In Big Business

Cablevision’s Newsday Win Means Zell’s Newspaper Outlook Is Truly Bleak And More Cold Cash In The Bank Now Overweighs A Later Good Long-Term News Corp Working Relationship - May 13, 2008
The spin on Tribune’s sale of Newsday to Cablevision for some $32 Million more than Rupert Murdoch offered is what a fantastic negotiator Sam Zell is and how he fooled Murdoch into thinking the newspaper was his when in fact he was being used to get Cablevision to offer more. The truth more likely is that Zell really wanted to sell to Murdoch and establish a good long-term News Corp working relationship, but Tribune newspaper cash flow is falling so rapidly, the outlook is even more bleak than current results, so Zell cannot afford the luxury of leaving money on the table – he needs every penny he can get for big debt payments due this year and next.

Don’t Take It Serious - May 10, 2008

How’s This For A Smart Newspaper Investment – Use Your Own $100 Million, Borrow Another $430 Million And Within The Year Write-Off 75% of Your Cash and See Your Debt Valued To About 50 Cents On The Dollar - May 8, 2008
When McClatchy sold the Minneapolis Star Tribune to New York’s Avista Capital Partners and others for some $530 million last year the buzz was what a great deal the private equity company got and what an embarrassment for McClatchy selling a newspaper at a firesale price that it had paid $1.2 billion for some nine years earlier.

Green Grows the Radio - May 1, 2008
Global warming and the environment are hot topics for broadcasters. And broadcasters are taking environmental issues personally, adopting carbon-neutral initiatives, joining the rush within many business sectors to embrace an issue deemed increasingly important by listeners.

Media searches for a new business model - April 29, 2008
The business model you choose depends on where your product/service is on the product life cycle. Media business models by nature must interact with other business models, which are also moving. New business models are rare and disruptive.

Murdoch Watch…or not - April 22, 2008
The Murdoch Watch rhythm has pitched up a few beats, now louder than car radios in a Paris traffic jam. Fortunately most of it is in America where we don’t have to hear it. A British columnist, however, is asking if not enough attention is paid to the dealings of Mr. Murdoch, The Elder.

Murdoch Watch – German Edition - April 6, 2008
News Corp raised its stake in German pay TV channel Premiere to 22.7% triggering speculation that Mr. Murdoch is up to something.

The first syllable in consolidation is con - March 27, 2008

French broadcasters post losses on TV - March 27, 2008
Getting into new businesses is costly. Both NRJ Group and NextRadioTV reported losses in the final accounting for 2007. Both companies have had wrenching experiences developing television products.

With The Dollar Down So Much, Where Are The Foreign Buyers For US Newspapers, Or Could It Be At Any Price They’re Not A Bargain And Locals Need To Be Buyers For Other Than Financial Reasons? - March 20, 2008
With the dollar down as much as it is, where is the foreign money coming in to buy up US newspaper properties at bargain prices? Foreigners seem to be buying everything in sight in the US as the dollar crumbles, but apparently newspapers are not on the shopping list. Wonder why?

More money flowing into Ukraine television - March 16, 2008
TRK Ukraina received a $65.5 million loan from SCM Limited, the investment vehicle owned by billionaire Rinat Akhmetov. Proceeds, according to the TRK Ukraina statement, will be used for loan repayments and continuing operations. Akhmetov is the principal owner of TRK Ukraina, which operates television and radio channels.

With a little help from friends Middle East TV expands - March 15, 2008
The surest way to upgrade a languishing media market is to entice experience from afar. Sometimes money helps but in the Middle East, benefiting from record oil prices, that’s no object. A special expertise is most wanted.

Companies can split apart but some things never fade - March 7, 2008

Broadcasting companies earn ‘buy’ ratings - March 6, 2008
New results are in. Stock traders and their dutiful analysts have worked overtime. CEOs are taking bows.

Remember Belo’s Great Idea To Separate Itself Into Two Companies -- Newspapers and Everything Else -- So That Poor Newspaper Results Would Not Hold Back 'Everything Else'? So Far So Bad! - March 6, 2008
The stock market liked the idea so much that when Belo announced October 1 last year it was splitting itself into two separate companies, basically isolating the poorly producing newspapers from the rest of the company, that the shares got a massive 18.7% boost on the day. Investors seem to think it was a great initiative, never before done, to boost shareholder value. But time has shown it was the smart investor who actually saw that October day as a selling opportunity who really cleaned up.

Media Consolidation, Russian Style - February 22, 2008

Three Years Ago Bruce Sherman Controlled More Than 100 Million US Newspaper Shares Worth In Excess of $4 billion; Today He Has None - February 21, 2008
Bruce Sherman, the man running Private Capital Management (PCM) really believed in the newspaper industry. He was the largest owner of US newspaper shares --- at one time his holdings in the New York Times Company was second only to the Ochs-Sulzberger families -- and his 100m shares spread across most newspaper publicly traded companies were worth in excess of $4 billion.

Private equity firm hops out of Hungary - February 18, 2008
Broadcast outlets in Eastern Europe were a magnet for venture capital investment before the 2004 EU accession. Media deals in Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic attracted first or second round financing from specialized investment funds. The tide is turning.

Hedge Funds Raise The Ante At New York Times Company, Now Hold Near 10% Of Shares - February 13, 2008
When they announced in late January that they owned 4.9% of the New York Times Company, Harbinger Capital Partners and Firebrand Partners recommended a slate of four independent directors they wanted elected to the board of the New York Times Company. The basic answer then from Arthur Sulzberger was “We like our board, but we’ll take a look” – in other words “thanks, but no thanks”. Two weeks later and the equity funds have raised the ante.

Axel Springer holds in Russia - February 6, 2008
After a year trying to shed its Russian subsidiary Axel Springer AG has decided to hold… for now. Axel Springer publishes Russian editions of Newsweek, Forbes, OK! and ComputerBild. The German publisher informed prospective buyers of its decision last week.

Microsoft, Yahoo and you - February 4, 2008

Microsoft’s unsolicited €30.2 billion ($44.6 billion) offer for search engine Yahoo grants bragging rights to CEO Steve Ballmer for ‘big deal’ of the week, or month, or year. If nothing else, it’s audacious. And it speaks volumes of the desperation to rejoin the club it invented.

Media giant eyes deals in Europe - January 15, 2008
With so many investors running, not walking, away from media deals at least one media giant still has an appetite.

Two radio guys in two countries take hold of two newspapers called Tribune - January 7, 2008

Just as the old guard newspaper people digested Rupert Murdoch’s take over of Dow Jones and the Wall Street Journal, populating both with old guard newspaper people, the radio people slipped in the back door of the Tribune Company in the United States and La Tribune in France.

Wings over Bulgaria - December 18, 2007
The day Emmis International announced its Bulgarian expansion exercise the big news in Sofia was not about radio, TV, new media or even a left over corruption story. EasyJet, the Greek Santa Claus, is comin’ to town. From Riga to Prague, Tallinn to Budapest the sight of the orange 737’s and A319’s’s means the arrival of that EU benefit.

With Gannett’s Capitalization Dropping $1 Billion In Four Weeks, With McClatchy’s Shares So Low There Is Talk Of The Family Taking It Private, Is There Anyone Out There Who Still Thinks This Is All Cyclical? - December 18, 2007
A media analyst for Credit Suisse put the cat among the pigeons last week by suggesting the deep malaise in the newspaper business was just cyclical giving public newspaper shares a big up day on that. But then as investors thought about it they were soon back to again dumping newspaper shares.

Liquidity, liquidity, come, please, to my door - December 17, 2007

The final billion euro media deal of the year is very likely German publisher/broadcaster Heinrich Bauer Verlag buying UK publisher/broadcaster Emap. UK and German media wags view it quite differently, either an end or a beginning. The whole story is far more interesting because it’s very real.

Big German media company buys big UK media company - December 7, 2007
German publishing and media house Bauer picked up most of the remaining Emap UK media assets for a cool €1.58 billion. The deal hits several new marks, not the least of which is the biggest investment in UK media by a foreign company… or any company. Emap can now slide off into the night with its business to business businesses.

Authorities moot Communicorp’s Irish radio expansion - December 2, 2007
Not to worry, Denis O’Brien has places to go and people to see. Last week he increased holdings in Independent News and Media, becoming its second largest shareholder, and executive recruitment firm Imprint PLC. His mobile phone company Digicel, spanning the Caribbean to the South Pacific, bought the GSM operator in Tonga. And there’s even a possible radio venture in Jordan.

The thrill is gone – week of bad news for UK broadcasters - November 30, 2007
Just a week has passed since the UK’s largest commercial broadcaster posted another loss and its chief executive walked the plank. Now Macquarie Bank returned a local radio license before ever going on the air. Are investors finally giving up?

Hyperbole is to Turkey what silk is to thread - November 26, 2007
A few weeks ago the Turkish government put its second largest media company up for bid. All the great and grand were to descend with carts of cash. When the application deadline closed the Citation X’s of Rupert Murdoch, Ron Lauder, Guillaume de Posch and Minos Kyriakou had not touched down. That US$1.1 billion minimum bid, in these gossamer times, shouldn’t raise eyeshades back in the accountants’ quarry.

UK radio deal-maker steps down - November 26, 2007
The news that Ralph Bernard, chief executive of the UK’s biggest publicly traded radio company, would step down was met with no shock and no joy. GCap Media had just turned in a lower revenue and pre-tax profit report for the six months ending with September. Immediately afterward, Mr. Bernard announced his retirement.

Strange Bedfellows And New Business Models For Marketing The Media - November 21, 2007

City AM is a free business newspaper with a near 100,000 daily circulation to the main financial centers in London. So how come it had a cover-wrap on Monday promoting the business coverage of the Times of London?

Here’s A US Newspaper Horror Story – Since The Day McClatchy Announced Its Knight-Ridder Purchase Its Shares Are Down 69% Whereas The Dow Jones Averages Gained 17% - November 14, 2007
McClatchy has filed papers with the Securities & Exchange Commission that it is writing down the value of the company by some $1.52 billion ($1.38 billion after tax considerations) reflecting the huge drop in its share price and the diminished value of the newspapers it kept from Knight-Ridder.

‘Media Is Still A Wonderful Area For Private Equity To Invest In,’ Says Carlyle Group MD, But Most Agree Investments Will Be At Lower Valuations And Favor Emerging Markets - November 9, 2007

The good news coming out of a media conference this week featuring private equity executives is that even with the current credit crunch there is still plenty of equity funding available, but the likelihood is that valuations will be lower and that European emerging markets will be the main targets.

On The Day That Alibaba’s Price Triples on Its IPO Debut, Yahoo’s Jerry Yang Apologizes to the Mother Of Shi Tao, The Dissident Yahoo Outed to Chinese Authorities, But On A Financial Basis Do You Believe The Chief Yahoo Is Really Sorry? - November 8, 2007
For Chief Yahoo Jerry Yang his 39th birthday was one of mixed emotions. At a Washington Congressional hearing it was mea culpas for Yahoo’s role in outing a dissident to Chinese authorities, and a low bow to the dissident’s mother as he apologized personally, yet half a world away Yahoo was making a financial killing on the Hong Kong stock market because of its Chinese business.

CNN Not Hot In Israel - November 2, 2007
It’s a classic capitalistic battle – the supplier wants at least as much if not more for a product, and the customer values it at much less than had previously been paid. The supplier in this case is CNN and the customer is HOT, Israel’s largest cable company, and the stalemate that even saw Parliament getting in the act as moderator saw CNN dumped Thursday.
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Investment bankers softly skewer traditional media companies - November 1, 2007
The report issued by investment bankers Dresdner Kleinwort opened softly: “Six years of sector underperformance fueled by the disruptive impact of digitization on traditional business models shows no end.” That tone continued throughout.

‘A Newspaper Is A Business. It Used To Be A Fabulous Business That Made Extraordinary Margins. It’s Now A Very Good Business With Appropriate Margins’ – Sam Zell - October 24, 2007
Sam Zell, the Chicago billionaire who hopes to take Tribune private by the end of the year in his $8.2 billion deal, has been elaborating on what he thinks about the newspaper business, on the one hand saying the industry must accept a lot of the blame for allowing other media to pull ahead, but also how important it is that a private Tribune can make long-term decisions rather than having to worry about the conflicting short term goals of Wall Street.

Is This The Same Rupert Murdoch Who, in the US, Started With One Sleazy Tabloid in San Antonio, Texas, in 1973 And Who Now Is The CEO Of The World’s Largest Media Conglomerate? - October 23, 2007
When Rupert Murdoch first hit American shores in 1973 buying the tabloid San Antonio Express the American media establishment considered him no more than a sleazy tabloid publisher, a pariah to whom they wouldn’t give the time of day. His name was not often mentioned in polite conversation, if it was then it was with a smirk. What a difference 34 years of success can make! America still embraces winners.

As If The New York Times Company Doesn’t Have Enough To Worry About With Its Shares Hitting A 12-Year Low, Rupert Murdoch Is Making It Very Plain The NYT Is His Primary Target Once He Gets His Hands On The Wall Street Journal - October 19, 2007
With New York Times Company shares hitting a 12-year low Thursday and the general outlook being that Morgan Stanley’s sale of its 7.3% of the company merely solidifies the view of no speedy shares recovery, along comes Rupert Murdoch with his clearest words yet on how he wants the Wall Street Journal to knock the Times off its pedestal as America’s most influential read.

OK, sports fans, watch the batter. CME moves Adrian Sarbu to the top of the order - October 19, 2007
The television in Central and Eastern Europe is a team sport. Winning is a matter of percentages. Those percentages improve with power hitters.

Morgan Stanley Calls Time On The 'Times' Dumping Its 7.3% Holding In The New York Times Company As Elsewhere Newspaper Boardrooms Paint Doom And Gloom Scenarios In Untangling Less Profitable Newspapers From Their Better Earning Businesses - October 18, 2007

Billionaires in broadcasting, the Eastern way - October 15, 2007
More billionaires have been created in Eastern Europe since 1990 than you can put on a football pitch. Using good political connections to snap up State assets in those helter-skelter days Eastern businessmen took full advantage of the new free markets and became very rich. Some certainly like football and more than a few like media.

For The Second Time In Two Years UK Regional Newspapers Are Taken Off The Market Because Buyers Reckon Print Is Not The Great Money Earner It Once Was - October 4, 2007
British Newspaper Group Trinity-Mirror (TM) said last December it would sell 138 of its 240 regional newspapers and shareholders could expect around £500 million - £600 million ($1.02 billion – $1.2 billion, €720 million - €865 million) returned to them. But that was then, the reality nine months later is that prices came in far lower than expected, not everything got sold, and the gross totaled only £263 million ($536 million, €378 million).

A Year Later, Did Dean Singleton Pay Too Much For the Four Knight-Ridder Turkeys He Bought? - October 3, 2007
Dean Singleton paid a cool $1 billion cash last year for four Knight-Ridder newspapers he bought from McClatchy. Standard & Poors now says his Media News is in negotiations to ease loan financial covenants that require a certain ratio of debt to earnings and it has put the company on credit watch because revenue declines have exceeded even 'Lean Dean’s' cost cutting exercises. That, therefore, prompts the question that if he had to do it all over again would he?

With Cost-Cutting Constantly Discussed at Media Company Meetings, Just What Are They Up To These Days? - September 25, 2007
From Gannett, America’s largest newspaper group, to the BBC, the UK’s public broadcaster, media groups are continually on the lookout for new ways to save money and sometimes it means going back to past savings ideas and doing it all over again.

Consolidate and operate, back again on media managers’ dance card - September 17, 2007
Ear-splitting, multi-billion euro media deals will likely become quite rare over the next 18 months. A few are in the pipe-line, now slowed to a crawl as lenders and private equity managers, literally and figuratively, take stock. Inside the media sector the cycle is shifting from the financial to the strategic.

None of The Talk About A Possible US Recession Is Helping Newspaper Companies As Ratings Firms And Financial Analysts Continue To Cast Two Thumbs Down And The New York Times Results Didn’t Do Anything To Help - September 14, 2007
The one thing that the financial ratings agencies and financial analysts seem to have in common these days is that none of them have anything nice to say about the US newspaper industry. Debt continues to be downgraded and the analysts claim the worst is not over, one even saying he believes there will be another 20% slide in newspaper share prices within the next 18 months.

There’s A Lot More to That Story About CNN Dumping Reuters - September 7, 2007
In the TV news agency business there is a common expression – “dropping one’s pants” -- and it refers to the spirited competition between Reuters Televsion and AP Television News over which one will drop its pants lower financially than the other in order to win new business or retain an existing customer who says “We’re going down to one agency” and then lets the two financially fight it out.

There’s something about Kazakhstan - September 6, 2007
Russian/Swedish television giant CTC Media reached into Kazakhstan for its latest venture. The investment, said company CEO Alexander Rodnyansky, is “an attractive opportunity.”

CME’s fancy steps in Ukraine - September 5, 2007
Focus is an indispensable attribute for broadcast management. CME’s management has focused on Ukraine where the television market is expanding furiously. As with all Eastern Europe media markets the dance starts slowly.

Ukrainian banker buys CME shares, joins board - August 31, 2007
Billionaire banker Igor Kolomoisky joins the Central European Media Enterprises (CME) Board of Directors after making a $110 million investment in the company, according to CME’s statement. A bit more than a year ago a Ukrainian court awarded him financial control over CME’s Studio 1+1 license, which the company vowed to fight. Things change.

Is Sparrowhawk an endangered species? - August 30, 2007
NBC/Universal picked up Sparrowhawk Media for a mere $350 million. The acquisition significantly improves global distribution for NBC/Universal product and adds the venerable Hallmark brand name to its cable offerings outside the US. Competitors will be scrambling to find other illusive Sparrowhawks.

Digital TV arrives in Austria…and major competition - August 28, 2007
Within weeks Austrian television will be fully digital. The change-over arrives as ProSiebenSat takes over a local Vienna channel and the only privately held national commercial channel goes up for bids, with big broadcasters first in line. Competing for viewers, subscribers and advertisers at this level will shake Austria’s conservative media and the rattle might be felt in Brussels.

If You want A Prime Example Of How Not To Run A Media Company Then Take A Look At The UK’s Virgin Media Where The Big Question Is, As Its American CEO Abruptly Quits, Who Actually Runs The Show? - August 23, 2007

Tribune Shareholders Vote Yes On The Zell Deal But The Stock Price Indicates The Smart Money Is Not So Sure The Deal Will Go Through On Current Terms - August 23, 2007
Some 97% of Tribune shareholders approved the Sam Zell takeover which puts the company into junk debt to the tune of some $13 billion, but with the share price around $6 less than the agreed purchase price there still seems a fair amount of doubt that Tribune is doing well enough financially these days to support the repayment schedule.

The New Business Model For News and Information: It’s The Content That’s All Important, Not The Platform - August 17, 2007
Some 70 of the more powerful names in media, information and politics gathered in Aspen, Colorado this week to discuss how old and new media can improve our lives, and the main point of agreement seemed to be that platform-centric is out and new business models must adapt to new technologies in providing news and information as quickly as possible on all platforms.

Ukraine is the future, says CME’s Garin - August 7, 2007
The television business has never been better in Central and Eastern Europe. From the Baltics to the Balkans with every country in between these are the best of times for commercial media. CME’s second quarter financial results contain rich insight into the present and future for the region.

At The End Of The Day It Was This Simple: Dow Jones Just Isn’t Worth $60 A Share To Anyone Else And Rupert Murdoch Is The Smartest Media Business Guy Around
The Bancroft family apparently has seen the light – mostly with $ signs in their eyes – and Rupert Murdoch has won his $60 a share battle for Dow Jones. There are still “and” and “buts” that might cause last-minute problems, but it appears the deal is basically done.

Can Tribune Financially Survive Privatization?
It’s all well and good for Tribune to say it has all the financing in place for the Sam Zell privatization, but with the company’s dismal results thus far this year the main question is whether the group will be able to earn enough money to pay off the debt, and there is a growing feeling among the money people that right now it’s about 50-50.

Communicorp expands, Emap changes
If regulators concur, Emap’s three Irish radio stations will join the Communicorp family. The purchase agreement signed over the weekend and announced to the London Stock Exchange this morning ends month long bidding for another part of Emap’s broadcast holdings it wants to shed. Communicorp, Denis O’Brien’s radio company, will pay about €200 million (£135 million, US$275 million).

Conrad Black goes where media barons fear to tread – jail

Media moguls, tycoons and barons lead a charmed life. Being one means never having to carry your own suitcase. Former Hollinger International Chairman Conrad Black never knew excess he couldn’t exceed. For him, those days are over.

It’s A Year On From When McClatchy Closed Its Knight-Ridder Deal, So Was It The Smart Thing To Do?
It’s a year ago that the high-flying McClatchy Company ended up buying Knight-Ridder for what was a pretty lowball price of $6.5 billion including assuming $2 billion of Knight Ridder debt. It sold 12 of those newspapers for a combined $2.078 billion so at the end of the day it ended up with 20 of Knight Ridder’s best for $4.5 billion. So, with the passage of time, was it a good deal?

TVN gives Poland the biznes
Poland’s TVN adds a business channel to its bouquet in cooperation with US network CNBC. TVN CNBC Biznes will launch this autumn…about the same time News Corp launches Fox TV in Poland.

Northcliffe Moves From Trying To Sell Itself to Buying 25 Regional Newspapers From Trinity Mirror
Around 18 months ago the UK’s Northcliffe Regional Newspapers were put up for sale by its owner Daily Mail & General Trust (DMGT) looking for around £1.5 billion. The bids came in around £1.2 billion to £1.3 billion so DMGT said “no sale.” Since then it has been cutting costs viciously and selling a couple of titles (Aberdeen Press & Journal) and the general thinking was that Northcliffe would try and do the best it could with what it had. No one expected it would actually expand its empire but it has just gone and done exactly that.

Here’s A Tip For Commercial Broadcasters On How To Improve TV Ratings And Probably Save Some Money At The Same Time – Cut The Kids Programming, Or At Least Send It Over To Digital Platforms - July 5, 2007
ITV, the UK’s largest commercial network presented what it called good news this week – ratings at its prime network were down only 5.6% for the first half of the year. The reason the network is so happy is because for the same period last year the ratings were down 9.1%, so the situation is at least stabilizing and given the massacres in the UK television advertising economy one has to look for silver linings, no matter how meager.

It’s Now Very Clear Why Murdoch Wants Dow Jones So Much, Why The New York Times Launched Its Hatchet Job To Persuade The Bancrofts To Torpedo The Deal, And Why All The Nonsense About News Corp. Decimating the WSJ Is Just A Red Herring - June 29, 2007
As it looks more and more likely that Rupert Murdoch will succeed in his quest for Dow Jones two points are becoming abundantly clear – it’s utter nonsense that Murdoch wants to decimate the Wall Street Journal’s journalism – indeed, the opposite is true, and one of his prime targets is to have the Journal eventually surpass the New York Times as America’s premier newspaper.

Berlin Radio Station at Risk as Mecom Buys Orkla’s German Web News Portal - June 21, 2007
Complicated media ownership structures are common in Europe. There’s usually no problem with regulators or operators until one of the partners decides to sell.

Again It’s the Australians Buying Up US Local Newspapers - June 13, 2007
It seems no one has to persuade the Australians that small market newspapers in the US are a good investment. Macquarie Media Group (MMG) has just bought another 23 to go with the 40 it bought a few months back giving it a stable of 63 local newspapers.

Murdoch Meets With Bancroft Family - June 5, 2007
Rupert Murdoch met with Bancroft family members Monday in a five-hour meeting that he later told reporters was “constructive”, so at least he’s still in the ballgame to purchase Dow Jones. His bid on the table is $5 billion ($60 a share).

CanWest Buying Back Its MediaWorks Income Fund - June 1, 2007
When a government doesn’t like what it sees as a tax dodge one can usually expect that government to act – it might be slow but it does act. And so is the case in Canada when the government announced last year it was going to tax income trusts.

Big Media Companies Reach Into Smallest Countries - May 27, 2007
Conventional wisdom holds that big media companies are interested only in media deals in the biggest markets. Merger and acquisition lawyers and advisors say the paperwork, big deal or small, is the same. But there is no surprise at News Corps recently acquiring two television companies in Latvia, one of Europe’s newest and smallest countries with a hot media market.

Clear Channel Buy-out Closer - May 19, 2007
Clear Channel Communications Board of Directors approved (Friday, May 18) a private equity buy-out taking the company off the public stock exchange. A shareholder vote originally scheduled for Tuesday (May 22) was cancelled to give the Board more time to sell the plan.

Blood’s in the Water! PE’s Circle UK Media! - May 18, 2007

Ratings are bad. Ad revenue limps. EMAP CEO Tom Moloney “suddenly” resigns. Chrysalis posts a loss.

The US Media Rings Alarm Bells That Gasoline May Soon Cost $4 a Gallon, And If It Does Advertising Managers Will Be Pushing The Panic Button - May 17, 2007
Some US oil analysts believe that by the Memorial Day weekend at the end of the month that US gasoline prices may reach $4 a gallon. Most economists say that is the benchmark that will force Americans to change their spending and travel habits, and that in turn could well mean a catastrophe for media advertising revenues.

One Down (Thomson/Reuters – So Much For The “British” News Agency, Now It Is Going To Be Canadian) And One To Go (News Corp./Dow Jones), And There May Be Many More To Come - May 16, 2007
Assuming the government regulators on both sides of the Atlantic agree, the Thomson buyout of Reuters is pretty much a done deal. Rupert Murdoch continues, little by little, to make nice to the Bancroft family in hopes of getting his hands on Dow Jones, and although this is only May there have been already 372 traditional media mergers globally this year.

TDF Buys Antenna Hungária – There’s Big Money in Towers and Transmitters - May 14, 2007
One of the safest media investments is not in media at all. Infrastructure providers – the tower and transmitter companies – collect fees from broadcasters, mobile network companies and government services. All they have to do is keep the lights on.

Covering Pasadena, California, From India? And Why Not? - May 14, 2007
For those who thought silly our idea of starting a new global news agency covering all of the world’s news via the Internet from a country where labor and communications costs are very low, apparently it’s not such a bad idea after all.

There’s A Good Reason Why Reuters and Dow Jones Are In Play For Large Premiums – They Produce The World’s Most Valuable Commodity – No, Not Oil, Gold, Diamonds, Platinum, Or Copper But Rather All-Powerful News On Which Millions Can Be Made Or Lost Every Second - May 7, 2007
It really should not come as any surprise that Reuters and Dow Jones, two of the biggest producers of the world’s most valuable commodity – the news that drives global financial markets -- should be in play for large premiums. These organizations produce products on which millions of whatever currency you care to name can be made or lost in a matter of seconds. For in the financial markets world, he or she who has the news first is all-powerful; he or she who gets it second is often powerless. It’s really impossible to put a true value on their product.

For Knight Ridder There Was Next To No Premium; For Tribune There Was Next To No Premium; But For Dow Jones Rupert Murdoch Offers a 65%+ Premium. Think He’s Interested In Doing This Deal? - May 2, 2007
In an absolutely astonishing, but an extremely savvy move, Rupert Murdoch has made the Bancroft family an offer for Dow Jones that if considered on financial grounds alone is going to be hard to refuse. It boils down to whether the family is more interested in retaining legacy, no matter the financial enrichment the family would earn from the deal, or is it time to take the money and run?

What Murdoch Has To Say About His DJ Bid - May 2, 2007
Here is a partial unofficial transcript of a fascinating interview that Rupert Murdoch gave Tuesday to his Fox News Cable Channel which goes into much of the reasoning behind his $60 a share bid for Dow Jones.

“Five Years Ago, If You Wanted to Carry Around a Thousand Songs in Your Pocket You Carried a Radio. That Has Changed.” - April 30, 2007
Media consumers are dancing, en masse, to the new digital beat, awaited, predicted for a generation. Or, so it seems. Media people, those disposed to listen to their customers, have heard the patter turn to rumble and now stampede. Before the gathering dust cloud stifles their offices and golf courses many hope for an early escape to a Caribbean island. Very sorry: there is no buggy, car, airplane or rocket fast enough.

ftm follow-up Regulators Oppose BSkyB’s Stake In ITV -- April 30, 2007

ftm follow-up They’ve Seen The Light – FitzSimons and Scott Opt Out Of Special Tribune Bonus Pool – April 30, 2007

ftm follow-up Axel Springer / Polsat Deal On Ice - April 26, 2007
Polish competition office suspends approval process

ftm follow-up Sam Zell To Join Tribune Board May 9 - April 26, 2007
Chicago, Los Angeles, and Baltimore All Report Looking For Layoffs

ftm follow-up New York Times Management Take A Licking, But Keep On Ticking - April 26, 2007

ftm follow-up Ode to Equity, Private and Appreciating - April 19, 2007
Sly Matt, and ProSiebenSat

ftm follow-up Four American Broadcast Companies Settle With US Regulator For $12.5 million Fine - April 16, 2007

With Knight-Ridder and Tribune Under Their Belts, Investors Are Targeting Management Changes At “The Gray Lady”; They Won’t Win At The New York Times, In The Short Run At Least, But Usually Gray Faces May Turn Red - April 11, 2007
Knight-Ridder is gone, Tribune is going private under a Chicago billionaire, and the investor knives are now out more than ever at the New York Times. Investors understand they have little power given the two-tier share system which gives controlling power to the Ochs Sulzberger family, but they are going to make life for its family management as uncomfortable as possible.

Call It Aesop Or ESOP, It’s Still A Fable With A Moral Ending – Tribune Staffers Are Going to Be Paying Back Debt For The Rest Of Their Lives, But Chairman Dennis FitzSimons Gets To Take $21.3 Million To The Bank - April 5, 2007
If someone is now going to beat Chicago billionaire Sam Zell out of taking control of Tribune it will cost the company a mere $25 million, so anything is possible, but whatever the final deal it looks like Tribune staffers – those who will be left – will be paying back debt for the rest of their lives and praying their pension funds will remain okay. But chairman Dennis FitzSimons and President Scott Smith won’t have such worries – Fitzsimons will be able to cash in shares worth close to $24 million and Smith a bit more than $10 million.

“Passion” Doubles Ad Sales - March 29, 2007
It was long ago, deep in the last century when any local media outlet reported doubling its ad sales. This is the age of Google and YouTube. And the rage. Traditional media – meaning all media other than websites and mobile phones – can’t, according to conventional wisdom, compete for advertising. “Passion” shows all that is wrong.

It is a Fight to the Death : Branson v. Murdoch - March 28, 2007
When Big Media turns to the courts and the regulators to arbitrate business negotiations it’s clear that the consolidation cycle is turning down.

The Guru of Newspaper Analysts Is Quitting His Newsletter – John Morton Complains He’s Tired Of Issuing “Painful Forecasts” – And His Quitting Is Yet Another Negative Newspaper Story - March 26, 2007
For more than 30 years if a journalist wanted an opinion on what was happening in the American newspaper world more likely than not that opinion came from John Morton. To spread his word he’s been publishing a newsletter for some 30 years but no more – with independent newspaper executives an endangered species he says “the financial reward from publishing the newsletter is not worth the effort.”

Viacom vs Google/YouTube: Negotiations By Other Means - March 15, 2007
Viacom filed a huge law-suit against YouTube, and thereby Google, charging copyright infringement. Billion dollar law-suits make headlines not unlike an 80 year old buying his first red Ferrari. Customers and investors – literally and figuratively – beware.

Warren Buffet’s Wealth Increased $10 Billion Last Year, But None Of That Came From New Newspaper Investments -- Indeed, He Is More Negative Than Ever On The Industry’s Fate - March 13, 2007
For the past 15 years Warren Buffet has condemned newspapers as a business with declining growth potential, while at the same time his investments elsewhere have made him the world’s second richest man behind Bill Gates. Buffet added another $10 billion to his wallet in 2006 alone but in his annual letter to his Berkshire Hathaway shareholders he took the opportunity to lay it square on the line that the most newspaper management can hope for these days is to stem the rate of decline.

Billionaire 102 Becomes MTG Partner in Russia - March 12, 2007
Gas and oil billionaire Leonard Blavatnik is but the latest serious investor in Russian media

An Editor & Publisher Columnist Has Suggested, “Fire the Wire” – Actually It Won’t Hurt To Reexamine A News Agency’s Role In Today’s Traditional Media World - March 5, 2007
How many journalists out there remember when there were two really great American news agencies – The AP co-operative and the supposedly for profit UPI run by an E.W. Scripps trust. The rivalry between the two was legendary and their journalism the best. But American newspapers decided in the 1980s they didn’t want to pay for two news agencies so they let UPI die. Shame on them!

Broadcasters Combine, Expand With Newspaper Help - March 2, 2007
Throughout 2006 changes have been afoot with Switzerland’s broadcasters. The pace quickened as the year ended with consolidations and new concessions tendered. Provisions in new Swiss broadcasting rules, effective in April 2007, jogged broadcasters into action.

ProSiebenSat Takeover Approved – Now, On To SBS - February 28, 2007
The European Commission quickly blessed the €billion buy-out of ProSiebenSat by buy-out behemoths Permira and Kohlberg, Kravis, Roberts (KKR). Quickly, too, will come the merger with SBS Broadcasting and, possibly, more.

China’s Media Revenue In All Sectors Grows By Leaps And Bounds, But The Story The Government Has The Most Trouble Handling Is Press Freedom - February 27, 2007
There are two “leads” to the China media story. On the commercial side advertising revenue jumped 18 - 22% last year depending on the source, and huge investments are planned for a new 3G mobile network. But when it comes to press freedom, while authorities have made it easy now, because of next year’s Olympic Games, for foreign correspondents to move around China, they seem to be clamping down ever harder on their domestic journalists.

The Boom Times Are Just Beginning For India’s Media But For Those Thinking Of Outsourcing, Beware – Salaries Are Skyrocketing And Inflation Is Soaring - February 26, 2007
The reaction by Hutchison Telecom shareholders to the company’s sale of Hutchison Essar, its mobile business in India, for a $9.6 billion profit tells the story of India’s media today. Most analysts agree Hutchison received a premium price yet its shares fell 15% on the Hong Kong market on news it was out of India.

Media Executives Beware: Dumb Stunts Cost Jobs - Sometimes - February 15, 2007
It’s lonely at the top; all that authority and so little control. Top media managers in America and Britain have suffered dismal fates of late. On those very bad days, when all you hear are the footsteps in the hallway bringing the platter to carry your head, remember one thing: there is an answer. Fire the DJs.

What Does It Take To Get A Newspaper’s Share Price Up? Well, Market Rumors That Warren Buffett Might Be Interested In Taking A Stake Is Better Than Share Buybacks, Higher Dividends, Or Just About Anything As The New York Times Just Learned - February 8, 2007
A strange thing happened on Wall Street Wednesday. The New York Times’ shares that have been languishing near yearly lows suddenly jumped some 7% during the trading day, and by the close had held onto a 3.8% increase. All it took to get the shares moving were two words “Warren Buffet”

Sulzberger Withdraws The Family’s Hundreds of Million of Dollars Worth Of New York Times Stock From Morgan Stanley Custody As The Investment Firm Presses For Corporate Reforms, But Beneath The Spat Are Issues Of Great Importance - February 2, 2007
It reminds one of a kindergarten spat, but the stakes are far higher than that. Morgan Stanley Investment Management has been pressing for months that the New York Times Company’s management either shape up or ship out, but since the newspaper’s two-tier share ownership system gives the Sulzberger and Ochs families control over the board, therefore management of the company, the money fund is basically whistling in the wind. Change the two-tier system, the fund cries out, and it is told politely to go take a running jump.

The OJ Simpson Book Reminded Americans Of Rupert Murdoch’s Sleazy US Tabloid Beginnings – Something The Most Respected of American Media Barons Had Hoped Had Been Forgotten -- And Now The UK Jailing Of A Reporter And His Editor’s Resignation For Violating Prince William’s Privacy Has Tongues Wagging There, Too. - January 29, 2007
Rupert Murdoch had one big complaint back in the 1970s when he began buying into US media, starting with the racy San Antonio (Texas) Express tabloid, “I don’t get respect.” Thirty years later he is probably the most respected of all the American media barons. Today when Rupert Murdoch speaks, people everywhere listen and follow!

The Interview – Prof-Media CEO Rafael Akopov - January 26, 2007
“You’re living in exciting times. So move faster!”

Is This The Unacceptable Face of Newspaper Capitalism -- Dow Jones Continues Implementing Costs Savings, Recently Dropping 97 Jobs, And Yet It Hands Out Huge Bonuses To Its Senior Managers? - January 25, 2007
Dow Jones is on a continuing binge to save costs wherever it can. It narrowed the width of its newsprint to save some $18 million annually, it fired 97 employees in reorganizing its enterprise media group, and it’s studying how it can further outsource jobs. So with that environment is it really right to issue a couple of million dollars worth of bonuses to top executives? It must have done wonders for staff morale.

The Mobile Industry Heralds Mobile TV As The Next Huge Money-Maker Even Though Surveys Indicate It’s Going To Be A Hard Sale, And Now The Experience Of The UK’s Virgin Mobile Bears That Research Out - January 19, 2007
Maybe Virgin Mobile didn’t go about it the right way – it could only offer one expensive mobile model that receives its DAB Digital Radio signals and customers seem to think it’s a bit old-fashioned and clunky -- but whatever the reason its mobile TV platform launched last October with none other than Pamela Anderson leading the £2.5 million ($5 million, €3.97 million) pitch has done miserably.

Once You Raise the Money, You Must Spend It - January 8, 2007
Dogan Yayin Holdings subsidiary buys Trader Media East for €377.5 million.

McClatchy Expands Its “Keep The Best And Leave The Rest” Doctrine To Dumping Its Largest Newspaper At A Huge Loss, Something For The New York Times Company To Ponder With The Boston Globe? - January 8, 2007
McClatchy stunned the US newspaper world as 2006 drew to a close by selling The Minneapolis Star Tribune to a private equity firm, Avista Capital Partners, for $530 million -- less than half what it paid the Cowles family just six years ago. Even with a $160 million tax loss the inevitable question is why sell so low and now, and what does that mean to newspaper valuations?

Bulgaria and Romania Take Their EU Seats. Big Broadcasters Are Already There - January 3, 2007
Big media companies discovered Bulgaria and Romania a half-decade or more before the accession treaty was drafted. Both countries quickly liberalized media and commercial laws confirming, if not precisely conforming to Western European practice. As if to keep one foot in the past, governments and their partners continued to see State broadcasters as State, and political, assets.

VNU’s Hollywood Reporter Fires 10; Later The Dutch-American Company Announces It’s Firing 10% of Its Global Workforce in 2007, And It’s Selling Its Business Media Europe Group – Welcome To Private Equity Firms Buying Media Businesses - December 19, 2006
The one thing a media employee does not want to hear is that the company is being bought by private equity firms. That usually translates into massive layoffs as the company is restructured to be made ready within, say, five years or less, for further sale at a mighty profit. Case in point – take a look at what is happening at VNU.

It’s Official: ProSiebenSat Sold - December 15, 2006
Strategically timed after stock exchange closing times, ProSiebenSat.1 and its new owner announced that the ink was officially dry on an agreement, drawing to a close another big – no, huge – media deal. Bavarian Prime Minister Edmund Stoiber, in his excitement, broke the news much earlier in the day, ecstatic that the broadcaster will stay in Munich.

Trinity-Mirror, The UK’s Largest Newspaper Group, Sings From McClatchy’s Hymn Book: “Save The Best And Leave The Rest”, But Are They Actually Selling The Family Silver?
That huge dull thud heard in London Thursday was just about everyone’s reaction to Trinity-Mirror’s decision to keep its lame national newspapers, and sell, instead, 138 of its 240 regional newspapers plus The Racing Post. The stock market tumbled the shares 5.07% and no financial analyst seemed to have a good thing to say. The Times’ online headline summed up the basic media view: “Selling the family silver.”

Prof-Media Buys Russia’s TV3
In a deal that changes several dynamics of the Russian media market, Prof-Media announced its acquisition of Independent Network Television Holding (INTH), owner of the TV3 television network. The sale price is estimated at about €410 million.

Michael Grade Goes to ITV – Score One For the Commercials
Whinging among UK commercial broadcasters reached such a painful jangle in the last few months that almost no one could stand to hear it…literally and figuratively. Now, in one stunning move, the radio and television broadcasters who provide their service by selling ads have been shown the golden path. All Hail, Michael Grade.

Google’s Lawyers Are Busy Throughout Europe, From Fighting A Possible Italian Criminal Case Based on Editorial Responsibility To Copyright Issues In Several Countries That Really Are About How To Get Hold Of Google’s $$$
Europe is a heavy brief for Google media lawyers – arguing copyright issues in a Belgian court, negotiating with Danish publishers whether it should be “opt-in” or “opt-out”, settling with Belgian journalists, negotiating with Norwegian journalists, confronting a video copyright issue in France, and if that wasn’t enough there is now a criminal investigation in Italy on the search engine’s editorial responsibility.

James Murdoch Shows He Is His Father’s Son, Buying 17.9% Of ITV To Spoil A Possible Deal With RTL or NTL, Just As His Father Bought A 7.5% Stake In Australia’s Fairfax Newspapers To Ruin Any Possible Buyout There - November 18, 2006
James Murdoch, son of Rupert, showed over the weekend how his father’s blood runs through his veins, shocking the British television establishment as his BSkyB, the country’s main satellite TV operator, bought a 17.9% share in ITV, the country’s top commercial terrestrial network, basically putting an end to any ITV buyout ideas by RTL or NTL.

There’s Good Money To Be Made In East European Media As The Europeans, Americans, and Even the Locals Can Attest And Not Too Many Days Pass That There’s Not A Big Deal Announced - November 9, 2006
In just the past few days Russia’s Prof-Media announced it had bought Rambler TV in Moscow, and then it launched a bid for all of Rambler because of its digital activities, and, oh yes, it also bought TV3 for around $500 million. Then there’s Bauer Media Invest that purchased a 56% stake in Broker FM Group, Poland’s largest radio group, and SBS Broadcasting has announced the completion of its acquisition of the Radio Express network in Bulgaria.

If the Very Rich Businessmen Really Get To Buy Newspapers Like The LA Times and The Boston Globe Then Look Very Carefully At Their Financing -- If It’s Their Own Money Then Fine, But If Its Leveraged Then Watch Out - November 5, 2006
The problem with newspapers today is not that they are losing money, far from it. The problem is that is getting increasingly more difficult to maintain the type of margins they are used to and for publicly quoted companies that’s a real pain.

Wall Street Pummels Getty Images Again For Failing to Meet Sales and Revenues Projections -- The Still Picture Archive Business Is Being Eaten Alive By Low Cost Internet Providers - October 26, 2006
If there was any good news for Getty Images this week after it announced it failed to meet its third quarter profits forecasts, and said the fourth quarter didn’t look too bright, it was that its share price fell just 8.68% on the day. When it made a similar announcement on its second quarter earnings the shares took a 13.75% bath and on July 26 they sank 18%.

In Just Two Months, McClatchy’s Dumping Of 12 Poorly Performing Knight Ridder Newspapers Is Showing Itself To Have Been Very Smart. Four of Those Newspapers Are Already In Serious Trouble - October 26, 2006
McClatchy was the only newspaper group willing to buy the 32 Knight Ridder newspapers in one deal and didn’t really have to pay a premium. What McClatchy didn’t tell Knight-Ridder executives or their bankers, however, was that they were going to onward sell 12 of those newspapers considered to be in poor performing markets.

Australia Passes New Media Ownership Rules and The Free-For-All Is Already Underway. Murdoch Buys 7.5% of Fairfax and 7 Network Buys Into West Australian Newspapers - October 22, 2006
After months of contentious lobbying, Australia’s Parliament has approved a new media ownership laws that invites more foreign investment and also liberalizes cross-media holdings, although not as much as the media barons had hoped.

NBC’s Cost Cutting, Including 700 Jobs, Shows The Problems That Newspapers Are Experiencing Are Also At Play At Broadcasting Giants Who Are Also Desperately Trying To Get More Digitally Involved - October 22, 2006
US television network NBC saw its advertising revenues drop by $800 million two years ago and that money has not come running back, so the network has decided that relying on being just a traditional media analog player is no longer its future – digital is the name of the game and it has embarked on a massive reorganization including huge cost cuts to free up investment funds.

When A Media CEO Says That A 20% Quarterly Revenue Increase Over Last Year Isn’t Good Enough, Then You Know That Has To Be An Internet Business - October 19, 2006

Yahoo’s 3rd quarter revenue was 20% higher than last year, but its net profit was down 37.5%, and its CEO is going on the warpath.

Memo To Time Inc. Journalists: Watch Out, The Consultants Are Looking Closely At Editorial - October 16, 2006

There is no more scarier corporate scenario for employees than seeing consultants running around the building looking for ways to make things run better. After all, the consultants have to produce a report in which the forecast savings makes the consultancy fee look like a mere pittance. Worst of all is when consultants ask for an interview and the first question is, “What do you do and how do you go about doing it?”

For $1.65 Billion Google Could Have Bought Any Number of Traditional Media Properties Producing Good 20% Plus Margins, But Instead It Buys An Internet Start-Up That Doesn’t Even Have An Established Revenue Stream. Kinda Makes One Wonder Why? - October 12, 2006

Newspapers for the most part make 20% plus margins. YouTube doesn’t even have an established revenue stream yet, but Google went and spent $1.65 billion to buy YouTube, yet it never has bid on established traditional media properties. Doesn’t take a born genius to figure out why

Tribune’s Firing Of The Los Angeles Times Publisher Is Getting All The Media Attention, But It’s A Red Herring – Look Instead To How The New CW Television Network Is Doing. On That Hinges The Company’s Fate And So Far The New Season Is A Flop! - October 9, 2006

The media has given blanket coverage to Tribune’s firing of its Los Angeles Times publisher last week for publicly supporting his editor who had refused Chicago’s demand to fire more reporters, but the editor failed to back his publisher and did not fall on his sword. Much more important, however, are the new CW television network ratings, for the future of the broadcast division may rest on how well the 15 Tribune CW affiliates do.

New York Times Sends Out The Strongest Message Possible That Its Future Is In Digital By Putting the “For Sale” Sign On Its Profitable TV Properties To Raise Money For Digital Now Rather Than Later - September 14, 2006

The New York Times’ Broadcast Media Division currently produces around 4% of the company’s total revenues. Digital is already responsible for more than 8% of total revenues and that number keeps growing by the month. Where do you think the smart investment money should go

MTG Takeover Bid For Norway’s P4 - September 13, 2006

After buying 9 million shares of P4 Radio Hele Norge from institutional investors (September 11) Modern Times Group (MTG) triggered a condition of the shareholders agreement forcing it to purchase all outstanding shares. MTG started the week holding 39%. The purchase of 9 million shares at NOK 30 (€3.58) brought its holding to 68%, triggering the mandatory buy-out of other shareholders.

The Trouble With Viacom: It Wasn’t Tom Freston - September 7, 2006

Viacom Chairman Sumner Redstone let the entire media world know, once again, who is in charge.

Squirrelly Deals Attract the Nuts - August 21, 2006

A Ukraine court dealt a blow to Central European Media Enterprises (CME) ruling on a long- standing case to determine just how much of Studio 1+1 the company can own.

At CME Garin Stays, Burke Goes, Numbers Are Up, Stock is Not - August 7, 2006

Could The UK’s Advertising Downturn Force Trinity Mirror The Same Way as Knight-Ridder, And Also Blow The Main Commercial TV Network Out Of The Water? - August 7, 2006

Trinity Mirror, the UKs largest national and regional newspaper group, has reduced the value of its 240 regional newspapers by £250 million, after pre-tax first half profits dove 12.8% caused, a company statement said, by “a weak advertising environment with falling GDP growth, sluggish consumer spending and rising unemployment.”

Orkla Loans Montgomery €137 million So He Can Close The Deal - July 27, 2006
It has to be one of the strangest newspaper purchase deals of all-time. David Montgomery had trouble coming up with all the financing necessary to buy the Orkla group of newspapers, so Orkla lent him what he couldn’t come up with himself in order to close the deal.

Assuming Bertelsmann Does Sell Its Music Publishing Business for Around €2 billion, Where Does It Find the Other €2.5 Billion Necessary To Pay Off Its Bridge Loan For Buying Out Its Minority Shareholder? - July 24, 2006
July, 2006, is a month the management at German media conglomerate Bertelsmann will not forget in a hurry. Having achieved their goal of buying out its minority shareholder for €4.5 billion it stayed a private company – good news – only a few days later to have its 2004 merger with Sony Music struck down by Europe’s second highest court – bad news because it was thought that business was top of the list to be sold-off to help pay off the buy-out bridge loan.

It’s Looking More and More That Tribune Could Go The Way of Knight-Ridder - July 17, 2006
In spending $2 billion to buy up some 75 million of its own shares the Tribune Company said it would pay off the junk debt load from reoccurring revenues, cost savings, and asset sales. But having just announced an absolutely horrid second quarter earnings report it’s becoming more questionable whether that is going to work.

Slovenia Joins Euro-Zone, MTG Buys In - July 13, 2006
That Slovenia became the first of the newest European Union Member States adopting the Euro currency surprised no body. Nor is it a surprise that big television operators are circling around south-east Europe.

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How Many Times Do You See Warren Buffet, Tony Blair, Rupert Murdoch and Wonderbra All In The Same Headline? Do We Have Your Attention? Read On - July 6, 2006
It’s July, the temperature hovers around 30c (86f) and we are in the midst of those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer where the media news flow is, frankly, a bit light with vacations already in full swing. So it gives ftm a great opportunity to place a few items of interest before you that don’t merit their own long story, but taken separately they are of genuine interest.

There’s A New European Media Baron – the UK’s David Montgomery -- and Like Media Barons Before Him He Is Judged On His Past Which Is Why Journalists In Germany, The Netherlands, and Now Norway and Denmark Are Not Happy
Like a bolt out of nowhere, David Montgomery’s Mecom Group has within less than a year established itself as a major European newspaper player. It’s newest target in what really looks like a reverse takeover, is buying Norway’s Orkla media empire for some €900 million in a deal set to close this month, assuming the politicians don’t get involved, and that could still happen since the Norwegian Culture Minister says he is not happy.

Goodbye Knight-Ridder – Gone Because, As A Public Company, “You Don’t Have The Luxury of Thumbing Your Nose at Wall Street”; Tribune Saves Itself From a Similar Fate – For Now

Tony Ridder broke down and cried as he announced shareholders had approved the sale of the company he had run for 20 years, fearing for every one of those days that this was how his beloved Knight-Ridder would end up. Mind you, don’t shed too many tears for Mr. Ridder – he does walk away with a $9.4 million severance packet and a position on the McClatchy board!

McClatchy’s Shares Fell 20% in the 3 Months It Took From Announcing Its Knight-Ridder Purchase Until The Deal Was Done. “The Whole Industry Is Shaking; It’s A Difficult Time. I Hope They Prevail,” Said One Major Shareholder At The K-R Wake
At the end of the day McClatchy’s purchase of Knight-Ridder, already considered a cheap deal at $6.1 billion including debt assumption when it was announced March 13 actually was completed this week for $400 million less. McClatchy is paying partly with stock and its shares have crashed 20% in value since the deal was announced. So, why are newspaper companies still being slammed?

CME Fights for Czech Digital TV; Lauder Wins Klimt

Once again Central European Media Enterprises (CME) takes on Czech authorities. Three years ago the Czech government lost in arbitration and paid the company $350 million. Now CME is challenging an unfavorable digital licensing decision. When Chairman Ron Lauder goes after something – as the art world discovered this week – he can reach into very deep pockets.

Dean Singleton Is Paying McClatchy Around 12 Times Cash Flow To Buy His Four Knight-Ridder Newspapers So No Wonder He Is Green With Envy When He Sees The Tribune Company Buying Up 25% Of Its Stock for About 8 Times Earnings!
Gary Pruitt, McClatchy CEO, and Dean Singleton, CEO of the privately held MediaNews Group, were participating in a panel discussion a few weeks ago when the conversation got around to newspaper evaluations. This was at a time that McClatchy had made its deal for Knight-Ridder and was now trying to offload 12 newspapers it didn’t want.

Newspapers Start To Produce Better Numbers From Their Print Operations, and Their Internet Activities Continue Amazing Growth, But Three Major Wall Street Analysts Say Its Way Too Early To Say The Worst Is Over

The New York Times in May posted its highest monthly growth increase so far this year, 4.4% compared with last May and online ad revenue was up 27%. The Wall Street Journal reported its May advertising was up 10.1%, but for all that Wall Street analysts say they want to see more than one month of good figures before giving any thumbs-up for the industry.

Big Broadcasters Believe in Bulgaria
As Communicorp finalized its acquisition of two more radio stations, the Bulgarian media market is set for a unique battle. Nowhere in Europe have so many big multinational media companies engaged in a fight in one market. And it’s not about the money…

Communicorp Scores a Quasi
Ireland’s Broadcasting Commission granted “quasi-national” authorization to Newstalk 106, a Dublin local radio station majority owned by Communicorp. The ten-year license with “strong emphasis” on news and talk will bring certain competition to private channel Today FM and public broadcaster RTE.

Tribune’s CEO Reverses Course From Diverting Share Buy-back Funds to Buying Web Sites And Instead Mortgages The Company To The Hilt With A $2 Billion Buy-Back That Sees The Share Price Soar But Credit Ratings Plunge - May 31, 2006
At least Tribune Chairman, President, and CEO Dennis J. FitzSimons didn’t have to take his media group the way of Knight-Ridder and put it on the block as some had feared with the share price hovering around eight-year lows. But the company is now taking on about $2 billion additional debt, and making $500 million in asset sales to buy back some 75 million shares – about 25% of the company – in order to boost the share price and keep investors happy.

Gary Pruitt Says It Would Have Been Inconceivable A Few Years Ago To Have Bought Knight-Ridder For Such A Low Price. Wall Street Says McClatchy Would Have Done Better Buying Its Own Shares and Calls The Newspaper Industry “A Stinker” - May 29, 2006
Gary Pruitt is fond of telling people that he made a great financial deal in buying Knight-Ridder’s 32 newspapers for “only” $6.3 billion including debt assumption – such a low price would not have been possible just a few years ago when newspapers were in favor with Wall Street. But Wall Street has its final say – the money would have been better spent on McClatchy buying its own shares.

Two Media Giants, One in the US The Other In The UK, Find the Traditional Media Financial Going Tough And The Digital Revenues Can’t Come In Fast Enough To Turn the Tide - May 25, 2006
Tribune, based in Chicago, announced its Internet traffic increased 28% in April over a year ago but that didn’t stop Moody’s from downgrading its long-term debt rating. In the UK, ITV1 has some of the best kick-off times for the upcoming World Cup and yet its advertising revenue for June and July is forecast to be well below a year ago. It is desperately looking at digital solutions to account for 50% of its total revenue by 2010.

ProKom’s Ryszard Krauze Spins Radio Assets…to Himself - May 21, 2006
Further consolidating and restructuring his varied businesses, Polish millionaire Ryszard Krause moved Mediabank SA, owner of radio station PiN 102 FM, from Softbank SA – of which he is CEO – to Prokom Investments – of which he is CEO. Finishing that in late April, Krauze then moved to the bigger plan: merging Softbank with Asseco and creating Poland’s biggest IT company.

A Look At The Financial Results Of Some of Europe’s Internet And Media Companies Shows It Is Not All Smooth Sailing - May 18, 2006
With all the headlines about how print is hurting, East Europe is thriving, and the Internet is THE Business to be In, how does all of that pan out when looking at some representative European media financial results? A study of the year’s results thus far for Schibsted, Sanoma WSOY, Tiscali, and European results for News Corp. indicates the business is taking some twists and turns.

Another Big Broadcaster Buys Into Bulgaria - May 11, 2006

Barely one month after News Corporation expanded its broadcast holdings in Bulgaria, SBS Broadcasting bought national radio channel Vitosha FM and 2 local stations. Both follow Emmis International and Communicorp into the country, short-listed for European Union entry in 2007.

Just When It Looks Like Big Newspaper Investors Are Trying Anything To Get Out Of the Segment Without Losing Their Shirts, Up Comes Highfields Capital Management Buying A 5.2% Stake In McClatchy - May 11, 2006
Maybe newspapers aren’t such a bad buy after all? One big hedge fund with significant newspaper holdings has disclosed it has just taken a 5.2% position in McClatchy that is in the process of buying Knight-Ridder. And that same hedge fund, Highfields Capital Management (HCM) also has a $142 million (3.3% stake) stake in Knight-Ridder.

Luxury Advertising Boosts The FT’s Performance, So The WSJE’s Style Journal Luxury Quarterly Magazine Launching This Week May Be Great Timing, But Lest You Think Newspapers Are Back in Vogue, Goldman Sachs Still Calls Them Value Traps - April 24, 2006

Business newspapers are counting on increased advertising for luxury goods to pull them out of their revenue doldrums of the past four years and the indications are they may just be right.

Morgan Stanley Fires A Shot Across the New York Times’ Bow And Basically Tells Management to Shape Up Or Ship Out, But this Is No Knight-Ridder, There Are Two Classes of Shares And The Sulzberger Family Owns The Shares That Really Count - April 20, 2006
The financial geniuses who have long invested in newspaper companies because of their 20% plus operating margins, but who apparently held on too long and didn’t sell when shares were high, are growing increasingly weary of seeing newspaper stock market values at multi-year lows, and after their victory in forcing Knight-Ridder to sell itself they now have their sites on the New York Times Company.

Weather Forecast for Istanbul : 21C and Clear Skies. Ad Forecast : 22% Growth - April 18, 2006
CanWest completed its deal to buy four radio stations in Turkey, paying €49.9 million for minority stakes with options for more and certain “operating” agreements. To put this into perspective, GCap Media – the UK’s biggest radio company – let bids on nine of its smaller – but profitable – UK stations but withdrew them from bidding in March because the best offer was about €40 million, considerably less than the €70 million expected.

It’s Time The Media Quit Wasting All That Money On Share Buybacks, And Put That Money into The Internet Instead - April 17, 2006
Media companies continue to throw millions of dollars, pounds, euros, kroner – you name it -- into a stock market bottomless pit in a bid to boost their share values. Financial analysts say buybacks are “A gift to shareholders that keep on giving” but the media’s experience is that it is just throwing good money after bad. So its time to call “Time” and invest that shareholder value where it will do the most good – the Internet.

The Popular Spin Is That Newspapers Are Still A Great Business, Just Not As Good As They Once Were. So How Come Moody’s Downgrades Dow Jones, and Puts New York Times and Tribune Under Credit Watch, and Knight-Ridder Sold for Basically No Premium? - March 26, 2006
Newspapers are a business that on average still produce operating profit margins of around 19% in the US – some countries even more -- and that kind of figure is the envy of many other business sectors. But the margin has been dropping through the years and the main question Wall Street is asking is where does it stop?

Bill Gates, The World’s Richest Man For The Past 12 Years, Says Newspapers Are Going to Survive, But They Have To Adapt to the Digital World. And He Sees Anything With a Screen As The Perfect Customer for His Corbis Digital Pictures Business - March 23, 2006
Bill Gates is well known as the founder of Microsoft, the business that according to Forbes Magazine has made him the richest man in the world for the past 12 years. Not so well known is that Gates is also the owner, separate from Microsoft, of Corbis, a pictures archive owning some 80 million images of which 4.2 million are available for sale via the Internet.

“We Are At The Dawn Of A Golden Age of Information – An Empire of New Knowledge” – Rupert Murdoch Who In The Same Speech Told Traditional Media To Basically “Change Or Die!” - March 20, 2006
About once every year Rupert Murdoch makes a prominent speech outlining his vision of the media’s future. Last year he told American newspaper editors that they needed to embrace the Internet – and then he spent close to $1 billion buying web sites proving his point – and this year he has told media magnates that if their empires do not encompass multi-channels to pass on news and information then their business will die.

Lee Bought Pulitzer Last Year for 13.5 times Earnings Yet McClatchy Paid Just 9.5 times Earnings For Knight-Ridder. What Does That Tell You About the Value of Newspapers Today? - March 15, 2006
That someone, it happened to be McClatchy, paid about $67.25 a share for Knight-Ridder -- some $4.5 billion plus absorbing K-R’s $2 billion of debt -- was about what the markets expected. But where was Gannett and all those private equity companies that were expected to put in bids? The word is they dropped out, which gives as good an indication as any that newspaper valuations are not what they used to be.

Just How Powerful Is Google As A Benchmark For the Technology Sector? Its CFO Casually Remarks That Organic Growth Is Slowing Down And Before You Know It Stock Markets Around The World Head Seriously South - March 1, 2006
After giving a fairly bullish presentation on Google’s future financial prospects the words that came next from the company’s chief financial officer at an investor’s conference almost seemed like throwaway lines: “Clearly our growth rates are slowing,” George Reyes said. “We are going to have to find new ways to monetize the business.”

When Knight-Ridder’s Largest Shareholder Told the Company To Sell Itself, The Shares of Most Newspapers Companies Jumped In the Hope This Was the Start of Good Times Ahead. Actually It Was The Start of That Shareholder Dumping Some $2 Billion Worth of Shares Involving Nine Newspaper Groups - February 20, 2006
Last November, the largest shareholder in US newspaper shares shocked Wall Street by demanding that Knight-Ridder (K-R) put itself up for sale to enhance shareholder value. The next two largest shareholders joined in and the die was cast. Shares in K-R and most other publicly quoted companies rose strongly and immediately on the hope this was just the start of improving shareholder value for that market sector.

It’s Not Just Cartoons Any More, US Congress Lashes Out At Google, Yahoo, Cisco, and MSN Over Their Lack of “Social Responsibility” in Surrendering To the Great Firewall of China - February 16, 2006
The scene was a US Congressional hearing room. Trying to explain their business practices in penetrating the huge Internet business opportunities in China, but gaining very little sympathy, were American web giants Google, Yahoo, Cisco and Microsoft. Lashing out at them was Representative Tom Lantos of California. “Your abhorrent actions in China are a disgrace. I don’t understand how your corporate leadership sleeps at night.”

It’s Looking Like Gannett Would Prefer Buying British, But It Could Still Get Involved in The Knight-Ridder Sale - February 13, 2006
There are two major newspaper group sales on offer internationally – the Northcliffe regional newspapers in the UK, and Knight-Ridder in the US, and both make a lot of sense for Gannett, the largest US publisher. But some $2.1 billion for the UK group and perhaps $4 billion plus for the US group could cause some financial indigestion, and not everything in the US purchase fits Gannett’s needs. Indications are it is leaning towards the British buy but it might team up with another group in the US for Knight-Ridder (K-R).

Google’s Capitalization Drops $20 Billion In One Week, Yet It’s Still Worth Nearly Double All Publicly Quoted Newspaper Stocks on the US Markets Combined. But Might Rupert Murdoch Be Preparing to Out-Google Google? - January 23, 2006
It was a bad week for Google. It started when Yahoo’s fourth quarter earnings, although good, came in just under what Wall Street expected. So Yahoo got dumped on and in Wall Street’s natural way it also sold off its prime competitor. And then the week ended with a double whammy – news broke that Google was fighting a US Justice Department subpoena to hand over one week’s worth of search requests and Wall Street on Friday suffered its worst loss in almost three years.

Dow Jones Dumps Its Wall Street Journal Publisher and Kicks Her Husband, the Company’s CEO, Upstairs Temporarily to Chairman, Wall Street Rejoices With A One-Day 10% Share Price Increase And With Knight-Ridder For Sale, Traders May Finally Be Seeing Some Results They Like From US Newspapers. - January 8, 2006
Tony Ridder didn’t have much choice. His three largest shareholders said they wanted to see Knight-Ridder sold to achieve shareholder value and there wasn’t much he could do about it and the sales process is in full swing. But Dow Jones is another matter. While a public company it is still controlled by the Bancroft family and the family really hasn’t been that active in pushing for a better performance. Until now. In one swoop the company ceo is out come February 1 -- kicked upstairs as chairman until he retires in a year -- and his wife, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) publisher, has been given two months to pack up her office.

UBS’ Own Analysts Sum Up Best What They Heard at Their Media Week: Newspapers Are Investing Online – Where Growth Potential Is Best – But That’s Just A Small Part of the Overall Financial Picture and The Bigger Part Is Having Severe Problems - December 12, 2005
It wasn’t so much doom and gloom for newspapers at the Media Week meetings last week as much as it was that with a few exceptions things don’t look like getting much better in the short-term, and while their Internet activities are doing very well indeed, when seen as part of the overall revenue picture, those activities, for now, contribute a mere pittance.

Hell Hath No Fury Like Russian Women Scorned - December 8, 2005
After REN TV bars the studio door, TV anchor Olga Romanova quits and vows to sue owners, including RTL Group. The station’s news director also quit and others might follow. This is not social dialogue.

US Newspaper Executives Tell Wall Street This Week Their 2006 Prognosis But the Real Story is That Knight-Ridder Won’t Be Presenting – It’s In the Midst Of Being Forced to Try and Sell Itself -- And That’s the Real Future That Many of Them Don’t Want to Talk About! - December 5, 2005
When the major US publishing companies give their various reports to the 33rd annual UBS Media Week Conference and to the Credit Suisse First Boston media meeting this week the shadow of who is not there will be overwhelming. Knight-Ridder’s prognosis is already known – its three main shareholders want it sold to gain shareholder value, and many of those other newspaper companies – especially those without family protection on their shareholdings – fear they could soon be in the same boat.

Virgin’s Deal In the UK To Become A Quadruple Player – Fixed Lines, Mobile, Broadband, and Television – Is A Forerunner of What Will Occur Elsewhere. And Suddenly BSkyB Has A Real Program Competitor On Its Hands -- Watch Those Sports Rights! - December 5, 2005
It’s the kind of deal that, when announced, seemed such a natural, and it propels Sir Richard Branson yet again into the limelight, this time as the biggest shareholder in a company that will deliver broadband to 2.5 million customers, that already has 4.3 million fixed-line accounts, more than five million mobile customers and 3.3 million cable TV subscribers.

Big Media Rushes Into Next EU Accession Countries - December 1, 2005
Just being “in talks with the European Union” is good enough to send media investors cruising the streets looking for deals. As countries turn themselves up-side-down conforming to EU accession demands, big media companies bring cash and expertise intent on cornering the markets early…but not too early. So far, this strategy works. But, how far east can it go?

Upheaval in UK Newspaper Market: Northcliffe Newspapers Put Up for Sale, News International Announces Three-Year Editorial Spending Freeze, and Trinity-Mirror Starts Dumping 5-7% of its Work Force - December 1, 2005
The decision by the Daily Mail and General Trust (DMGT) to put its Northcliffe regional group of 112 titles up for sale is for exactly the opposite reason why Knight-Ridder in the US is looking to sell itself.

The Classified Ad Might Have Read Something Like: “Largest Swiss Media Company Looking to Expand Its East European Operations Seeks Former German Chancellor To Open Political Doors.” Ringier Welcomes Gerhard Schroeder to Work in Zurich - November 27, 2005
In a mighty coup for Michael Ringier, chairman of the Swiss publishing empire that carries his name, and at the same time delivering as good a blow as any at his arch-rival, Germany’s Axel Springer, former German Chancellor Gerhard Schoeder has agreed to advise Ringier on international political affairs and spend one or two days a week at Ringier headquarters in Zurich starting in January.

It Seems Almost Daily Now That Huge Television Deals Embracing Internet Broadband Are Announced, But Lost in The Shuffle Was An Announcement By Internet Giant Cisco That It Now Embraces Television - November 23, 2005
With so many deals announced recently selling first-run network programming via Internet on-demand delivery, even offering the nightly news for free, an even more monumental event may have been missed. Computer network giant Cisco is paying some $7 billion (cash) for Scientific-Atlanta, America’s second largest producer of video set-tops.

Reuters Purchase of Action Images Directly Targets Getty Images Commercial Sports Business, But Can Reuters Escape the Getty Perception That Its Commercial Ties with the NHL, NBA and Others Adversely Affects Its Media Sports Coverage - November 23, 2005
There can be no doubt that Getty Images is an absolutely incredible media success story. In just 10 years it has established itself as not only the world’s leading image company owning the world’s largest collection of still and moving images, but at the same time it is recognized by the world’s leading media as a major player in the daily news pictures business.

Building RadioHit / Slovenia - November 22, 2005
In a very large white house on the outskirts of Ljubljana sits RadioHit, the top rated privately owned station in Slovenia. Recently, after operating three months in the basement, they started moving into new but not quite finished studios. Today they’re still busy.

Knight-Ridder Hired Goldman Sachs to Garner Shareholder Value Via a Sale, So At Least That Wall Street Firm Has a Positive Outlook for the Newspaper Industry? Well, Actually, No, It Believes Revenue Growth Looks “Challenging” -- What a Great Sales Pitch! - November 18, 2005
Everyone was expecting US newspaper circulation numbers for the past six months to be bad. But very few expected them to be THAT bad. At the San Francisco Chronicle, for instance, nearly one in five subscribers quit. Overall, the country lost 1.2 million subscribers, 2.6% of its base.

Now That Knight-Ridder Is Officially For Sale, Two Questions Emerge: Who Would be Foolhardy Enough to Buy Newspapers These Days and Which Major Media Group Will Next Feel Shareholder Pressure To Sell Itself? - November 17, 2005
Knight-Ridder didn’t have much choice. With its three largest shareholders representing some 36% of the shares telling the company to explore ways of selling itself and threatening board changes if it didn’t, it hired Goldman Sachs to scout out the market.

Too Hot? / Poland - November 10, 2005
There is an old music industry expression - Too Not Not to Cool Down. It’s meant as a warning to those hotter than hot new stars. It’s a concept not lost on media people in Poland. And the effect is being felt throughout the sector.

A Clear Internet Message for Traditional Media: Besides Developing Your Own Branded Information Web Site, Buy Whatever Else Is Available On the Web Whether It Has Anything To Do With News or Not! - November 7, 2005
Three trends are now apparent for traditional media to retrieve lost profits: their own branded web sites are the most popular news destinations for local news, they must invest heavily in new media, and new media doesn’t mean just news and information -- as long as enough unique visitors flock to a site, buy it!

“Private Capital Management (PCM) Has $4 Billion Invested in US Newspapers. What Do They Know That We Don’t”? – FTM Sept, 2005; PCM Tells Knight-Ridder To Put Itself Up For Sale - November 2, 2005
In what must be considered a very gloomy assessment of the US newspaper business, one of its largest institutional investors has seemingly lost patience with the industry being able to turn itself around, and has now urged Knight-Ridder (K-R), the country’s second largest newspaper chain, to put itself up for sale.

Busy Budapest / Hungary - October 13, 2005
Budapest is busy. The buzz is all about the film industry, although skeptical. A major sound stage development has been announced, with Hollywood backing. The Hungarian film industry says more major productions want to come here but there's a lack of capacity. With so many "big ideas" announced in the last decade, Hungarians have adopted a "wait and see" attitude toward plans trumpeted about Budapest becoming the European Hollywood.

The Overall Stock Market is Up 5% But Newspapers are Down 12%; 3rd Quarter Newspaper Earnings Expected to Drop an Average 8.5% But the S&P 500 Index expected to Gain 12%. And There Is Absolutely Nothing Out There to Indicate Things Will Get Better Any Time Soon - October 12, 2005
As the third quarter earnings reporting period approaches expect nothing but bad news for the US newspaper industry. Even worse, don’t expect to see even a glimmer of hope that Happy Days may soon be back again. The numbers are bad and expected to get even worse.

The Buzz Word for Newspapers Talking to Advertisers is No Longer “Circulation”; It’s “Readership” With “Quality” Close Behind - October 6, 2005
With many major newspapers suffering large circulation declines over the past few years, but still increasing their advertising rates, it seems only natural they no longer want to talk about circulation. No, the spin now is that advertisers should factor in how many people actually read a newspaper and whether they are the “right” people.

The Bad News for Newspapers Keeps Getting Worse: “Newspaper Revenue Shifts to the Internet” Cries Out One Headline, “Bank Warns Newspapers of Rough 2006” Screams Another - September 29, 2005
Just what a newspaper publisher doesn’t want to hear: “The consistent growth in overall Internet advertising shows marketers may be shifting more of their total advertising budgets online,”, according to David Silverman, a partner with PriceWaterhouseCoopers.

New York Times Company and Knight-Ridder Announce Further Layoffs Based on Glum Advertising Forecasts Triggering Major Sell-Offs As Major US Newspaper Groups See Their Shares Sink Below 52-Week Lows - September 22, 2005
It was only last May that the New York Times Company announced 195 layoffs so another internal “Arthur” and “Janet” note this week so soon afterwards announcing another 500 employees are to go – 4% of its workforce -- has rocked the US newspaper establishment. “Arthur” is Arthur Sulzberger Jr, chairman of the New York Times Company and publisher of the New York Times, and “Janet” is Janet Robinson, president and CEO. When they talk of hard times ahead the whole industry shudders.

David Mansfield Exits GCap Media - September 20, 2005
Thus ends the short, five-month run of UK radio broadcastings dynamic duo: David Mansfield and Ralph Bernard. The announcement was made Monday (September 19) by Sir Ralph. David remains a company director until January but, yes, he’s a goner.

There’s General Praise For the New Guardian Berliner Size, the Wall Street Journal Publishes On Saturday, and the New York Times Starts Charging for Its Prime Columnists on the Web - September 19, 2005
Newspapers on both sides of the Atlantic continue to make large investments in their print products, giving the clearest answer possible to those who believe the industry should be put into care and maintenance while all attention is turned to digital media.

Germany’s Privately-Held Bertelsmann, Virtually Debt-Free, Spends Some €1.5 Billion on Mostly TV Acquisitions This Year and Still Has Another €500 Million to Go - September 12, 2005
Bertelsmann, the world’s fourth largest media company, has been busy this year investing its €2 billion war chest on such diverse entities as an automobile magazine publisher in Europe to CD direct seller Columbia House in the US, while at the same time getting out of the US magazine business, but it is its investments in the European television market that attract the most attention.

Round Up the Children, Louisa. The Canadians Are Coming! - September 8, 2005
The UKs first foreign-owned radio broadcast license is awarded to CanWest, the Canadian media giant. Will ice-hockey be forced on unsuspecting British listeners?

Satellite Biggies Get Bigger - August 30, 2005
PanAmSat Holding Corp. agreed to be acquired by Intelsat Ltd in a $3.2 billion deal creating the largest private satellite operator on the planet.

Buy Out Firms Buy Out SBS Broadcasting – August 25, 2005
After fifteen years, 16 television stations and 11 radio networks Harry Sloan delivered for SBS Broadcasting (SBS) investors, selling the company to leveraged buy out firms Kohlberg, Kravis & Roberts (KKR) and Permira Advisors Ltd for an estimated €1.7 billion.

Murdoch Puts His Money Where His Mouth Is –-He’s Setting Aside Another $1 Billion To Buy Internet Sites, and He’s Close to Gobbling Up a Search Engine - August 15, 2005
Rupert Murdoch, chairman and CEO of News International, described the problem to a meeting of American editors in the spring, “The threat of losing print advertising dollars to online media is very real. In fact, it’s already happening, particularly in classifieds. No one in this room is oblivious to it.” This week he presented his solution – he is setting aside another $1 billion plus to purchase Internet sites.

Google Captures About 15% of All Online Advertising Which Continues to Grow as Search Engine Advertising Revenues Are Forecast to Overtake Internet Display Advertising by 2010 - August 11, 2005
There can be no question that when it comes to online advertising that search revenue is on a roll, and the latest estimates from Jupiter Research says it will outpace even display advertising by 2010. Overall US Internet advertising is forecast to more than double the $9.3 billion at the end of 2004 to reach $18.9 billion by 2010.

“The Business Logic of Combining Axel Springer and ProSeiben is Compelling” - August 11, 2005
All was happiness in Munich when the long negotiated deal was announced bringing Germany’s most profitable television operator under the wing of Germany’s biggest newspaper publisher.

If Citizens Provide Their Exclusive Breaking News Photos/Video to the Media Then Shouldn’t They Get Paid? Apparently Not! - August 11, 2005
The London bombings brought home the power of amateur photography, still and video. Some of the most dramatic pictures of the bombings themselves came from people on the trains using their mobile phone cameras. The arrest of two suspects was captured on amateur video.

It Used To Be Media News Agencies Were the Wholesalers and Broadcasters Were The Retailers. Now Each Wants Their Cut of the Other’s Pie - August 8, 2005
First it was Reuters that decided there was much more money to be had by being in the media news retail business rather than just being the news wholesaler supplying products to those news organizations that deal directly with the public. Now CNN and ABC are turning the tables and making video available via a third party, Yahoo, in addition to their own web sites.

After Asia-Pacific, Europe Is The World’s Second Largest Broadband Market With More and More Video Programming Being Streamed - August 4, 2005
Europe is witnessing the death of dial-up Internet with some countries probably eliminating it completely within five years, according to a new study by Strategic Analytics. And as broadband grows, so, too, are the video streaming programs on offer, whether from new start-ups or major players like the BBC and BSkyB.

Look, Up in the Sky: It’s a Bird, it’s a Plane, it’s the WorldSpace IPO - August 1, 2005
WorldSpace raised the target price for its initial public offering (IPO) as XM Satellite Radio (XM) bought stock for US$25 million. Both companies anticipate that first profitable quarter.

The Growth of Video on The Internet is Great News for Reuters and AP – They May Start, Finally, to See Some Sustained Profits From Their TV Operations - July 27, 2005
For Reuters Television and Associated Press Television News (APTN) the growing use of broadband and its increased demand for on-the-spot video is a need come true. Both companies have suffered severe loses over the years on their television video activities and new outlets were desperately needed. And it seems they are now here.

Online Revenues Shine While Print Revenues Fade as Two Large US Media Groups Prove Their Internet Investments Were the Right Thing to Do - July 25, 2005
The New York Times and Dow Jones both made large Internet investments this year, and already they are successfully impacting the bottom line, with online ad revenue increasing for each company in excess of 25%, according to the Q2 earnings reports. Print, on the other hand, showed