All Things Digital shutting down

I agree and came here to share a similar thought. I know a bit about journalism and how the sausage is made, and it's a tough market for tech journalism. Lately, that segment of the industry has been in a race to the bottom in terms of viable financial models for success.

I would simply say to the people trying to make a go out of serious tech journalism: I'm a nerd. Let me geek out with high quality coverage of technical issues and tech politics. Please, no more billionaire gossip. That's not what I want to read. If I did, I would be reading TechCrunch or Valleywag. And if your new news site is going to be called "Re/code", then it had better have news related to actual code and computer programming, instead of just re-warmed Apple intrigue (that John Gruber does better anyway) and rich-guy gossip.

So they're not exactly shutting down, as much as they are changing brands?

Re/code is a pretty weird name for them. Allthingsd was a mix of Walt reviewing Apple products or comparing non-Apple products to Apple products and Kara's Yahoo! drama column. Nothing about coding, ever. If I'd never read a single Allthingsd column in my life, I doubt it would have been much different than it is now.

Well, I'm glad they're sticking together. I like the duo in the D conferences and interviews.

pretty ghetto looking landing page

Too late. The whole domain is gone.

They lost the content of their successful website and there is no guarantee that the completely new one will be successful.

>Because basically Walt/Kara seem to have borrowed Newscorp backing until they didn't need it anymore, after which they announce a new URL and continue on their own.

And how is that illegal a priori -- or who said they had signed a "non compete"?

I have no idea what went on behind the scenes, but you could just as well say that Newscorp borrowed Walt and Kara's personalities until they didn't need them anymore, after which they redirect to a new URL and continue on their own.

I don't know about Kara Swisher, but Mossberg was with the Journal for like 30 years, as a reporter in various capacities. So it's not like he just used them. His entire career was supported by that company, since long before Newscorp owned them.

This is not the first time this sort of thing has happened either. A bunch of reporters and editors left the Washington Post a few years ago to create a new digital news company called Politico.

If I had to guess, I would assume it's similar to the Verge/Engadget situation. Splitting from a stodgy corporation that doesn't want to change or update anything.

Eventually they collectively realize that nothing is going to change and they could run a much better site without their parent corporation, and it goes from there.

Of course, this is complete speculation based on zero actual evidence. But it would hardly surprise me if the WSJ and AOL had a reluctance to be proactive in common.