A year later, he’d done just that, raising his already big bet on radio — a business that many would argue is in decline. Now, under his guidance, the nation’s largest radio broadcaster is implementing an aggressive digital music strategy in the hopes of stealing the online radio spotlight from Pandora.

In an interview with Kara Swisher at our D: Dive Into Media conference, Pittman chatted about Clear Channel, the future of radio and why social networking is one of its greatest allies.

“Radio is a party,” Pittman said, contrasting it with music-collection services like iTunes and Spotify, which are more individual experiences. “It’s like walking down the street and seeing a crowded bar and wanting to go in and socialize. One of the reasons radio does so well is that it’s inherently social.”

If that’s the case, how important are social networking services to Clear Channel’s future? Pittman said that some are more important than others, and the most important of all is Facebook.

“In terms of the social platform, Facebook is where you want to go,” Pittman said, noting that the company does partnerships very well. “Google is also trying to do social in other ways, but it’s just not a company that builds partnerships in the ways that we like to do them.”

Pittman continued, noting that radio is a much broader service now than it is perceived as.

“What we build in radio are these incredible franchises,” Pittman said. “However our listeners want to get to those franchises is fine — whether it’s radio or Internet or TV,” Pittman said. “Everyone’s trying to protect business models, but in the end it’s the consumer that rules, and we have to deliver the content to them however they choose to consume it.”

How worried, then, is Pittman about music services like Pandora and Spotify. Are they rivals?

“We look at other radio as competitors,” Pittman said. “We do compete with Pandora on some aspects, but music collecting is really not what we do. At the end of the day, we are radio people, we know how to curate. What you see with iTunes and Spotify is a new way of merchandising music. We don’t do that, nor do we have an expertise in it.”

If you’re reading this site, you know who all of these folks are. But just for formality’s sake:

Jason Kilar is CEO of Hulu, the video joint venture co-owned by Comcast, Disney and News Corp.’s broadcast TV units. The site has been a huge hit with viewers and subscribers, who have put it on pace to generate $500 million in revenue this year. But its owners aren’t quite sure what to do with it: They put it up for sale this summer, then decided to hang on to it after all. This will be Kilar’s first major public appearance since that tumult, so we’ll have plenty of questions.

Dick Costolo is CEO of Twitter, which has moved from Web oddity to a service used by more than 100 million people a month. Twitter’s founders didn’t like the notion of turning their baby into a media company, but that’s exactly what Costolo is trying to do now; he is ramping up efforts to attract more eyeballs and sell more ads. And he’s leaning heavily on big media companies — especially TV networks and movie distributors — to make that happen.

Martha Stewart is the founder of Martha Stewart Living, the multimedia empire she built from scratch, which now includes magazines, TV shows, a Web site and multiple lines of branded goods; her newest coup is a big-dollar deal with J.C. Penney. She’ll be joined onstage by Lisa Gersh, the president and chief operating officer Stewart brought in from NBC Universal nearly a year ago. At NBC U, Gersh had overseen the acquisition of the Weather Channel, among other duties; she had previously been chief operating officer at Oxygen Media.

They’ll join a lineup that includes ESPN President John Skipper, YouTube CEO Salar Kamangar, Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman, New Yorker editor David Remnick, Warner Music Chairman Edgar Bronfman Jr., News Corp. Chief Operating Officer Chase Carey, Clear Channel CEO Bob Pittman, Legendary Pictures head Thomas Tull and Vevo CEO Rio Caraeff. And we may still have a surprise or two between now and the end of January.

All Things Digital’s first-ever media conference runs Jan. 30 and 31 at the Ritz-Carlton in Laguna Niguel, an hour south of Los Angeles. See you there.

Disney CEO Bob Iger tapped Skipper to take over his company’s most important asset just a week ago. But Skipper, who had been ESPN’s content boss, has been a rising star there for years, hopping from print (!) to the Web to TV programming. We’ll have his first onstage interview in his new role.

At a time when the value of Big Media’s content is in flux, ESPN’s lock on sports — DVR-proof, pirate-resistant programming that draws mass eyeballs in a niche age — is more valuable than ever. Can Skipper keep it that way?

We’ll ask him in January, as he joins a lineup that includes: YouTube CEO Salar Kamangar, Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman, New Yorker editor David Remnick, Warner Music Chairman Edgar Bronfman Jr., News Corp. Chief Operating Officer Chase Carey, Clear Channel CEO Bob Pittman, Legendary Pictures head Thomas Tull and Vevo CEO Rio Caraeff.

All Things Digital’s first-ever media conference runs Jan. 30 and 31 at the Ritz-Carlton in Laguna Niguel, an hour south of Los Angeles. See you there.

Hollywood and Google have been circling each other for years, as each side tries to figure out what to make of the other. Now they’re finally starting to link up in a serious way, via YouTube’s new “channels” strategy.

Which means it’s a perfect time to hear from YouTube CEO Salar Kamangar. And if you’re at D: Dive into Media in January, that’s what you’ll be able to do, as one of the world’s most important Googlers joins us onstage.

Getting Kamangar out of Mountain View and into the public eye would be a big deal under any circumstances, because — while he keeps a very low profile — he has enormous clout: He’s one of Larry Page’s most trusted lieutenants, a position he has earned by joining the company as hire No. 9 in 1999, then helping to build the AdWords product that has generated a vast majority of Google’s revenue.

Kamangar has been formally running YouTube for the past year, but in reality he had been overseeing the world’s largest video site for some time. Kamangar is also in charge of Google’s broader video plans, including Google TV, which is now making a second stab at inserting itself into the world’s living rooms.

So there’s going to be plenty to talk about when Kamangar joins a lineup of media heavyweights Jan. 30 and 31 at the Ritz-Carlton in Laguna Niguel, an hour south of Los Angeles. Previously announced speakers include Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman, New Yorker editor David Remnick, Warner Music Chairman Edgar Bronfman Jr., News Corp. Chief Operating Officer Chase Carey, Clear Channel CEO Bob Pittman, Legendary Pictures head Thomas Tull, and VEVO CEO Rio Caraeff.

We’ll announce more in the weeks to come. If you want to make sure you get a seat, you should sign up now.

For our first-ever media conference, we’re trying to cast a wide net, so you’ll hear from movers and shakers from a range of companies. The common theme: All of them are making and distributing content during a time of unprecedented technological change. How do they adapt?

So far, we’ve announced that Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman, New York editor David Remnick, Warner Music chairman Edgar Bronfman Jr. and News Corp. chief operating officer Chase Carey will be joining us on Jan. 30 and 31 at the Ritz-Carlton in Laguna Nigel, just south of Los Angeles.

Let’s add three more to that list:

Bob Pittman helped build MTV, then AOL. And after spending several years as a full-time investor in everything from Zynga to a high-end tequila, he’s running a media company once again — this time overseeing radio and billboard giant Clear Channel. Why would you want to run a radio company when everyone’s consumed with the likes of iTunes, Pandora and Spotify? Because it’s still a growth industry, Pittman argues. And the fact that it’s the industry that gave him his start, at age 15, makes the story even more interesting.

Thomas Tull is a relative newcomer to Hollywood, but he’s moving fast. After founding Legendary Pictures in 2004, he’s produced a string of hits, including “The Hangover,” “The Dark Knight” and “300.” And if you accuse him of making dude-centric movies that appeal to “fanboys,” he won’t flinch — they’re the ones who still come out to the theaters, if you know how to get them there. Last spring, his track record helped him secure an investment from Silicon Valley heavyweight Accel Partners, which gives you a hint about where Tull thinks all of this is going.

Joint ventures formed by big media companies are a tricky proposition, but Rio Caraeff seems to be making his work. Vevo, the “Hulu for music videos,” is co-owned by Universal Music Group and Sony Music, and helped in large part by Google’s YouTube. And as of last month it was the second-biggest video site on the Web — a title that used to be held by Hulu.

Just like our flagship D: All Things Digital conference, D: Dive into Media will give you rare access to deep, smart talks with the people who matter. And we’ll be announcing more of them in the weeks to come. For now: You can find registration information here.

Longtime media and Internet exec Bob Pittman has been named CEO of radio broadcast and outdoor advertising giant Clear Channel, the company announced today.

Pittman — who has been chairman of Clear Channel’s media and entertainment platforms after making an investment in the company less than a year ago — will join the board of directors of CC Media Holdings, Clear Channel Communications and Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings, as executive chairman.

Clear Channel’s holdings include a huge parcel of radio stations across the U.S., along with a number of digital properties and a big global outdoor advertising business.

Pittman — the former MTV wunderkind who started in radio at 15 years old as an announcer at a station in his native Mississippi — has not been in a top job like this one since he resigned from the then-AOL Time Warner as its COO in the midst of the botched merger mishegas almost a decade ago.

Since then, Pittman has been doing a range of things, including making canny investments in a variety of Internet start-ups such as Zynga and DailyCandy, and even in a high-end tequila company via the Pilot Group, a New York-based private investment firm.

He made his own investment in Clear Channel last year and has since upped his involvement, which resulted in the latest move to CEO.

“I swore I would never work like this again, but when something gets me this stimulated, I knew I wanted to get into it again,” said Pittman, in an interview with me yesterday. “I think this company has everything it needs to be a great media company in the new media landscape.”

That will include a range of new initiatives, including recent partnerships with Facebook and more.

“We want to move like an entrepreneur and have the assets of a big media company,” said Pittman. “I am an addict for this challenge.”

Here’s the official press release from Clear Channel:

BOB PITTMAN NAMED CEO OF CC MEDIA HOLDINGS

Appointment Underscores Clear Channel’s Evolution to a Fully Realized, Integrated Media, Digital and Entertainment Enterprise

Media Pioneer Will Oversee the Company’s Global Media Properties, including Broadcast, Digital and Mobile, Syndication, Media Representation and Outdoor

New York, NY — October 2, 2011 — CC Media Holdings, Inc. (OTCBB: CCMO), a leading global media, digital and entertainment company, announced today that Bob Pittman will become its Chief Executive Officer. Pittman joined Clear Channel in November 2010 as an investor and the company’s Chairman of Media and Entertainment Platforms. Pittman will join the Board of Directors of CC Media Holdings, Inc. and Clear Channel Communications, Inc.; in addition, he will join the Board of Directors of Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings, Inc., as its Executive Chairman. These appointments are effective immediately.

In his new role, Pittman will oversee the company’s businesses, which include:

Clear Channel Radio, which serves 150 cities through 850 owned radio stations and an additional 100 cities and 4,000 stations through its syndicated Premier Radio Networks products. Clear Channel Radio also includes:

* Clear Channel Digital, which develops and operates iHeartRadio, the free, industry-leading digitalradio product that combines access to all of Clear Channel’s live broadcast and digital-only radio stations as well as user-created Custom Stations. Clear Channel Digital also develops the companion digital products for each radio station brand, including strong social components;

* Media Services for the radio, media, digital, mobile and music industries, including Total Traffic Network, a groundbreaking programming and technology service delivering real-time traffic data to vehicles via in-car and portable navigation systems, broadcast media, wireless and Internet-based services; The Katz Media Group, the leading media representation firm in the US for radio and television stations; and RCS, which provides scheduling and broadcast software for radio, internet and television station in addition to research studies that aid the media and music businesses.

Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings, which is one of the world’s largest outdoor advertising companies with close to one million displays in over 40 countries across five continents. Clear Channel Outdoor includes:

* Americas Outdoor Advertising, which owns or operates nearly 190,000 displays across the United States, Canada and Latin America including operations in 49 of the 50 largest markets in the United States. The Americas businessconsist of various types of displays that include billboards; street furniture; transit displays; the Clear Channel Airports division, which is the premier innovator of contemporary display concepts and currently operates more than 260 airport programs across the globe; mall displays; wallscapes; and spectaculars including Spectacolor, a market leader in spectacular sign displays, with displays located in New York’s Times Square. The Company has been a leader in the development and operation of digital displays and networks across many of its U.S. markets.

* International Outdoor Advertising operates across Asia, Australia and Europe with displays across nearly 30 countries. The International business consists of street furniture and transit displays, billboards, mall displays, wallscapes and spectaculars. Clear Channel International’s street furniture division operates over 3,500 municipal advertising contracts worldwide.

Pittman will also remain a member of Pilot Group, LLC, a New York-based private investment firm.

“On behalf of the Board of Directors, I want to express how delighted I am that Bob has accepted this position,” said Mark Mays, Chairman of Clear Channel Media Holdings. “He has been an invaluable contributor to Clear Channel Radio since last November, and he is the perfect person to take Clear Channel to the next level. I look forward to his leadership of our company.”

“Bob Pittman brings a long history as a brilliant innovator and brand builder — from his days as a very successful radio programmer, creator of MTV and CEO of MTV Networks to his work helping to drive the phenomenal growth of AOL and his successful investments in other digital, media and technology companies. He has already generated a renewed sense of confidence and direction not only at Clear Channel, but across the entire radio and media landscape,” said Scott Sperling, Co-President of THL Partners.

“I’m thrilled we were able recruit Bob into the CEO role at Clear Channel. He is the perfect fit to lead this incredibly powerful media platform. He embraces creativity, and has given employees the motivation and freedom to innovate, take risks and succeed,” said John Connaughton, Managing Director of Bain Capital. “He thinks big, is not afraid of change and is intensely focused on driving new businesses, expanding our creative talent and maximizing the full value of Clear Channel’s extraordinary assets, ideas and people.”

Pittman’s appointment comes on the heels of several industry-leading achievements by Clear Channel Radio this past year. In March, the company acquired digital music company Thumbplay for its state-of-the-art technologies as well as its technology and product teams. Last week, Clear Channel hosted the iHeartRadio Music Festival, the largest live concert event in radio history, which marked the official launch of the New iHeartRadio, which combines more than 850 of the nation’s most popular live broadcast and digital-only radio stations from 150 cities with user-created Custom Stations. iHeartRadio was one of the few highlighted new products at Facebook’s f8 conference on September 22nd, where it was recognized for its technology and cutting-edge social integration.

Additionally, Clear Channel has demonstrated its unique national promotional capabilities through significant relationships with record labels and social media leaders, and forging relationships with partners like Microsoft, Facebook, Zynga, Toyota and HP that reach further and deeper than advertising.

“Over the past year, I’ve had the unique opportunity to look at the Clear Channel people and assets up close and have found myself increasingly drawn to the company, to the point where the chance to get even more deeply involved has just become irresistible,” said Pittman. “I know first-hand that we have great people and the assets that allow them to do great things. We are so much more than just transmitters and broadcast towers — we leverage our local brands, personalities, strategic relationships and programming expertise to create unique experiences that forge real connections with consumers across our multiple platforms.”

Pittman continued, “I look forward to continuing to work closely with John Hogan and the Clear Channel Radio team to grow our company as we strengthen relationships with our consumers, advertisers, artists, labels and partners, nationally and locally — and I’m excited by the opportunity to work with Ron Cooper and William Eccleshare to help them make the most of our outdoor advertising potential by tapping into Clear Channel’s assets as a whole. I believe we have the technologies, the physical infrastructure, the content and, most importantly, the people to market to consumers better than any other media company in the world.”

If that sounds familiar, it’s because Harrison was already supposed to have left Clear Channel at the end of 2010. Last August, Clear Channel Radio CEO John Hogan told employees, via an internal memo, that Harrison had “shared his desire to pursue new challenges,” and was going to leave at the end of the year.

But there was always some weird cloudiness about that announcement, and Harrison, who had overseen music at AOL prior to joining Clear Channel in 2004, has stayed on a bit longer. Now he really is going, Hogan says, at the end of this month. It’s worth noting that investor Bob Pittman joined Clear Channel as its “chairman of media and entertainment platforms”, focused on digital opportunities, in November.

Earlier this month, Pittman purchased music subscription service Thumbplay, which he plans to use to power Clear Channel’s Web radio stations, which are competing with Pandora.

Here’s Hogan’s second memo announcing Harrison’s departure, distributed internally today:

Good morning, all:

In the aftermath of the Thumbplay announcement, as we prepare to take iHeartRadio to the next level and extend our leadership and vision in the digital space, I wanted to let you know that Evan Harrison, one of the architects of these successes, will be leaving Clear Channel Radio at the end of March.

Since joining our company as leader of Clear Channel Radio Digital, Evan has played a critical role in CCR’s multi-platform strategy. In iHeartRadio, he built a terrific product, one that leads the industry and forms the strong foundation of all CCR’s digital efforts, as well as a great team. Today, Clear Channel has $100 million in digital revenue, 25 million monthly unique visits to our online sites and 24 million downloads of our mobile apps. All of these accomplishments are a tribute to his leadership and skill, and we thank him most sincerely for all he has done.

While there were a number of opportunities for Evan to remain with us, he feels that there are other options he is interested in pursuing and that this is the right time to explore them. We wish him all the best. Moving forward, Bob will continue in his role overseeing the CCRD team.

Please join me in thanking Evan for the significant contributions he has made to advancing the mission of Clear Channel Radio: To successfully leverage all of Clear Channel’s powerful local brands and personalities, and enable our hundreds of millions of listeners to find the music and features they want on any platform they use.

Regards,

John Hogan

Think again.

New York-based Group Commerce, which is coming out of stealth today, has the funding and the pedigree to be a viable contender.

Founded by former Google and DoubleClick executives David Rosenblatt, Jonty Kelt, and Andrew Glenn, has raised $8 million in capital.

Investors include: Spark Capital, Carmel Ventures, Lerer Media Ventures, and Bob Pittman, the founder of MTV Networks and now chairman of media and entertainment platforms at Clear Channel.

What’s more, it is coming out of the gate running with four major publishers added to its platform: DailyCandy, Meredith Corporation, Thrillist and The New York Times.

In an exclusive interview with eMoney, Rosenblatt and Kelt explain that unlike Groupon or LivingSocial, Group Commerce is not building its own consumer brand, and won’t be targeting deals directly at consumers. Rather, it’s banking on building a platform that other media companies can leverage.

Rosenblatt, who was the former CEO of DoubleClick, is the company’s chairman, Kelt is CEO, and Glenn is the company’s CTO. All three were at DoubleClick when it was acquired by Google for $3.1 billion

Ironically, they are now building a business that Google desperately wants to get into, but failed after an unsuccessful $6 billion bid to acquire Groupon.

Rosenblatt said:

“Of course, this is going to be a very big market, and there will be many more players than just two. Each participant will have a different approach. Google clearly has one, but we believe collectively that publishers have the strongest advantage. They have the audience and the brand loyalty, but they are missing the mechanics and industry expertise.”

The daily deals space is getting exceedingly crowded.

The market is expected to soar to as much as $3.9 billion in the next four years, and there’s roughly 200 players in the space, according to estimates by BIA/Kelsey.

Rosenblatt compared the market to the early days of online advertising when AOL and Yahoo dominated.

“In the early days of the display market, a big share of the market was dominated by two players, but overtime advertising was redistributed to where the audience was. Groupon and LivingSocial have done a great job creating a market, and they will continue to be very large, but there will be a similar redistribution in favor of publishers,” he said.

Beyond Groupon and LivingSocial, which are considered the market leaders, there’s other companies attacking several niches, ranging from furniture to baby apparel, travel and families. There’s also companies that say they offer exactly what Group Commerce is describing–a white label solution for publishers–including Seattle-based Tippr and ReachLocal, which recently acquired DealOn.

“There’s a huge number of Groupon clones,” Rosenblatt said. “The insight here is that none of those clones have established publishers, they don’t have brands or trusted relationships, or customer lists….We don’t have a b2c business, but that is the case with most of the other white label providers. They also don’t have teams and our breadth of services.”

He says the three components that you must have in order to be successful in the space are: A loyal audience; great content and deals; and a technology platform.

“The publishers we’ve worked with for many years [at DoubleClick] are in the process of transitioning to a new digital economy,” Rosenblatt said. “They have an audience and the ability to match the audience to deals that are contextually relevant. Our role is to offer the third part.”

Group Commerce is not just offering a technology platform, but also is sourcing the deals for its media partners, and finding a large audience and wide range of demographics for the merchants across publications.

Daily deals typically offer discounts at restaurants or other services for as much as 50 to 70 percent off. The customer pays for the voucher up front and then redeems it later. Typically, the merchant only gets half of that cash, while the other half goes to Groupon or another provider. For the merchant it’s a new form of advertising, replacing traditional methods, like Yellow Pages or newspaper ads.

Group Commerce would not disclose its revenue splits, but said it is paid with a portion of gross revenue of each deal, and that it’s a shared risk model. “If the deals don’t work, we don’t get paid,” Kelt said.

Kelt added that they believe their model will work because it combines the publisher’s knowledge of the audience with the merchants. For instance, DailyCandy’s audience is young and female, and a reader may be interested in an offer for a ladies night out at an upscale restaurant.

Although a potential customer does not have necessarily have to be a publisher, Kelt notes. It can be anyone with an audience, including a celebrity with a large following on Twitter.

Today, Group Commerce has 35 employees in New York, Chicago, Florida, San Francisco and Los Angeles. It’s planning to grow to 100 employees by the end of the year with the majority being sales people.

Thumbplay will hang on to its once-booming ringtone business, but only temporarily; it intends to sell that off in a separate deal.

Terms of the Clear Channel deal weren’t disclosed, but a source familiar with the company tells me investors who put some $41 million into the company don’t expect to get all their money back. PaidContent reported earlier today that a sale was in progress.

I’m told that Clear Channel will be buying a business that only managed to sign up 20,000 subscribers, who pay $10 a month for unlimited music, since March 2010.

But the radio company seems more interested for now in using Thumbplay’s technology and team to build out its existing, free Web radio service. That is, it is competing with Pandora, more than Rhapsody, Rdio and Spotify.

“This is step one,” says Bob Pittman, the investor who put his own money into Clear Channel and came aboard as its “chairman of media and entertainment platforms” last fall. “Three percent of all radio listened to is digital, and it is early still. We need to get ahead of the curve and not behind it.”

Pittman says Thumbplay’s technology will be integrated in the coming months into Clear Channel’s “iheartradio” service, which offers 750 free Web radio stations and boasts 25 million monthly uniques. He says all 65 Thumbplay employees working on music services will get jobs at Clear Channel.

Clear Channel will get into subscriptions “eventually”, Pittman says. Clear Channel says  existing Thumbplay subscribers won’t notice any change, but that the company will stop marketing for new customers.

Thumbplay is both a cautionary tale for investors pouring money yet again into digital music, and for the perils of pivoting in the wrong direction.

Just a few years ago, Thumbplay was doing more than $100 million a year selling ringtones, with about a million subscribers paying $10 a month for the digital novelties. But its management team could see that the business was on its way out, and used revenues from ringtones to fund a foray into subscription music.

But Thumbplay ran into the same problem that every other music subscription has faced so far: Lousy record label economics, and a lack of consumer demand.

Things were supposed to improve once subscriptions services started working on Apple’s iPod and iPhone platform, and they have — they also work on Google’s Android, Research in Motion’s BlackBerry, etc — but it’s still a niche industry, with perhaps a million subscribers in the U.S.

Spotify, the music industry’s, next big hope, boasts about 1 million subscribers for its European service. But it’s been able to lure them by offering unlimited music for free on their PCs, then upselling users into a service that also works on the phones.

Subscription services in the U.S. have traditionally only offered three days of free music to trial users, and the amount of free music that Spotify offers has been a sticking point as it tries to launch in the States.

So you can see why Pittman and company would be targeting free Web radio before trying out subscriptions themselves. That business has big music fees, too, but they’re more manageable, and with enough scale it might be possible to turn a profit.

Pandora, which has filed to raised $100 million in a public offering, lost $330,000 on revenues of $90 million in the first 9 months of last year. And Pittman seems confident that Clear Channel, with its network of 850 terrestrial radio stations — and crucially, an established salesforce – can do much better than that.

“We already have 25 million monthly uniques and we think we can use those to compete with Pandora,” he says. “Pandora is a great feature rather than a business. And we want to have all these features and add to the service continually.”

Tricia Primrose (pictured here), AOL’s long-serving communications head, is stepping down from her job, according to a memo sent out by CEO Tim Armstrong to staff.

The move is personal, related to her family, according to the memo (which you can see below).

Except for BoomTown’s record run, Primrose is unusual in the length of her tenure and number of AOL (AOL) exec administrations she has survived, including Steve Case and Bob Pittman, Jon Miller, Randy Falco and Ron Grant and now, Armstrong.

To say nothing of the myriad of changes and controversies at the long-suffering Internet icon, such as its disastrous merger with Time Warner (TWX).

And those have recently included its spinoff from the media giant and its 25th anniversary celebration.

That deserves some kind of medal!

And I, for one, will miss her and her consummate professionalism throughout some decidedly dicey times. Being both loyal to AOL and honest about tough situations is no easy task, but Primrose always managed to do it unflappably and with class.

Since Armstrong took over, though, most of the company’s most recent senior management team has turned over, with Primrose being one of the last to go.

Primrose will be staying until a replacement is found and will be part of the selection process, according to the staff email.

Here is Armstrong’s internal memo:

AOLers–

As we discussed in our all hands meeting two weeks ago, our Company is about people and our brands are a reflection of the people who work on them. There is one person that has worked tirelessly toward communicating both internally and externally about the progress and challenges we have faced as a business and a team–Trish Primrose. Trish has been with AOL for over 13 years and has been at the eye of the storm of one of the most well-known brands, in one of the most well-known industries.

I wanted to let you know that Trish will be stepping down as the Head of Corporate Communications for AOL and transitioning into an advisory role at the Company which will allow her to spend more time with her family. Trish has been an exemplary executive in her role and she has become a good friend in the process which is why I understand this change makes total sense for her. As many of you know, since returning home to Virginia in December last year Trish has been commuting, spending part of every week in the NY office–a schedule that has required her to sacrifice a lot of time away from her husband, Doug and daughter, Callie. People who know Trish well know that while she is the ultimate perfectionist at work, the thing she is proudest of is her family.

Trish will leave the role having completed one of the most important events and stepping stones in the history of the Company–AOL’s re-emergence as a stand-alone public company. Trish played one of the key positions in that transition and she has built a team that has bridged the past with the future. Trish’s most recent efforts culminated in AOL’s 25th Anniversary celebration which was a success that won’t be forgotten and is a highlight for all of us. Trish and her team will continue to be instrumental in our success. We will be opening an external and internal search for a successor.

We’re grateful that we’ll be able to tap Trish’s experience in ensuring that the Company doesn’t miss a beat during this period. And while we’re thrilled she will be continuing with us in an advisory role, please join me in thanking Trish for her efforts on behalf of AOL. –TA

Bob Pittman’s Pilot Group, an early backer of Mark Pincus’s company, has sold the majority of its Zynga shares. I don’t have details on the size of Pilot’s stake or the value of the transaction, but it’s going to be a huge return by any measure.

Pittman, guided by his digital deal guy, Andy Russell, got in on Zynga’s $10 million A round in January 2008. Since then, Zynga has raised an astonishing $350 million, all while claiming it doesn’t need the money. Investors love the story and are reportedly valuing the company at $3 billion in secondary market deals.

If Zynga’s future is so bright, why sell now? No comment from Zynga or Pilot. But a person familiar with the transaction tells me Pilot is reinvesting its profits in another deal. And it continues to hold some Zynga shares.

So if this thing keeps going–bankers see Zynga as one of the most likely big-name tech IPO candidates in the next couple years–Pilot will still see more upside.

Eve Epstein, an eight-year veteran at the site who has run the edit side for the past three years, is moving from New York to Los Angeles. She’ll stay with DailyCandy, though, as creative director of Swirl, an online sample-sale site that wants to take on the likes of Gilt Groupe.

The move is one of several high-profile changes at DailyCandy within the last few years. The biggest, of course, was when Bob Pittman’s Pilot Group sold the company to Comcast (CMCSA) for $125 million in the summer of 2008.

CEO Pete Sheinbaum moved on last May, and his role was eventually filled by Hearst Digital’s Beth Ellard in August. In December, the company began paring back some of its local editions and laid off some staff in the process. And assuming the deal with GE (GE) and NBC Universal goes through, DailyCandy will end up as part of that combined company (unlike other Comcast digital assets, which will stay with the mother ship).

Here’s a release from DailyCandy that the company was kind enough to provide to me when I called up to confirm the hire. Take note, fellow publicists! This is excellent service!

DailyCandy, the free lifestyle daily e-mail newsletter and website, is hiring Janet Ozzard, editor of New York Magazine’s The Strategist, to be the company’s new Editor-in-Chief. Janet is replacing Eve Epstein, who left DailyCandy to become the Creative Director of Swirl.com, DailyCandy’s new sample sale site which launched in beta late last year.

“New York Magazine’s Strategist section is widely regarded as some of the best content in publishing today,” said Beth Ellard, GM for DailyCandy.  “Janet brings significant editorial experience, strong leadership skills, and a fresh, innovative perspective to DailyCandy, and she will be fantastic in her new role as Editor-in-Chief.”

Janet will be starting with the company in early March.

Meet the newest batch: Lerer Media Ventures, a new fund run by Huffington Post co-founder Ken Lerer and his son, Thrillist co-founder Ben Lerer.

The two men say they’re closing the fund’s first round in the next few days. When they’re done, they will have around $7 million to put into angel/early-stage investments–primarily in New York tech/media companies, though they intend to play on the West Coast too.

If you want a sense of what the Lerers are looking for, check out deals they’ve already done, like Hot Potato, Paperless Post, and GDGT.

Their investors include a number of bold-faced names, at least by tech/media standards. Among them: Pilot Group’s Bob Pittman, ZelnickMedia’s Strauss Zelnick, SoftBank Capital partner Mike Perlis, Hunch co-founder (and prolific blogger) Chris Dixon, uber-angel investor Ron Conway and Lerer’s Huffington Post co-founder, Arianna Huffington.

The Lerers join the ranks of other investors interested in New York start-ups, including early-stage venture capital shops Union Square Ventures, Spark Capital and First Round Capital, and a set of smaller funds like IA Capital Partners, Betaworks and Founder Collective.

The fact that the last two funds are directly connected to the Lerers–Ken is an investor in Betaworks (and shares office space with it), and Chris Dixon is an investor in Founder Collective–shows just how interlinked the New York start-up scene is. The same players seem to invest in the same deals, and now they’re investing in one another.

For instance: Check out the investor list for Brooklyn-based Hot Potato, which looks a lot like the Lerers’ group.

Or consider the fact that Pittman once worked with Ken Lerer at AOL (AOL) and now funds Ben Lerer’s newsletter company. Or the fact that Perlis, via SoftBank, is a Huffington Post investor and that former SoftBank partner and current Huffpo CEO Eric Hippeau will be an adviser to the new fund. Etc.

If you’re a cynic, you might call such familiarity overly cozy. And you might worry about the chances for a start-up that doesn’t find favor with the collective. If you’re an optimist, you’d say there’s nothing wrong with like-minded investors who like to collaborate.

No surprise what side Ken Lerer is on. And what about the growing number of people who want to invest in Web start-ups again? Not a problem, either.

“In angel investing, you don’t really have competitors. You go ahead and do your thing,” Lerer insists. “I don’t look at Internet or Internet investing as competitive, generally.”

Fair enough. If anyone feels otherwise, sound off in the comments below.

And in the spirit of full disclosure, I’ll note that even I have the faintest of links to this group, though it’s mainly aspirational. Ken Lerer was an early backer of my former employer, Silicon Alley Insider, and I have the tiniest of investments in that company, too.

[Image credit: Tony the Misfit]

This should clear things up: The site and its email editions are going on “indefinite hiatus,” according to an email the company plans to distribute next week.

Ideal Bite is supposed to eventually resurface in some form via the “Go Green” section of Disney’s Family.com site, but that won’t do much for the company’s employees, who I’m told will be out of work as of Dec. 9.

A person familiar with the company says the only two exceptions are co-founders Heather Stephenson and Jennifer Boulden, who will remain employed until March. I’ve asked Disney for comment, but haven’t heard back yet.

Ideal Bite is one of the many newsletters backed by Bob Pittman’s Pilot Group, which sold the company to Disney (DIS) for a reported $20 million in 2008. Pittman’s biggest success to date has been DailyCandy, which Pilot sold to Comcast (CMCSA) for $125 million a year and a half ago.

That unit, which is now slated to become part of the Comcast-NBC Universal joint venture, is now paring back some of its local editions, the result of what it said today was “a very challenging year.”

Here’s the draft text of the email Ideal Bite plans to send out next Monday:

Dear Biters:

For the past 5 years, Ideal Bite has helped make “light green” a way of life, leading to many meaningful changes. Together we’ve made the switch to organic food, CFL light bulbs, reusable water bottles, and paraben-free shampoos, and have inspired others to follow our lead.

Those small changes really have added up and have helped push green to the mainstream. As you’ve probably noticed, lately, our Ideal Bite guides, tips, and other content have become more family and home focused. And now, as part of the Walt Disney family of companies, it makes sense for us to join the Disney website Family.com, which focuses on women and moms, and is expanding the Go Green section of its site.

What does that mean for you? Starting next week, all Ideal Bite email editions and the website will go on indefinite hiatus as Family.com readies new ways to serve you Biters – through email, website, mobile, and video content. In the meantime, keep checking Family.com’s Go Green section for content and updates.

Thanks for Biting with us over these past years. We’ve had a blast sharing our tips with you all, and we look forward to downing a virtual glass of biodynamic wine with you in the future.

Until then, as always, Happy Biting.

The Ideal Bite Team

The pitch is straightforward: The newsletter will bring you one cool and/or useful online site, service, app, etc., per day. The alpha versions I’ve seen suggest that subscribers try out the likes of Gazelle, Zeni Optical, and Hazelmail.

If the concept sounds familiar, it should. There are several popular Web sites, like Gawker Media’s Lifehacker, that tread similar thematic ground.

And there are many variants in newsletter industry. Very Short List, the newsletter started by IAC (IACI) and now owned by the Observer Media Group, offers up a cool book, movie, video, etc., per day; DailyCandy, now owned by Comcast (CMCSA), tells its subscribers about cool sample sales and boutiques; Thrillist*, the DailyCandy for dudes, informs dudes about cool restaurants, bars, etc.

One other commonality: This newsletter business, like many others, is getting a boost from Bob Pittman’s Pilot Group. The investment fund, which has invested in newsletters, including Daily Candy and Thrillist, owns a piece of Recognition Media, the New York company that produces the annual Webby awards, among other silly/serious events.

*Your story is coming, Ben. Patience!

[Image credit: polmuadi]

Kara and the Boomtown blog were in New York this week and started the party early with Bob Pittman–well known media and Web exec. Kara wasn’t dancing on the tables, but did admit that Pittman’s new venture, a top-shelf tequila, was plenty tasty. BoomTown went straight from the sauce to the nose candy in a short interview with Ford’s (F) social media guru, Scott Monty. While Monty might have been using cocaine as a metaphor for a new kind of marketing that changes consumption of all other marketing, Weekend Update gets his subtext. As if BoomTown didn’t have enough hardcore “cred,” Kara headed off to fabulous Las Vegas for the annual meeting of the blogs at BlogWorld. Nothing that happens in Vegas this weekend will stay there–not with thousands of bloggers roaming the Strip in search of a new meme to latch on to.

Digital Daily trapped a Snow Leopard early in the week. John reported on Apple’s (APPL) admission that the Snow Leopard version of OS X occasionally overdelivers on its promise to free-up disk space. In certain circumstances, the furry filcher can sneak in and make off with all your user data. If it was data loss you were looking for though, no one beats the good folks at Danger who, up until recently, housed all kinds of personal data associated with the Sidekick line of smart phones. The Microsoft (MSFT) subsidiary permanently lost contact, calendar and other personal data associated with many accounts. Weekend Update thinks that Sidekick users were given fair warning, though; the company name is, after all, Danger. John rounded out the week with something unusual–good economic news from the tech sector: Intel (INTC), Google (GOOG), IBM (IBM) and AMD (AMD) were all feeling a little more flush than their prognosticators had predicted, each beating their admittedly dismal forecasts by at least a little.

MediaMemo followed up on some important stories, beginning the week with Twitter’s spam problem. Peter reported that the Web’s biggest microblogging pipeline updated its tools for trapping the flotsam and jetsam. Twitter is reportedly in talks with several leading search engines that want to feed on all that delicious real-time data. Peter also updated the readers on the tough times over at Condé Nast. This round of cuts was a little closer to the magazine publisher’s crown jewels than last week’s cuts and closings, with the layoff of at least six staffers from Vogue. Peter closed out the week with a cheeky little open letter to the Federal Trade Commission. He asked some important questions regarding the FTC’s recent obsession with bloggers and disclosure. He seems to think that most serious bloggers don’t like to sell their credibility for tiny discounts to obscure events.

Walt and Katie were all over Windows 7 this week, with help on all fronts for those making “the switch.” Before he got to that, though, Walt spent some personal tech time with some supersmart phones. He elevated Motorola’s (MOT) CLIQ and RIM’s (RIMM) BlackBerry Storm2 to the level of potential iPhone killer and praised their updated features and power as mobile computers rather than simply phones. Mossberg’s Mailbox heralded the beginning of the Windows 7 flood and was chock full of questions about upgrading and replacing some of the functionality that was built into Vista. The Great One also offered thoughts on installing Windows 7 on a virtual machine running in OS X, but couldn’t speak to the boot camp option until Apple releases more info…and the proper drivers.

Katie tested PC Mover from LapLink as an all-in-one option for moving precious data to Windows 7. While she praised the $15 program’s efficiency, she thought it was a little sleazy that it also tried to get her to purchase other programs while it had her data in its clutches. All went well, and the moral of the story is that this one-trick pony upgrade assistant was worth the minimal price tag.

Breaking News: Weekend Update is getting intermittent reports that Kara may have been kidnapped from BlogWorld by a roving band of mommybloggers in white robes, all slowly chanting “mon-eh-tize” as they piled into their Honda minivans. They may or may not have sealed her into a 30 foot-wide, saucer-shaped balloon, which could be floating westward toward the Bay Area.

If we get her back, you can look forward to another fully staffed, fully loaded week at AllThingsD.

Earlier this week, while in New York, BoomTown paid a visit to well-known media and Web exec Bob Pittman to hear about his newest venture.

And, as it turned out, it tasted pretty good.

That’s because the former MTV wunderkind, AOL top exec and currently, investor in a wide range of media and Web companies, is making tequila instead of Internet sites.

Thank God it’s Friday!

That might be the liquor talking, since accurate reporting is a requirement at All Things Digital–but this was one of the more enjoyable interviews I have had with Pittman over many, many years.

After leaving the job of COO at then-troubled AOL Time Warner (TWX) in 2002, Pittman has been investing via the Pilot Group in Web start-ups like Thrillist, iLike, Zynga, Next New Networks, as well as radio and television properties.

Pilot sold DailyCandy to Comcast (CMCSA) in 2008 for a reported $125 million.

Tequila-making is yet another unusual tack for Pittman, who is now busy trying to turn “Casa Dragones”–which is made from the blue agave plant in Mexico–into the next big thing in the high-end liquor business.

Aiming directly at the top-shelf brands like Gran Patrón, Pittman is trying for a “sipping” tequila, in contrast to most versions, which typically deliver a sharp kick.

Using a series of tasting parties and marketing efforts to make the $275-a-bottle tequila a must-have at key bars and clubs, it will be interesting to see if Pittman can turn spirits into profits.

Here’s Pittman talking about his tequila adventure in a video interview (and, below it, Joe Nichols singing one of my favorite country songs, “Tequila Makes Her Clothes Fall Off”):

Joe Nichols – Tequila Makes Her Clothes Fall Off

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20091016/its-another-tequila-start-up-bob-pittmans-new-venture/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20091012/disney-transitioning-ideal-bite-its-green-lifestyle-newsletter/ http://allthingsd.com/20091012/disney-transitioning-ideal-bite-its-green-lifestyle-newsletter/#comments Tue, 13 Oct 2009 01:27:32 +0000 Peter Kafka http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/?p=11987 Ideal Bite, the green-flavored lifestyle newsletter Disney bought in June 2008, faces an uncertain fate: Its parent company is shuttling the unit from one corporate silo to another and says it’s not sure what will become of it once that happens.

For the record: Disney (DIS) says it always intended to move the company, which offers “bite-sized ideas for green living” via email and a Web site, from its corporate strategy group to its interactive division, which will happen later this year. At that point, “it will still continue in some form,” says spokesman Michelle Bergman.

That doesn’t sound good. Disney says it plans to conduct a review of the unit, so it’s not ready to answer some basic questions about the email newsletter company. Like: Are co-founders Heather Stephenson (who lives and works in San Francisco) and Jennifer Boulden (who until this summer lived and worked in Bozeman, Mont.; she’s now in Los Angeles, I’m told) staying on? Will Disney have to take a write-down on the property? Will there be layoffs? “It’s too early to say. I can’t tell you,” Bergman says.

Okay. But If I had to bet, I’d say at least some of the dozen-plus employees will be hitting the job market.

Disney paid a reported $20 million for the property a year and a half ago, and the plan was to create a big green-centered business around it, but that hasn’t panned out, sources said. The company, founded in 2005, is one of the many lifestyle newsletter businesses backed by Bob Pittman’s Pilot Group.

Comcast (CMCSA) bought DailyCandy, the best known of Pittman’s stable, for $125 million a little more than a year ago. That was surely one of the last “pre-Lehman” Web 2.0 M&A deals, but grunts and murmurs out of Philadelphia and Pilot indicate the business has held up during the recession. And Thrillist, a “DailyCandy for dudes” effort that has yet to sell, seems to be booming.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20091012/disney-transitioning-ideal-bite-its-green-lifestyle-newsletter/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20090506/dailycandy-ceo-pete-sheinbaum-steps-down/ http://allthingsd.com/20090506/dailycandy-ceo-pete-sheinbaum-steps-down/#comments Wed, 06 May 2009 10:44:33 +0000 Peter Kafka http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/?p=6991 DailyCandy CEO Pete Sheinbaum is leaving the company, less than a year after Comcast bought the fashion and shopping newsletter from Bob Pittman’s Pilot Group Ventures for $125 million. His last day is Friday.

Sheinbaum, who started working for the company as a consultant in 2000 and took the top job in 2005, says he doesn’t have a new job lined up yet, though I’m told he has options. “I let them know after nine years it was time to look for the next thing,” he says via email.

I’m told that Comcast (CMCSA) is still pleased with the acquisition, which may have been the last Web 2.0 deal to close before last fall’s crash.

Here’s word from Comcast: “We wish Pete well, thank him for his work in growing Daily Candy. Catherine Levene, Chief Operating Officer and [founder] Dany Levy will continue to lead operations. For Comcast Interactive Media, IM, Daily Candy is overseen by Chuck Davis who is EVP at CIM and also runs Fandango. The transition under CIM has gone well and the company continues to grow–DC has added DailyCandy Video and DailyCandy Weddings.”

Here’s an interview with Sam Schwartz, the Comcast executive who engineered that deal and who says he’s still interested in other Web M&A:

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20090506/dailycandy-ceo-pete-sheinbaum-steps-down/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20090427/ad-giant-omnicom-stimulus-spending-could-boost-media-end-of-the-year/ http://allthingsd.com/20090427/ad-giant-omnicom-stimulus-spending-could-boost-media-end-of-the-year/#comments Mon, 27 Apr 2009 18:23:22 +0000 Peter Kafka http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/?p=6744 Ad giant Omnicom reported that its revenue dropped 14 percent and profits declined by 21 percent in the last quarter, but investors are bidding up the stock in a down market. Omnicom (OMC) shares are up more than four percent today.

That’s presumably because the profit slump isn’t as bad as Wall Street expected. But maybe investors are buying some of the optimism CEO John Wren doled out–sparingly–during the company’s earnings call.

Not only was he hopeful that the “pace of economic decline [will find] a bottom,” he said, but he was hopeful that things could actually start picking up in the media business by the fourth quarter when “massive stimulus spending by most governments should start to have a positive impact.”

See, Bob Pittman? You’re going to get your ad industry bailout after all!

Speaking as an ad-supported media employee, I’d be overjoyed if Wren is correct. But the informal poll I’ve been taking of publishers–on and offline–for the past couple weeks has me thinking that’s he’s probably early. But it sure would be awesome if I didn’t have to run this crater art for much longer.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20090427/ad-giant-omnicom-stimulus-spending-could-boost-media-end-of-the-year/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20090325/a-win-for-project-playlist-emi-drops-suit-signs-on/ http://allthingsd.com/20090325/a-win-for-project-playlist-emi-drops-suit-signs-on/#comments Wed, 25 Mar 2009 15:33:17 +0000 Peter Kafka http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/?p=5631 EMI Music Group, which sued Web music start-up Project Playlist nearly a year ago, has dropped its suit and will start providing its catalog to the start-up, which offers free streaming music.

No terms were disclosed. The settlement, in conjunction with an earlier deal struck with Sony’s Sony Music Entertainment (SNE), means that Project Playlist now has deals with two of the big four music labels. But Warner Music Group (WMG) and Vivendi’s Universal Music Group are still suing the company.

Just as important: Project Playlist hasn’t been reinstated by MySpace and Facebook, both of which booted the service off their social networks last November. Since Project Playlist depended on those sites to drive traffic to its site, it’s hard to see how it can gain much traction unless it can sweet-talk the two other labels into coming aboard.

My expectation was that a settlement was in the works last fall because that’s when former Facebook COO Owen Van Natta joined the company as CEO and investor Bob Pittman poured several millions of dollars into it. Neither of those men, I assumed, was betting on a prolonged lawsuit.

Project Playlist isn’t the only music start-up struggling these days–even those that haven’t been sued by the labels, or have deals with them or even investments from them, are trying to figure out how to survive. Most assumed they’d be able to make money via advertising, but that was a hard sell even before the recession/depression.

Still, better to have a deal than a lawsuit.

Preprepared quotes from both sides:

Van Natta: “It is crucial for us to continue connecting our users with more of their favorite music. This partnership will provide us with a wide-ranging selection of content to satisfy our users’ appetites to share and purchase music. We are excited to now have both EMI and SONY BMG Music catalogs available and we hope to continue to expand and enhance our service.”

Ronn Werre, EMI Music’s President, Music Services worldwide: “Making our music available on a fan favorite like Project Playlist is part of EMI Music’s mission to connect artists and fans and to give fans more ways to discover new artists. Project Playlist is becoming a fan favorite. Our artists also know that word-of-mouth among friends is a powerful part of music discovery.”

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