4 posts and columns on Brentwood

You've Got Arianna: AOL Buys Huffington Post for $315 Million in Cash and Stock, Appoints Huffington Editor in Chief

in News on February 6, 2011 at 9:01 pm PT

In a bold and definitive move, AOL is paying $315 million, mostly in cash, to buy the Huffington Post, one of the Web’s most prominent news and opinion sites. As part of the deal, Huffington Post co-founder Arianna Huffington–who was derided by some when she co-founded the left-leaning site in 2005 with investor and well-known communications exec Kenneth Lerer–will become editor in chief of a new unit that has purview over all of AOL content properties. The deal was signed just this afternoon.

Prankster Jason Calacanis Talks About His Apple iPad Hoax (Warning: Cute Baby Alert!)

in News on February 1, 2010 at 5:05 am PT

While in Los Angeles for a brief second on Friday, BoomTown motored over to the Brentwood home of puckish entrepreneur Jason Calacanis to talk to him about his prank tweets the night before the introduction of the iPad last week. On Tuesday night before the much hyped launch of the newest device from Apple, Calacanis let loose with a series of over-the-top posts to Twitter, claiming he was a beta tester for the iPad tablet computer–assertions that some in the mostly mainstream media took too seriously. Was it a jump-the-shark moment for journalism?

Arianna Huffington Talks About New Managing Editor Singh!

in News on April 28, 2009 at 5:12 pm PT

While in Los Angeles today at the AlwaysOn OnHollywood conference, BoomTown ran smack into blogging empress Arianna Huffington. She was there to give a speech called “Video Killed the Radio Star…But Can the Web Actually Save Journalism?” Her answer was a decided yes, especially with great journalists working online, such as the new managing editor of the Huffington Post the mega-blog has just hired. That would be former CNET Networks Editor-in-Chief Jai Singh, who quit the company last year after a dozen-year run.
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PaidContent's Rafat Ali Speaks! So, Here's Who's Next…

in News on July 11, 2008 at 7:41 pm PT

Earlier today, BoomTown broke the stunning-for-blogs news that ContentNext, owner of the popular online digital media news site paidContent, was being bought by the Guardian Media Group for about $30 million in an earn-out acquisition. But the deal–which comes after the mid-May sale of Ars Technica to Condé Nast for a reported $25 million–begs the question of which tech blog might be next to be acquired. And, after much noisy poking around today, BoomTown is giving the nod to one of the sector’s larger and splashier sites: TechCrunch.