Browse FishbowlNY July 2007 archives - FishbowlNY

Karmazin: XM-Sirius Merger Momentum Is Building

Noah Davis — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 16:26:05 +0000

Even as Sirius narrowed their loss and raised revenues 51 percent to $226.4 million (and subscriber counts grew 53 percent), CBS Radio division revenues fell 11 percent to $463.4 million. From CNNMoney: “CBS’ radio division, which made headlines this year when it dropped talk show host Don Imus because of controversial remarks he made in reference to a women’s college basketball team, suffered from a weak advertising market.”

Somewhere, Howard Stern is smiling.

Overall, CBS didn’t do badly. While CBS television revenues fell 4 percent to $2.2 billion, Outdoor advertising revenue rose 4 percent and Simon & Schuster unit revenues rose by 14 percent. The Radio division, however, was a definite drag even as Sirius drew praise from Wall Street.

Last week, XM also reported a narrowing of their second quarter losses. “Momentum for the pending merger with XM continues to build,” said Sirius radio president and chief executive Mel Karmazin. “Support from our customers, suppliers, and other groups representing a diverse cross-section of Americans, clearly demonstrates the public interest benefits and enhanced competition that will come from the merger.”

Craig Moffett, an analyst for Sanford C. Bernstein gave the deal a “50-50″ chance of passing regulatory hurdles earlier this year.

Howard Stern To Interview Martha Stewart

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Details In Greenwich Village NBC Death

FishbowlNY — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 14:02:01 +0000

The story surrounding Eric Wishnie, the Emmy-winning NBC News producer who fell to his death in Greenwich Village yesterday, just gets more and more depressing. The Daily News reports that his 10-year marriage to Dateline‘s Dawn Fratangelo was in a state of collapse and that Wishnie was fired from NBC in 2006 because of his alcohol and pill addictions. Wishnie regularly had vodka delivered to his apartment, according to the Post. Brian Williams wrote a tribute to Wishnie in his blog:

“As he had done for years with Tom Brokaw before me, Eric and I travelled the globe. The tsunami in Indonesia, the war in Iraq … we interviewed presidents and world leaders. He was an enormously talented producer and one of the funniest guys I’ve ever met … He raised self-effacing humor to an art form, and he is responsible for easily a quarter of all the music on my iPod. I would often come into work in the morning to find a new CD on my computer keyboard, along with a note from my friend and fellow music-lover Eric — saying that it was vital that I hear this particular new band. He left the News Division a while back, but the place still bears his mark. We will now bear the burden of his loss, along with his loved ones, and of not having Eric in our lives anymore.”

Wishnie passed away after a 30-foot fall from the garden roof of his three-story apartment building at West 10th Street & Sixth Avenue. Police found a dozen vodka bottles, empty pill bottles and months of unopened mail inside.

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Letterman’s Mug On Ball St. Building | Financial Times Wants A Friend | Condé Goes To India | Vogue Wins Sept. Ad Page Battle | Your Juice Fix

Noah Davis — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 13:32:58 +0000

The Indianapolis Star: Ball St. Christens Letterman Building
AP via Yahoo!: CBS 2Q Profit Falls Following Parks Sale
IHT via NYT: Wary of Dow Jones, Financial Times Looking For New Media Partner
FT: Condé Nast To Expand in India
MIN: Exclusive Review of Women’s Beauty/Fashion ‘Fall Preview’ Ad Pages
Radar: O.J. Gushes on Web Stream
TVNewser: Merry, Merry, Quite Contrary, Says ABC

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The Sun Defends … The Oreo

FishbowlNY — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 13:30:25 +0000

The New York Sun, has published a gem of an op-ed called “Defending The Oreo“:

Maybe the Post preferred Hydrox cookies and is bitter over the Oreo’s triumph over its longtime competitor, which was for many years distinguished for its use of vegetable shortening instead of the Oreo’s lard. Lard is gone from the Oreo, as are Hydrox from American supermarket shelves. What remains, apparently, is a reputation for a cookie whose cream and crunch Americans needn’t feel guilty about enjoying. The Post is certainly free to campaign against whatever food it wants to. For our part, if a friend of ours stops by when we are tucking into a dish of ice cream and Oreo cookies, they are welcome to share.

In case you’re wondering, the Sun is upset the Washington Post ran an op-ed on obesity with the line “friends don’t let friends eat Oreos.”

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to newspaper wars, circa 2007.

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Times, Meet MSNBC. MSNBC, Meet Times.

FishbowlNY — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 12:05:58 +0000

Hmm. The New York Times and MSNBC just entered into a content sharing agreement. NBC video will soon be appearing on the Times‘ web site and both will be cooperating on enterprise articles.

According to Bill Keller: “In brief, the agreement goes like this: We will give NBC stories, graphics, pictures and the Caucus blog for their Web site. They will give us video for ours along with links that should expose many new readers to our online journalism.”

True, but are they the type of readers who will click on Times ads and generate much needed online revenue for the Gray Lady? That remains to be seen.

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Esquire Takes On ‘To Catch A Predator’

Noah Davis — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 11:22:51 +0000

September’s Esquire has a must-read feature on the death of assistant district attorney Bill Conradt as a result of a Dateline “To Catch A Predator” investigation. Luke Dittrich details the sting operation-turned-disaster that left one man dead and hundreds asking why. We’ll leave the money quotes for you to read, but trust us, it’s worth it.

Can you say Ellie?

Tonight on Dateline This Man Will Die (Esquire)

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Uwe Boll vs. New York Post

FishbowlNY — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 10:27:57 +0000

German filmmaker Uwe Boll is popularly described as a “schlockmeister.” His specialty is producing film adaptations of video games — Boll’s CV includes House of the Dead, Alone in the Dark and BloodRayne (hey, Michelle Rodriguez needs parts too!). Three of his films have appeared on the IMDB’s 100 Worst Movies list. He also is known for publicity stunts like taking on his critics in boxing matches.

Now Boll is being sued by the New York Post. Boll created pisstakes of the Post for his new film Postal at two sites: ny-postal.tk and postal-themovie.com/mag. The Post claims the film mocks 9/11 and that Boll’s satire constitutes theft of intellectual property.

Does this mean we get to see Uwe Boll and Coll Allan in the boxing ring? God, we hope so.

Boll’s fake Post in all its PC-baiting glory:

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Robin Roberts Diagnosed With Breast Cancer

FishbowlNY — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 10:05:22 +0000

Good Morning America co-anchor Robin Roberts announced that she has breast cancer. In an on-show announcement, Roberts told viewers that she will go into surgery on Friday and continue treatment afterwards. Roberts found a lump in her breast during a self-examination she gave herself after reporting on Joel Siegel‘s battle with cancer. Thankfully, her disease is in an early stage and a full recovery is expected.

In a statement to viewers, Roberts promissed that her “doctor expects me to be flying plans and hanging on to submarines in the middle of the Atlantic and scaling the Mayan Pyramids in no time in the mornings to come.”

The in-house announcement from GMA‘s Senior EP, Jim Murphy:

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Dow Jones & News Corp.: Takeover Deal Approved

FishbowlNY — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 09:43:59 +0000

As of 9:25AM, CNBC is reporting that Dow Jones has agreed to a takeover by News Corp. David Faber stated a definitive agreement will be announced tonight … Right now the main issue for both News Corp. & DJ/Wall Street Journal is how much of the legal and advisory fees Rupert Murdoch will pay. According to Faber:

“It did come awfully close, in fact, closer than many had anticipated. But at the end of the day, according to people who were working on this, a number of the Bancrofts who had been somewhat vocal in their opposition — Chris Bancroft for example — seemed suddenly at the realization that they were going to have to pay all these banking fees said ‘Wait a second. Hey, if you pay my fees, I’ll give you my vote.’ And that may have turned it.”

Again, developing. As usual, the Times offers coverage of the latest Bancroft rifts.

UPDATE: It’s official. Dow Jones exec John Prestbo confirms Dow Jones “will be part of News Corp.”

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Vanity Fair‘s Judy vs. Rudy’s Judi

FishbowlNY — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 17:35:07 +0000

But please, call her Judith.

The September issue of Vanity Fair has an extensive takedown piece on Judith Giuliani authored by Judy Bachrach. Page Six said it described Giuliani as an “opportunistic, puppy-killing homewrecker who has a full-time hairstylist and needs an extra seat on plans for ‘Baby Louis,’ her Luis Vuitton handbag.” Pretty brutal, but the article is even worse. Much worse than the relatively sympathetic profile of her in New York magazine. Highlights/lowlights:

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Nan Talese: Oprah Exhibited ‘Fiercely Bad Manners’

Noah Davis — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 17:27:02 +0000

The French have a phrase, spirit de l’escalier, or the wit of the staircase. At the bottom of that staircase, after a verbal drubbing, there comes to you the perfect, syntactically elegant retort that might have silenced one’s nemesis moments previous. Unfortunately, it comes to you several minutes too late.

Nan Talese‘s espirit de l’escalier surfaces a year and a half after her cringe-worthy Oprah appearance. Talese, publisher and editorial director of the Nan A. Talese/Doubleday imprint, quietly suffered her spanking — or, as Slate’s Tim Noah called it at the time a “televised interrogation” — at the hands of Oprah Winfrey and her studio audience over James Frey‘s nonfactual-memoir, A Million Little Pieces. A portion of Talese’s exchange with Oprah:

Q: (I)n a press release sent out for the book in 2004, by your company, the book was described as “brutally honest and an altering look at addiction.” So how can you say that if you haven’t checked it to be sure?

A: You know, Oprah, I mean, I think this whole experience is very sad. It’s very sad for you. It’s very sad for us.

Q: It’s not sad for me. It’s embarrassing and disappointing for me.”

From the Dallas Morning News:

Publisher Nan A. Talese took up a fresh defense of A Million Little Pieces this weekend, defending the “essential truth” of the discredited memoir — while criticizing Oprah Winfrey and her fans. Asked about the book during a session at the Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Writers Conference of the Southwest on Saturday, Ms. Talese said her experience with author James Frey had not changed the way she handled memoirs. “I’m afraid I’m unapologetic of the whole thing,” she said. “And the only person who should be apologetic is Oprah Winfrey,” who she says exhibited “fiercely bad manners — you don’t stone someone in public, which is just what she did.”

— Ron Mwangaguhunga

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Clock Ticking For Murdoch-Dow Jones

FishbowlNY — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 15:52:39 +0000

So the word is that the Bancroft family has until 5:00PM to approve the sale of the Wall Street Journal. In a statement, News Corp said it was “highly unlikely” that they would proceed with their bid unless they had clear backing from the Bancrofts. Right now, a Bancroft approval for selling Dow Jones is looking iffy.

On the NYSE, Dow Jones’ shares are on a roller coaster. At 12:30pm, they were selling for $50.93. As of 3:30PM, they’re $43.84. Interesting.

Refresh for updates …

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Debt Market Turmoil Thwarts Diller

Noah Davis — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 15:45:56 +0000

Timing is everything, and the kindness of the lenders has cooled considerably. IAC chief Barry Diller, who controls 27 percent of the common-stock of Expedia, the largest online travel agency in the world, was seeking to extend his control over the company until he ran into the debt market crisis. Diller announced in June his share-repurchase plan to borrow $3.5 billion to buy back 42 percent of its stock. From the WSJ:

“Though he’s keeping quiet, all of this looks like a drag for Mr. Diller, who also controls IAC/InterActiveCorp, a Web conglomerate. (IAC and Dow Jones, publisher of The Wall Street Journal, have announced they’ll launch a joint-venture personal-finance site.) By not selling any of his 27 percent of Expedia’s common stock in the buyback, he would’ve cemented his control over the company and been left with a 52 percent stake. That’s what made the deal look like an LBO in sheep’s clothing.”

Last Monday the stock price of Expedia was down 9.1 percent, “the steepest in 14 months,” noted Bloomberg. At press time, however, in advance of the Thursday, August 2 earnings call, Expedia share prices were up two percent.

— Ron Mwangaguhunga

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FishbowlNY’s Five: Michael Musto: ‘I Am The Dr. Frankenstein Behind Perez’

Noah Davis — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 14:38:54 +0000

Village Voice columnist and self-proclaimed “recovering TV-soundbyte whore” Michael Musto took a break from his exhaustive media schedule this weekend of commenting on cable on the Britney-Lohan scandals to catch up with FishbowlNY:

FishbowlNY: Do you think the whole Britney-chicken grease thing will actually turn OK! to the dark side of “The Gossip”?

Musto: No, I actually think it will launch a line of Alisha Levine wet naps, as well as a collection of Zac Posen toilet paper for trailer trash dogs.

FBNY: I saw you on a BET talking heads show and thought, “I’m going to name him an honorary black man.” And so, I did. How does it feel to be a black man in America?

Musto: I used to joke, “I’ve been on every single channel except BET.” Then BET called. Ever since then, I’ve been extremely honored to be black. But I resent the suggestion that I’m a man — I’m actually the new Della Reese!

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‘No Doubt’ Mag? | No More ‘Scoop’ | Fall Pilots Leaked | TVNewser 1.0 Grows Up | R.I.P. Ingmar Bergman | Salon’s Not Scared Of HuffPo

Noah Davis — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 13:25:58 +0000

Fashionista: Gwen, the Magazine
MSNBC: Jeannette Walls Leaving MSNBC.com
TV Week: Top Fall Pilots Leaked Online
NYT: Old Game Show Network Reinvents Itself With Interactivity
AP: Film Great Ingmar Bergman Dies at 89
MarketWatch: Salon’s Walsh Shrugs Off HuffPo Threat

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