[Updated from Kara Swisher with traffic numbers and compensation. Also: She reports that a deal is almost done.]
I'm a big fan of the AllThingsD editorial team because of its old school insistence on quality reporting and its ethics so I'm looking forward to the new venture as Kara Swisher, Walt Mossberg, and team strike out from News Corp./Dow Jones with a new media partner and investors in early 2014.
Here's my reading of the tea leaves from the official statements from Dow Jones and from AllThingsD: