“AllThingsD, the widely read technology blog run by Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg, has begun discussions with owner News Corp about extending or ending their partnership, sources familiar with the situation told Reuters,” Peter Lauria and Nadia Damouni report for Reuters. “According to these sources, AllThingsD‘s contract with News Corp expires at the end of the year. One of the sources said Swisher and Mossberg have to deliver a business plan by next week to Robert Thomson, the former Wall Street Journal managing editor who will helm News Corp’s publishing unit as CEO after it is spun off.”
Lauria and Damouni report, “The fact that AllThingsD’s contract is up this year is well known, and sources said the website is receiving a lot of ‘inbound interest’ from potential buyers parallel to its talks with News Corp. Among the names mentioned as having reached out to AllThingsD were Conde Nast, where Swisher recently signed to work as a contributing writer for Vanity Fair, and Hearst.”
“Sources described the website as profitable. It has grown into a technology industry must-read, and features a popular conference division known for snagging A-list corporate executives for intimate interview sessions. Apple’s Steve Jobs, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, Microsoft founder Bill Gates, and virtually every other major technology executive has spoken at the D Conference, as it is known,” Lauria and Damouni report. “Sources described the relationship between News Corp and AllThingsD as amicable but stressed. ‘Like all partnership, there could be more cooperation between the two,’ said one source. ‘There is tension between AllThingsD and the Wall Street Journal, for example.'”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews readers too numerous to mention individually for the heads up.]
Division spin off, new CEO. This sounds like nothing more than the new CEO getting his arms around the bear.
Apple owns Walt.
Walt is just a fair-minded journalist who recognizes and appreciates quality products. If you ask me, he sometimes, bends a bit too far to grade Android and other non-iOS devices on a curve, and ends up giving them more credit than they deserve.
So he grades non-iOS devices on a curve? But he doesn’t iOS devices? That’s quite an objective observation I must say. Very fair-minded. Tell us again how it is that you came to such a conclusion? Just what parameters did you use to determine this? Just wondering?
They probably grade on a curve based on how their products and business plans and models were pre Apple’s devices and then how the competitors devices looked afterwards.
Can Google’s Android go from a BlackBerry wannabe look pre iPhone to a all glass iPhone wannabe after iPhone release complete with little square apps? Sure, but you’re gonna get graded on a curve.
Can Microsoft who likes their cell phon plan, they liked it a lot, laugh at the iPhone and chide it for lack of a physical qwerty keyboard and then come out with phones with all didital keyboards? Sure, but you’re gonna get graded on a curve.
Can Amazon who had the right idea regarding tablet size, weight, shape and all BUT if Apple or anybody else came out with the iPad and App Store, do you think the Kindle HD would be here in its present form or would it be on some engineer’s whiteboard ack at Amazon.
Necessity is the Mother of all Inventions and copying is a part of that. It is done in wars and business. Someone has something great on their side you need something similar on yours. I get it. But when a game changer is introduced that causes everyone else to reverse course of what they had and jump on board… You’re gonna get graded on a curve!
I would be most happy to see Uncle Walt free of WSJ oversight and direction. It will be interesting, if it happens, to see whether his reviews of Android, &c., change…