AL JAZEERA AMERICA UPS ANTE

AL Jazeera America, which launched in August, plans to hire more staffers, add bureaus and increase programming, according to a memo from interim CEO Ehab Al Shihabi and president Kate O’Brian.

The executives say the Qatar-based satellite TV network has been “well-received” here because there is a market for AJA’s “unbiased, objective and in-depth coverage.”

AJA, which is available in 44M U.S. households, plans a new morning news show, weekly sports program, multiple documentary series and a cultural offering.

It will open a state-of-the-art headquarters in Manhattan during the next 18 months and add offices in underserved American news markets.

Time Warner Cable on Oct. 23 provided a boost to AJA with the decision to pick up its programming in New York and Los Angeles. That will boost household penetration to 54M homes.

Melinda Witmer, chief video and content officer at TWC, said now that AJA “is live we think it would be of value to our customers.”

TR CUTS 3,000 JOBS

Thomson Reuters is slicing 3,000 workers largely due to its lagging financial terminal sector, which competes with Bloomberg.

The company is taking a $350M charge as part of its cost-cutting program centered on the financial and risk division that has been hurt to the downsizing of the banking sector in the aftermath of the global meltdown.

TR reported a 37 percent drop in Q3 net income to $283M and a two percent rise in ongoing revenue to $3B.

CEO Jim Smith said the restructuring is part of the plan to put the company on a “growth footing.”

He plans to “pick up the pace of efforts to simplify and streamline our organization, to shift resources behind the most promising growth opportunities and to use every tool at our disposal to drive value creation for all our stakeholders,” according to Smith’s statement.

WEBMD ACQUIRES AVADO

WebMD, the provider of online health news/information, is acquiring Avado Inc., developer of cloud-based patient management tools.

Avado is a start-up launched by David Chase, Bassam Saliba and John Yii with backing from The Partnership Fund for New York City.

David Schlanger, WebMD’s CEO, said the deal highlights his firm’s belief that “connectivity has the potential to make the delivery of care more efficient ad improve patient outcomes.”