Michael J. Tannourji will be the new executive vice president of the Los Angeles Times Media Group, which publishes the L.A. Times and the Hoy, replacing John T. O'Loughlin, who left the company this year. Tannourji was formerly with accounting firm Ernst & Young.

The magazine with the third highest circulation in the U.S. --  video game pub GameInformer -- "increased its paid circulation more than any other U.S. magazine in the past year by tying subscriptions to discounts" with its owner, "GameStop, the world’s largest specialty video-game retailer," writes Kelly Blessing. Though many other magazines were reporting double-digit circulation drops in the latest Audit Bureau of Circulations figures, GameInformer's circ jumped 37% from a year earlier, moving past Better Homes & Gardens on the list of top mags.    

Digital versions of trad women's mags are missing out on traffic from millennial women because they lack real-time news stories, argues former women's magazine editor Bonnie Fuller. Sure, her piece is slightly self-serving (guess who DOES serve the needs of millennial women on the Web? Fuller's current project, hollywoodlife.com), but she does make a valid point. Most magazine sites "are set up to promote editorial content from their monthly issues and encourage young women to become subscribers," she writes. "But with these print titles experiencing double-digit newsstand drops in the past year, can they afford NOT to get with the …

The New York Times confirmed it is discussing the sale of About.com -- reportedly to question and answers site Answers.com for $270 million, "according to people familiar with the transaction," writes Peter Kafka. The Times bought About.com in 2005 for $410 million.

American Media Inc., which had already been managing Soap Opera Digest, acquired the weekly from Source Interlink Media for an undisclosed sum that "had to be far less than the $600 million that K-III Magazines (later Primedia) paid News Corp. in July 1991 for SOD, New York magazine, Seventeen, and other titles," writes Steve Cohn. (Just to keep things straight, Primedia then sold SOD to Source in 2007). In 1991, SOD's circulation was almost 1.5 million; now it's below 300,000.

Social TV app developers are expanding on the basic social check-in concept by "updating the traditional channel guide to show viewers programs that are uniquely relevant to them based on their social circles," writes Shayndi Raice.  In one example, GetGlue will relaunch as "a social TV guide that will show a scrolling calendar with the shows, movies and sports that users might like," coordinated with Facebook's Connect feature. To monetize, GetGlue and others of its ilk are "trying to offer complementary advertising on smartphones and tablets," writes Raice.

Another drop in newsstand sales in the first six months of the year spelled more bad news for most magazine publishers, as seen in the latest figures from the Audit Bureau of Circulation. Only bright spots were pubs reporting flat sales, like Marie Claire and Harper's Bazaar. But how much do those figures actually matter? "As magazines continue to become brands, selling not just content but also housewares, fashion, beauty products and food, some observers believe newsstand has become an old school metric for the business," writes Amy Wicks.

The number of commercials run during NBC's online streaming of the Olympics "easily felt excessive," writes Liz Shannon Miller in her review of the user experience. "For those wanting complete control over their Olympics viewing, the amount of content NBC has made available online is impressive, and the player overall worked well — but especially given the fact that this coverage is limited to those paying $100 or more a month for cable, you definitely feel like you’re paying twice over for the experience."

The New York Times has been experimenting with what it calls "quick links" -- mulimedia embedded within an online story so readers can see, for example, a very short video clip that expands the narrative without interrupting its flow.  The newspaper has been using it selectively -- only about six times so far, according to Justin Ellis -- in part because it "doesn’t have a standardized process for using the links yet; in the handful of stories where they’ve appeared, they’ve had to be handcoded each time." "In the case of Amy O’Leary’s look at sexual …

Taking a cue from the famed Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval, Bon Appetit will debut its Tested & Approved Seal for 50 specially selected food products in December. Editors and chefs from the pub's test kitchens will choose the products, which "will be able to license the seal to use on their packaging," writes Lucia Moses.