to help lead in that space,” stated CNN Digital general manager KC Estenson. “We think we can advance the industry in a meaningful way that helps content creators expand their businesses while growing the distribution of a product that people already love. The Zite technology can also help CNN’s Websites and apps serve more personalized content, making our current digital services even better.” Zite is an iPad application that uses technology for providing an individually personalized experience.

“Zite is thrilled about combining forces with CNN to create a world-class news discovery platform,” stated Zite CEO Mark Johnson. “In CNN, we have found a partner who shares our vision and passion. Being part of the CNN family gives us the capital to grow Zite’s business and continue to innovate in the space.”

Johnson will continue running Zite’s day-to-day operations in San Francisco and will report to Estenson. Zite Founder Ali Davar will remain on board as an Executive Director. Mike Klass will continue to lead Zite’s technology research and development as CTO.

[CNN]

AOL Rumored To Be In Talks For An Acquisition Of Outside.in

Amit Chowdhry — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 19:00:55 +0000

Rumor has is that AOL is in talks to acquire local news aggregation company Outside.in. The talks may fall apart since it is in early stages according to BusinessInsider. Steven Johnson founded Outside.in in 2006. Investors in Outside.in include Union Square Ventures, Marc Andreessen, John Borthwick, Esther Dyson, and CNN. If AOL does end up acquiring Outside.in, it is likely that they will roll the technology into Patch.com.

Google CEO Eric Schmidt Wants To Be A Talk Show Host [RUMOR]

Amit Chowdhry — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 03:01:51 +0000

Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) CEO Eric Schmidt is rumored to be pursuing a career in hosting a TV show. Schmidt said that he is planning to step down in April as co-founder Larry Page plans to take over the role. Schmidt has been talking to CNN Parker Spitzer executive producer Liza McGuirk on developing a show for himself. McGuirk and Schmidt connected for the first time on the TV show “Fareed Zakaria GPS.” McGuirk was an executive producer of the Fareed show and Schmidt was a regular guest. “Eric wants to be a talk-show host. He’s been working with Liza to develop a show, but he has not yet been picked up by any network,” stated a New York Post source.

In my opinion, I don’t think that Schmidt has what it takes to be a talk show host. I believe he has a personality that comes off as creepy. When Eric Schmidt appeared on Parker Spitzer and he was asked about Google Street View privacy concerns, he simply replied “If you have something that you don’t want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place.” Seems like a pretty creepy thing to say. Schmidt plans to step down as CEO of the company in April 4th. He will remain as the executive chairman of the company afterwards. “Eric Schmidt has been looking for a TV job for over a year,” stated an insider at CNN. “But the pilot he filmed with Liza was a complete disaster.”

Arkansas School Board Member Clint McCance Resigns After Facebook Rant

Amit Chowdhry — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 19:58:28 +0000

Arkansas school board member Clint McCance has resigned after he ranted about homosexuals on Facebook. “I made some very ignorant comments and did not realize just how ignorant they were,” said McCance in an interview with Anderson Cooper on CNN. Below is the full comment he made:

“Seriously they want me to wear purple because five queers killed themselves. The only way im wearin it for them is if they all commit suicide. I cant believe the people of this world have gotten this stupid. We are honoring the face that they sinned and killed thereselves because of their sin. REALLY PEOPLE.”

CNN’s Rick Sanchez Fired After Controversial Comments About Jewish People

Amit Chowdhry — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 13:42:27 +0000

CNN’s Rick Sanchez has been fired following controversial comments about Jewish people. “Rick Sanchez is no longer with the company. We thank Rick for his years of service and we wish him well,” said CNN in a statement. Rick Sanchez did not appear on “Rick’s List” this past Friday afternoon.

On a Sirius radio show on Thursday, Sanchez called The Daily Show with Jon Stewart host Jon Stewart a “bigot.” He also said that CNN and other networks are all run by Jewish people so he is oppressed.

“I think to some extent Jon Stewart and [Stephen] Colbert are the same way. I think Jon Stewart’s a bigot,” said Sanchez. “I think he looks at the world through, his mom, who was a school teacher, and his dad, who was a physicist or something like that. Great, I’m so happy that he grew up in a suburban middle class New Jersey home with everything you could ever imagine.”

Sanchez eventually retracted the “big” claim and settled on calling Stewart “prejudicial” and “uninformed.” Check out some of the videos below:

[Huffington Post]

CNN President Jonathan Klein Fired; Being Replaced By Ken Jautz

Amit Chowdhry — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 01:16:54 +0000

Time Warner Inc. (NYSE:TWX) has fired Jonathan Klein, the president of CNN/US. Ken Jautz, president of HLN, will be replacing Klein. Jautz is known for finding Glenn Beck on the radio and putting him on TV.

CNN has had a rough year. Campbell Brown decided to quit and Larry King announced he was stepping down. Rick Sanchez does not have good ratings and Christiane Amanpour quit to join ABC.

[BusinessInsider]

When Tweets Cost You A Job, Octavia Nasr Edition

Amit Chowdhry — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 17:59:05 +0000

Octavia Nasr used to be the Senior Editor of Mideast Affairs for CNN. She is leaving the company after controversy stuck when she sent out the following tweet: “Sad to hear the passing of Sayyed Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah… One of Hezbollah’s giants I respect a lot.” Nasr admitted that she should not have left such a simple comment without any context whatsoever on the CNN blog. Nasr worked at CNN for 20 years. [mediaite.com]

Outside.in Raises $7 Million From Union Square, CNN, Betaworks, Village Ventures, NYC Fund, and Milestone

Amit Chowdhry — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 22:19:00 +0000

Outside.in is a hyperlocal news aggregation company that has been attracting quite a bit of investment from multiple sources. In the company’s Series B round of funding, Union Square Ventures was the lead investor. Others that participated include TV news network CNN, Betaworks, Village Ventures, New York City Investment Fund, and Milestone Venture Partners.

This means Outside.in has raised over $12 million in total funding since the company launched in 2007. After the jump is the full press release from the company:

BROOKLYN, NY (December 8, 2009) – Outside.in (http://www.outside.in), the leading hyperlocal content and advertising platform, today announced the close of a $7 million B round of financing, led by Union Square Ventures and including CNN Worldwide, one of the world’s most respected and trusted sources for news and information as a strategic investor. The round includes all previous venture investors, including Village Ventures, Betaworks, the New York City Investment Fund and Milestone Venture Partners, as well as continued support from a strong group of angel investors.

“In our opinion, there has never been a better time to build a new business in local media. This round represents a huge vote of confidence from our investors and CNN Worldwide that they agree and believe our results and approach are positioned to win,” said Mark Josephson, CEO of Outside.in. “The continued support of our investors shows our proven track record and their confidence that we will continue to focus on delivering huge value for all participants in the local media ecosystem—consumers, publishers, bloggers and advertisers.

Said Fred Wilson, principal at Union Square Ventures, “Local media is undergoing a radical reinvention and Outside.in is at the center of it, providing readers, advertisers, publishers, and bloggers the tools they need to make local news and information more relevant and profitable. Outside.in’s reach has grown 500 percent in the past year, showcasing the power of this new model.”

As part of its investment, CNN Worldwide entered into a concurrent multi-year deal to use the Outside.in for Publishers aggregation and curation platform to power hyperlocal news across all of CNN.com and its related properties. The first implementations are expected to be completed in Q1 of 2010.

“We are proud to have partnered with Union Square Ventures, Betaworks, and others to support Outside.in during the next stage of its business evolution, as the company continues to build an industry leading platform serving the hyperlocal market,” said Estenson. “Our strategic investment in this company and the hyperlocal platform they have built demonstrates our commitment to delivering a strong local news offering to our users.”

The funding round comes after a year of significant milestones for Outside.in.

More than one hundred media partners around the country now use the Outside.in For Publishers platform, including the New York Post, Dow Jones (NYSE: NWS) Local, Media General (NYSE: MEG) and Chicago Tribune

Traffic to the Outside.in Network has grown to nearly 6 million monthly unique visitors

More than four thousand local bloggers use Outside.in’s distribution, geo-tagging and mapping tools

The funding will be used to support the continued development of the Outside.in platform for local content and advertising.

CNN.com Redesigning Homepage, Launching On Monday

Amit Chowdhry — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 01:35:44 +0000

Earlier today CNN.com invited people to check out their new website at the One Time Warner Center office in New York City. At the same meeting CNN President Jim Walton announced that the news company increased profits year over year. CNN receives 38 million visitors per month and has about 100 million monthly video views. In the websites entire history, it received 121 billion page views. The new CNN.com will launch on Monday. The Cable News Network is owned by Time Warner.

CNNMoney Launches An iPhone Application

Amit Chowdhry — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 18:59:27 +0000

The iPhone finance section is heating up now that CNNMoney has stepped into the market. The CNNMoney application is currently one of the top free Finance applications on the iTunes App Store, competing against companies such as Bloomberg, Associated Press, and The New York Times.

The CNNMoney application is a portal with a built in stock search engine, market index tracking tool, company and economic news, video highlights, and sharing feature. There is a tool called My Stocks to add the stocks that you want to track.

News about real estate, small business, technology, autos, jobs, and personal finance can be added to the homepage of the application. Additional headlines can be added from Fortune and Money Magazine as well.

Personally I believe that the application looks a bit generic and could use something to make it stand out from every other finance news application, but that is just my opinion. Some people are comfortable looking at generic finance news applications. The operating system required for the application is iPhone OS 2.1 or greater.