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OLDER INDUSTRY NEWS Weigel and Nasr 'Sins' Put the Church of High Integrity on Trial I've always been a faithful disciple, worshipping at the altar of Church and State. (And of the Reverend Al Green, but that's another story.) I've resisted commercial pressures and been party to painful terminations when staffers violated rules bringing the newspaper's integrity or credibility into question. Journalism Online's Press+ paywall: easy to defeat After my skeptical post yesterday about Journalism Online's new Press+ paywall at the Lancaster (Pa.) Online site, a source let me know how easy it was to beat the meter. Yahoo and Google in high-tech news war Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc. are redefining the online news experience, but in diverging ways that underscore the evolving identities of the search giants. Media executives flock to Sun Valley conference Each July, billionaires and mere multimillionaires flock to the shadow of the Pioneer Mountains, and ride in soft-leather comfort along Dollar Road to mingle and be rich and maybe, just maybe, cut a deal. Patch vs. MediaNews: One little, instructive story AOL's Patch is ambitiously adding websites, lately going after MediaNews territory in the East Bay of the Bay Area -- San Ramon, Danville, Walnut Creek and Pleasanton -- and penetrating SoCal, from Fairfax and West Hollywood to Manhattan Beach and Redondo Beach. Hundreds of local reporters are being hired as hundreds of new sites are being replicated from California to Illinois to Maryland to Rhode Island, joining the early sites in Connecticut and New Jersey. Annual job review is 'total baloney,' expert says Employee performance reviews should be eliminated, according to UCLA business professor Samuel Culbert. "First, they're dishonest and fraudulent. And second, they're just plain bad management," he says News stocks lag despite dramatic rebound Although the shares of the publicly traded newspaper companies have advanced impressively from their all-time lows 12 months ago, they still are worth on average about a fifth of their value on June 30, 2005. New Honolulu Star-Advertiser owner buys 11 B.C. papers, folds five David Black's Black Press has bought 11 British Columbia papers from Glacier Media and announced the closing of five of them, including the century-old Nelson Daily News and Prince Rupert Daily News. The Wall Street Journal has by far the highest e-reader circulation of any newspaper in the U.S., according to Audit Bureau of Circulations data cited in a recent report by the World Association of Newspapers. Home delivery cuts working for Detroit newspapers Detroit's two daily newspapers knew they were shoving some readers overboard in an effort to stay afloat when they decided to limit home delivery to just three days a week. Time magazine walls off its Web site Want to read the cover story of this week's Time magazine? Whip out your wallet: You can only get all of Steve Brill's piece on lobbying and financial reform via Time's print edition or its new iPad app. Phototypesetting inventor Mayroud dies at 96 Electronics engineer Louis Marious Moyroud, co-inventor of phototypesetting, died at his home in Delray Beach, Fla., June 28 . He was 96. L.A. County supervisors protest Times ad sections County lawmakers say promotions resembling news pages harm the paper's credibility. Publisher Eddy Hartenstein says ads help defray the cost of global coverage. Sam Zell on why Tribune Co. remains mired in bankruptcy In the time since Tribune Co. filed for Chapter 11 reorganization in December 2008, at least 10 other newspaper publishers have entered and exited bankruptcy. Why is it taking Tribune so long to for Tribune Co. to get to the other side? Newspaper stocks plunge with sinking Dow Newspaper stocks, which had staged a remarkable rally that began almost exactly a year ago, tumbled again Tuesday along with a Dow alarmed at global and domestic economic news. How about an iHype 'tax' to save the news? The pesky problem of paying for the news could be resolved rather fast if publishers and broadcasters just charged Steve Jobs a nickel a word for all the free hype they provide to sell his iParaphernalia. Daily News, Inquirer sale plan OK'd by bankruptcy judge A federal bankruptcy judge yesterday approved a plan to bring the Daily News and Inquirer out of Chapter 11 with a sale to a coalition of investment firms, willing to put up $105 million in cash for the newspapers and their Web site, Philly.com. Newspaper Guild cuts budget, payments by locals The Newspaper Guild is cutting next year's budget by $415,000, or 13.9%, and for the first time in its history reducing the dues payments union locals make to the national organization -- moves reflecting the layoffs and wage reductions suffered by members. Pension moves key to clearing Philadelphia newspapers sale Creditors poised to take over Philadelphia's two largest newspapers hope to move employees from defined pensions to 401k plans or some mix of both, their lawyer said after a bankruptcy confirmation hearing Thursday. Correct that file: Wells Fargo didn't cut holdings of Dallas Morning News after all This isn't the kind of thing you like to see from a bank: On Monday, Wells Fargo and Co. reported to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), correcting a previous filing, that they owned a 6.48% stake in A.H. Belo Corp. -- suggesting they had cut their holdings of the stock nearly in half. E&P and other news outlets naturally perked up at that news. Supreme Court sets aside Conrad Black's 'Honest Services' fraud conviction The Supreme Court has sided with former Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling in limiting the use of a federal fraud law that has been a favorite of white-collar crime prosecutors. Bankruptcy judge to hear arguments in pending sale of Philadelphia Inquirer, Daily News, Philly.com A federal bankruptcy judge will be asked Thursday to give his blessing to a reorganization plan that would surrender the parent company of The Inquirer to a collection of the firm's creditors. West Marin Citizen accuses new 'Light' owners of attempting 'hostile takeover' For a weekly that rarely sold more than 4,500 copies -- and is considerably below that circulation now -- the Point Reyes Light in Marin County, Calif., over the years has earned more than its fair share of industry attention. Wells Fargo dumps almost half its A.H. Belo stock Since Memorial Day, Wells Fargo and Co. has dumped nearly half its holdings of A.H. Belo stock, the bank holding company disclosed in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing Monday. CNN announced today that it has ceased using Associated Press content, in order to rely more on its own newsgathering. "We will no longer use AP materials or services," CNN Worldwide President Jim Walton wrote in a memo to staffers. Google's Newspass: Is the king of free about to help news providers get paid? On Thursday, word seemed to quietly leak out, in Italian no less, that Google would soon unveil a one-click payment system for content called "Newspass." What's Murdoch's aim with latest deal? What is Rupert Murdoch up to? That question comes up anytime the chief executive of News Corp. makes an acquisition, no matter how small. So last week, as the company proposed its biggest deal yet, the possibilities, for Murdoch-watchers, were particularly intriguing. San Diego Union-Tribune newsroom seeks reinvention The San Diego Union-Tribune laid off more than 30 staffers on Thursday in what Editor Jeff Light called in an editor's note an effort to build "a lean, creative, multi-platform team that can lead the industry." A message for journalists: It's time to flex old muscles in new ways 'We'll learn by trying new ways of doing what we've done with news, by putting ourselves visibly in the social media mix, and by using the emerging tools of daily communication in all aspects of our work.' Sun-Times Media further trims newsrooms The past month has seen further reductions among Sun-Times Media properties in and around Chicago, including three in the Chicago Sun-Times newsroom earlier this week. Forecast: more pain ahead for publishers through 2012 Newspaper advertising and subscription revenue in North America will continue to drop through 2012, according to a new forecast by PricewaterhouseCoopers. Juggling the pieces of tablet design For all the things they must consider, from the standpoint of the blank slate itself, designers work with three very basic device dimensions: screen size, display optics and navigation -- basically space, how it looks and how one moves within it. Let's subsidize open broadband, not journalists With an open, robust data infrastructure, entrepreneurs will take care of the rest In 1791, James Madison penned a short essay that foretold a long, and ongoing, financial involvement by government in journalism. Madison said, in part: Whatever facilitates a general intercourse of sentiments, as good roads, domestic commerce, a free press, and particularly a circulation of newspapers through the entire body of the people, and Representatives going from, and returning among every part of them, is equivalent to a contraction of territorial limits, and is favorable to liberty, where these may be too extensive. News Corp. acquires Skiff IP; Buys stake in Brill and Crovitz startup In a doubleheader announcement meant to move the needle on Rupert Murdoch's ambitious paid content plans, News Corp has acquired the Skiff e-reading platform from the Hearst startup and is joining forces with Steve Brill and Gordon Crovitz through a stake in their start-up Journalism Online. Report: Newspapers abroad not suffering as badly as American papers The New York Times today sheds light on a new report to be published by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, which illustrates that newspapers abroad are having a better time of it than American papers. Federal trustee blasts Tribune bonus plan Newspaper publisher Tribune Co. won't receive approval for a $42.9 million 2010 bonus program without overcoming an objection from the U.S. Trustee at a June 16 hearing. The agent for the $1.6 billion so-called bridge loan also objects. Brains on internet, Reuters' app success, TV tabs, Last Man Standing and Angelo's question What a first half of 2010 it's been. While I take a break through the end of that first half, here's nine questions as we move collectively in 2H, 2010. Dallas Morning News workers getting bonuses -- but last year's pay cuts are now permanent Employees at The Dallas Morning News and A.H. Belo's other dailies will receive one-time bonuses that will range between 1.5% and 3% of their base salary -- but the wage cuts imposed last year will be permanent. AOL to hire 'hundreds' of journalists AOL is planning to hire hundreds of journalists, editors and videographers in the coming year as it builds out its content-first business model. Transcontinental reports earnings, new U.S. print customer In its second-quarter earnings report, Canada's Transcontinental noted that a second customer is joining Hearst's San Francisco Chronicle at its new plant in Fremont, Calif. Huffington takes 'shine' to Yahoo! The Huffington Post is entering a "deep partnership" with Yahoo! to produce original content, including both text and video for Shine, the women's interest pages of of Yahoo!, co-founder and editor-in-chief Arianna Huffington says in this interview with Beet.TV. Santa Barbara News-Press gets a public spanking The Santa Barbara News-Press is once again making news instead of reporting it--and as in the past, the news is that an objective hearing has found that the newspaper willfully and repeatedly runs roughshod over its employees. Journalists running start-ups face tall odds Fed up with furloughs and down-sizing -- or forced involuntarily out of their jobs -- journalists across the land are taking matters into their own hands by starting their own news sites. A new news media outlet reflects different, though still familiar, times Twelve years ago, I was busy starting a weekly print magazine, The Industry Standard, which quickly became an icon of the dot-com era. On the way up -- in less than three years we grew to more than 400 employees from an initial staff of about 40 -- we were the proverbial symbol of the Internet boom, with a smart, young staff putting out a smart, fat magazine, and marketers competing to underwrite both our press runs and our parties. Star-Advertiser unites Oahu's 2 daily newspapers The merger of century-old rivals into today's new Honolulu Star-Advertiser should bring readers a stronger newspaper, with more muscle for investigative reporting and a deep perspective on the state that both papers helped shape. Honolulu Advertiser reports it sold for $125 million The Honolulu Advertiser will cost David Black half of what seller Gannett Co. paid for the newspaper in 1992, according to a report on the paper's website on June 6, the same day it published its last edition. The deal also includes that Website, as well as the Advertiser's nondailies and its $82 million production plant, completed a few years ago in Kapolei. iPad ads fetching much higher prices for newspapers than online Good news for the news business: Companies are paying newspapers and magazines up to five times as much to place ads in their iPad applications as what similar advertising costs on regular websites. For newspaper stocks, trading week was nasty, brutish and short As the Dow sank below 10,000, the newspaper sector took some final deep cuts Friday in a holiday-shortened trading week that left most stocks down by double-digit percentages. Tribune Co. chapter 11 plan could go to vote early this week The Tribune Co. is one step closer to soliciting support from creditors for its Chapter 11 reorganization plan. A Delaware bankruptcy judge indicated Friday that he could sign off early next week on documents describing and soliciting support for Tribune's plan. Non-profit Bay Citizen to produce N.Y. Times San Francisco pages starting today Content from the non-profit San Francisco-based The Bay Citizen will start showing up in Bay Area editions of The New York Times this Friday, the start-up announced. The arrangement between the Times and the well-funded "public media" organization had been announced back in January, but it was only last Wednesday that the Bay Citizen launched its Web site with original local reporting. Bay Citizen will provide articles that will run in the Friday and Sunday print editions of the Times. Star-Advertiser to have 450 workers Loss of 430 jobs from newspaper merger among largest mass layoffs in Isles Nearly half the daily newspaper jobs on O'ahu will disappear Sunday with the closure of The Honolulu Advertiser and launch of the new Honolulu Star-Advertiser. Moody's: U.S. newspaper industry looks good -- for now Moody's believes U.S. newspaper revenues could finally turn positive next year -- although it warns that a "cyclical snapback" in advertising in 2012 could put the industry back on its long-term decline. Steve Jobs: I want to help newspapers Speaking at the D8 conference in an interview with The Wall Street Journal's Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher, Apple Chairman Steve Jobs declared he wanted to help save the newspaper business. His advice, AllThingsD's Peter Kafka reports: Price aggressively and go for volume on mobile apps. Newspaper stocks tumbled Tuesday, outpacing a down Dow. While that index closed off 1.1% on a 112-point drop, Lee Enterprises (LEE) and The McClatchy Co. (MNI) both fell more than 10% -- and other stocks weren't far behind. Guild files grievance over severance in Honolulu The half-dozen unions that represent The Honolulu Advertiser and The Honolulu Star-Bulletin employees have filed a grievance in response to the possibility of having to wait months to receive severance pay after almost 400 lose their jobs as a result of the dailies' upcoming merger. UC DAVIS STUDY The nation's struggling newspaper industry has a future, but it will require a commitment to sweeping change that could include a public-private ownership model and help from organized labor, according to a new University of California, Davis, study. Bay Citizen embraces four emerging trends among news startups The Bay Citizen, a nonprofit news site that will cover spot news and enterprise stories in the San Francisco Bay Area's nine counties, launched today. In preparing for its launch, The Bay Citizen has focused on four key elements that are emerging as trends among startup news sites that are trying to sustain news operations to fill the news holes left by cutbacks in traditional media. Demand Media will produce content for S.F. Chronicle, Houston Chronicle Demand Media will produce content about real estate and small business for Hearst Newspapers' San Francisco Chronicle and Houston Chronicle. L.A. Times Orange County Local News benture closes after four months CHICAGO Orange County Local News Network, a partnership between the Los Angeles Times and San Diego-based U.S. Local News Network has been shut down, four months after its launch. Tribune chapter 11 plan includes $15M in executive bonuses Tribune Co. has unveiled plans for a third round of top executive bonuses, nearly $15 million, bringing to more than $72 million the amount of pay enhancements the media company handed out while operating under bankruptcy protection. Newspaper online traffic surging The number of unique visitors to the Websites of the biggest newspapers is up 15% so far this year, according to a Newspaper National Network analysis of data from comScore Media Metrix. Readership of The Wall Street Journal has jumped 20% since News Corp. acquired the paper in 2007, according to a new study by The Media Audit. During the same period, readership of The New York Times remained higher but flat, and fell at the third national daily, USA Today. How local TV could go the way of newspapers The tipping point is not yet at hand, but the economics of local broadcasting may begin to unravel as dramatically -- and irretrievably -- in the next five years as they did for newspapers in the last five years. Dissident creditors will get their say on Tribune post-bankruptcy plan The Tribune Co. must provide more information to creditors in the disclosure statement outlining its proposed reorganization plan, a Delaware bankruptcy judge said Thursday. McClatchy CEO Pruitt: End of recession nearing An improving ad revenue picture and growing digital revenue make it clear that "we're much closer to the en of this historic recession than the beginning," Chairman and CEO Gary Pruitt told shareholders at The McClatchy Co.'s annual meeting Wednesday. Yahoo's buy of associated content makes it a publisher, syndicator, wire, ad rep...and more So what indeed is Yahoo? CEO Carol Bartz has been trying to paint the new picture of it not being in Google's space, but being different. Not a search company, to be sure, a media company of some sort, and one that's put many of its eggs into the basket of better and better targeted advertising, down to serving each of us the right ad within 50 milliseconds of the time we hit a web page. Blodget: Huffington Post should have vastly more traffic than NYT by 2012 Henry Blodget says the Huffington Post could also be within spitting distance of the NYT in terms of online revenue by 2012. "And a few years after that? It seems reasonable to think that Huffington Post could eventually just be bigger than the New York Times, online and offline." New York Times will announce paywall specifics toward 'latter' part of the year The New York Times will announce the "pricing and specifics" of its online metered paywall model "toward the latter part of the year," the company's senior vice president of digital operations, Martin Nisenholtz, said during a presentation at the J.P. Morgan Global Technology, Media and Telecom Conference in Boston today. Keep media cross-ownership ban, groups ask appeals court Even as newspapers and broadcasters gird for a fight over media cross-ownership as the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) begins its mandatory quadrennial review of media ownership laws, a coalition of public interest organizations returned to a U.S. appellate court Monday seeking to overturn a 2008 FCC rule that loosened the ban on same-market common ownership of a newspaper and broadcast station. Combined Hawaiian newspaper to employ up to 500 workers Oahu Publications Inc., which is consolidating the state's two largest daily newspapers into the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, expects to employ between 450 and 500 workers once the papers are combined next month. New York Times to begin website charges in January The New York Times will begin charging for access to articles on its website in January, Bill Keller, executive editor of the newspaper, said at a dinner for the Foreign Press Association Thursday evening. More roadblocks crop up as Tribune Co. tries to emerge from bankruptcy Objections to Tribune Co.'s Chapter 11 disclosure statement flooded into U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware on Thursday, complicating the company's efforts to win a judge's approval of the document at a key hearing next week. E.W. Scripps shareholders could get payday that amounts to 'Peanuts.' E.W. Scripps Co. CEO Rich Boehne told shareholders at Thursday's annual meeting that the company is open to making a one-time distribution to stockholders of some of the proceeds from the sale of its business that licenses the "Peanuts" characters. JPMorgan now top Gannett owner with 10.2 pct stake JPMorgan Chase & Co. is boosting its bet that better days are ahead for the slumping newspaper industry. It reported Tuesday that it now owns a 10.2 percent stake in USA Today publisher Gannett Co., making it the company's largest shareholder. Q1 earnings reports, at a glance Here is a summary of earnings reports for selected newspaper publishers and what they reveal about the industry's prospects for the current quarter and beyond: Dear Employee: You're fired. Now please ignore this letter The new owners of The Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News have sent employees a letter warning of possible layoffs, but also saying they "will continue as the employer of all employees." iPad users are big news consumers: study In good news for the news media, iPad users are twice as likely to be interested in news, sports and finance than the typical visitor to the various websites operated by Yahoo, according to an analysis provided by the web portal. Washington Post Co. reports first-quarter profit of $45.4 million The Washington Post Co. reported a first-quarter 2010 profit of $45.4 million ($4.91 per share) compared with a net loss of $19.2 million ($2.04) in the first quarter of 2009. The new Newsweek has hit an old dead-end. Its numbers are depressing: * Almost $30 million in losses last year, mounting from 2008. * 26% down in ad pages 2009/2008 and another 20% down in the first quarter. Washington Post Co. to sell Newsweek The Washington Post Co. announced Wednesday that it has retained Allen & Company to explore the possible sale of NEWSWEEK magazine. The newsweekly, which has struggled in recent years, was launched in 1933 and purchased by The Washington Post Co. in 1961. CNN and CBS in talks to gather news together CNN and CBS, two suitors with a long history of courtship, have engaged in direct talks in recent weeks about more extensive combinations of their news resources, according to several executives who have been briefed on the discussions. Oklahoman lays off 57 as advertising 'struggles' Citing a "struggling advertising environment," The Oklahoman eliminated the jobs of 57 employees Wednesday. The Philly watch: Labor, skills and the digital future Over radio, you could practically see the next set of battle lines drawn. Speculation in Philly has it that Hall's first and main task will be dealing with the company's 14 unions. Rupert Murdoch on 'liberal' newspapers, iPad as savior and the economic outlook In a wide-ranging interview on Fox Business Network Tuesday afternoon, News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch opined that liberal-leaning newspapers were chasing people to Fox News, that the iPad may well be the "savior" of newspapers, and that his company's recent success could portend an economic rebound.
Newspaper giant leaves the islands The corporate Goliath of the media world, Gannett Co., walks away tomorrow from nearly four decades of newspaper ownership in Hawaii after selling the spoils to the owner of its longtime rival Honolulu Star-Bulletin—but there are no white flags flyin David Black spent more than $100 million and fought along with Star-Bulletin workers for nearly a decade to publish a 52,000-circulation paper and carve out a profitable share of the Honolulu market. But since economies of scale favored Gannett's 115,000-circulation paper, The Honolulu Advertiser, it was an uneven newspaper war. Honolulu officially a one-paper town Gannett Co. officially completed its sale of The Honolulu Advertiser to Honolulu Star-Bulletin owner David Black on Monday morning, making the Aloha State's capital and largest city the latest one-newspaper town. Ohio's Brown Publishing files for bankruptcy, will sell all their papers to unnamed bidder Newspaper publishers Brown Media Holdings Co. and Brown Publishing Co. have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy relief and plan to sell their assets in 10 states to a bidder the companies have chosen. Big paydays for the chiefs in the media The media industry may be going through some rough times, with the landscape changing day to day, but at least one aspect is business as usual: big paydays for the people at the top. Top executives at the country's largest media companies continued to reel in multimillion-dollar pay packages in 2009, a year of widespread cost-cutting throughout the industry. In several cases, the packages even increased from the year before. Unification Church putting Washington Times up for sale Executives at The Washington Times are negotiating to sell the newspaper, which was founded in 1982 and funded by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church. What does Philadelphia newspaper auction say about the value of newspapers? The furious last-minute bidding for Philadelphia Newspapers -- which saw the price bumping up $10 million in cash each round, according to participants -- thrilled some newspaper brokers as much as losing bidder Brian Tierney. They say it is a sign that newspaper valuations are bouncing back from the depressed levels of the last two years. On D-Day for Canada's biggest newspaper sale, bid by Toronto Star parent seen faltering With just hours left Friday to bid on Canwest LP's chain of 46 newspapers -- the biggest newspaper sale in Canadian history -- Torstar Corp., the big publisher considered the front-runner for week, was having problems with its bid, Canadian media reported. Ruling paves way for consolidation of Honolulu's 2 daily newspapers Honolulu's two daily newspapers, which have competed for more than a century, will soon begin consolidating into the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. Smelling new value in old Philly $135 million. 17 hours of pre-auction maneuvering. Almost a dozen hours of auction...after 14 months of bankruptcy. Now that's a newspaper story about newspapers that we haven't heard in a long time. SF Chronicle explains 22.7% circulation drop The Chronicle said Monday that remaking its business model by charging more for the newspaper has, as expected, produced a sharp drop in circulation even as it has improved the paper's bottom line. E.W. Scripps shares soar as J.P. Morgan upgrades stock Shares of E.W. Scripps (NYSE: SSP) soared more than 10% in early trading Wednesday morning after J.P. Morgan upgraded the stock to overweight from neutral. Good Grief! 'Peanuts' licensing sold by E.W. Scripps The E.W. Scripps is selling the licensing rights to Peanuts, Snoopy, Dilbert and all the other characters in its United Media Licensing to Iconix Brand Group Inc. for $175 million, the Cincinnati-based media company announced Tuesday. Scott Heekin-Canady, president of the New York Times Media Group, told the FT that the Times may take its local edition push into 10-15 cities relatively soon. "We're in active discussions for five markets now," he said. Why? Heekin-Canady "cited depressed local economics." Perelmans join investors bidding for newspapers Businessman and philanthropist Ray Perelman and his investor son, Ronald O. Perelman, joined the group of local investors bidding to purchase Philadelphia Newspapers L.L.C. and take it out of bankruptcy. San Jose Mercury News rockets into top ten circ list with a BANG In last year's March Fas-Fax from the Audit Bureau of Circulations, the San Jose Mercury News didn't make even the top 20 list of largest-circulation newspapers. |
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