Media Audit

BusinessWeek's editor-in-chief, Stephen Adler will not be making the move to Bloomberg, following the company's acquisition of the magazine. Neither will Roger Neal, GM of BusinessWeek's online operations. However, executive editors Ellen Pollock and John Byrne and managing editor Ciro Scotti will make the move and stay with BusinessWeek.

Bloomberg chief content officer Norman Pearlstine said in a memo to the troops today that the majority of BusinessWeek employees would be hired by Bloomberg.

Neal, along with Byrne, was primarily responsible for Business Exchange, a social networking site created by the publication to the tune of $20 million. So far, it accounts for 16% of BusinessWeek's digital revenue, but has not grown as fast as expected. We hear that is a source of discontent from many employees who feel the company overpaid to build it.

Health insurance company Humana, Inc. bought a large ad in the Detroit Free Press after a story idea the company suggested on Medicare open enrollment was committed to by the paper's editorial team, according to The Wall Street Journal.

A Humana spokesperson told the Journal that the company, "simply asked whether the Free Press was planning a special section on the Medicare enrollment period and, on learning that it was, decided to buy an ad in the section."

"Editorial content needs to remain, and does remain, with the newsroom...But where we can find the connections that make sense for marketing purposes, that's something that we need to be open to," Paul Anger, editor and publisher of the Free Press told the Journal.

The Sunday talk shows yesterday continued to focus on the back and forth between the White House and Fox News. CNN's Reliable Sources, ABC's "This Week" and NBC's "Meet the Press" all devoted segments to the issue, again highlighting recent comments from White House Communications Director Anita Dunn, specifically her statement, "The reality of it is that Fox News often operates almost as either the research arm or the communications arm of the Republican Party" and discounting Fox News as a "legitimate" news organization.

We've posted the "Meet the Press" clip above. Host David Gregory cut straight to the chase at the beginning of the segment. "Why is the White House doing this, and is it working for them?" he asked. Panelist Tavis Smiley of PBS called it "a distraction." TVNewser has the CNN and ABC segments.

CNN held a large press event last night to reveal the new CNN.com. TVNewser and Webnewser both have reports. "Some CNN employees were surprised that details of the design didn't leak during the development process," wrote TVNewser's Kevin Allocca.

As far as the actual design, "it will do a better job of highlighting previously buried content and video. The homepage will feature three columns: one for breaking news, one for features and video, and one for customizable weather, sports, and news content," he wrote.

So, how did CNN PR keep things from leaking? "We're obviously happy the designs didn't leak," Jennifer Martin, Director Of Public Relations for New Media and Digital Networks, CNN Worldwide, tells PRNewser. "At the end of the day, we are fortunate that at CNN.com in particular, there really is an air of transparency. The more open you are with employees, the less likely you are to have leaks. Only recently we began to be transparent with our PR and marketing plans and it's really helped us."

Martin also said of the press conference last night that her team didn't expect a huge turn out, however they beat expectations. "We were expecting 10-15 RSVPs, but we had 100," she said.

FishbowlNY has the memo to the troops from New York Times executive Editor Bill Keller in which he explains that the company will be eliminating 100 newsroom positions via buyouts and potentially layoffs.

"When we took our 5 percent pay cuts, it was in the hope that this would fend off the need for more staff cuts this year. But I accept that if it's going to happen, it should be done quickly. We will get through this and move on," he wrote.

Baynewser has the latest on the Times' Bay Area expansion:

...starting this Friday, Oct. 16, The New York Times will add a Bay Area metro report to its Northern California editions on Fridays and Sundays.

It will start with content written by Times' staffers and assorted contributors, and will focus on public affairs, culture and Bay Area lifestyles. The Times already has a 10-person San Francisco news bureau.

Click here for the full story. Also, for more details visit the Times' Media Decoder blog.

Dow Jones, parent company of The Wall Street Journal, sent out a release today announcing WSJ circulation gains, rising to 2,024,269 (Sept. 2009) from 2,011,999 (Sept. 2008). Paid circulation grew 0.78% to 1,437,853. The growth accounts to total circulation revenue of 10.1% for The Journal year-over-year. It also means that The Journal has passed USA Today as the largest U.S. newspaper.

Of course, there is still debate. "USA Today and many advertisers want to talk about paid print circulation that excludes those electronic-only subscribers The Journal includes in its total, top-line paid circulation figure. The Journal, on the other hand, has previously questioned the value of the many USA Today copies that hotel guests receive at no extra cost but still count as "paid" under Audit Bureau of Circulations rules," writes Advertising Age's Nat Ives.

Bloomberg L.P. has announced it is acquiring BusinessWeek. The business magazine has been on the block for months and in recent weeks Bloomberg L.P. has been rumored to be the front runner in the bidding process.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but sources told BusinessWeek's Tom Lowry that the deal was in the, "$2 million to $5 million range and that it has agreed to assume liabilities, including potential severance payments." Lowry says the publication will continue to publish weekly in print and "around the clock" online, and the BusinessWeek brand will be "used aggressively to bolster Bloomberg TV, radio and mobile operations."

TVNewser reports BloombergTV, "which has undergone belt tightening since the arrival of former NBC News president Andy Lack last year, will incorporate the BusinessWeek brand and its journalists on air."

The question is: how many of BusinessWeek's staff will remain after the company is officially folded into Bloomberg? In a memo to potential buyers, parent company McGraw-Hill made suggestions, "including a 20 percent layoff of employees, mostly in editorial and back-office functions," reports the Times' Stephanie Clifford.

FishbowlNY has the full release.

Former Financial Times reporter and current Silicon Valley Watcher blogger Tom Foremski asks an interesting question: What happens when PR people have more traffic than the reporters they're pitching?

He cites some of the big PR bloggers and since PR is more comfortable with self promotion, these folks often have larger audiences than many reporters. However, it's not just about audience size, it's about credibility. As Formeski pointed out, "having someone else write a story about your client, on a third-party site, where there has been no exchange of money, conveys far higher value to the story."

Also, as Advertising Age's Ken Wheaton stated, it's about who is in the audience. "Yeah, but that traffic's mostly other PR people/ business insiders. Journalists have 'consumers' (and crazy old people)," he said.

[Ed note: At the request of Mr. Wheaton, we added the content of his entire Tweet.]

If OK! magazine will pay $500,000 for the rights to run Michael Jackson's death photo, The Associated Press, it seems, is no longer content sitting on the sidelines when it could be charging for access to the premium content it produces.

No specific details have been announced yet, but the AP is "considering whether to sell news stories to some online customers exclusively for a certain period, perhaps half an hour," according to a report on AP chief executive Tom Curley's remarks at the Hong Kong Foreign Correspondents' Club yesterday. "...products can be reserved, and there can be exclusives given, perhaps on a time-base measure. Those who get access to that content and the rich multimedia or metadata that comes with it might get an exclusive for, oh, 20 or 30 minutes," he said.

Keith Trivitt, account executive at RLM Public Relations said, "In a 24/7 news cycle where people can get information instantly, the AP idea seems absurd." David Teicher, Social Media Manager & Strategist at McCann-Erickson NY thinks it's an interesting approach. "They need to generate additional revenue somehow, he said, but added, "This system would work better with exclusives or the not time sensitive stories. Not breaking news."