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Media CompaniesMonday Jun 22, 2009
Economist Group Has A Good Year
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? Wednesday Jun 03, 2009
A New York Times In The Digital World
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. Monday Jun 01, 2009
Thinking Different Helps Hearst Survive
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. Swine Flu Hits Conde Nast As Newhouse Profile Hits Newsstands
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. Tuesday May 26, 2009
McClatchy Hopes To Buy Time By Amending Debt Agreements
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 Friday May 15, 2009
More Cuts To Come At Forbes?
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 Friday May 08, 2009
Media Stocks: The State of the Top 13Maybe the best week yet... Thursday May 07, 2009
Crown Media Holdings Gives CEO $2.5 Million to Leave
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. Saturday May 02, 2009
Media Stocks: The State of the Top 13Led 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. Thursday Apr 30, 2009
Conde Nast Would Like Its Employees to Know About Swine Flu
From: Conde Nast Human Resources Sent: Thursday, April 30, 2009 9:57 AM To: Conde Nast Publications-All Subject: Swine Flu Update PreviouslyMedia Stocks: The State of the Top 13 How Much Did Your Favorite Fortune 500 Media Company Lose? Awl Together Now: Balk and Choire Launch a Website Media Stocks: The State of the Top 13 Largest North American Newsprint Manufacturer Files for Chap. 11 Media Execs Take Paid Content Into Their Own Hands Media Stocks: The State of the Top 13 The Daily Beast Strikes Ad Deal With Bottega Veneta Battle of the Twitter Titans? Microsoft and Google Both Express Interest True/Slant Launches, Experiments With Sponsored Content Google CEO to AP: Why All the Fuss? TheAtlantic.com Exploring Further Acquisitions AP to Take Legal Action Against Aggregators Media Stocks: The State of the Top 13 Layoffs at Conde Nast Digital, Wired.com Hit Hardest? The Daily Beast: Advertising Deal in the Works Life.com Launches 'Comprehensive' Photo Site Sun Sets on Sun-Times Media Group HuffPo Launching Non-Profit Investigative Journalism Venture Media Stocks: The State of the Top 13 Flavorpill Announces Public Launch of Daily Dose 2010 Olympics Can't Come Soon Enough for NBC Layoffs Come to English Papers Media Stocks: The State of the Top 13 Conde Facing Another Round of Cuts McClatchy N.C. Subsidiary to Cut 78 Positions Media Stocks: The State of the Top 13 Ann Moore Understands the Internet Has CBS Figured Out the Online World? Media Stocks: The State of the Top 13 Chuck Townsend: 'We Have to Make Additional Difficult Decisions to Manage Costs' CNNMoney Expands Online Video Presence With Eight New Shows Is it Ever Okay to 'Sponsor' Blogger Coverage? Reuters to Launch Video-On-Demand Service Hatchet Falls Once More at HFMUS? mediabistro.com Introduces MediaJobsDaily Media Stocks: The State of the Top 13 Breaking Media Launches Edificial Thomson Reuters Increases Dividend Conde Nast: 'Should Have Cut Back 20 Percent' Gawker Named 'Most Valuable Blog' Media Stocks: The State of the Top 13 Media Stocks: The State of the Top 13 Rupe's Second-in-Command Getting Ready to Depart? NBC Now Selling 2010 Olmypics Merch New Chicago Sun-Times Chairman Lives in Dallas Associated Press Teams Up With NCAA Recessionwire.com Launches: 'We Are the Ultimate Lemonade Makers' NYMag.com Partners With StreetEasy.com Media Stocks: The State of the Top 13 SustainLane.com Launches 'Green Collar' Job Board Media Stocks: The State of the Top 13 Should Yahoo Buy Gawker, The New York Times? Bankrupt Tribune Co. Still Promoting Media Stocks: The State of the Top 13 TheAtlantic.com Launches Business Channel NBC Hiring Local Bloggers to Provide Coverage Media Stocks: The State of the Top 13 Media Stocks: The State of the Top 13 So Does Anything Beyond Search Make Money at Google? Gawker Slims Down for The New Year Media Stocks: The State of the Top 13 Blame Canada! No Hulu North of the Border Media Stocks: The State of the Top 13 Time Inc. Recruits From Across the Pond Curbed Switches Most West Coast Sites to Freelance Model The Media is Dying, 140 Characters at a Time Media Stocks: The State of the Top 13 Online Dispatches: EW, Forbes.com, Double X Last Week's Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Layoffs Bring Year's Total To 100 Conde Nast Gives Staffers On-Sale Xmas Presents Media Stocks: The State of the Top 13 News Corp. Not the Only Struggling Australian Media Company The Huffington Post Takes On the World The Daily Beast: A Half-Way House for Laid Off Writers The Huffington Post Gets $25 Million in Funding Media Stocks: The State of the Top 13 Media Stocks: The State of the Top 13 Post Election News Slump Hitting Politico, TheAtlantic.com Thriving Forbes to Merge Print and Online Staff Media Stocks: The State of the Top 13 Things May be Bad, But They are Not Insane Conde Nast Like 'A Buggy Company' on the Web Does HuffPo Like Its Male Bloggers Better? Media Hedge Fund to Close Citing Losses of 25 Percent Conde Nast Would Like to Sell You a Men's Vogue Pin Hungry New Yorkers: Tasting Table to Do the Tasting For You |
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