MEDIA WIRE DAILY: Media Business News Spun Out of Control

Newscorp was built on newspapers, but is that foundation slowly crumbling under Rupert Murdoch's empire?

2009-04-05T18:21:00.008-04:00

BY LIZ
Has News Corp CEO Rupert Murdoch fired his last shot in pinpointing whats eating the newspaper industry, an industry in which he is heavily invested? At a cable industry confab in Washington, D.C., Thursday the media mogul turned his barrel on web giant Google, and accused them of stealing newspaper content, selling ads against it and making a killing. But is Murdoch's anger because of this, or is he angry because he and other slow moving media execs didn't think up their own new distribution channels for their newspaper's content. He sounds more like a whining child who is upset that he didn't come up with the good idea first. Murdoch's complaint, according to some may be an effort to try and bring Google to the negotiation table so he can be paid for use of his newspaper's content. But would Google be forced into doing such a thing? If not, would Murdoch be able to rally his fellow newspaper publishers to form an alliance against Google? We don't think so. Newspapers publishers aren't in any position to play hard ball. They need all the help they can get at this point. And with Google's reported 300 million + clicks a month to newspaper websites, Murdoch and otheR publishers are better off trying to use that as a foundation to turn things around if they can.

Murdoch's heavy investment in the dinosaur newspaper business may very well be taking it's toll on the man who allegedly owns the news. It is said that one of the last straws for outgoing President and Chief Operating Officer Peter Chernin was when Murdoch took over DowJones. Peter probably saw the take over as a step back in a time when companies should be investing in digital distributing of content.

Bob Iger, the anti anti consumer?

2009-04-02T23:17:00.004-04:00

BY LIZ
As some media companies rush to reinvent themselves and throw together new revenue sources like charging consumers to access content online, Disney CEO Bob Iger believes doing such things is anti consumer. But Iger can say this because Disney reported 2008 sales of $37.8 billion and just announced that it spent $18 million to acquire Toronto-based new media outfit Kaboose, and seems to be in better shape than it's competitors. This is due to the fact that Disney has more consumer turnover than probably any other media company in the world, oh yeah and acts like The Jonas Brothers. So Iger probably thinks that whats good for the goose is good for the gander. Iger would hit major resistance from kids and their parents if he even attempted to put up paid walls on Disney.com or other kid targeted online Disney properties. Companies like News Corp, Time Warner, Viacom and others, can probably get away with it. But there has to be some value to the content they are being charged for. In other words consumers don't want to pay for something and then go else where and see the same thing for free. But these companies should tread lightly on this issue as consumers are very careful what they're spending money on, and content on the web is way down at the bottom of their list.

Cathie Black's lack of digital strategy wins her 3 more years atop Hearst Magazines

2009-01-12T22:17:00.005-05:00

BY LIZ

Time Inc CEO Ann Moore may see some signs of hope now that her pal Hearst CEO Cathie Black has signed on for 3 more years. Black whose contract was coming to an end, managed to stay on to lead the company into the "Digital World". Our guess is that the board didn't see anyone inside or outside the company they liked and so by default Black re-landed the gig. But Cathie may be in for her biggest challenge yet. With her new contract it is clear the board and Hearst CEO Frank Bennack are expecting her to deliver digital victory on a silver platter. Can she do it? Well like many of the magazine publishers out there, Hearst has yet to get its footing on the digital field. Cathie is going to have to hunker down and get creative with new ventures and ways to monetize current digital properties or her new 3 year contract could be cut short. Would we be surprised if this new contact says she has to deliver digital success within two years or something like that? Absolutely not. Pull your hair out Cathie.

Black, who arrived at the post in the mid-90s, now must bring the venerable US group into the 21st century. Like Ganzi, she is viewed at being slow to develop a strong digital vision. "The company has no digital strategy," said one executive, who has worked at Hearst.Being slow off the mark to capitalize on a digital future may try the patience of the family owned company.

Rupert Murdoch toyed with changing Newscorp's name

2008-12-27T15:07:00.007-05:00

BY THE SHOGUN

In the book "The Man Who Owns The News" Rupert Murdoch seemed to have been going through some late life crisis when he toyed with changing the name of his media empire after the DowJones takeover, to something that "Could better indicate his and Newscorp's philosophical reason for being". But apparently after running the idea by some of his underlings he decided to stick with the mighty Newscorp brand. The man even had mock ads that he was planning to run in The New York Times. Exactly what names Murdoch was throwing aroung in that head of his isn't known but we're sure it wouldn't have had that sound of power like NewsCorp. And why would you want to change the name of your company which you named after your first paper "The News"?

Bob Johnson itching to get back in the cable network business

2008-11-26T21:38:00.004-05:00

BY THE SHOGUN
After cashing out from the sale of Black Entertainment Television (BET). Bob Johnson is said to be planning a new cable network which a spokesperson says will cater to a multicultural audience interested in health, lifestyle, education and other issues. The mouthpiece also said that the new network is not intended to compete with BET or TV One. We find that hard to believe being that the name of this soon to be launched multicultural network will be called Urban Television LLC. Soooo Original isn't it? We thought Johnson would have at least spent time on a name that people wouldn't expect. Launching a new network with no intentions of competing with BET or TV One doesn't mean it won't compete with them. We have to hand it to Bob Johnson though, planning to launch a new cable net in these current economic times is very ballsy. Wait a minute. Will Johnson's new cable network not intentionally compete with Rapper Master P's Better Black Television network?

Has John Malone made any statements regarding the kid who offed himself in front of the internet public?

2008-11-23T18:17:00.006-05:00

BY THE SHOGUN
When Abraham Biggs Jr. made the decision that he was going to off himself, he first made it known on Bodybuilders.com a website which was taken over by media mogul John Malone's Liberty Media back in January of this year. We know the CEO of JustinTV where the poor kid broadcasted his death issued a statement related to the tragedy, but did John Malone or his underlings who manage the Bodybuilder.com website follow suit? We're are not saying they are in anyway to be blamed for anything but did anyone at Bodybuilders.com pick up on this kid's posting that he is planning to off himself? In many of the articles we read on this, they mostly only refer to the Bodybuilder.com website as a "Website for body builders" and no mention of the fact that the site is owned by one of the most powerful men in media. Guess they didn't want to send anymore traffic to the website. We're sure Bodybuilders.com's traffic shot up since this story broke. Hey John Malone, thank the dead kid.

Another New York Times profile on former Disney head Mike Eisner gives us the impression that he's been sitting on his hands for the past 8 months

2008-11-23T15:00:00.010-05:00

BY THE SHOGUN
There was a time when Mike Eisner was one of the most powerful men in media. He ruled with a rumored iron fist and made the final call on things across Disney and it's many subsidiaries. He was notorious for his micromanaging. However it was his micromanaging that kept Disney on top for many years. But as the saying goes nothing lasts forever. Now back as budding Internet mogul like his good buddy Barry Diller, and free of the hectic hanger-on, shareholder pleasing corporate media world, The New York Times does redundant profile of the man who once ran the mouse house, and if we read correctly, Mike Eisner is doing the same shit he was doing when The New York Times profiled him earlier this year in March.

Blackenterprise.com gets drastic makeover

2008-11-22T13:55:00.003-05:00

BY THE SHOGUN
The folks over at Black Enterprise magazine rolled out a re-designed blackenterprise.com and what we see is a drastic makeover that in our opinion, wasn't really necessary. The new site is missing something but we can't quite put our finger on it. The logo has also been revamped. Will this new logo roll out in print as well? We should hope so being that they would want to keep the branding consistent. Guess they were going for a cleaner look, but its a little too clean for us.

Fox News' Greta Van Susteren dreams of running an internet news site one day

2008-11-22T12:59:00.003-05:00

BY THE SHOGUN
Even people who already have their dream jobs have other dream jobs. Take for example Fox News's Greta Greta Van Susteren. She recently posted on her Gretawire blog that she sometimes fantasizes about running an internet news site but made sure to make it clear that she loves her job, you know just in case Fox News tubby, Roger Ales and News Corp God Rupert Murdoch reads too much into her fantasy.

I love my job but from time to time think about the future (I can be a dreamer)….what is next? what would be fun for me? Every day I have a different idea of what is next (and let me repeat, I do love my job), but if I had to pick today I would love to run an internet news site. I read the news all the time on the internet and I have some ideas of what I would do differently with some news sites…and I have had success developing GretaWire with you…so I have a history of working with the web

Hmmm. Is Greta throwing it out there hoping for interested parties to response? Is she looking to follow the footsteps of others like former American Media Editorial Director Bonnie Fuller and Tina Brown? We would suggest that she launches her own site with some help from her bossman Rupert Murdoch but, Greta probably doesn't want to deal with the whole building from the ground up thing. And the last thing we need is another news site right?

Yahoo's next CEO shouldn't be...

2008-11-22T11:55:00.007-05:00

BY THE SHOGUN
With Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang stepping down to make room for a new guy or gal, everyone has since put together their list of possible replacements. Well the hell with that. We came up with a few people who should not even be considered for the job of the real Chief Yahoo. We all know Yahoo President Sue Decker could very well become the new CEO by default, but from what We've been hearing, many are hoping this isn't the case. Some have said that, all the new CEO needs to do is push a sale to Microsoft and then walk away with a sweet package and go sit on an island somewhere for about a month. This may very well be the new CEO's only quick fix option because we doubt the board and shareholders have the patience for some superman or woman who comes in acting like they want to turn things around which could take years. Whoever it is, within a year of them taking office, Yahoo will probably be sold and/or merged, conceding to the mighty Google. Here are the names of the individuals who shouldn't get the job, and our reasons why.

1. Frank Biondi- Who are we kidding? Biondi is an old media guy who ran Viacom years ago before anyone knew what the hell social networking was.

2. Sue Decker- She is the default gal and should be the last resort pick. Also, she is part of the past. She is kinda hot though

3. Peter Chernin- After being Rupert Murdoch's number for so many years with no sign of ever becoming number one, we can all understand why Pete would want to jump ship to captain his own. But seriously, I think this would be a down grade for Pete. We say hold out a little longer because something is brewing in the house of Redstone.

4. Meg Whitman- Someone through Meg's name in the mix and I am still shocked that they did. Meg Whitman is all Interneted out right now. As Ebay CEO she appealed to stay at home moms and dads in middle America. On top of that, Meg strikes me as the kind who who would want to come in and try to turn things around, which would probably piss off Microsoft ruler Steve Ballmer again when he decides to stop acting like he doesn't want Yahoo and makes another offer. Then again when John McCain calls you one of the wisest people he knows, Meg probably feels like she can fix anything at this point.

At Time Warner, business as usual, and thats not a good thing

2008-11-14T01:07:00.000-05:00

-RYAN
Its easy to lay some of the blame for the trouble many companies are facing these days on the current economic climate . The media industry has been hit hard and some of the media industry's top guns are having to make drastic decisions to keep their heads above the rising water. Sumner Redstone, was forced to sell off shares of his companies and there is still talk that he may unload CBS to save Viacom. One of the companies suffering even more now is Time Warner, and we won't let Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes use the economy as a fucking crutch. However, we have to be fair and throw the blame as far back as on the lap of then CEO Dick Parsons. Mr. Parsons, credited with reducing the company's debt after the value killing merger with AOL, has only that under his belt and knowing about wine. Parsons was hell bent on the outdated notion that bigger is better and never made any real moves to put Time Warner on a diet. When time came for him to hand over the keys to his number two Jeff Bewkes, many waited, anxiously for change believing Bewkes would come in and shake things up instantly. But Bewkes is approaching his one year anniversary as CEO and he hasn't done anything worth writing about. Whats worth writing about is what he hasn't done. Bewkes like Parsons for some reason, is hesitant to pull the trigger on a major restructuring that is way overdue at Time Warner. The company is obese and needs to lose weight fast. Earlier when he took office there was talk that there was interest to sell or spin off AOL but Bewkes put that to bed during an interview.

When Bewkes was taking control at Time Warner back on January 1st, there was another man by the name of Hartmut Ostrowski taking control overseas at then German media giant Bertelsmann AG. Like Bewkes, Hartmut Ostrowski was taking over a major media company promising major changes to firm up their companies. Well, Ostrowski delivered on his promise for the most part. In no time the new CEO sold off businesses (50% stake in Sony-BMG) that no longer fit within his vision for the company, laid off thousands and is still looking to cut where he can. We can't really come up with anything that Bewkes has done to help set Time Warner on a new path. Wait....Oh yeah he folded New Line into the bigger Warner Bros. Studios, and announced plans to sell off AOL's stone age dial up business. Its as if Bewkes is afraid to take the heat if changes he probably does want to implement, fails. Time Inc is still going through an identity crisis and among other ailments, AOL is still a tumor that seems to get worst every quarter. Some will argue 10 months on the job isn't long enough to whip the overweight adult that is Time Warner into shape. OK that may have some truth to it, but we think 10 months is enough to at least set the company on a new path to new success.

American Media faces a John McCain like battle against TMZ.com with it's planned relaunch of Radaronline.com

2008-11-13T22:20:00.004-05:00

-BETH
Late last month American Media Inc, the king of the tabloids announced that it had entered a partnership to take over the website of the now three times failed Radar Magazine, Radaronline.com. In the announcement it was said that millions will be pumped into the development of the site as well as the employment of reporters, camera men, editors etc. in an attempt to take on Time Warner's TMZ.com, the celebrity stalking website and television show that has become a superpower. We are pleased to see AMI getting it's feet deeper into familiar waters, but the question still lingers for us. What in the world took them so long to see the light? Why did they allow a company whose only link to celebrity gossip was via it's magazine publishing division by way of People magazine to get the jump on them? Well it's better late than never right? Many are eager to see what AMI comes up with when they relaunch Radaronline in 2009. Some are so eager, they are already criticizing the current content being published on the stand by site which to us is just ridiculous. How can people criticize something that hasn't taken shape yet? Anyway, it won't be an easy road for AMI if TMZ.com is indeed it's target. TMZ.com is a household name, frequented by gossip fiends 24/7 seeking their hourly dose of celeb dish. The biggest mistake AMI can make with the Radaronline.com relaunch is to do exactly what TMZ.com is already doing. This would spell immediate doom.

The new Radaronline.com will have the celeb news machine that is AMI behind it, but most of AMI's news comes from the same places gossipists already frequent. There is no such thing as exclusivity anymore, especially on the web, so the new Radaronline will have to spin their news in a way that TMZ.com isn't. The new site will have to push the envelope a little further. We're talking about reporters and videographers getting the shit kicked out of them to deliver the juice. Another mistake the new Radaronline should avoid is being overly interactive. Many editors make the mistake of making their sites too interactive in an effort to engage readers, but the truth is, all the readers want to do is read what you publish and comment on if they feel the need to. Also, too many interactive features slows down the performance and takes away from the purpose the site was launched to serve. Hopefully an online only Radar will do better than the print.

Barry Diller's forgotten website for black people?

2008-11-13T00:08:00.004-05:00

-BETH
Everyone's talking about Thedailybeast.com the well publicized news gathering site bankrolled by Internet Mogul Barry Diller and headed by Editrix Tina Brown. The site which you should already know about based on the constant mentions by people like Joe Scarborough of MSNBC's "Morning Joe" according to recent traffic reports is a hit right out the gate. This is good news for both Diller and Tina Brown being that her last attempt at a start up crumbled and for Diller, well, things aren't looking too rosie in the spreadsheets at IAC. But what about Diller and IAC's other recent launch? What launch you ask? Well back in April of this year, the 10th of April to be exact, IAC launched what it dubbed a first-of-its-kind search engine for the Black community. The site titled Rushmoredrive.com, yeah odd name for a so-called search engine, at first glance looks like some kind of medical website. The logo is poorly designed, the color choices are very medically! and on top of all that it just lacks that search enginie kind of appeal. But the shirts at IAC being the Mavericks they are, probably set out for this exact appeal!! But enough about how much the site sucks. How is the traffic? Are black people utilizing their first of its kind search engine? Do they even know it exists? I mean did IAC do a direct mail campaign targeting black communities telling them that their is a new site designed and constructed specially for them? Well according to Quantcast.com Rushmoredrive.com had 1 million visitors in its first three months and has since been stuck at under 300k visits per month. Compared to Thedailybeast.com's 2.3 million visitors since it launched on October 15, Rushmoredrive.com probably should get the word out. Then again the monthly traffic could be worst. I mean look at Blackwebportal.com, that other search engine for black people. It only gets a little over 8k visits per month.

Its so bad, Time Inc is begging people to quit

2008-11-12T07:00:00.001-05:00

-BETH
Time Inc isn't issuing pink slips anymore they are begging people to quit. OK so it's not Time Inc's problem if an employee has a shit load of medical bills and a mortgage knocking at foreclosure's door, its just what they have to do to keep their already rich shareholders happy so they can enjoy their lavish Holiday vacations with their spoiled unappreciative children and botox addicted wives/husbands. Time Inc CEO Ann Moore is only doing her job as CEO. Hell, things are so bad at Time Inc, she appointed herself head of the entertainment group in addition to her roll as CEO. It doesn't get any real than that

The call for volunteers to take a severance package applies to a relatively small part of the company’s work force: writers, editors, photographers and researchers at a handful of magazines who are represented by the Newspaper Guild. Those magazines include Time, People, Sports Illustrated, Fortune and Money. Terms of the severance were not disclosed.

Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes is really pushing to make the company look good on paper isnt he? With revenue down 6.8 percent and all. He is coming up on his one year mark as CEO of the obese Time Warner, wonder how he's been doing? We will be taking a look at that, but being that AOL is still squeezing the life out of the company and Time Inc is still struggling to get its footing, it's not looking too good. Hey we endorsed you earlier on out, I hope we didn't make a mistake.

Can layoffs and shuttering magazines save publishers?

2008-11-12T05:00:00.001-05:00

-BETH
Don't expect to see people like Time Inc CEO Ann Moore, Conde Nast's Si Newhouse, Wenner's Jann Wenner, American Media's David Pecker, Hearst's Cathy Black, Niche Media's Jason Binn or any other heads of magazine publishing companies head to Washington to beg for a bailout. Unfortunately for these CEO's the only way around keeping their companies from sinking is to think about how many people to let go, how many magazines to kill, who they can merge with or all of the above. Then again those are pretty much your options if you're not a Wall Street firm. Sure some of these over paid magazine execs can take a pay cut to show their employees that they're hurting too, but we all know that would be a patronizing move being that all the individuals mentioned above and some not mentioned are millionaires. This year alone, we have seen magazine's folded or cut down in shocking numbers. Magazine industry employees haven't felt more unstable. So what are these hurting magazine publishers to do? Canceling the Holiday party like Hearst did is understandable, but it does nothing for moral and it magnifies the reality. What are these poor publishing execs to do? Would merging with a competitor help? Perhaps in the looooong run it would on the cost saving end, but a merger of two magazine powerhouses will no doubt lead to bigger layoffs and probably would end in a crumpled ball of fire due to a clash of nuclear egos. Another option is to continue to fold magazines targeting almost identical audiences into one another. Wait. But that too would lead to layoffs. Companies like Time Inc and American Media have divisions they can look to spin off to raise cash to keep their business from towing the line of failure. But then they will burn through that cash in no time, and who if anyone really wants to by any business wrapped in a troubled industry like magazine publishing right now anyway? Some publishers have resorted to cutting the small things employees appreciate, like free water & coffee, though some employees won't miss especially the coffee because come on, who drinks office brewed coffee? So what is a publishing company to do? Will we see a major magazine publisher go under, selling off its brands for pennies?

The new Time.com front page sucks big time

2008-11-05T00:43:00.004-05:00

-BETH
Time.com quietly launched a new front page some weeks ago and its a good thing they chose a to sneak it out. Its like they tossed it out to see what the reaction would be. Well here ya go if you haven't heard it already, it sucks big time. Not only does the Time logo get lost on the page, but the page on a whole just looks like one big vomit puddle. Note to Time, change it and change it quick.

Time Inc reorg still lacks major changes needed for current climate

2008-11-02T11:30:00.006-05:00

-BETH
Back in March Mediawiredaily.com laid out what we thought was needed to tune up Time Inc and it's business divisions. We mentioned that Time Inc was just too big and needed to be cut down in size. Over the past two years, Time Inc CEO Ann Moore has been trimming things at the magazine giant but she was focused mostly on reducing the head count. We mentioned in our article back in March that Moore needs to also focus on the many businesses operating under the Time Inc umbrella and toy with the idea of selling, or consolidating some of these businesses. Well earlier this week Moore again rolled some heads, a reported 600 or more, but structurally the company remains the same as far as it's businesses.

Under the reorg, effective Oct. 29, Time Inc.’s 24 magazines and related Web sites will be grouped into three business units based on similarity of audience and advertisers. Each will have its own general manager who will report to Time Inc. evp and CFO Howard Averill.

Unfortunately for Ms. Moore, we already see a problem with this reorg. She has some what detached herself from the heartbeat of the company and has inserted a middle man Time Inc. evp and CFO Howard Averill. In our opinion, she should have these three new business heads reporting directly to her, and keep the company's money man focused on money issues. Another major mistake in our opinion is Moore taking leadership of the entertainment group comprising People, InStyle, Entertainment Weekly and Essence. This will no doubt subtract some attention away from the big picture duties of the CEO. We know this whole thing is to save money but appointing yourself to head a magazine group within the company you're CEO of is just setting yourself up. Bottom line, Time Inc is still in need of a major shake up. But it looks as though this major shake up will come after Ann Moore moves on.

If you work for a magazine publisher, don't be fooled by management, you're fucked!

2008-11-01T16:49:00.006-04:00

-BETH
So you work in the magazine publishing business, and heads are rolling all around you at other magazine publishers. Word starts to spread that cuts may be coming to your company as well and you start to worry because you just started your holiday shopping and you planned to take a nice vacation in the New Year. Your boss hears all this talk about cuts coming and calls a meeting to assure you and your co-workers that everything is fine and the company is doing well. Don't buy it, chances are cuts are coming and you and your boss's names are on the list and he or she doesn't even know it. From Directors on down, sometimes from Vice Presidents on down, don't know shit about whats really going on in the corporate suite of a company. So my message to you is........ hell who am I kidding? This is what I had to do after getting the boot from the magazine publisher I worked for. Guess what? My boss gave us the talk, two weeks before bunch of us were escorted by security out of the building.

American Media President John Miller gets thrown off David Pecker's sinking ship to make it a little lighter

2008-11-01T16:12:00.007-04:00

-BETH
Mediawiredaily is on the path back to "Greatness". We will be publishing content here and there going into the new year. Come 2009, we plan to be back full time and on fire. Mediawiredaily.com is the only media business blog you can go to and get that real "St8t Talk" and no holds barred commentary on the media industry's movers and shakers. We will also be getting a little face lift for the new year. Nothing major. Just a little nip a tuck and a pull.

On another note- according to a source, American Media Inc's number two man John Miller has left the company. According to the source, word came late Friday via a very short email that David Pecker's day to day man was gone and nothing else was said. According to the source, things have been uneasy at the tabloid publisher, and with Miller's departure it only makes things worst. Perhaps Pecker got rid of Miller to help cover some costs with the recent takeover of Radaronline.com which the company plans to transform into a TMZesque destination. Hmmm!! A little too late on that one we think. Its doubtful Pecker will look to fill Miller's spot. He may opt to split the day to day duties between two top lieutenants. Dave Leckey, currently listed on the company website as the Executive Vice President, Consumer Marketing and Kevin Hyson, Executive Vice President, Chief Marketing Officer may have both just gotten an early Holiday gift or headache. Developing...

Former Maxim editor turned former VP of entertainment at heavy.com Jimmy Jellinek is on his way to being the former SVP, Digital Content,at Playboy

2008-08-06T00:43:00.004-04:00

SDH

Wow! And we thought Heavy.com was paying him the big bucks. It was less than a year ago that former Maxim Editor Jimmy Jellinek landed at Heavy.com to serve as vice president of entertainment with much fan fare. Both he and fellow former Dennis Publishing employee Stuff publisher John Lumpkin bragged about the good pay they were getting at Heavy.com saying their take home pay was better than what they were hauling in when they toiled for Dennis. "I don't want to ruffle anyone's feathers, but it's more," said Jellinek. Now Jellinek has bailed on Lumpkin to go tackle Playboy Enterprises effort to become a serious digital media player on the crowded digital field. In his new roll Jellinek will work under the title of Senior Vice President, Digital content, digital media, and of course the pay is way better than the way better pay he was getting at Heavy.com. When Jellinek joined Heavy.com back in late December 2007, he said “For him, it's just going where the zeitgeist is,". But clearly, in 2008 it’s just going where the money is and rightfully so. Jellinek will now spend his days looking at naked women online and coming up with ways to get more men to visit playboy.com and all its planned and/or existing digital offerings. That shouldn’t be too hard right? Also, it’s not impossible for his pal John Lumpkin to join him at his new gig. Playboy could make a play for Heavy.com one day. It wouldn’t be a bad fit.

Comcast drops $125 million on a looong list of emails

2008-08-05T23:39:00.003-04:00

SDH

Comcast dug into its deep pockets, not to purchase a newspaper or smaller cable company, they dropped some cash on Dailycandy.com, a shopping newsletter for the shopping female to fluff up its Comcast Interactive offerings. Comcast CEO Brian Roberts no doubt ran this by the wife and got positive feed back. However the real winner in this is Bob Pittman, the man who played a huge roll in the dumbest merger in the history of American business. Pittman paid $3.5 million for the newsletter and now he and his partners at the Pilot Group are walking away with that and much much more. We're shocked to hear that Viacom was also in the running to acquire the site but was out bided by Comcast. Viacom sure does have a bad rep of being out bided don't they. Wonder if Viacom Prexy Phil Dauman will lose his job over this latest miss? Look for some kind of tie up with Comcast’s The Style Network and E! Entertainment Television programming.

Former AOL boss Jon Miller best if used after March 2009

2008-08-03T16:27:00.005-04:00

- SDH

When Jon Miller was booted from AOL, he basically went underground barely heard from and/or seen. Now things are looking like they are about to be shaken up at Yahoo and he surfaces as a potential board member. But too bad for him his former employer Time Warner still has the hold on him until 2009. Miller is being put up to join the board of troubled web giant Yahoo! which many think is a prelude for an eventual Miller administration at the company. Poor Miller thought his former bosses at Time Warner would have been OK with him joining Yahoo! by waiving the non-compete clause. But he was dealt a blow late last week when he was told no way. We bet if Dick Parsons was still running the show at Time Warner Jon Miller would have been able to hop on board the Yahoo train. That Jeff Bewkes is a by the books kinda guy isn’t he, or shall we say by the contract kinda guy. Well Lucky for Jon, 2009 is right around the corner.

Losing Control: The Ochs-Sulzberger family, is like that middle class family who is about to lose their house

2008-07-27T21:13:00.011-04:00

How will the Ochs-Sulzberger family justify their relevancy now?

-BY SDH
The New York Times Co reported nasty second quarter results as its stock price continued slide slowing at $12.48. This puts the company's market cap at measly $1.76 billion opening the door for someone to drop a sweet offer on the table double the current value which would put massive pressure on the Ochs-Sulzberger family to sell. But to sell now would be a huge loss for the family and its shareholders. Perhaps now is the time for CEO Janet Robinson to either get creative or if she can’t go the distance, head for the exit. Her leaving won't make a difference but sometimes a change at the top gives those who have loads to lose, a little hope. Some would argue that the Ochs-Sulzberger's should have gotten out when they had a chance, but now the company may never run on all cylinders again. The Ochs-Sulzberger’s grip may finally break, if it isn't already broken.

At its current $12.48 stock price—down 46.3% from a year ago—Times Co. has a $1.79 billion market cap. To put this in perspective, CBS recently acquired tech publisher CNET, a much weaker media brand, for $1.8 billion. Add in the company's $1.1 billion of debt, subtract $42 million for its cash on hand, and the company's total enterprise value—a valuation measure that totals up those items in such a fashion—is just $2.85 billion.

How Can The New York Times Be Worth So Little?

Les Moonves is trying too hard

2008-07-06T13:48:00.004-04:00

-SDH

There are many questions hanging over Viacom and CBS, both were separated in an effort to create shareholder value and in our opinion to end the battle of the successors between Les Moonves and Tom Freston who at the time were Co- CEOs of the combined company known as Viacom. Since the companies went their separate ways, the only thing that was created was more headaches for all parties involved. Both companies have been struggling to gain footing along with its competitors. CBS CEO Les Moonves spent big trying to land CBS on the good foot but none of his well publicized acquisitions has added any value to CBS that is worth mentioning. Some of his most recent splurges include the purchase of Wall Street blog, Wallstrip.com which to this day we still don’t get. He scooped up Lastfm.com only to re-launch it with much fanfare promoting its new free internet radio format, something already available all over the web. There is the whole Katie Couric hiring which failed big time and is costing the company a lot of money due to her salary and ad dollars. His most recent splurge was on Cnet Networks, a digital media company which produces websites like, Cnet.com, Chow.com and ZDnet.com. As far as CBS’s whole digital push, its Les Moonves swinging at marble sized balls with a broom stick hoping for a direct hit. These expensive splurges and CBS’s lack of love on Wall Street at the moment will ultimately lead to Moonves’ ouster. Hell. we think Sumner Redstone’s finger is already on the trigger. We campaigned (if you will) for Les Moonves when he was the shining star in Sumner Redstone’s eye.

We called for him to be installed in dual rolls as CEO of both CBS and Viacom. But that was just us being naïve and jumping on the bandwagon (yeah we have the balls to admit it). But what seems to have happened here is that Les Moonves got a little too sure of himself and got a big head to go along with an even bigger ego. This is the man who spent big to get into the record business by re-launching CBS Records when the record business was trying to get out of the record business. This is the man who spent big to get into film with high salary hires. Les Moonves was trying too hard to please and in doing so, spent money where he didn’t need to, or perhaps shouldn’t have at all. Les Moonves is just an analog executive trying to survive in digital world and in doing so gambled big, not only with company money but perhaps with his job as well. Some of the things Moonves should consider moving forward if he is still around is to spin off the radio business and sell book publisher Simon & Schuster. Doing this would probably tighten the focus at CBS a bit. Moonves needs to also hold off on anymore Internet acquisitions. Sumner Redstone can’t be too happy with Moonves at the moment.

Sumner Redstone is about to violate your privacy

2008-07-04T12:00:00.007-04:00

-SDH

We almost forgot that Viacom still had an open lawsuit against Google's Youtube.com for copyright infringement. Well the legal action just got bumped up a notch by a court ruling this week ordering Youtube to hand over sensitive user information to Viacom and its legal eagles. Viacom will get their hands on your Youtube.com user IDs, information about which clips you watched and your IP address. The question still remains, what does Viacom really want? If the company is taking this action against Youtube, what about those other sites that are also streaming Viacom owned content without the company’s permission? Guess you have to go after the big guy in the yard to prove a point.

While Viacom is looking to prove widespread unauthorized viewing of its shows like "The Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report" on Youtube, privacy watchdogs are howling that the move is a massive invasion of privacy.

YOUTUBE HANDS PROFILES TO VIACOM [NYP]