The Mediatwits podcast is sponsored by the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, which offers an intensive, cutting edge, three semester Master of Arts in Journalism; a unique one semester Advanced Certificate in Entrepreneurial Journalism; and the CUNY J-Camp series of Continuing Professional Development workshops focused on emerging trends and skill sets in the industry.
Welcome to the 19th episode of “The Mediatwits,” the weekly audio podcast from MediaShift. The co-hosts are MediaShift’s Mark Glaser and Rafat Ali, who is back from vacation in India. The news came fast and furious this week, with two Internet pioneers facing deep trouble. At Yahoo, CEO Carol Bartz was fired by telephone and told the media that Yahoo’s board were “doofuses” who had “f—-ed me over.” At AOL, CEO Tim Armstrong has had to step in and fire TechCrunch editor Michael Arrington, who started a VC fund that brought up terrible conflicts of interest, and then demanded he get his editorial independence or get to buy back TechCrunch.
Special guest Kara Swisher, co-executive editor of AllThingsD, has been covering both stories in excruciating detail, calling the Crunchfund a “pig pile” and listing various nominees to run Yahoo. She Skypes in to join the conversation from a Starbucks, where she is furiously updating both big stories. (We asked MG Siegler and Paul Carr from TechCrunch to join us on the podcast, but they declined.) Plus, Google got into the book publishing business by buying Zagat, whose restaurant reviews could help populate the search giant’s Places pages, and help it take on Yelp.
Check it out!
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Follow @TheMediatwits on Twitter here
Intro and outro music by 3 Feet Up; mid-podcast music by Autumn Eyes via Mevio’s Music Alley.
Here are some highlighted topics from the show:
Intro
1:10: Rafat comes back from India trip, used his new camera
4:30: Rundown of stories on the podcast
Yahoo fires Bartz
5:40: Special guest Kara Swisher of AllThingsD
8:20: Would Jerry Yang buy back Yahoo? Could it go private?
AOL, TechCrunch saga
10:20: Yahoo, AOL having crises at the top
12:20: Swisher: ‘You know Arrington loves lawsuits’
14:20: Armstrong, Huffington at cross-purposes
16:45: Swisher: ‘You can’t threaten a public company’s CEO and not expect to get fired’
20:30: The ugly divorce between AOL and TechCrunch
22:10: Does Tim Armstrong understand journalism?
26:10: Swisher: ‘There must be crazy in the water here in Silicon Valley’
Google buys Zuh-GAT
27:10: Why would Google get into original content?
30:30: Google spreads its tentacles everywhere
31:10: Google very serious about buying Hulu
More Reading
Post-Bartz, Yahoo faces familiar problems at Fortune
The Highs And Lows Of Carol Bartz’s Time At The Top Of Yahoo at Business Insider
With Carol Bartz Out, Is Yahoo a Takeover Target? at WSJ
Tech Blogger to Invest in Start-Ups at NY Times
Editorial Independence at TechCrunch
CrunchFund? Unethical Ventures? Pig Pile Partners? No Matter What You Call It, It’s Business as Usual in Silicon Valley at AllThingsD
Arrington out at AOL at Fortune
Zagat’s Price: Under $66 Million at TechCrunch
In a Twist, Google Reviews Zagat, and Decides to Bite at NY Times
Weekly Poll
Don’t forget to vote in our weekly poll, this time about the future of AOL and Yahoo:
Also don’t miss:
The TechCrunch Saga Told Through Star Wars, a comic graphic by Marbin Javier
Mark Glaser is executive editor of MediaShift and Idea Lab. He also writes the bi-weekly OPA Intelligence Report email newsletter for the Online Publishers Association. He lives in San Francisco with his son Julian. You can follow him on Twitter @mediatwit. and Circle him on Google+
The Mediatwits podcast is sponsored by the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, which offers an intensive, cutting edge, three semester Master of Arts in Journalism; a unique one semester Advanced Certificate in Entrepreneurial Journalism; and the CUNY J-Camp series of Continuing Professional Development workshops focused on emerging trends and skill sets in the industry.
