Nate Silver invokes Groucho Marx: Media startups shouldn’t become part of a brand desperate to buy them

The New York Times
The Times’ David Carr sizes up the troubles at AOL and Yahoo by writing about the tensions between flagging major media brands and the agile, focused sites that are slicing off pieces of their audience. Nate Silver, whose blog FiveThirtyEight was licensed to The New York Times last year, says he was approached by a bunch of media companies. But in order for such an acquisition to work, the new corporate owner must encourage the upstart’s unique voice to continue. Invoking Groucho Marx, Silver says, “You shouldn’t want to belong to any media brand that seems desperate to have you as a member, even though they’ll probably offer the most cash.” || Related: Times Executive Editor Jill Abramson says the Times’ home page “was a little too static” early in the morning, so staff now plan ahead for the early morning and start earlier. | Frédéric Filloux says of AOL, TechCrunch and Michael Arrington, “In the information business, the conflict of interest is looming at every corner.”