Diller Likes AOL While National Journal's Latest Hire Talks Decline, Plus Other News of the Day

- Well the Wall Street Journal is sure enjoying a recent jump in its advertising revenue, and it wants to make it clear that the New York Times isn't matching it. According to a company memo obtained by Romenesko, the WSJ's print and online revenue jumped 17%, while its digital advertising revenue skyrocketed up 29% in the first quarter of 2011. How's NYT's? According to the memo, "for the same three month period the New York Times has forecast total print and online revenue for its calendar third quarter to fall 2 to 3% compared with a year before. Total print advertising revenue is expected to be down 5%. Total digital advertising revenue is projected to rise 14%." Does this mean the WSJ is winning? - AOL has one fan in IAC CEO Barry Diller. Of course this fan was speaking at AOL's recent acquisition, TechCrunch's conference when he spoke of AOL. “For the first time in more than ten years ... which in an internet company of such size is an eternity ... real things are happening,” said Diller, according to paidContent. “There is a real direction, a real plan, it is under a real leader. It is independent, it’s got a real chance.” What are Diller's thoughts on Yahoo, however? He didn't want to talk about it. - The media watchdog group Free Press has filed a complaint to the Federal Communications Commission to stop the practice of paid publicists supporting products on television news casts, when the news station presents the person as a consumer advocate. This move by the Free Press has come on the heels of Los Angeles Times columnist James Rainey calling out the FCC for not doing something about this practice. "The agency hopes the threat of public embarrassment will keep hucksters in check," wrote Rainey. "Judging from my reporting on toy woman Werner, I'm not so sure. Several PR professionals told me they see secretly paid promotions only growing.... Television stations won licenses from the FCC with promises to uphold a trust to serve the public interest. Critical in that trust is helping the audience understand where content comes from." Wonder how the FCC will react to that. - It's a continuing theme of this nightly roundup, but National Journal picked up another hire today. Boston.com's editor David Beard will join the publication as its deputy editor-in-chief and online editor. But Beard had some thoughts about what he does and the old media world as he left. “I thought about the first Times owner…and how much he really dreamed up new ideas and thought like an entrepreneur — as opposed to a manager of an extant company,” said Beard to Nieman Journalism Lab. “I didn’t want to live my life managing decline.” That's a sad, but poignant statement.

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Diller Likes AOL While National Journal's Latest Hire Talks Decline, Plus Other News of the Day

Ryan Derousseau

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Ryan Derousseau