Markets & Media

Perhaps those newspaper folks currently directing their ire at Arianna Huffington may want to reconsider their target in the hopes that she will divulge her company's "mostly secret" Google search-engine optimization tactics. AdAge is reporting that major media companies are pressuring Google to elevate their "expensive online content" to the top sphere of Google's search results.

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Microsoft does NOT want to buy the New York Times. Got that? Not that the Times is for sale, per se -- at least to our knowledge. So perhaps the larger point Steve Ballmer was trying to make outside the McGraw-Hill building yesterday is that Microsoft has no interest in investing in what newspapers have to offer (even as newspapers are trying to figure out for themselves what exactly it is they have to offer).

It's no secret Microsoft is trying to overhaul its approach to the Internet -- not to mention sort out its on-again, off-again relationship with Yahoo. So, what does that overhaul include if not the NYT? ZDNet reports that they company is "working on a 'set change' in how it approaches search on the Internet, code-named Kumo.com. Exclusive high-quality news, behind a registration or pay wall, could distinguish either a refashioned search business or its Web portal." Whether this includes Yahoo is unclear, what it won't include, apparently is newspapers no matter how cheap their share price is.

Via MediaJobsDaily comes Alley Insider's observation that even as the Dow continues to plummet the NYT appears to be holding steady. Says Blodget:

It took long enough, but it seems the New York Times Company has finally found some friends with deep pockets who don't think the stock is going to zero.

Over the past week, as the stock market has cratered, the New York Times Company's stock has held steady at about $4. Today, with the market bounce, it's up about 15%.

The volume has spiked, too: Well over than 1 million shares a day for the past 10 days, with a couple of huge days.

Chances are that by this point you have a better understanding of the nations financial institutions (or at least a better understanding of the lack of understanding). However! Should you need a bit more of a run through of the fiasco than Jon Stewart was able to provide last night we bring you this handy little Credit Crisis explanation via our counterparts over at FishbowlLA.

The Crisis of Credit Visualized from Jonathan Jarvis on Vimeo.

It may seem like the media world is coming crashing down around our heads and that none of us will have a job within the next few months, but it could be much worse.

In a Reuters article today about layoffs, Paul Bond notes that the media industry has experienced the lost of 7,453 jobs in the first two months of 2009. That's a 34 percent increase over the same time period during 2008, obviously not good news.

However, when you consider that the retail (72,727), automotive (70,058), and industrial goods (51,545) industries have all suffered massive losses, the picture gets a bit rosier. While there are certainly more employees in these three sectors — and thus more people to lose their jobs — the numbers make working in the media world seem like a decent proposition.

Losing your job is terrible and we sympathize with all of our friends and colleagues who are searching for employment but at least we have a good severance plan.

The tech sector, now that's a place you don't want to be.

Want to get a big picture glance at the Recession as it happens? WSJ.com has you covered. The site has launched an interactive guide to the Global Economic Meltdown. Each industry is color-coded and you can choose to sort things under a number of categories: Industry, Company, Date Announced, Number of Job Cuts, Percent of Workforce, Stock Decline. Though no matter which way you cut it the finance industry appears to come out the worst for wear (also, there's no media category). Play along here.

It seems like we've been waiting forever for the mobile advertising market to explode. It's been poised to take off for years now, yet prediction upon prediction have fallen short. Not anymore, if a new report from The Kelsey Group (which tracks these things) can be believed.

The analyst firm believes that mobile advertising revenue will grow at an astonishing 81.2 percent annually, turning the current $160 million market into a $3.1 billion industry. Local media search will skyrocket to $1.3 billion up from just $20 million this year.

The new cause for optimism stems from the proliferation of smart phones (hey, iPhone) into the U.S. market. With people willing and able to do more on their phones (email, surf the net, watch movies, listen to music), the opportunities for advertisers to spend their dollars will only grow. Good thing someone saw this coming.

Abrams Research took advantage of last week's Social Media Week here in New York to ask 200 "social media leaders" their thoughts on the future of social media. Perhaps not surprisingly, Facebook and Twitter proved quite popular (LinkedIn is named as the "dark horse," MySpace is "uncool"). See if you agree with some of the conclusions.

Mark Zuckerberg may want to take note! Many people are so devoted to Facebook they would pay for it if they had to.

• When asked which social media service they'd be most likely to pay for, 32.2% chose Facebook -- followed by 29.7% choosing business-networking site LinkedIn. The contrast of Facebook's bells-and-whistles features (photos, status updates, newsfeed, tagging) with the bare-bones networking functionality of LinkedIn suggests that many people find social networking most valuable for making professional connections. Twitter -- the top pick for business use -- came in third, with 21.8%.

That said, when it comes to businesses people recommend getting on the Twitter!

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The magazine industry may be dying a slow death, but there will always be those that see opportunity. In Folio:'s annual magazine and media predictions* story, Wired.com senior editor Dylan Tweney points out, "In 2008, an amazing 335 new magazines launched, despite looming economic storm clouds."

Furthermore, Tweney sees more mags launched in 2009: "We'll see even more magazine startups, as entrepreneurs with funding (or un-maxed-out credit cards) seize the twin opportunities of cheap journalistic labor and lower competitive barriers to start up publications of their own."

It won't be an easy ride, however, and "anyone launching a publication in 2009 better have deep enough pockets to ride out a year or two of very thin revenues," Tweney says.

After the jump, we highlight some of the best predictions.

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Apparently despite News Corp.'s plummeting stock value they are still a desirable to Wall Street! The Times reported today that News Corp. has switched its listing to NASDAQ from the NYSE amid accusations from the NYSE that NASDAQ had "bought the listing with a significant advertising commitment." We are (not surprisingly) a bit in the dark as to how this works or whether it is common (or even legal) to purchase listings so we checked in with Clusterstock's John Carney to see what the deal is. According to him it's not illegal to "buy" a listing.

The stock exchanges want prominent names so they can get other companies to list on their exchange. Ordinarily, you actually pay to be listed. That's part of how exchanges make money. But a big name like News Corp helps bring in other companies, so you might pay them. It's like nightclubs giving free stuff to celebrities.