Media Companies

Michael Wolff , writing for The Guardian, says that Bloomberg and Reuters are both competing to acquire The Financial Times. A ”senior executive” at Reuters told Wolff that FT had recently turned down an offer from Bloomberg, but it was “in clear discussions” with Reuters.

Wolff explains that gaining the paper would make sense for either company:

It is certainly true that neither Bloomberg nor Thomson Reuters need a newspaper — and yet it is true, too, that it could change the game were one of them to get a major financial news organ (so much so that each would probably do what is necessary to try to prevent the other from getting one — vastly enhancing the value of both the FT and WSJ). Indeed, while neither Pearson nor News Corp are ever going to turn the FT or WSJ into significant earners, Bloomberg and Thomson Reuters, with their back-end financial information resources, might be able to build a powerful and profitable financial news front end.

He does concede that because the talks are — according to his source — “at an informal level of discussion,” any deal might be far off.

UPDATE:
A Pearson spokesperson emailed us and denied the rumors. ”The FT is a very valued and valuable part of Pearson,” wrote the spokesperson. “It is not for sale.”

Create a social media strategy, launch your campaign, and track the results in our Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting February 16. The online event and workshop will feature speakers including The Onion‘s Baratunde Thurston (left), Facebook’s Morin Oluwole, and bitly’s Tim Devane. Register now.

The New York Times Company has reported its fourth quarter earnings today, and as usual, things are bleak. For the quarter, profit dropped 12 percent and for the year the Times Company posted a net loss of $39.7 million.

The drop can be attributed mainly to a decline in print advertising and About.com’s performance:

Across the company, advertising revenue declined 7.1 percent in the fourth quarter. Print advertising was down 7.8 percent and digital advertising declined 4.9 percent, dragged down by a 25.9 percent revenue drop-off at the company’s About.com property.

The brightest news was that the News Media Group, which includes The New York Times, The Boston Globe and The International Herald Tribune, saw digital advertising jump 5.3 percent. Circulation revenue was also up almost five percent for the quarter.

Bloomberg LP raked in $7.6 billion in revenue last year. According to the New York Post, that was a 10.5 percent jump, up $720 million from 2010. While that’s not Bill Gates money — hell, it’s not even Twix money — it’s certainly a lot. But according to an internal memo at the company it’s nowhere near estimates, so staffers are getting smaller bonuses.

Apparently employee pay perks are tied to Bloomberg Terminal sales, and they fell short. The company had hoped to install 15,000 ancillary units last year, but were only able to add 13,672.

“Although we fell short of our targets, all of us can be proud of our strong year-over-year performance and the progress we were able to make across our businesses — especially considering the difficult environment for our largest terminal customers,” read the memo from Chairman Peter Grauer and CEO Dan Doctoroff.

Yeah, that should make them all feel better.

Attention lab rats: Time Warner is interested in how often your belly jiggles when you watch “Hart of Dixie.” The company has opened a media lab in Manhattan so it can study consumer reaction to TV shows, websites, video games and magazines. The lab is a 9,600 foot space equipped with a living room, a 47-seat 3-D movie theatre, an observation room and a mini fake grocery store.

“This [lab] can help people learn what their content looks like when it’s actually watched,” Steve Woodward, Time Warner’s Senior Director for Global Broadcast Technology, told The New York Times.

That’s sort of true. People will be responding, but their reactions will definitely be altered, because the place sounds extremely creepy:

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Gannett’s USA Today Sports Media Group has acquired Fantasy Sports Ventures (FSV), parent of Big Lead Sports, a popular sports blog. Gannett already had a minority stake in FSV, but with the new deal in place, the company gains complete control over all of FSV’s properties.

The acquisition will boost USA Today Sports Media Group’s web traffic significantly. “The Big Lead sites have done a great job developing unique, independent voices and distinct points of view,” explained Dave Morgan, the USA Today Sports Media Group’s Senior Vice President of Content and Editor-in-Chief. “This acquisition extends our reach and deepens our engagement with core sports audiences, and is a strong complement to our position as a leading national sports property.”

Other sites that are now under the Gannett umbrella as part of the deal include BaseballHQ.com, KFFL.com, TheHuddle.com, Baseball-Reference.com, HoopsWorld.com, HoopsHype.com and more.

At some point in early February, Charles Townsend, CEO of Condé Nast, will gather his editors together to let them know what is going on with the business side of the company. WWD reports that it’s the first time the editors are being asked to attend this type of meeting, but it’s certainly not taking anyone by surprise:

Back in September, Townsend hosted an all-hands-on-desk meeting with both publishers and editors in a room together — the first time that had ever happened. The big takeaway from that meeting: Focus on your magazines but please try to make some money from your Web sites.

Another sign that the meeting will be pleasant is that Townsend sent a memo out yesterday stating that things are expected to be “exceptionally sunny” during 2012.

The only question we have about the meeting: Who will bring the donuts?

The construction of 1 World Trade Center isn’t complete yet, but that hasn’t stopped Condé Nast from expanding its presence there. The New York Post reports that the publishing house has signed on to occupy an additional 133,000 square feet of the tower.

The expansion was an option included in the lease signed last May, which was for 25 years and worth about $2 billion.

With the additional space, Condé Nast will eventually take up floors 20 through 44. No word on how many of those floors will be dedicated to a fancy cafeteria, but anything less than four would be uncivilized.

Yesterday, 29 media companies including The Associated Press, The New York Times Company, and Hearst announced the launch of NewsRight. The venture is described as “an independent digital rights and content licensing organization.”

Headed by former ABC news president, David Westin, NewsRight has been in development for a few years under different names including News Registry, a property spearheaded by the AP.

“More news is available more ways than ever in history. But if reliable information is to continue to flourish, the companies investing in creating content need efficient ways to license it as broadly as possible,” said Westin. “NewsRight’s mission is to make sure consumers continue to benefit from the all the original news reporting they want while ensuring those who republish content do so with integrity. ”

In a nutshell, the service makes it easier for media outlets to license news content from the roster of NewsRight companies and in turn, provide both licensees and licensors with analytics regarding the use of content.

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Ron Burkle and Magic Johnson have teamed up once again, this time to acquire BlackBook Media. Last February the duo purchased Vibe Holdings, a deal that saw Johnson becoming the Chairman of the company.

The New York Post reports that an enticing part of the BlackBook acquisition was Access Network, a software division of BlackBook Media. The software is used by a variety of companies for listing services.

BlackBook Media will be combined with Vibe Holdings, with Ari Horowitz operating as its CEO.

AOL and Bonnier’s Parenting Group are teaming up. For AOL, the partnership means Bonnier’s family-centric editorial content from Parenting.com will be shared with AOL.com, HufPo Parents and the AOL Family channel.

“Moms are a very important part of the AOL community, and the Parenting.com brand brings a wealth of credibility, authority and expertise on the issues that matter most to today’s modern families,” said Ned Brody, Chief Revenue Officer at AOL.

Bonnier, meanwhile, will get access to AOL’s digital advertising services, allowing both companies to expand ads that are targeted toward moms. Mark Wildman, Vice President and Group Publisher of Bonnier’s Parenting Group, explained, “This alliance gives us the opportunity to tap into a completely new segment of advertisers targeting moms online, while working with a best-in-class partner to grow our brand and the types of digital programs that we can offer to our marketing partners.”