The New York Times Company has found a company willing to take on the albatross that is About.com. All Things D is reporting that Answers.com has signed a letter of intent to buy the site from the Times for about $270 million.

“The deal hasn’t closed yet, and I’m told that Answers’ backers — PE firms Summit Partners and TA Associates — are trying to line up financing,” explains All Things D’s Peter Kafka.

Though the Times bought About.com for about $410 million in 2005, we’re sure its execs are crossing their fingers that this deal goes through, because the site has been dragging the Times down for awhile now. The most recent example was the Times taking a $195 million write down on the venture in the second quarter.

You probably already know this by now, but last night Jim Romenesko — a man widely respected in the media world — resigned early after a ridiculous piece by Poynter’s Julie Moos went up during the day. In the article, Moos attacked Romenesko for the very thing everyone thinks he does the best: Crediting sources and linking.

Moos’ take was so off base and wrong that everyone immediately lashed out at it and her. Romenesko was taken aback by it too, so he quit earlier than he planned to, telling the New York Times, “This really did throw me for a loop.”

A loop is putting it lightly and politely. Romenesko was Poynter, and for them to do that to him was almost surreal. We hope Moos enjoyed writing that, because now that Romenesko is gone, the site’s traffic will disappear too. But enough from us, let’s take a look at some of the best reactions from around the blogosphere.

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News.Me, the iPad news aggregator app, is finally close to launching, according to Peter Kafka. He cites a new website that lists pretty much everything one would need to know about the app, as evidence.

This is big news because News.Me has the approval of publishers that traditionally have opposed aggregating, such as The New York Times and the AP. Other companies that have signed on include AOL, Gawker Media, Mashable, Forbes and Business Insider.

Some details about the app: It costs $.99 cents a week (or $34.99 per year), it gathers news from popular Twitter news feeds and places them into one simple, streamlined feed for users, and publishers who participate with News.Me gain some of its profits.

The revenue sharing is great for those publishers, but any that don’t participate with News.Me still get their information aggregated by the app, while getting left out of the payday. Maybe that’s why such big powerhouses like the Times and Gawker are in on the deal.

FishbowlNY wonders what Bill Keller thinks of his paper partnering in a service that seems to do exactly what he always rants against. We’re guessing it’s probably nothing nice.

UPDATE:
According to The New York Times, News.Me will be available in iTunes beginning tomorrow.

Wired is offering its newest iPad issue – which will go on sale sometime today – for free. According to Peter Kafka, it comes packed with new features too, including social network sharing tools, and a partnership with Amazon.com that lets users purchase items written about in the magazine, right in the app.

Offering the app for free is a great way to build some buzz, and maybe Wired is doing this because downloads have declined since it first launched the app a year ago. But who knows, perhaps the gimmick will work and once people get a taste they’ll keep coming back for more. Like Jay-Z once said, “Let em test the product, give em a promo show, just a breeze, not enough to catch a real vibe, then we drop a maxi single and charge ‘em two for five.”

Or something like that.

In an effort to push consumers toward eventually purchasing subscriptions rather than single issues of its iPad magazines, Condé Nast is going to raise the price of GQ and Vanity Fair in the next few weeks.

Peter Kafka says that GQ will go from $2.99 to $4.99 an issue and Vanity Fair will go from $3.99 to $4.99. The price increase comes in connection with Condé Nast moving their iPad publishing system to one created by Adobe, rather than the current one that is produced in-house. Readers will be asked to download the new app when it becomes available.

Wanting to shift consumers to subscriptions is a good idea, but there’s one (big) little problem, says Kafka:

But that’s not going to be happening at iTunes anytime soon, because none of the big magazine publishers have shown any inclination to accept Apple’s subscription rules — at least for titles they’re already selling in paper form.

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Yesterday FishbowlNY told you about Time Inc. launching digital subscriptions through the new HP tablet,  and today Peter Kafka is saying that Time will also be announcing a deal with Google for a digital subscription of Sports Illustrated.

Citing a source within Time, Kafka says the magazine will be available for downloading via the Google Android platform, and that more brands will be added as time goes on.

The thing on the right is HP’s new tablet, the TouchPad, which might not matter much to you until we tell you this: Time Inc. is going to offer digital subscriptions through it on four of its major titles – Sports Illustrated, Time, People and Fortune. See – we told you it mattered. Those are some big guns. Big guns that Apple wasn’t able to secure, says Peter Kafka.

FishbowlNY told you back in January how Time Inc. and a variety of other publishing houses have been working on a tablet app store in which to sell digital subscriptions, and with this news, it appears the plan is coming closer to fruition.

Somewhere, Steve Jobs is ironing a black turtleneck and furrowing his brow.

Peter Kafka is reporting that Sarah Chubb, President of Condé Nast Digital, is leaving the company after 20 years. Chubb is apparently moving on to pursue other opportunities. Bob Sauerberg commented on her departure in a company-wide memo:

After a wonderful 20-year career at Condé Nast, Sarah Chubb has decided it’s time to explore other opportunities. As we all know, there is a huge amount of energy and excitement in the digital world right now—and Sarah is interested in pursuing the next phase of her career.

Sarah has been a transformational force at Condé Nast and the media business as a whole. I am sure you will all join me in thanking Sarah for her many valuable contributions, congratulating her on her success and wishing her the best of luck as she moves ahead.

Sarah asked me to share her thoughts with you: ‘CN is the premier company in the industry and I have truly loved my job here. I am also tremendously proud of the contributions that my team and I have made to the Company. While the challenges of an exciting new world beckon me, I know that CN is set up exceptionally well for the future.’

In the coming weeks, we will name a successor to continue the outstanding work in digital growth and innovation.

The last we heard The Daily was supposed to launch next Monday, the 17th. That date was reported by Peter Kafka. Now Jeff Bercovici is claiming that next Wednesday, the 19th, will be the day for The Daily. Bercovici says he recieved this date from a News Corp insider, and claims that a spokesperson declined to comment on if this information was correct. There’s also a website for The Daily now, and Bercovici adds, plenty of impatient writers:

The debut can’t come soon enough for The Daily’s staffers, who for weeks have been engaged in full-scale dry runs, cranking out dummy issues for what I’ve been told is a distribution list of 1,000 privileged readers.

It looks like no matter what, sometime next week the world will be blessed with the first iPad-only newspaper. Great job by Kafka and Bercovici getting this information out, but sadly, no one has been able to answer FishbowlNY’s only question: Will The Daily feature the zany antics of Marmaduke?

Peter Kafka at All Things D is reporting that The Daily, the iPad-only newspaper from Rupert Murdoch and News Corp. is going to launch Monday, January 17th.

The premiere date for the highly-anticipated digital newspaper has been swirling around the blogosphere for quite some time, but Kafka says “multiple sources” have relayed this information to him.

We’ve got $50 that says Murdoch puts his own face on the cover of the first issue.