Media Companies

As other media companies struggle to survive, at least one seems to be doing very well: the Economist Group.

Last week, The Atlantic compared The Economist to Time and Newsweek, pointing out that the Economist had seen "advertising revenues increase last year by double digits -- a remarkable 25 percent," while the other two American newsweeklies had faltered.

Now comes more good news from The Economist Group, which publishes the magazine as well as titles like CFO and the Washington, D.C. pub Roll Call. According to a release put out by the company today, the group's profit is up 26 percent (to almost $92 million ) and revenue is up 17 percent (to $513 million) for the fiscal year ending on March 31. What's more, The Economist's worldwide circulation is up 6.4 percent to 1.39 million.

What could be behind such success in an age of dying print media?

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Three members of The New York Times' digital newsroom joined the Circus today, giving a dynamic presentation about some of the interesting visual and interactive items they are using today.

Fiona Spruill, the editor of the Times' Web newsroom, kicked off the panel with a look at some of the interactive tools the paper's site is using to generate feedback from readers. Of course, the Times allows commenting on breaking news stories and highlights the best comments on its homepage, but they've been trying to "involve our readers in other ways and getting them to think of interactivity more broadly," Spruill said.

To that end, they have launched tools like one that asks readers to type in a single word to describe their mood about the economy. The way those words are visually represented -- bigger or smaller -- shows Web visitors how their fellow readers are feeling.

Multimedia editor Andrew DeVigal and graphics director Steve Duenes also highlighted the latest interactive items on the Times' site, including the new Lens photo blog and the "One in 8 Million" weekly photo and audio feature.

"We are interested in innovation, experimentation and developing new visual forums," Duenes said of the graphics desk. "We are surprising readers in a good way with the forums we create."

However, from the quality and high production level of the interactive and visual tools used by the Times it was obvious that a lot of time and money went into their production. One Circus attendee asked the panel if it was possible to do the same with a smaller budget.

"Graphics are not beyond the reach of smaller staffs," Duenes said.

Hearst may be no stranger to layoffs but The New York Times insists the company is doing well due to unique initiatives, like not putting all of its magazines' content online for free, upping newsstand prices and increasing book sizes instead of shrinking them. (But as Sunday's article mentions, Hearst is part of a private company so its exact revenue figures are unknown.)

Although all of these moves seem contrary to currently held beliefs in the magazine industry, they're working for Hearst, the company argues. In today's economic climate, as media companies struggle to find a digital pay wall structure that will work towards keeping them profitable, it's refreshing to see a company trying to solve its problems in different, and successful, ways.

"I want 1.6 million women to go to the newsstand every month to buy Cosmo, and they do," Hearst president Cathie Black told the Times. "We don't want that genie out of the bottle. I don't have any interest in challenging that economic model."

Two Hearst executives, senior vice president and general manager of Digital Media Chuck Cordray and Tom Smith, senior director of Digital Media/IT, will be at Mediabistro Circus tomorrow. We'll keep you posted about what they say about the future of Hearst and magazine journalism.

This morning, a warning went out to all of Conde Nast's New York employees that an employee on the 12th floor of the company's 4 Times Square headquarters had tested positive for swine flu. (If you're hip to Conde HQ you know that floor is where Vogue is housed.)

But since the memo noted that the infected employee is "under a doctor's care and currently recovering at home," the media company was probably more worried this morning about the latest New York magazine cover story, which profiled Conde chairman Si Newhouse.

Steve Fishman's in-depth profile attempts to get to the heart of Newhouse's psyche, quoting an anonymous source who calls him "semi-blank," and asserting that he surrounds himself with superstar editors who represent a part of himself that he can't express on his own. "In a sense, he's like a polished surface, and the editors tend to see themselves in him," Fishman wrote.

And of course Fishman can't ignore the fact that Conde Nast is in the red despite closing a number of magazines in the past two years, including, most recently, Portfolio. Still, he points out that "The belief around the building is that next year, if the economy recovers, Conde Nast will again turn profitable." Fishman doesn't let on if he agrees, but he does mention that there are still rumors of more magazine closings to come. "Which will be next? Wired? Architectural Digest? Does the company really need two food magazines?"

As a former Conde employee ourselves, we did find at least one omission in Fishman's reporting. His list of shuttered publications -- Jane, House & Garden, Men's Vogue, Golf for Women, Domino and Portfolio -- he left out our former home, the men's wear trade DNR.

The McClatchy Co., publisher of newspapers like The Miami Herald, The Sacramento Bee and The News & Observer in Raleigh, N.C., announced last week that it had changed some of the terms of its debt agreements in the hope of staying alive for the foreseeable future.

The amendments to McClatchy's $1.15 billion existing debt will allow the company to exchange the current debt for cash and new debt. The company's total debt will also be reduced and McClatchy will have longer to repay it, but it will have to paid back at a higher interest rate.

The news comes a couple months after McClatchy, the country's third largest newspaper company, announced that it would cut 15 percent of its workforce in March. And that was after the company had laid off 1,400 employees last June.

In an effort to put a happy face on the beleaguered company's recent announcement, McClatchy CFO Pat Talamantes called the latest move "a positive development."

"In addition to the outstanding efforts made by our papers to weather this downturn, we believe that being able to have more flexibility in the use of our revolving credit facility will allow us to put the company in a stronger financial position to manage our capital structure through this downturn," Talamantes said.

It seems that McClatchy has done everything it can to remain afloat and keep its 30 daily papers alive. We certainly hope that it works.

Related: McClatchy N.C. Subsidiary To Cut 78 Positions

Earlier: The Newspaper Death Spiral Continues

Even Earlier: Media Layoffs: McClatchy Co. Bids Adieu To 1400 Jobs

It's been a tough year at Forbes. The media company, which owns Forbes magazine, Forbes.com and a handful of other magazines like Forbes Woman, has already gone through two rounds of layoffs across the business and editorial staffs and more bad news might be on the way.

The New York Post's Keith Kelly reported today that Elevation Partners' co-founder Roger McNamee has stepped down from Forbes' board and will be replaced by Bre Pearlman, who has "a reputation as an aggressive cost-cutter."

McNamee (left) was the main driver behind Elevation's purchase of a 40 percent stake in the Forbes family-owned company two and half years ago but, as Kelly pointed out, his departure from the board may show that the company's chance for growth is slim.

We're hearing that the mood within the Forbes editorial offices -- which recently completed a merger between the online and magazine staffs -- is nervous, which former Forbes staffer Peter Kafka has also reported.

Update: A Forbes publicist sent us the memo that went out to staff today from Steve Forbes.

"We fully understand the concerns that the present difficult environment causes," the memo said. "We want to thank everyone for their hard work. We profoundly believe that the steps being taken, not only short-term painful ones, but also new growth initiatives, will make Forbes stronger than ever when economic recovery comes."

The full memo after the jump

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Maybe the best week yet...

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Henry Schliff, who has been CEO and president of Crown Media Holdings Inc. (owners of Hallmark Channel), will step down after accepting a lump sum of $2.5 million. CMH officials told The Wall Street Journal the split at "amicable."

Bill Abbott, currently the vice president of advertising sales, will take over as CEO.

Well, Schliff could be considering running for public office. In November, 2007 he told mediabistro.com:

"One of the things I still hold out for my own personal desire is to do something in public service, in government. To the extent that I would have potentially some role in a government position in public service, I like that."

At the very least, he'll have a nice chunk of change to help finance his campaign.

Led by Comcast Crop., 11 of the 13 media stocks saw their stock prices jump higher during the past week. See all the info after the jump.

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Publishing super power Conde Nast axed 85 employees earlier this week and might not be done, but its Human Resources department wants its remaining employees to stay informed about Swine Flu. Per an email just sent to the entire company:

From: Conde Nast Human Resources Sent: Thursday, April 30, 2009 9:57 AM To: Conde Nast Publications-All Subject: Swine Flu Update

Given recent news reports on swine flu, you may have questions or concerns about how it can affect you, your family and colleagues. Human Resources, in partnership with our Security and Travel Services departments, will continue to monitor the situation and provide updates when necessary. In the meantime, the following links provide important information from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC):

Questions & Answers
http://www.cdc.gov/swineflu/swineflu_you.htm

Key Facts
http://www.cdc.gov/swineflu/key_facts.htm