Ryan Tate of Valleywag reports that the Wall Street Journal tech reporters Walter Mossberg and Kara Swisher have signed deals to keep running the All Things Digital site for Dow Jones & Co. after receiving an overture from AOL.
Tate writes, “The deals covered D: All Things Digital, the elite annual tech conference the pair host for the Journal, and an associated tech news website of the same name. Mossberg also writes an influential tech column for the Journal, under another contract, which was also rumored to be up for renegotiation. The talks were the first for the pair since Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. bought the Journal
“Now, we’re told, the protracted negotiations have ended and the three-year contracts are being renewed, complete with additional staff. D is to grow into several conferences, while the web franchise will hire additional reporters and potentially expand into one or more additional sites, each with its own focus. Our money would be on the lucrative gadget sector, but who knows.
“The catalyst for finally renewing these vows? Only the insiders know for sure. But it would be fair to surmise it had something to do with interest from AOL, the dusty internet conglomerate that today seduced Mike Arrington into selling TechCrunch for what sources told us (and Reuters) was $30 million.”
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