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General Electric Co. Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Immelt was here Wednesday working to accelerate negotiations to acquire Vivendi SA's minority stake in NBC Universal, according to people familiar with the matter. GE, which owns 80% of NBC Universal, is progressing in talks with the Paris-based media and telecommunications conglomerate, the people said, though it remains unclear whether Vivendi will sell its 20% stake. In recent weeks, GE has ironed out a deal to give U.S. cable company Comcast Corp. control over NBC Universal. The deal hinges on Vivendi's selling its stake to GE. View Full Image VIVENDI Bloomberg News Jeffrey...

The list of staffers downsized from Time Inc. yesterday grew by another 25 people, even though it appeared that CEO Ann Moore and Editor-in-Chief John Huey would wait until after Thanksgiving to begin this round of cuts. Fortune was the hardest-hit title. Including yesterday's layoffs, about 30 staffers have left the company rather than the expected 40, with about 22 from the edit side. Yesterday, three assistant managing editors were whacked: Eric Gellman, John Brodie and Brian Dumanie, who ran the recently shuttered Fortune Small Business. Two writers were also laid off, Suzanne Kapner and Telis Demos. Managing Editor Andy...

According to an informed source, the Washington Post will soon announce that it will close its news bureaus in New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles, as part of a cost-saving measure. It's unclear just when the closings will take place; however, the source says that the Post will not be laying off correspondents in those bureaus, but rather will be bringing them back to the mother ship, the better to focus on the Post's core mission of reporting on Washington. More to come. UPDATE, 5:03 P.M.: Memo from management---though correspondents are spared the ax, three news aides will lose their...

Remember how big the November sweeps used to be? For viewers, the memory is becoming more distant. On the last Thursday of the still-big November TV period, virtually every network show took it on the chin. Similar ratings trends also took place earlier in the week. Big shows -- such as ABC's "Grey's Anatomy," CBS' "CSI," NBC's "The Office" and Fox' "Fringe" -- all sank lower versus their respective results of a week before. Some of this could be due to a NFL Network Thursday night game between the Miami Dolphins-Carolina Panthers. That network's Thursday games have been pulling in...

Oprah Winfrey is fleeing broadcast TV for cable. NBC, once arguably the biggest cultural tastemaker in the United States, is being shopped to Comcast, the country’s largest cable company. Have we reached a tipping point that suggests a remarkable decline in the fortunes of broadcast television in America? snip Analysts and executives agree that the economic model of broadcast — which relies more heavily on advertising than cable — is fractured. What they are wondering now is if it is irreparably broken. snip The business model of the big three networks — which became four when Fox began prime-time programming...

Multiple sources are reporting that several employees at washingtonpost.com are losing their jobs as part of the merger of the site with the main Washington Post newsroom. Several of dot-com's editorial staffers as well as some non-editorial workers are among those who've gotten the ax, according to the sources. City Desk is not printing names just yet. We've contacted several allegedly dismissed employees but have not yet received direct confirmation from them. When asked if the Web site has laid off employees, Washington Post spokesperson Kris Coratti responded with this statement: "As part of the work we’re doing to turn...

The economy may have rallied in the third quarter, but the newspaper industry did not, as total advertising revenues -- including print and online -- tumbled 28%, from roughly $10.1 billion in the third quarter of 2008 to about $6.4 billion this year. The third-quarter loss is on par with first and second-quarter declines of 28.3% and 29%, respectively. As in previous quarters, losses were spread evenly across all the main newspaper advertising categories -- including national, down 29.8%, retail, down 24%, and classifieds, down 37.9%. National advertising in particular reached a discouraging milestone in the third quarter, with total...

"Most Americans probably already know pretty much what's happened by the time they get home at night, with radio and the Internet and iPods," says retired TV newsman Roger Mudd. "So at 6:30 p.m., they don't want to sit in front of television for a half hour and have someone tell them what they already know."

The biggest magazines in the Time Inc. empire — People, Time, Sports Illustrated, Fortune and Money — should find out today how many volunteers have stepped forward to accept buyout packages. Time Inc. is said to be looking to slash more than 500 jobs from its ranks, with the bulk of the layoffs to happen next week before the process is wrapped up by year-end. While not all titles outlined how many volunteers they need, sources said that Time Inc.'s biggest magazines could eliminate as many as 90 editorial positions. Fortune is expected to see the deepest cuts at about...

Last month we heard that the AP might need to make hundreds of layoffs before the end of the year. Some of those layoffs, we hear, could be coming today. A tipster tells us that the word amongst AP union members is that today could be the day for "70 or 80" layoffs. The rumors say that the layoffs will be spread across the company nationally. Although—ominously—we hear that New York staffers have been summoned to an "important meeting" this afternoon. We'll update if we learn more. In the meantime, if you have more details, email us. UPDATE: Another reporter...

After losing its ratings lead and falling to last in primetime, the once-dominant CNN stands to lose the last piece of top-shelf value still attached to its business side: premium pricing. Time Warner-owned CNN, while getting beaten handily in the ratings race and having fallen to fourth place in rankings, still commands higher ad rates than rivals -- in some cases double those of Fox News and MSNBC. But perhaps not for long. While advertisers have been willing to shell out more for CNN's venerable brand, broad audience reach and less-opinionated programming, media buyers said the network's ratings slide is...

When, in late September, rumors surfaced that Comcast was trying to buy NBC Universal from General Electric, Wall Street reacted with dismay. Grandiose attempts to combine media production and distribution — programming and plumbing — are nothing new in the entertainment business, but they almost always end in disappointment. Witness AOL Time Warner. So what in the world could be prompting the Comcast chief executive, Brian Roberts, to start down this accursed path? I fear that I’m to blame. A few months ago, while stalking the aisles of my local Best Buy, I gave in to techno-temptation. I bought a...

Layoffs are not over at The Associated Press. AP CEO Tom Curley addressed staffers Thursday at a company-wide Town Hall forum, saying: "I know you all would like me to sound the all clear. I cannot do that." While many employees have been shown the door, there will yet be cuts in order to slash 10% from the payroll as planned. Curley and other executives discussed a number of iniatives aimed at bringing AP into the digital future. Included in the plans: * They want to create landing pages, curating news and linking to other users to drive traffic to...

Newsweek editor Jon Meacham informed staff today that about a dozen positions would be eliminated due to the "economic climate in publishing." Meacham, in a memo obtained by POLITICO, noted that the magazine has taken a different direction this year, and despite the layoffs claimed that it "continues to appear promising in terms of building and retaining an engaged audience that we hope will be attractive to advertisers." Full memo from Meacham after the jump. To the Staff From Jon Meacham This has been a tough day for the magazine. Because the economic climate in publishing has become ever more...

Things seem to be going from bad to worse at the Washington Times. And the continued operation of the newspaper, which is owned by Rev. Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church, seems to be in serious doubt. There's already been plenty of speculation that the paper might fold or go online-only. Sources at the Times said they fear major changes and that the Moon family feud that's driving the paper's turmoil could lead to the Times shutting down in the coming months -- with some suggesting that Preston Moon, the reverend's son who serves as chairman of News World Communications, the...

Much of the talk in the sports media world last fall centered on whether an effective competitor would step up to compete with ESPN. ESPN had just outbid Fox by $100 million to secure the rights to college football’s Bowl Championship Series through 2014, thanks mainly to its dual revenue stream that has cable and satellite operators making a monthly payment of more than $4 per subscriber for the channel. At the time, some sports league executives were fearful that ESPN would become a de facto monopoly that eventually would wind up driving the cost of sports rights down. If...

The Star Tribune is cutting another 100 jobs companywide to further shave costs after bankruptcy. The company's operating committee announced the cuts this morning, saying that the "cracking of our historical economic model and the current Great Recession have forced us to move quickly to make meaningful and difficult adjustments over the next few months." About 30 of the cuts will come from the newsroom and editorial staff -- about a 10 percent reduction -- Star Tribune Editor Nancy Barnes said. The company said most of the cuts would be completed by the end of the year, but that the...

The state of New Hampshire last week agreed to guarantee 75 percent of a $250,000 loan from an Upper Valley bank to the new owner of the Eagle Times, an unusual deal because it involves a daily newspaper and the government it covers. The Executive Council on Wednesday unanimously approved without debate the “working capital loan guarantee,” which would be administered by the New Hampshire Business Finance Authority. Under the deal, the BFA and the state would be liable to pay up to $187,500 to Connecticut River Bank if Eagle Printing & Publishing LLC defaulted on the $250,000 line of...

A T-shirt a day has kept unemployment at bay for an American man who is making about $85,000 a year by selling advertising space on his torso. Jason Sadler, 26, a former marketing professional from Florida, founded his own company, www.iwearyourshirt.com, in 2008 with the idea to wear a T-shirt supplied by any company and then use social media tools to promote the firm. For his human billboard service, Sadler charges the "face value" of the day so January 1 costs $1, while December 31 costs $365. Sadler said this may not sound like a lot but it adds up...

Fortune and Sports Illustrated will be the hardest hit magazines in the mass layoffs that just began at Time Inc. About 40 people will be laid off from Fortune, with Managing Editor Andy Serwer looking to cut roughly 24 from the 80-strong edit staff, insiders said. Although he didn't reveal numbers, in an e-mail to staffers yesterday Serwer asked for volunteers by Nov. 18. Fortune had already said that starting next year it will go from 25 issues to 18. SI will be making similar reductions, a source said. Time Inc. is expected to eventually cut just over 500 jobs....

Newspaper publishers are running out of costs to cut, and they need to show some real ad-revenue gains soon. Executives from major publishing chains have clung to a slight moderation in their ad revenue's year-over-year rate of decline from quarter to quarter this year as a sign of improvement. But that probably has more to do with the mathematics of easing comparisons to last year's economic decline than it does with any actual improvements in this year's ad performance. The reality is that newspapers are suffering severe declines in ad revenue this year on top of the double-digit percentage declines...

The guillotine has begun its descent at Time Inc. Sources at the publishing company (which is part of the same conglomerate as DailyFinance parent AOL) say executives have asked for an emergency meeting with representatives of the Newspaper Guild to discuss job eliminations. A Time Inc. spokeswoman declined to comment, but John Shostrom, chairman of the company's Guild unit, said the meeting will take place "soon." He said it was Time Inc. that called the meeting. "They act, and we react," said Shostrom. "The Guild doesn't lay people off. We just fight back when they make proposals to lay people...

With the noise level rising over consumers possibly paying a fee for TV shows online, now comes a report that iTunes is considering an all-you-can eat $30-a-month TV service. A new subscription service would turn iTunes into a pseudo cable and satellite TV operator -- a company that charges monthly fees for traditional TV/cable networks. The difference is that iTunes service would be sans advertising. Shows would not be distributed via linear networks -- but, as iTunes does now, by program. The story was first reported in AllThingsD.com. Apple's iTunes Stores is the original digital video Internet service, launching with...

The Tribune Newspapers will cease operations on Dec. 31, the parent company Freedom Communications said Monday. Read the company's news release (PDF) Freedom officials made the announcement to Tribune employees Monday morning, citing the economic recession and changes in the newspaper industry that have cause many publications to close and others to file for bankruptcy protection. Freedom, which itself is operating under Chapter 11 reorganization, had been attempting to sell the Tribune, but no acceptable offers have come forward, said Interim Chief Executive Burl Osborne. “We have received a number of inquiries, but none at a level we would remotely...

Battle of the South Florida billboards heats up The billboard catches the attention of drivers and truckers traveling on the highways. "YOUR WIFE IS HOT" -- BETTER GET YOUR A/C FIXED," it reads, in big bold letters. A clever and sexy slogan developed in January by Air Around the Clock, an A/C and appliance service based in Broward County. But now the slogan is generating a lot of heat after its competitor, All Year Cooling, flipped the phrase this summer. "YOUR WIFE IS NOT HOT! Because you called All Year Cooling to replace your A/C rather than the other guys,"...

snip It is not only the demise of big-name papers that should raise concern; the rapid decline of the newspaper industry is playing out quietly, with small, reasonably responsible dailies in cities and rural regions across the country disappearing without widespread notice. Dozens of daily and weekly newspapers have closed this year. Cities that once enjoyed the fruits of newspaper competition (Denver, Seattle) are starving. "Surviving" publications -- and many have filed for bankruptcy -- are cutting reporting staffs to the bone (this month, the New York Times said it would cut 100 more newsroom jobs). International bureaus, statehouse bureaus...

Signaling that worse times are ahead for magazines, Time Inc. is expected to announce next week that it will cut $100 million from costs, including another big round of layoffs. The timing is coordinated with parent company Time Warner’s third-quarter earnings announcement, sources said, scheduled for Wednesday morning. Time Inc., the publisher of titles like Time, Fortune, and People, has already cut costs dramatically: a year ago, it announced it was dismissing 6 percent of its work force, or about 600 people. That was apparently not enough to make up for revenue declines. The $100 million in costs is expected...

Time Inc. is bracing for another round of cutbacks. Sources say the layoffs will be most severe in the division that includes Fortune, Sports Illustrated, Time and Money, and will be carried out before the Thanksgiving break. Since many of the old-line titles at Time Inc. are covered by union contracts with the Newspaper Guild, the company will likely have to offer voluntary buyout options as part of the downsizing. Time is running out if it hopes to complete the layoffs and write off the costs in the fourth quarter. Ann Moore, CEO of Time Inc., personally took over supervision...

No surprise that Americans are dropping their newspaper subscriptions, as a new batch of numbers from the Audit Bureau of Circulations showed yesterday. But before you file this under “death of newspapers”, do ponder this for a second: Declining circulation might not be the worst news in the world. Tough times have forced many papers to rethink their circulation strategies. An obvious conclusion: Much of the money publishers were spending to print and deliver dead trees has gone to waste. New strategy: Print fewer copies, and charge more for the ones you do sell. That’s a tactic, not a strategy,...

The latest FAS-FAX for the six months ending Sept. 30 is here in a matter of moments and some numbers are already trickling out. We already know about the massive 17% drop at USA Today and now there's this: Compared to the same six-month period ending September 2008, daily (Monday-Friday) circulation at The New York Times is down 7.2% to 927,851. Sunday fell 2.6% to 1,400,302. Los Angeles Times reported daily is off 11% to 657,467 and 6.7% on Sunday to 983,702. The San Francisco Chronicle lost more than a quarter of its daily circ, down 25.8% to 251,782. Sunday...

Local TV teeters as staff, anchors are axed As a top anchor in Los Angeles, John Beard worked during the heyday of local TV news -- covering earthquakes, riots and the occasional celebrity on the loose. Beard was a familiar presence on L.A. TV screens for 30 years, via lead anchor roles on KNBC and then KTTV. But three decades after arriving on the West Coast from Buffalo, Beard is back where he started, anchoring a morning newscast in that small western New York community. Beard had a great run in the nation's No. 2 market -- but his exit...

Former CBS news anchor Dan Rather urged American news consumers Thursday to take action to address the declining state of the journalism industry. More than 750 Austinites, including students, professors and journalists, attended the fifth annual Mary Alice Davis Distinguished Lecture in the Union Ballroom to hear Rather reflect on his more than 60 years as a journalist, including 24 years with CBS Evening News as an anchor and managing editor. “When we speak of the future of journalism, let us fully understand that quality journalism of integrity is currently in decline and in peril,” Rather said. He cited corporatization,...

Time Warner Inc's (TWX.N) magazine division Time Inc plans another round of job cuts as advertising declines erode revenue, a source familiar with the unit said on Thursday. The job cuts at Time Inc -- which publishes Time magazine, People, Sports Illustrated and Fortune -- would be at about the same level as the division cut last year, the source said. Time Inc. cut more than 600 positions, or more than 6 percent of its workforce, in that round. The company declined to comment, though a spokesman for Fortune magazine separately said that it plans to shave the number of...

The New York Times Co. said Thursday that it lost $36 million, or 25 cents a share in the third quarter, compared to a loss of $106 million, or 74 cents a share, in the same period a year ago. Earnings per share from continuing operations, excluding severance and special items, were 16 cents. Revenue fell 17% to $571 million from $687 million. Analysts polled by FactSet Research estimated, on average, a loss of 2 cents a share and sales of $576 million.

You'll be able to watch popular cable television series such as HBO's "Entourage" and AMC's "Mad Men" on your computer by the end of the year without paying extra — as long as you're a Comcast Corp. subscriber watching at home. Comcast will be the first cable TV operator to unlock online access to a slate of valuable cable shows and movies, aiming to replicate what's available on television through video on demand. Time Warner Cable Inc. and others plan to follow as the pay-TV companies look to satisfy growing consumer appetite for online video while preserving subscription revenue. Access...

In case the latest ZenithOptimedia ad-spending forecast wasn't depressing enough, the outlook for newspapers and magazines is especially bad -- even relative to the grim state of advertising in general. Among the gloomy predictions: while overall ad spending is expected to rebound somewhat in 2011, newspapers and magazines will continue to decline due to secular factors, including Internet competition. ZenithOptimedia expects total ad spending in developed markets to drop 9.9% in 2009, followed by a further 2.9% decline in 2010, thanks to continuing structural economic problems. After this, the Zenith forecast has ad spending in developed markets growing 1.5% in...

The New York Times (NYT.N) plans to cut 100 newsroom jobs by the end of the year through buyouts and might resort to layoffs as it reels from the advertising revenue drop that is imperiling U.S. newspapers. The news, delivered in a memo to employees by Times Executive Editor Bill Keller on Monday, comes after the newspaper's workers already took a 5 percent pay cut for most of this year and a similar program last year. "When we took our 5 percent pay cuts, it was in the hope that this would fend off the need for more staff cuts...

Museum officials in Thailand have covered a billboard depicting Adolf Hitler saluting after complaints from the German and Israeli embassies. The advertisement, which reads in Thai, "Hitler is not dead," was set up on a main road out of Bangkok two weeks ago. The billboard was covered up after the museum received "a lot" of complaints, director Somporn Naksuetrong said. The series of highway advertisements featuring famous dead people promote Louis Tussaud's Waxworks in Pattaya. "We weren't showing his image to celebrate him," Mr Naksuetrong told AFP. "We think he is an important historical figure, but in a horrible way....

Cost cutting produced a solidly profitable third quarter for Gannett Co. But the latest financial results for the country's largest newspaper publisher show another big decline in ad revenue. Gannett owns USA Today, more than 80 other newspapers and 23 television stations. Its earnings Monday follow a similar report last week from McClatchy Co., another big newspaper owner that has managed to profit even as its main revenue source withers. Gannett's ad sales in its publishing division dropped 28 percent from a year ago. That follows a 32 percent decline in the second quarter and a 34 percent decline in...

In a post nine months ago, I asked the question, Will Election of Barack Obama Open Window of Truth in Home Security System TV Commercials? Today, I can report some improvement: One of the two companies highlighted in my previous report has changed its ways, while the other continues to paint an inaccurate picture of crime in the USA.

Video Description - Quote: October 12, 2009 All presidents have periods where they lose popularity. So companies tying their brands to individual politicians are either naive about politics, or they and their ad agencies are run by people suffering from groupthink. Were they all drinking the Obama kool-aid? Had they not considered what might happen when Obama inevitably fell from messiah status to that of mortal politician? Category: News & Politics Tags: barack obama pepsi politics inaugural inauguration dc ny nyc marketing advertising democrats republicans protest protests t-shirts vendors

Some things to ponder in the wake of today's news that the New York Times Co. won't be selling the Boston Globe after all (Herald story here, Globe story here, entire memo to follow): 1. Given the speed with which the Times Co. decided to reject the bids assembled by Steve Taylor and Platinum, it seems--at least from the outside--like not a lot of deliberation was required. When did the Times Co. make up its mind not to sell? And what was the determing factor? 2. The elimination of lifetime job guarantees earlier this year paved the way for some...

One year ago, the Newhouses were threatening to close down their treasured jewel, The Star-Ledger, unless the paper’s union made a series of concessions, which included cutting the newsroom by 40 percent. They got what they wanted, and it seemed like things could go back to normal, albeit with fewer deckhands on the ship. Yet on Monday, George Arwady, the publisher of the The Star-Ledger, wrote in a memo to staff that “the revenue situation at our newspaper has worsened this year, and we expect a further significant revenue decline next year.” Now, the paper needs to cut 50 more...

What’s one of the biggest names in magazine publishing worth? These days, maybe $5 million, plus debt. That’s the high end of the range Bloomberg will be paying for BusinessWeek, reports BusinessWeek, which has done an excellent job of covering its sale. Can’t call this one a surprise, as Bloomberg has reportedly been the lead bidder for some time now. BusinessWeek employees spent most of the day waiting for an announcement to that effect, and finally heard one, via Bloomberg’s wire service, shortly after 5 pm EDT. Shortly after, BusinessWeek Editor Stephen J. Adler gathered his troops for an informal...

The Newark Star-Ledger, the Newhouse-owned newspaper where 150 newsroom staffers took buyouts last year, is about to suffer even deeper cuts. According to a memo sent to out by publisher George Awady (see below), executives will be seeking another round of buyouts, and if that doesn’t work, involuntary layoffs. For many years, the Newhouse newspapers kept unions at bay by promising lifetime employment, but the implosion of the industry has swept those promises into the dustbin of history. The newspaper, long admired for its comprehensive coverage of the chronically corrupt northern New Jersey region it covers, did manage to lure...

For media, this is the best of times and the worst. The best because the cost to publish news, make a video or distribute a song has never been lower. But also the worst because it's hard to find a company, new or old media, that has emerged with a sustainable business model. Consumers are left wondering how much longer their favorite sources of news and entertainment will be around. The most recent stark contrast was between the $1 billion valuation for pre-revenue startup Twitter and the shutdown of the iconic Gourmet magazine. A new book provocatively entitled "The Curse...

When the Audit Bureau of Circulations releases the latest numbers on Oct. 26, it will show that USA Today's circulation fell 17% to 1.88 million for the six months ending September 2009, a drop of about 390,000 copies. The decline could also threaten USA Today’s position as the No. 1 newspaper in the country by circulation. To put that in perspective, the reduction of copies represents roughly the entire daily circulation of The Arizona Republic the 10th largest paper in the U.S. as of spring. The loss was an expected one at the Nation's Newspaper, which implemented a price increase...

After months of speculation, the carnage came to Condé Nast earlier this week. The company, one of the nation's three biggest magazine publishers, announced it would close four magazines, including Gourmet, one of the industry's most iconic publications. A NEWSWEEK analysis of industry data provides new evidence of the financial toll that drove that decision: based on estimates of publishing data, Condé Nast could see its ad revenue drop by $1 billion in 2009. Through August, ad dollars already have plunged by about $600 million from the similar eight-month period in 2008 when revenues also were depressed. Of Condé Nast's...

But, alas, it's not viewers returning to broadcast Typically, the cable networks see their ratings rise in the summer as they roll out new and returning original series, at a time when the broadcast networks are running either repeats or reality series, with their ratings well down from the regular season. But how does cable fare when the broadcast networks break out their new shows in the fall? It's an interesting question, and at first glance it would appear they’re suffering as viewers swing back over to broadcast, where there are a number of new shows that could become breakout...

The most recent six-month period for measuring newspaper circulation ended last Wednesday. It takes a month or so to assemble the results, so watch for actual numbers around Halloween. I'm sticking my neck out only a little in predicting they will be a veritable house of horrors. Here's why this six-month period is likely be be even worse than the period ended March 31, which saw average losses of 7 percent daily and 5.3 percent Sunday compared to the same period in 2008: This is the first six-month period likely to show the full effect of the recession on customers...