Free Republic

http://biz.yahoo.com/fool/060828/115679589119.html?.v=1&printer=1 Motley Fool Dow Jones' Selling Points Monday August 28, 4:11 pm ET By Alyce Lomax Although Dow Jones (NYSE: DJ - News) has a whole slew of well-known, national news brands within its product portfolio, it now plans to sell six of its community-based newspapers as part of its continued focus on online operations. The company is shopping around its Ottaway Community Newspapers, which are local papers for Danbury, Conn.; Oneonta, N.Y.; Plattsburg, N.Y.; Santa Cruz, Calif.; Sunbury, Penn.; and Traverse City, Mich. Those markets may not sound like much to write home about, especially since Dow Jones is...

Journal Register 2Q Earnings Decline on One-Time Charge, Lower Ad Sales TRENTON, N.J. (AP) -- Journal Register Co., parent of the New Haven Register and other newspapers, said Thursday second-quarter profit dropped 36.4 percent, weighed down by a one-time charge and weaker advertising sales. Second-quarter earnings tumbled to $9.8 million, or 25 cents per share, from $15.4 million, or 37 cents per share, in the year-ago period. This year's adjusted net income was $12.3 million, or 31 cents per share, which excludes a special item related to a one-time charge for a non-compete/separation arrangement of $2.5 million after taxes. There...

From Citizen Kane to All the President's Men, Hollywood has enjoyed an enduring love affair with newspapers. But now that relationship seems to be cooling. As film studios have undergone their own strains in recent years, they have increasingly turned away from newspaper advertising.During the first quarter of the year - the busiest time for film industry advertising because of the seasonal awards - spending on newspapers was $233m, according to the Newspaper Association of America, an industry trade group. That marked a steady decline from the same period three years ago, when newspapers hauled in $310m from Hollywood.For most...

Gannett 2Q Earns Fall 8.3 Percent on Soft British Market, Higher Cost for Newsprint NEW YORK (AP) -- Gannett Co., the largest newspaper publisher in the country, reported an 8.3 percent decline in second-quarter earnings Wednesday on softness in the British market and higher costs for newsprint and interest payments. Gannett, which publishes 90 daily newspapers including USA Today, the largest-selling daily, earned $310.5 million in the 13 weeks ending June 25, down from $338.6 million in the comparable period a year ago. The company earned $1.31 per share, in line with the estimates of analysts polled by Thomson Financial...

May 2006 Weekday Competitive Program Ranker May 2006: 5/1/2006 - 5/26/2006 NETWORK PROGRAM NAME AA% AA(000) AA(000) AA(000) FOX THE OREILLY FACTOR 1.8 1,558 2,003 375 FOXN HANNITY & COLMES 1.2 1,096 1,378 296 FOXN ON THE RECORD W/GRETA 1.2 1,034 1,284 280 FOXN THE FOX REPORT W/S.SMITH 1.1 968 1,211 290 FOXN SPECIAL REPORTW/BRIT HUME 1.1 950 1,186 226 FOXN THE OREILLY FACTOR (RPT) 1.0 845 1,068 287 CNN LARRY KING LIVE 0.9 841 992 194 FOXN THE BIG STORY W/J GIBSON 0.8 752 898 166 FOXN FOX AND FRIENDS 0.9 775 863 333 FOXN STUDIO B W/S.SMITH 0.8...

The New York Times Co. has lots of history, but its future isn't promising. Now might be time to succumb to the publishing industry's urge to merge. The Gray Lady needs to get hitched soon, or else she might wind up an old maid. That's right, the venerable New York Times Co., which also owns the Boston Globe and International Herald Tribune, would be wise to succumb to the urge to merge in the rapidly consolidating newspaper business. Let's face it, Wall Street is not overly confident about the company's growth prospects. Sure, the entire newspaper industry has taken a...

IN the matchup between the print and online versions of newspapers, signs of the Internet's ascendancy are growing stronger. As Colby Atwood, a newspaper analyst and a vice president at Borrell Associates, put it, "The tail is beginning to wag the dog." According to estimates released on Friday by the Newspaper Association of America, newspaper print ad spending in the first three months of 2006 increased only 0.3 percent, to $10.5 billion, over the corresponding period last year. At the same time, spending for online advertising surged 35 percent. "I think the handwriting is kind of on the wall that...

AP A Second Look: Newspaper Stocks Wednesday May 31, 11:35 am ET Tribune Co.'s $2B Buyback Might Spur Similar Moves, but Analyst Says Odds Are Low NEW YORK (AP) -- A day after Tribune Co.'s shares rose 7 percent on news of a $2 billion buyback program, analysts considered whether the move would spur similar actions from other newspaper companies. Tribune Co.'s shares settled down on Wednesday, falling 3 cents to $29.87 during morning trading on the New York Stock Exchange. Citigroup analyst William Bird praised the move on Tuesday. "We believe today's move is a positive for shareholders to...

NY Times headquarters Investors are increasing their bets that the slumping New York Times stock, which has plunged 25 percent in the past year, won't bounce back anytime soon. Short sellers, who profit when a stock's price falls, increased their positions to 14.6 million shares in April. Short sellers held 14 million shares in March and just 6.4 million shares last April. The blossoming short selling in Times stock is a key sign that investors feel the newspaper titan and its boss, Arthur "Pinch" Sulzberger, Jr., have done little to quell stockholder unrest that cropped up at its mid-April...

Published: May 02, 2006 3:15 PM ET CHICAGO Speaking at Tribune Co.'s brisk annual meeting Tuesday, Chairman, President and CEO Dennis J. FitzSimons told anxious shareholders that the newspaper and broadcast giant will "win" eventually -- but he could not guarantee the company will suffer the same fate as Knight Ridder Inc. "As Knight Ridder found out, in this environment anything is possible," FitzSimons said in response to a question from an unidentified Tribune employee. FitzSimons noted, however, that unlike Knight Ridder -- bought last month by The McClatchy Company in a $6 billion deal -- big blocks of Tribune...

Lee Enterprises Earnings Fall 20 Percent Thursday April 20, 10:40 am ET By David Pitt, AP Business Writer Newspaper Publisher Lee Enterprises Earnings Fall 20 Percent DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) -- Newspaper publisher Lee Enterprises Inc. reported at 20 percent drop in earnings for its second fiscal quarter Thursday partly due to costs related to its purchase of Pulitzer Inc. last June. Earnings were $14.4 million, or 32 cents a share, compared $18.1 million, or 40 cents a share a year ago. Excluding one-time costs, earnings were 33 cents a share, meeting the estimate of analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial....

AP Gannett's Profit Falls 11.5 Percent in 1Q Wednesday April 12, 10:25 am ET Newspaper Publisher Gannett's Profit Drops 11.5 Percent in 1Q; Shares Fall 27 Cents NEW YORK (AP) -- Gannett Co., the largest newspaper publisher in the country, reported Wednesday an 11.5 percent decline in profit for its first quarter as the company began expensing stock options and recording costs from its new newspaper partnership in Detroit. Gannett earned $235.3 million, or 99 cents per share, in the thirteen weeks ending March 26, down from $265.7 million, or $1.05 per share, in the same period a year ago,...

Mid-Level Business Staffers Hit Hardest... Time Inc. eliminated another 250 jobs today in its latest, largest and, perhaps, last round of cutbacks. The mid-level and junior-level workers shown the door almost all came from the business side of operations at a long list of titles. "As Time Inc. continues to evolve from a magazine publisher to a multiplatform media company, we're continuing to look at our cost base and how to run our business more efficiently and effectively. In doing so, unfortunately, we've had to eliminate a number of positions." "But it's not just about cost cutting," Ms. Zelenko added...

There are almost 1,500 daily papers in the U.S., so the gathering of publishers at this year's Newspaper Association of America annual conference -- held Apr. 2-4 in Chicago -- looked a lot like America. An America of local monopolists, that is: overwhelmingly white, male, late-middle-aged, and predisposed to wear suits on Sunday, even when traveling. They gathered to hear, once again, that the whole problem is that they are no longer monopolists. At every NAA convention, these men attend nightly parties in the host city's grandest public spaces. This year's opening event was at the magnificent Field Museum, on...