“We are planning to invest in those properties, not sell” them, Mr. Armstrong said in an interview with Ad Age. He admitted that the company has spoken with outside entities about partnerships that would lead to increased investments in TechCrunch and Engadget, but that right now AOL is leaning toward “investing ourselves.”

Update 2: TechCrunch has put out its own article on the topic now. It equates to “We’re not for sale.”

Will the AOL/TechCrunch drama ever end? For now, it continues.

The latest in the saga is a report from Sarah Lacy of PandoDaily (formerly of TechCrunch), who says she’s hearing from two independent sources that AOL is looking to sell Engadget and TechCrunch for somewhere between $70 million and $100 million. She says that they could be sold as AOL Tech, possibly with other sites like TUAQ and Joystiq.

“AOL is hoping to make something off the drama of the past couple of years: $70 million would net the struggling Internet company about $10 million profit on what AOL originally paid for both TechCrunch and Engadget’s original parent Weblogs Inc,” Lacy writes. “According to one source, AOL management has been seriously considering the move since early this year. The news also sheds light on why Arianna Huffington was so relaxed about relinquishing responsibility for the division last month, according to reports.”

Huffington reportedly talked about wanting to focus more on Huffington Post at Business Insider’s recent conference. This came about a month after conflicting reports emerged about just how much power she would have going forward.

If AOL really is looking to sell the tech properties, one would have to imagine that TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington might be interested, though he’s not saying as much. Lacy quotes him directly:

“I don’t know anything. No one tells me anything. I am not in the least bit interested [in buying back TechCrunch]. I was Team Pando all the way until Sarah Lacy fired me. That does not change my position on TechCrunch.”

Arrington, who famously called Huffington a touchy psychopath, will appear at the upcoming TechCrunch event, Disrupt (with former TechCrunch writer MG Siegler). Given the drama, it should be interesting to see what kinds of episodes emerge from that.

“MG and I will be doing on stage interviews with famous tech people in our signature styles, and helping to run the Battlefield,” Arrington said in a recent post on TechCrunch itself, titled “I’m Back”.

Will that title have even more meaning that first thought?

Former Mashable editor Ben Parr chimed in on the discussion on Twitter:

This tweet from Siegler seems appropriate (though he was actually tweeting about a Lakers game):

Of course, it’s not over yet…

For one, the Huffington Post Media Group (the new media entity that runs all AOl/HuffPost content) has reportedly put an end to its paid freelancer program. Now, you’re either no staff – working in the newsroom for a regular work week – or you’re contributing content for free.

Business Insider CEO Henry Blodget shares a note from one of those who previously contributed freelance work. Here’s an excerpt:

Well, it’s official: The Huffington Post Transition team has just eliminated all AOL freelancers and contractors (at least those in business and finance–everything under Peter Goodman). But we have been invited to continue contributing for free. We will be replaced either by a handful of people Goodman has in mind, or with young, new (read cheap) writers who have yet to be hired.

We’ve been told that all these new, full-time employees will be expected to report to the office every day for a 40-hour work week. For some reason, it’s very important to Arianna [Huffington] to have writers physically working in a newsroom in either LA, New York or Washington, DC, thus going back to an archaic newsroom model that went out with the invention of the telephone, and needlessly eliminating any talented writers in other parts of the country. So much for a global, cutting edge news team.

On a related note, AOL has appointed Tim Stevens as the new editor-in-chief at Engadget. He’s been there for four years or so. He wrote on the blog today:

Our site has obviously come a long, long way too since it launched in 2004 and became part of AOL in 2005. In that time we’ve had a string of amazing editors, including Peter Rojas, Ryan Block, and of course the man we’ve all learned to know and love since he took over in 2008, our own Joshua Topolsky.

As we all know, that man is sadly leaving to do some amazing things elsewhere, but I’m going to do my very best to fill the very large shoes that were formerly occupied by Josh’s rather sizeable feet. Over the past few weeks Engadget has lost some incredibly talented people as well. We’re going to miss those folks madly, deeply, but turn that frown upside down, dearie, because a far greater number of equally incredible people are still here doing incredible things, and we’ll soon be joined by some other new folks who you’re going to really like. We sure do.

Topolsky revealed his plans in a blog post as well. He wrote:

I’ve decided to join the team at SB Nation to build something brand new in the tech space. Now I know it might seem odd to some that I would be partnering with a sports publisher to build a technology news site, but that’s only half the story. This isn’t just about sports, or tech, or lone silos. What we will to build together at SB Nation is a new media company — buoyed by the absolutely incredible work SB Nation has already done in publishing — and part of that new media company will be the as-yet-unnamed gadget and technology site that I’ll be working over the next few months to create. When we launch (hopefully in the fall), I will be editor-in-chief of a property that I hope will inform, entertain, and engage fans of technology in whole new ways.

So, in other words, it sounds like they will be working to compete directly with AOL/HuffPost.

Topolsky wasn’t the only Engadget editor to leave recently. The publication also lost Paul Miller and Ross Miller. Darren Murph is now Managing Editor at Engadget.

Interestingly, it was also revealed last week, that Huffington Post co-founder Ken Lerer has also started a new media company called Bedrocket.

After nearly four years at Engadget, it’s time to make my exit. There are things I’m after and challenges I want to take on that just don’t fit with my day-to-day schedule here, so off I go.

I didn’t make this decision lightly. The time I’ve spent here has been — without question — the most amazing, rewarding, and just insanely fun period of my life. And I like to think I’ve had some pretty good times. The Engadget staff is easily the greatest collection of human beings I’ve ever encountered, and they’ve made waking up and freaking out over tech news for 12 to 18 hours a day into basically a party. I’ve never worked so hard or had so much fun doing it. I don’t use religious terms very often, but if there’s such a thing as being blessed, I would say the opportunity I had to work with these people certainly made me feel that way.

…

Don’t worry though, Engadget is going to keep doing what it does best: being awesome. We have an amazing staff of senior editors and writers that will keep the machine chugging along (and growing!) for years to come. My friend and our editorial director Josh Fruhlinger will be taking on a bigger role in our day-to-day during the transition, and I won’t be completely disappearing from the site — I’ll stay on as editor-at-large, to advise and direct when necessary. I’ll also be sticking around to host more episodes of the Engadget Show, so you can continue to get your fix (if you’re into nerdy video shows about gadgets and technology, that is).

Read the whole thing here.

There have been a lot of changes at AOL since the company announced its acquisition of the Huffington Post. Last week, the company announced a new round of layoffs.

"I’d love to be able to keep doing this forever, but unfortunately Engadget is owned by AOL, and AOL has proved an unwilling partner in this site’s evolution," he wrote on his personal blog. "It doesn’t take a veteran of the publishing world to realize that AOL has its heart in the wrong place with content. As detailed in the ‘AOL Way,’ and borne out in personal experience, AOL sees content as a commodity it can sell ads against. That might make good business sense (though I doubt it), but it doesn’t promote good journalism or even good entertainment, and it doesn’t allow an ambitious team like the one I know and love at Engadget to thrive."

Now, Engadget has lost another editor in Ross Miller, who says "The AOL Way" is not his only reason for leaving, but it certainly appears to be part of it. 

Ross Miller wrote, "As for the reasons why, I won’t get too far into it. The AOL Way isn’t the sole reason, but it’s certainly a catalyst, a symptom of concerns I’ve had for a while. I worry about the long-term viability of what I foresee is the future business model. How our brand will be affected and how much control we’ll maintain over it. If we can continue to nurture the talent without burning them out. If we can get the needed resources to expand on our ideas. (Update: Just to be clear, Engadget is not currently subject to the AOL Way, and I’m not sure it ever will be. It’s not the driving reason behind why I left.)"

Engadget Editor-in-chief Joshua Topolsky tweeted:

The AOL Way, was exposed in an article at Business Insider recently, when an internal memo was leaked. The AOL Way is a document the company is using to train editors, telling them to decide what topics to cover based on traffic potential, revenue potential, edit quality, and turn-around time. The whole thing can be seen here.

Clearly, The AOL Way has been a huge PR disaster for the company. Even if Engadget isn’t part of it, the fact that Engadget is so adamantly distancing itself from it, kind of gives off the impression of a rocky relationship between the publication and its owners. 

AOL of course announced the acquisition of The Huffington Post earlier this month, appointing Arianna Huffington Editor-in-Chief of all AOL content. Here’s a snippet from the press release:

As part of the transaction, Arianna Huffington, The Huffington Post’s co-founder and editor-in-chief, will be named president and editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post Media Group, which will include all Huffington Post and AOL content, including Engadget, TechCrunch, Moviefone, MapQuest, Black Voices, PopEater, AOL Music, AOL Latino, AutoBlog, Patch, StyleList, and more. (emphasis added)

As previously noted, these Engadget losses do not represent the first time there has been a little turbulence between AOL and its content producers. TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington recently implied that AOL may have been responsible for an annoying interstitial ad that appeared on that blog. The fact that he wrote a post about that (after a public feud with Engadget) seemed to indicate that he was not worried about stepping on his parent company’s toes.   

AOL’s strategy appears to be taking its toll on some of its content producers. Engadget Editor Paul Miller announced his resignation last night, and left no room for speculation about the reason. 

On his personal blog, Miller wrote, "I’d love to be able to keep doing this forever, but unfortunately Engadget is owned by AOL, and AOL has proved an unwilling partner in this site’s evolution. It doesn’t take a veteran of the publishing world to realize that AOL has its heart in the wrong place with content. As detailed in the ‘AOL Way,’ and borne out in personal experience, AOL sees content as a commodity it can sell ads against. That might make good business sense (though I doubt it), but it doesn’t promote good journalism or even good entertainment, and it doesn’t allow an ambitious team like the one I know and love at Engadget to thrive."

This will only fuel the fire of criticism of AOL and The Huffington Post no doubt. Upon that acquisition, AOL appointed HuffPo’s Arianna Huffington editor-in-chief of all of AOL’s content properties. 

Miller’s criticism of AOL isn’t the first we’ve seen from its internal content producers. TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington (who interestingly enough also had a separate blog war with Engadget not too long ago) recently suggested that AOL could have been responsible for an annoying interstitial ad that appeared on that blog. 

It will be interesting to see if more of AOL’s content producers follow Miller’s lead, or speak out against the company. 

The web, blogs, and social media have since opened up the floodgates of commentary, and there is really no stopping anybody from saying anything related to a specific news story and not being able to get that comment read. That could come in the comments on a web article itself, it could be on Twitter or Facebook. It could be a whole new post started on another blog. There is no containing conversation on the web.
All in all, that is a good thing. It means free speech, and it means that any fact, opinion, or slant can be heard, and perhaps more importantly disputed by the masses.

The worth of blog comments is a subject that is debated from time to time throughout the news industry and the Blogosphere. The subject has been thrust into the spotlight this week, as popular tech blog Engadget has decided to temporarily shut its comments down. In a post announcing it decision, Engadget wrote:

Hey guys, we know you like to have your fun, voice your opinions, and argue over your favorite gear, but over the past few days the tone in comments has really gotten out of hand. What is normally a charged — but fun — environment for our users and editors has become mean, ugly, pointless, and frankly threatening in some situations… and that’s just not acceptable. Some of you out there in the world of anonymous grandstanding have gotten the impression that you run the place, but that’s simply not the case.

Luckily, our commenting community makes up only a small percentage of our readership (and the bad eggs an even smaller part of that number), so while they may be loud, they don’t speak for most people who come to Engadget looking for tech news. Regardless, we’re going to crank things down for a little bit to let everyone just cool off, and we’ll switch them back on when we feel like we’ve shaken some of the trolls and spammers loose from the branches (AKA swing the banhammer in our downtime). See you on the other side!

Engadget has taken a fair amount of criticism for shutting down comments completely, even if it is only temporary. The fact that it is even a topic of debate shows the significance of comments to the way readers get their information. People want to see what others say. It adds to the story, and can often make the original piece more interesting. Even if the readers who actually comment are the minority, people still like to read what others have said. It can help them gauge the credibility of a story, or simply gain more insight into the topic being discussed.

Comments are not always useful or productive. Sometimes they are offensive. Sometimes they are just spammy. In fact, it has been discussed that such comments may actually hurt the search engine friendliness of your page. However moderating comments well can presumably help you avoid anything like that (although sometimes that is easier said than done).

Is such a risk worth closing the door on reader responses anyway? If people have something to say about an article or blog post, they’re going to find somewhere to say it. Allowing comments encourages that to be said right there, and frankly makes it easier to keep up with. If, for example, someone disputes a claim you make via Facebook or Twitter, you may miss it and not have a chance to defend that claim (granted, there are ways to incorporate the conversation from FB, Twitter, etc. into comments on a blog).

Stan Schroeder at the all things social media blog Mashable asks a good question, "How important are comments in this age where a lot of commenting is happening off-site — on Twitter, Facebook and other social networks?" He also points to Apple analyst John Gruber’s Daring Fireball blog, which doesn’t allow comments, but another site has been set up by others just to provide comments about the articles from that blog. According to CultofMac, it pulls in the articles via RSS (including the ads). It’s even called DaringFireballWithComments.net.

That is another clear indicator that not only will people find a way to comment if they want, but readers find the commenting process important. Do you agree? Should all blogs have comments? Should they ever be shut down entirely? How important are comments to your blog? How important are they to the news in general. We’d love to hear your thoughts.
 

Related Articles:

> Could Comments Hurt Your Search Engine Rankings?

> Comments Make Content More Valuable

> Blog Comments Going Real Time?

It makes a lot of sense if you think about it. Less people will complete a doctorate as will complete a four year undergraduate degree. Less people will compete a four year degree as will graduate high school. Less education usually means less reading and less reading leads to a lower level of reading comprehension. If the words and sentences you use are too complex a number of people who might otherwise appreciate what you have to say may have trouble following how you’re saying it.

Blogging is a conversation and in order to have a meaningful conversation both sides need to have the ability to understand each other. You could be turning away readers by making it too difficult for them to read and follow what you have to say.

How do you know what level of education is likely needed to understand your writing? Enter the Gunning fog index.

What is the Gunning Fog Index?

The Gunning fog index is a simple test developed by Robert Gunning in the 1950s. The Wikipedia page on the other side of the previous link, lists the algorithm for calculating the index as:

1. Take a full passage that is around 100 words (do not omit any sentences).
2. Find the average sentence length (divide the number of words by the number of sentences).
3. Count words with three or more syllables (complex words), not including proper nouns (for example, Djibouti), compound words, or common suffixes such as -es, -ed, or -ing as a syllable, or familiar jargon.
4. Add the average sentence length and the percentage of complex words (ex., +13.37%, not simply + 0.1337)
5. Multiply the result by 0.4

which leads to the following formula:

The number you get at the end should be the average level of education a person needs to understand the passage in question. A Gunning fog index of 12 correlates to a high school senior.

The formula isn’t perfect. Words like “everyone,” “popular,” and “average” are considered complex words, because each has three syllables. I doubt many would stumble over those words or require having a high level of education to comprehend them. Still if you use them your Gunning fog index goes up. Some passages with a high index are rather easy to read and you can write a passage with a low index that is much more complex than the index would say it should be.

Overall the Gunning fog index does seem like a reasonable indication of how difficult a passage is to comprehend.

The Gunning Fog Index for the Technorati Top 20

I thought it would be interesting to calculate the Gunning fog index for some of the most widely read blogs and see how much schooling we need to understand them. I grabbed the list of popular blogs from Technorati, found three paragraphs from recent blog posts that were about 100 words each (75-125 words), and manually counted words, sentences, and complex words. Then I ran the calculation and took the average of the three paragraphs and called it the Gunning fog index for each blog.

I’d hardly call what I did scientific. Three recent paragraphs is not enough to characterize the writing of an entire blog and I have to admit counting complex words isn’t as easy as you’d think. There’s a little bit of play in some words that use the suffixes mentioned in the list above. A couple of words here or there does affect the calculation, though probably not too significantly. Were I test the same passages again in a few months the numbers below could easily differ somewhat. However, I don’t think the index in generally is meant to be highly scientific. It comes across more as a reasonable approximation of how difficult a piece of writing is to comprehend.

If you count the number of blogs below you’ll notice there aren’t 20. A few of the top blogs didn’t have passages of text long enough to test as they mostly relied on images for their posts. If anything that only adds to the argument that to be read more you need to stay away from complex writing.

I could have continued with blogs further down the popular list, but the manual calculations got tiring and I wasn’t bright enough to search for an online calculator like the ones below.

http://simbon.madpage.com/Fog/
http://www.online-utility.org/english/readability_test_and_improve.jsp
http://www.editcentral.com/gwt/com.editcentral.EC/EC.html

If anything the indexes I calculated will be a little bit high. Whenever I wasn’t sure if a word was considered complex I generally counted it. I also compared a few of my calculations with the calculators above and saw the same thing. My numbers are perhaps a half an integer on the high side based on the calculators and my own sense of how I ran the numbers.

• Engadget – 15.34
• Gizmodo – 10.91
• Techcrunch – 8.58
• BoingBoing – 10.13
• Huffington Post – 10.49
• Lifehacker – 12.10
• ars technica – 14.97
• Beppe Grillo’s Blog – 10.17
• Mashable – 15.30
• TMZ – 9.89
• Seth Godin – 9.32
• ReadWriteWeb – 13.52
• ProBlogger – 13.90
• Google Blog – 15.42
• Treehugger – 12.80
• Smashing Magazine -12.06

The average Gunning fog index for all of the above blogs was 12.18, or the equivalent of a high school senior. Going in I expected the number would be lower. I was surprised to see numbers over 15 and some of the individual passages I checked were as high as 18 or 19. I’m not sure how much weight you’d want to put on these numbers, but I can say it was easier to read the paragraphs that had lower indexes than it was reading those with higher indexes.

Across the board it’s very common for writing that is meant for the general public to have an index around 11 or 12, with technology related content having indexes up to 15. The numbers above would agree.

I couldn’t calculate the Gunning fog for all the above blogs without being curious about my own blog. Taking three paragraphs from recent posts here resulted in a Gunning fog index of 10.38. I guess 10th graders and above are welcome.

Conclusion

Aside from the conclusion that I need to look for online calculators before spending the time to make manual calculations what does any of the above prove? Mostly if backs up the initial thought at the beginning of this post. If you want your blog to be more accessible and more widely read you need to write simply, or at least you need not to write too complex.

Whether it shows or not I am usually conscious of the words I’m using here. I will rewrite a few things to make them simpler and I try not use big words when they aren’t necessary. I may not be the most popular blogger and I may not have the largest audience, but I haven’t had many people tell me they couldn’t understand what’s written here. People may not agree with me or enjoy what I have to say, but at least they understand what I’m trying to get across.

If your blog is going to attract and hold a larger audience it’s going to do that based on the ideas you have to share and how far those ideas can spread. Before your ideas can spread across the web they need to be understood so you may want to think about the Gunning fog index and periodically check to see how easy or hard it might be to follow your writing.

Maybe your target market or your blogging voice calls for more complex writing, but odds are you’re looking to write at a level that can be understood by a high school junior or senior or in my case a high school sophomore.

If anyone wants to run numbers on some of the blogs above for comparison let me know. I’d be interested in seeing what you come up with and there’s at least a link in it from me to you. If you want to share the Gunning fog of your blog either try the manual calculation or use one of the calculators above. The calculator is easier, but having to read through the passages to count the words, sentences, and complex words will give you a better understanding of how the index works.

What’s your Gunning fog index? How much education do I need to read your blog?

Comments

And so far, only readers of Gizmodo and Engadget are treated to a correction.

Every publication, no matter how careful, makes mistakes. It’s part of the business. Traditionally, newspapers like to bury them a few pages in, placing corrections in a bottom corner somewhere.

But at least they’re there. This incident, though, is more of a case of piggybacking gone awry. Not that piggybacking isn’t standard fare in the news industry. It is, and it happens with the best of publications. Compare these two articles, for instance.

See, happens all the time.

Credit for unraveling the Nissan paint mystery goes to Darius at YoungGoGetter.com, who painstakingly traced the "news" back to its origin after receiving comment from Nissan that they’d only heard of the new technology.

Sure enough, it was one misinterpreted and slightly altered sentence at NextEnergyNews that started it all:

This revolutionary new paramagnetic paint is a technical wonder and is viewed by Nissan and other auto companies as an amazing innovation that would draw huge traffic to dealerships and will make it easier for consumers to get the exact option level they want on a car without the sacrifice of their favorite color.

Which, by the time it reached Wired, became:

Nissan Developing Color-Changing Auto Paint

With similar so-far uncorrected variations at Daily Tech and MobileMag.com.

But what’s most humorous about Darius’s investigative blogging is the publications’ use of the same image of a Nissan car with only the colors altered. Your choice: black, white and red; black and red; silver and black; or green and black.

More time was spent fiddling with the image than actually researching the blog posts, it appears.

So what’s the moral to this humorous tale? Darius nails it:

Bloggers and readers should do more to research the facts and original sources before jumping to the publish button. How else will we establish blogging as a credible, journalistic endeavor?

Yes, indeed. The salty, veteran journalists out there are laughing their butts off.

PUMA, airline Virgin America and Nikon Inc. are among the major brands that have signed on as inaugural RCRD LBL sponsors.   

RCRD LBL is a blog-driven destination that attempts to combine an artists need to connect with young audiences who increasingly discover music on-line with sponsors looking new ways to communicate with this hard to reach demographic.

IS THIS RECORD LABEL 2.0 CHECK OUT RCRDLBL.COM AND TELL US WHAT YOU THINK?

RCRD LBL is a joint venture between Downtown Records, which has released hits from such acclaimed acts as Gnarls Barkley and Cold War Kids, and Rojas, who founded the popular online community Engadget also serves as the site’s editorial director.

“We are tremendously excited to be working together on a new model for music that combines Downtown’s talent for discovering and cultivating the hottest new artists with Peter’s experience in creating compelling web-based communities,” Deutsch and Rojas said in a joint statement. “We are convinced RCRD LBL will be a unique and innovative place on the internet to discover, enjoy and download free, legal music from an exciting roster of diverse artists and labels. RCRD LBL is proud to introduce and promote the experience of legally discovering and sharing music in a way that aligns the interests of bands, fans and brands alike.”

John Josephson, one of Downtown’s co-founders and a managing director at Allen & Company, added: “Unlike previous online music initiatives, which were created as an extension of traditional music businesses or by technology-focused entities with limited understanding of music content, Downtown’s resources and track record combined with Peter’s experience building online audiences and unparalleled relationships within the digital media industry give RCRD LBL a significant competitive advantage.”

The site will feature free exclusive tracks from both new and marquee acts, many of which have been recorded specifically for RCRD LBL. The site’s first-ever offering will be an exclusive, never before heard remix of Justice’s smash hit “D.A.N.C.E.” produced by Benny Blanco and featuring verses from Spank Rock and the legendary Mos Def. Other artists represented by exclusive songs on the site will include Junip featuring Jose Gonzalez, Switch, Eagles Of Death Metal, Spank Rock, Ra Ra Riot, Tokyo Police Club, Amanda Blank,Bad Veins, Dirty On Purpose, Meanest Man Contest, The Moths, White Denim, The Prayers, Sabrosa Purr, Kings And Queens, Skew, Jacques Renault, Professor Murder, Apes and Androids, Digitata, Sam Champion, Dax Riggs, Luxxury, Beat The Devil and others.

In addition to songs in the RCRD LBL catalog, the site will allow users to download exclusive, promotional and catalogue tracks from among the company’s extended family of labels, which include:

• Dim Mak Records (Bloc Party, Klaxons, Mystery Jets, Scanners)

• Downtown Records (Cold War Kids, Spank Rock, Eagles of Death Metal)

• Warp Records (Grizzly Bear, Squarepusher, Battles)

• Ghostly International (Mobius Band, Matthew Dear, Solvent)

• Modular Records (Wolfmother, New Young Pony Club, Cut Copy)

• Drowned In Sound (Kaiser Chiefs, Bat For Lashes, Martha Wainwright)

• Kompakt Records and Distribution (Michael Mayer, Superpitcher, The Field)

• Dirty Bird Records (Claude Von Stroke, Tanner Ross, Worthy)

• Turntable Lab (Diplo, Kid Sister, Piano Overlord)

RCRD LBL will continually make new music available, giving visitors a reason to return to the site on a daily basis.

In addition to developing sponsored widgets with PUMA, Virgin America and Nikon, RCRD LBL is also creating a custom-programmed audio channel for Virgin America’s Red™ Inflight Entertainment system (IFE). Available exclusively onboard Virgin America’s flights to San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, Washington D.C., Las Vegas, and San Diego, the channel will solicit listener feedback and allow passengers to chat and IM with each other as they hear new artists.

In addition to Deutsch and Rojas, key RCRD LBL executives include renowned music blogger, editor and marketer Elliot Aronow, who serves as both Creative Director and A&R person and Downtown Records A&R executive Michael Howe, who will now handle A&R responsibilities for RCRD LBL as well. 

About Peter Rojas

Peter Rojas is the founder and editorial director of Engadget, a daily blog covering gadgets and personal technology with a monthly readership of over 8 million. He is also the co-founder of Joystiq, Gizmodo, and Hackaday, editor-at-large of Switched.com, an on-air contributor to HGTV’s I Want That – Tech Toys, and in 2005 served as a guest host on G4′s Attack of the Show.

About Downtown Records

Downtown Records is an independent record label and music publishing company formed in 2006.  Downtown is distributed by Warner Music Group’s Alternative Distribution Alliance and also has a joint venture with Atlantic Records for North America. The company’s roster includes Grammy winners Gnarls Barkley, Cold War Kids, Spank Rock, Justice, Kevin Michael, Eagles of Death Metal, Art Brut and others.  Downtown Music Publishing owns or controls over 1,000 titles recorded by artists including Aretha Franklin, Mary J. Blige, 50 Cent, Hannah Montana’s Miley Cyrus and the cast of High School Musical 2. The company also represents writer/artists signed to Downtown Records such as Cold War Kids, Carla Bruni and Kevin Michael.  Downtown is also a joint venture partner in RCRD LBL, an online, totally ad-supported digital music label which will offer free downloads in a blog format.

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