Forty percent of Groupon’s writers have prior journalism experience, 70 percent were creative writers and 20 percent wrote marketing or business copy. As of this writing, there are 59 writers, 16 editors, 15 image designers, 24 fact-checkers, 11 copy editors and four editorial recruiters. They’ve hired 40 writers in the last six months.

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This also points to the need for new platforms that allow these media companies to syndicate their content.  Proliferation of individual apps or channels is not the new model. Google/Yahoo news isn’t the new model – they’ve been surpassed by Facebook already. Community sites like Digg and Reddit are not even in the running.

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It is an illuminating look into how AOL, a company with hundreds of millions in dollars in annual funding, is trying to turn itself into a 21st century media giant on the fly.

Some tidbits:

• AOL tells its editors to decide what topics to cover based on four considerations: traffic potential, revenue potential, edit quality and turn-around time.

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Here’s a basic list of questions to consider when selecting a vendor:

A platform is a technology or product upon which many other technologies or products are built. Some platforms are controlled by a single corporation: e.g. Windows, iOS, and Facebook. Some are controlled by standards committees or groups of companies: e.g. the web (html/http), RSS, and email (smtp).

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The AOL Way should have…

• Reminded AOL writers, creators, and producers to make stuff that lots of people will find addictive and easy to find.
• Profiled writers outside and inside AOL who “get it” – the stars.
• Introduced some tools to help AOL writers accomplish those goals and become stars too.

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In 2010, LibreDigital became a preferred content aggregator for Apple’s iBookstore and has risen to become one of the largest providers of book content to Apple. The company also forged deals to provide high-res magazines and newspapers to color reading platforms including NOOKcolor, Sony and others.

via Robin Wauters, LibreDigital Raises $4 Million For Digital Reading Technologies, TechCrunch.

“There’s so much good potential that can come out of just charging people for your good product,” he says. “And it’s a virus. It’s a disease. It’s contagious. It becomes person to person. It takes over. It’s a simplicity of organization. The most important thing is it lets you sleep well at night when you get to say that everything you do is for the benefit of the people, for the user. (more…)

One of the best stories in digital entertainment [last] year is how Netflix built up its streaming-video library against the odds. It wasn’t long ago that pundits predicted that Netflix would be unable to pay the studios’ rates and would see its supply of streaming content cut off. The naysayers argued that Netflix would go bankrupt or alienate subscribers by forcing steep price increases on them.

So far, the company has defied the doubters.

via Greg Sandoval, Netflix’s secret sauce for acquiring content | Media Maverick – CNET News.