Newspapers enjoy solid day on Wall Street

While newspaper stocks have been hammered over the past several months, they got a little reprieve today.
The Washington Post Co. rose $31.80, or a little over 8 percent, according to Mark Fitzgerald and Jennifer Saba of Editor & Publisher.

Percentage gains were bigger for cheaper, and slapped-around, stocks. Media General Inc. (NYSE: MEG) soared 17.2% on a $1.12 price gain to $7.63 a share. The McClatchy Co. (NYSE: MNI) jumped 13.7% to $3.07 as the Street bid it up 37 cents. A.H. Belo (NYSE: AHC) closed at $3.31, on a 49-cent, or 17.38% increase.

Despite the good news on the day and in the general market this week, newspapers will have to convince investors that they can stop losing money if they hope to bring their stock prices off the 52-week lows many find themselves at.

Click here to read more from the Fitz and Jen blog.

Washington Post Co.'s profit plunges

Editor & Publisher reports The Washington Post Co.'s profit fell 86 percent in the third quarter. The losses are attributed to the declining values of the company's smaller papers. 

The Washington-based company, whose properties include its namesake newspaper, Newsweek magazine and the Kaplan academic testing service, said earnings slid to $10.1 million, or $1.08 per share, from $72.2 million, or $7.60 per share, in the year-ago quarter. 

The company did report an increase in revenue from its "education and broadcast and cable television segments." 

For more click here. 

Biz editor leaves Star-Ledger

Talking Biz News reports The Star-Ledger's business editor Kevin Shinkle will leave the Newark paper to join the Associated Press as assistant business editor. The move is part of a buyout offer Shinkle received from the paper. 

He will leave The Star-Ledger on Nov. 12 and begin work at the AP Nov. 17. At the AP, Shinkle will oversee four teams: financial/Wall Street, real estate, personal finance and money and markets. 

For more click here. 

Top 25 Sunday circulations down

Editor & Publisher has compiled a list of the top 25 newspapers ranked by Sunday circulation numbers, and compared them with the top 25 from ten years ago.
The papers holding the top four spots remained the same over that time span - The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, and the Chicago Tribune, respectively.
However, Sunday circulation for those papers fell by an average of about 216,000, or just under 17 percent.
The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times are now the only papers with Sunday circulations over one million.

To see both lists, click here.

Major changes at Portfolio

The New York Observer reports Portfolio will lay off about 20 percent of its staff. The monthly magazine will also reduce publication to 10 times per year. And, to add to the mix, Portfolio.com will be "severely scaled back."  In a time where Web sites are just "companion sites" to print versions, Portfolio.com was especially "unique for its original content and its large staff." The cutbacks mean that the the Web site "will begin to look a lot like those other sites." 

For more click here. 

Gannett declares dividend, adds two directors

Editor & Publisher reports Gannett Co. has declared a 40-cent  dividend and added two new directors to its board. This keeps Gannett's dividend at its highest level since the company went public in 1967. Gannett's move is not typical in the current climate, where companies are experiencing added pressures to cut dividends in order to meet debt obligations.

The two new board members are Howard Elias and Scott McCune.

For more click here. 

Fayetteville eliminates 21 jobs

The Fayetteville Publishing Co., parent of The Fayetteville (N.C.) Observer, is eliminating 21 jobs through a combination of buyouts and layoffs. The cuts stem from revenue declines and higher costs.
Editor & Publisher reports that Business Editor Don Worthington was one of the employees who would be taking a buyout.
For more click here.

MediaGroup VP argues against circulation numbers

Matt Baldwin, vice president of research for MediaNews Group, posted on Poynter Online today and argued that newspapers should not focus on their circulation numbers when estimating their audience reach.

No one will deny that media today is changing. No one will deny that media today is challenged like never before. Telling the whole story is our ultimate responsibility - to readers, consumers and advertisers alike

.Baldwin says newspapers should take a cue from broadcast news organizations and look at the audience as a whole - a combination of circulation in the print edition and the number of views a paper's website gets.
According to Baldwin, this is important specifically because so many people are getting their news online. He argues that the audience isn't diminishing, it's simply moving.

Click here to read more.

BusinessWeek's publisher cuts more jobs

Folio reports McGraw-Hill Companies, which publishes BusinessWeek, has laid off another 270 employees. The company has cut approximately 670 positions year-to-date. About 140 of the jobs eliminated come from the media and information division. 

According to McGraw-Hill, the move is another effort to "contain costs and mitigate the impact of the current and expected future economic conditions." The company recently reported a 14 percent decline in third quarter income. Revenue is down 6.4 percent from last year. 

McGraw-Hill cut 611 jobs in late- 2007. 

For more click here. 

Business elite favor print

Folio reports that a recent media survey concluded that top American business executives spend a lot of time worrying about the economic climate and as a result they are heavy consumers of all media, especially print publications.

From the story:

The survey, sponsored by a cross-section of media companies, including Condé Nast, Newsweek and the Economist, was initiated to support the planning of ad campaigns targeting this high-end demographic. The results give a rare glimpse into the media habits of these executives, who are responsible for $1.4 trillion of business spending, earn $246 billion between them and, according to the report, take enough flights to “fill the Rose Bowl 69 times.”

NYT expanding biz coverage

The New York Observer reports The New York Times has beefed up its business coverage during the financial crisis thanks to a special "investment fund." And it appears The Times will continue to add staff to cover business developments in a time where newsrooms are announcing layoffs on an increasingly-regular basis. The special fund was established to "expand some of the business verticals that the company hopes have the potential to make money down the road."  

The Times saw the financial crisis as an opportunity and, in response, threw additional resources at BizDay to grow business coverage as "the financial world [was] going nuts." 

Janet Robinson, the company's CEO, said, "In the coming months, nytimes.com will expand its Small Business, Personal Technology and Your Money sections, introduce more journalists, deepen coverage in its DealBook franchise and continue to add more tools and multimedia features." 

For more click here. 

Time Inc. to cut over 600 jobs

Time Inc., publisher of such famous magazines as Time, Fortune, and Sports Illustrated, has announced that it will cut six percent of its workforce, according to The New York Times.

No magazines are scheduled to close, but some are likely to be severely cut back. Ann S. Moore, Time Inc.’s chairman and chief executive, was already planning an overhaul because of the upheavals in print media, but she was forced to speed up those efforts amid the financial crisis and looming recession.

According to the article, the company will likely go through a significant restructuring process to restrict what has historically been a fairly loosely-governed organization.
The company still employs about 7,000 people in the U.S. and over 3,000 people around the world.

To read the article, click here.

Orange County Register announces layoffs

Editor & Publisher reports that the Orange County Register of Orange County, California will lay off about 110 people by Friday. This is the fourth round of layoffs for the paper in 2008.
The Register's daily circulation fell 15 percent in the year ending in September, one of the factors driving the need to cut staff. However, there is a silver lining:

[Publisher Terry] Horne said that while the company is facing challenging times, there are some areas of success. Online advertising, excluding employment, was up 69.3% over last year, he said. Revenues from direct mail were up 16%

According to the article, Horne doesn't plan on instituting any significant changes to the paper, saying that it will continue to focus on local news that readers can't get elsewhere.

Click here to read more.

Newspaper stocks react to rate cut

CNNMoney.com reports the Fed's move to slash rates again Wednesday had a "mixed" effect on share prices of newspaper companies. Shares of The New York Times Co. were off by 2.6 percent, to $9.82, while shares of Gannett dropped 1.9 percent. The McClatchy Co. was the biggest major newspaper loser of the day, falling 7.9 percent to just $2.60. 

Newspapers face an uphill battle as advertising revenues continue to drop due to the weakening economy. Revenues are declining at an even faster rate "as consumers and advertisers pull back spending." 

The Fed's move to lower rates Wednesday is a clear effort to give the economy a much-needed boost. 

For more click here. 

New circulation numbers show positives, negatives

Editor & Publisher's Fitz and Jen blog is reporting some new circulation numbers for U.S. newspapers. They show a lot of declines, but also some surprising gains in online readership.
According to the blog, a report released Monday by Deutsche Bank analyst David T. Clark shows that The Washington Post Co. and Lee Enterprises fared the best overall, but neither managed to post gains.
Their daily circulation fell 1.9 percent and 3.7 percent respectively in the six months ending in September.
Some more bad news:

Clark points out that the rate of circ decline is picking up. "We're still uncertain how much of the decline is due to reductions in outlying, third party, and unprofitable circulation but it is increasingly clear that the circulation trend is accelerating structural decline. Our best guess is that the secular rate of decline is between 3.0% and 3.5%."

However, many papers experienced strong growth in the readership of their websites.
The San Francisco Chronicler, the Rockford (Ill.) Register-Star, and the Macon (Ga.) Telegraph each saw gains of more than 23 percent.

For the rest of the list, as well as the article, click here.

Latest round of Gannett job cuts will not affect USA Today

Bloomberg reports the job cuts announced by Gannett Co. today will not apply to USA Today, according to a spokesperson. Spokeswoman Tara Connell would not give an exact number of employees that will be laid off by early December in Gannett's latest round of firings, but said it would be "significantly less" than 3,000. 

For more click here. 

Washington Post's credit rating could fall

In another sign of worsening financial times, The Washington Post, which has historically had one of the best credit ratings among U.S. newspapers, could see that rating lowered by Moody's Investors Service.
Concerns have arisen over the Post Co.'s pending purchases, including the possible acquisition of NBC's Miami affiliate. Moody's fears that these will "sustain leverage at levels that are already weak for the A1 rating."

Moody's said it anticipates growth in the Post Co.'s Kaplan education business plus its CableOne cable TV holding "will mitigate some of the secular and cyclical pressure in the traditional media properties over the next several years, but that earnings growth might not be sufficient to return leverage to the levels appropriate for the A1 rating."

One bright side to the news is that Moody's still considers the Post Co. to have a low level of debt when compared with its earnings.

Click here to read more.

Gannett to cut more jobs at local papers

Reuters is reporting Gannett Co. Inc. plans to lay off about 10 percent of its workforce at local newspapers. This is the second round of layoffs for the company in the past two months. Robert Dickey, president of the newspaper division, sent the following memo to staff Tuesday: 

"As all of you are painfully aware, the fiscal crisis is deepening and the economy is getting worse. Gannett's revenues continue to be severely impacted by this downturn, and our local operations are suffering...While this is more bad news, it is a sign of Gannett's determination to remain healthy and viable as a company during these turbulent economic times."

Gannett is the largest newspaper publisher in the United States. The company owns more than 80 local dailies all over the country including The Arizona Republic, the Tallahassee Democrat, the Argus Leader, and The Journal News. 

For more click here. 

Tribune Co. to cut D.C. staff

Editory & Publisher reports that the Tribune Company is expecting to cut some of the staff at its Washington, D.C. bureau.

The [Washington] Post writes that the 42-person Tribune D.C. bureau, which houses the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune and other Tribune newspapers' offices, is expected to be cut by 12 through a consolidation.

The Washington Post's Howard Kurtz writes that it is not known who will be in charge of the bureau going forward.
He also reports that the Tribune's last two bureau chiefs have quit in recent weeks.

To read the story, click here.

Is media contributing to financial crisis?

BusinessWeek examines the impact of 24-hour media coverage on the financial crisis of 2008. 

From the story:

The sheer quantity of information available raises the question: Could the media actually be contributing to the very crisis it is covering? During past crises, average investors needed to wait until the evening news or the next day's newspaper to learn how their investments had done. This year, the financial panic has unfolded minute by minute in front of investor's eyes. Meanwhile, online tools allow investors to make rash decisions, buying or selling stocks with the click of a mouse. It's a media environment that seems like a recipe for panic. 

The pubic has been bombarded with pessimism by the media in recent months. CNNMoney.com actually told readers to "Turn off CNBC" in order to preserve their sanity. But industry experts suggest media may not be adding "unnecessary fear" or panic to the market. According to Richard Sparks of Shaeffer's Investment Research, "The facts themselves are scary enough...and it hasn't needed any embellishment from the media." 

But Christopher Smith of the University of Southern California's Annenberg School for Communication said media coverage can have a dramatic impact on public perception and cause "huge swings in optimism and pessimism by investors." 

For more click here. 

CNN offers wire service content

Editor & Publisher reports that CNN is about to offer its own news wire content to newspapers around the country.
The move comes as Associated Press, the dominant wire service in the U.S., is struggling with changes in rate structure and and the loss of several large newspaper customers, including the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times.

In a letter to numerous newspaper editors, CNN is boasting its new CNN Wire will "provide stories of interest to your newspaper and online readers -- breaking news, national, international, business, politics, consumer, medical, and more.

Several newspaper editors have been invited by CNN to an all-expense-paid trip to a three-day summit in Atlanta, where CNN will show off its new service and take input from the editors.

Click here to read more.

Journalists frustrated by new technology

MarketWatch reports top journalists are saying they feel "burned out" by the new demands placed on them to incorporate sophisticated technology into their reporting. 

From the story:

"I have been blogging for years," said Tony Messenger, a state capital bureau corrspondent for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. "I have yet to have a discussion in my newsroom about why we're blogging and to tie that somehow into the newspaper's business model." He said he Twittered during a gubernatorial election debate, taking time from blogging and writing the next day's newspaper story. Yet just 13 people were following his Twitter posts. 

Elaine Sciolino, the Paris correspondent for The New York Times, said she now is expected to post to the Web by noon, produce video for the Web, write for the Times-owned International Herald-Tribune, and still write a flawless story for the next day's Times. 

Journalists agree there is "scant evidence" that the expanded use of technology in newsrooms is enough to boost revenue, save jobs in the industry and support the overall news business.  

For more click here. 

Christian Science Monitor to fold daily print edition

Editor & Publisher reports The Christian Science Monitor will abandon its print format as of next April "after 100 years as a daily newspaper." The Monitor will only deliver a weekly "magazine-style publication" each weekend. According to John Yemma, who took over the publication in July, "The main thing is financial." Yemma added, "It is costly in terms of production and delivery and we recognize that print is not the issue, it is keeping the journalism alive." 

The Monitor is the largest daily newspaper to make the switch to the Web. 

For more click here.   

Newark's Star-Ledger to cut staff by 40 percent

The New York Times reports New Jersey's The Star-Ledger plans to lay off 40 percent of its newsroom staff by the end of 2008. The cut will be "one of the largest reductions in a single move by a major American paper." About 150 of the 330 newsroom employees will be offered buyouts.
Advance Publications, which owns the paper, said declines in ad revenue have put The Star-Ledger "on track to lose about $40 million this year."
For more click here.

Forbes appears on magazine's special cover

The New York Times reports the unfolding turmoil on Wall Street prompted Forbes editors to "rip up their next issue" and feature the company's chairman and "free-market proponent," Steve Forbes, on the magazine's latest cover.
From the story:

Instead of their planned cover, they wanted something that would address the upheaval. Their solution? Their own boss, Steve Forbes, the company's chairman and an economic adviser to John McCain. On the cover, which arrived on newsstands Friday, Mr. Forbes, wearing a suit and tie and smiling optimistically, appears under the line "How Capitalism Will Save Us." Inside, Mr. Forbes assures readers "if sensible rescue efforts continue - and they will - the immediate crisis will quickly pass" and advises against "regulations that stifle innovation."

Forbes has not appeared on the magazine's cover in a long time.
The latest issues was "a monumental project" that addresses the financial crisis from multiple angles. Contributors include Nobel Prize winner Edmund S. Phelps and economist David Malpass.
For more click here.

L.A. Times announced staff cuts

Reuters reports that the Los Angeles Times will cut 75 positions, or roughly 10 percent, from its news staff.

It is the second round of news staff layoffs since a previous round was announced in July. The paper has offered buyouts and has cut back staff levels in its news operations from a high of some 1,200 a bit less than a decade ago.

Tribune Co., owner of the Times as well as many other papers across the country, is trying to cut costs to help repay an estimated $13 billion in debt that it has accrued.
Despite this, the article states that the company is looking into purchasing the Orange County Register of Orange County, California.

Click here to read more.

Newspaper publishers report sharp declines in ad revenue

Several newspaper publishers have reported their third quarter earnings, and the news across the board is pretty grim.
Editor & Publisher reports that while each of the four publishers that released earnings this week beat Wall Street estimates, industry analysts are concerned about ad trends, especially in September.

"The fact that September numbers are showing an acceleration of declines does not bode well for the remainder of the year," said Mike Simonton, a media analyst with Fitch Ratings. "There's really no catalyst for the numbers to improve."

According to the article, McClatchy, Gannett and the New York Times Co. all reported ad revenue declines of at least 16 percent.
These numbers are early indications, however. It remains to be seen exactly how much the slowing economy will affect the already-beleaguered newspaper industry.

To read more, click here.

Newspaper executives meet to discuss AP alternative

Editor & Publisher reports several Northeast newspapers have met to discuss a possible content-sharing partnership. The agreement would, in several cases, replace existing contracts with The Associated Press.
Dissatisfaction with the AP is cited as a reason for the possible "consortium." According to an executive who asked to remain anonymous, "It's fair to say that newspapers across America are upset with the treatment they get from the AP." The executive added, "there is a real desire to get better content, shared among people in non-competitive markets."
The "Northeast Consortium" would include New York's Daily News, Newsday, The Buffalo News, the Times Union, and the Star Ledger.
For more click here.

Top editor leaves Hawaii Business

After spending nine years at Hawaii Business magazine, Editor Kelli Abe Trifonovitch is leaving to pursue other opportunities, according to reports from the Honolulu Star Bulletin. Publisher David Tumilowicz will add acting editor to his responsibilities for the transition as the publications searches for a replacement.
From the story:

"Kelli's DNA is obviously in the magazine and I think that really what is going to be her lasting legacy with Hawaii Business is that over the past four or five years ... (she) has been trying to make the magazine more accessible to a much broader audience."

Veteran biz journalist passes away

Paul Dodson, a legendary business journalist whose career spanned six decades, died on Saturday at age 68.
For the last 18 years, Dodson worked as a full-time business reporter for the South Bend Tribune. His reporting chronicled the shift in the region away from manufacturing and toward a service-oriented economy.
The paper reports that Dodson covered some of the biggest business stories over the years and wrote a regular column, "On the Business Beat."

"Over the span of nearly two decades, Paul Dodson elevated The Tribune's business news coverage every working day," said Ray Leliaert, Tribune business editor. "Paul came to work every day on the lookout for a fresh and important story."

Trib's Rosenthal launches a new blog

The Chicago Tribune's Phil Rosenthal is launching a new blog called the "Tower Ticker," which will focus on the business of Chicago media and beyond.
Rosenthal said the blog's name comes from a former popular Tribune people column that ran from 1948-1981
He writes:

What exactly this will be, I suspect we will discover together. My expectation is "It's a little bit me, and it's a little bit you." imagine this will have a more casual, more personal feel than the column. Beyond sharing some of the things that cross my desk or my mind, I see this as a venue for you to share your takes with me, as well as with each other.

New discussion area on FT

The Press Gazette reports that the Financial Times unveiled a new discussion area for its blog-site Alphaville which is based around a renowned City of London pub called The Long Room.
The original bar and restaurant on Throgmorton Street was once said to be a hub for City chatter - and the new Long Room section of FT.com hopes to emulate that by creating a number of virtual discussion tables that registered users of the site can sit in on.
The move comes as the webby award-winning Alphaville section of FT.com expands with the appointment of New York-based writer Stacy-Marie Ishmael.
For the full story click here.

Gannett reports 32 percent 3Q decline

The Wall Street Journal reports that Gannett Co., reported a 32% decline in third-quarter net income, a drop that could end up in more job cuts in the fourth quarter.
The publisher of 85 daily newspapers, including USA Today, and owner of 23 television stations, said its publishing ad revenues fell nearly 18%, owing largely to weakness in classifieds at papers in California, Florida and Nevada.
For the full story click here.
To read the full company release click here.

Teen posted fake Steve Jobs story

Bloomberg reports that an 18-year-old was responsible for posting a fake CNN iReport that Apple Inc. CEO Steve Jobs had suffered a heart attack, a story that sent the company's shares down as much as 5.4 percent.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating motive for posting the article, but so far has not found evidence that the teen attempted to profit from the stock drop.
To read the full report click here.

Post-election biz coverage ideas

The Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism will hold a 60-minute discussion with a panel of experts on what to look for post-election in terms of the economy and the players in Washington.
The panel, which includes Congressional Quarterly's Jodi Schneider, The New York Times' Leslie Wayne and MarketWatch's Rex Nutting, will discuss possible business story angles, both local and national, that should be on your radar for the remainder of the year and the first 100 days of the presidency.
The call will be held on Oct. 30 at 2 p.m. EST. To listen in send an e-mail with your Name, Title, Company, Email address and your questions for the panelists to anita.malik@businessjournalism.org.

New York Times Co. considers cutting dividend

Bloomberg reports New York Times Co. is considering a dividend cut after reporting "a loss on severance costs and a steeper drop in advertising sales."

After the results were announced, Standard & Poor's cut its debt rating on the compnay to "junk." The rating agency's downgrade has placed additional pressures on the firm. 

The company's dividend, currently at 8.7 percent, pays $25.1 million a year to the Ochs-Sulzberger family, which has a controlling stake in the New York Times Co.

Chief Financial Officer James Follo did not say if the board is considering a dividend cut or if it will move to eliminate the dividend altogether. 

In the third quarter, the company reported a 16 percent decline in ad sales. Ad sales in September alone slid 14 percent.

Shares of New York Times Co. stock are down 39 percent this year.

For more click here. 

AP to cut member fees

MarketWatch reports The Associated Press announced it will cut member assessments next year. The new cuts could amount to $9 million. The AP said it would also "complete a review of its pricing and governance structure" by mid-2009. 

AP Chief Executive Tom Curley said the AP is striving to respond to the market downturn and "the pain and the challenges of [AP's] members."

For more click here.

A new focus for Bill Gates

Todd Bishop and Eric Engleman of TechFlash are reporting on their site that Bill Gates, now just months from his Microsoft farewell, is creating a new company -- bgC3LLC. This next venture, the story says, offers a new glimpse into the next era of Gates' life.
From the story:

Public documents describe the new Gates entity -- bgC3 LLC -- as a “think tank.” It’s housed within a Kirkland office that the Microsoft co-founder established on his own after leaving his day-to-day executive role at the company this summer. Is this Bill Gates’ next big business? A Gates insider gives an emphatic no -- saying it’s not a commercial venture but rather a vehicle to coordinate the software mogul’s work on his business and philanthropic endeavors. However, bgC3 will also oversee Gates’ personal pursuit of breakthrough ideas in science and technology. The insider said the goal isn’t necessarily to create new companies, although ideas could be passed along to Microsoft, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation -- or others – as it makes
sense.

SABEW Best in Business

The Society of American Business Writers and Editors has announced a call for submissions for its annual "Best in Business" contest.
In addition to its usual award categories, the SABEW has added a new category. The Best of the Best awards will highlight the contest’s most impressive entries. A special panel will sort through all the winning entries and choose the Best of the Best, which will be announced at the awards banquet during SABEW's annual conference in Denver next April.
For a complete list of submission deadlines click here.

FBN's Lee relies on her smarts

Chuck Barney of Contra Costa Times writes about Fox Business Network's anchor Jenna Lee.
While Lee has been dubbed an "anchor babe" and a "bombshell," she said she'd much rather be known for her coverage of the nation's financial meltdown.
From the story:

"I grew up as a freckled-faced tomboy in a city where my looks weren't going to get me anywhere," she says. "That has never been something I wanted to rely on." What Lee, 28, has relied on in recent weeks is her smarts, her hustle and her stamina to delve through one of the biggest, most mind-blowing business stories in years. As co-anchor (with Connell McShane) on "Fox Business Morning" and a roving reporter, she has been logging piles of overtime hours as she helps her audience make sense of the mess on Wall Street.

Financial Times to cut 60 jobs

The Guardian reports that the Financial Times is planning to cut 60 jobs, the majority falling in the commercial departments.
Some employees from the editorial library could be affected and the story says that staffers worry the cuts could affect editorial quality .

Dan Bogler, the Financial Times managing editor, told journalists that six library staff faced possible redundancy along with two staff from his office.The Financial Times chief executive, John Ridding, announced the redundancies to staff in an email yesterday. "We are continuously looking to streamline our organisation, to make it as efficient as possible and to adapt it to the rapidly changing media industry," Ridding said.

WSJ's Noonan: the best op-ed columnist in America?

Tunku Varadarajan writes in Forbes about the success of Peggy Noonan, a columnist for The Wall Street Journal.
Noonan pens "Declarations," which Varadarajan calls, "the most readable thing" in the paper.
He says that Rupert Murdoch's instinct to grab Noonan's column from the back of the weekend section and move it to the paper's op-ed page shows his instincts as a newspaperman. He writes, "it is now the best op-ed column in America."
From the story:

"Peggy Noonan delivers, weekly, a reasonable approximation of what the better angels of our nature may (or are supposed to) sound like. Hers is an exhortatory idealism tempered by a rare common sense. She is perceptive, persuasive, principled and patriotic. As an immigrant to this country, I like her vision of America. And I am reassured by the fact that there are many millions who share that vision--and who want Peggy, every week, to go on describing it to us, with flair and with fervor, and without an ounce of condescension."

Will Scripps part with AP next?

Editor & Publisher's Joe Strupp has a story today that indicates that E.W. Scripps is reconsidering their relationship with the Associated Press.
This comes just days after the Tribune Co. gave a two-year notice to drop the AP, a response to the wire service's new rate structure.
From the story:

E.W. Scripps, which owns 17 daily papers including the Rocky Mountain News in Denver and The Commercial Appeal in Memphis, Tenn., declined to say if it already had or had not given notice to AP.But in an e-mail to E&P, Tim King, Scripps vice president for corporate communications and investor relations, stated: "At this point, all I'd be comfortable saying is that we are a member in good standing of the AP, but we have been engaged in discussions concerning pricing so the future is uncertain."

Tampa Trib brings back biz section

Editor & Publisher reports that after readers complained, The Tampa Tribune decided to bring back its Business & Money stand-alone section on Sundays. Also, other coverage adjustments were added to the paper.
From the story:

"The Tribune returned The Wall Street Journal Sunday to the section, and launched a package of jobs-oriented "news you can use" stories, tips and advice called Career Corner. They added two local columns that will run monthly: Home Sweet Home by real estate industry reporter Shannon Behnken, and On Your Side, a consumer column by technology reporter Richard Mullins."

Miller joins Fox News

MarketWatch reports that Judith Miller has joined FOX News as a contributor.
She will provide "commentary and analysis on national security issues, counterterrorism, and international affairs, including the Middle East. She also will write for FOXNews.com."
Miller is a previous investigative reporter for The New York Times where she won a Pulitzer for her global terrorism reporting and also spent almost three months in jail for refusing to testify before a grand jury investigation into who revealed the identify of a covert CIA operative.
For more click here.

The New Yorker's new biz blog

Mediabistro reports that business expert James Surowiecki will author a new blog for The New Yorker called the "Balance Sheet."
Surowiecki's blog will focus on business, markets and the economy. There's already a good amount of posts on the site. Check it out here.

Boston Globe drops business section

Editor & Publisher reports The Boston Globe announced it will drop two sections. Starting with the Oct. 24 edition, the business section will become part of metro, and the new "g" tab will contain features and material pertaining to arts and entertainment. The overhaul will save The Globe 24 pages per week. The move is part of an ongoing industry-wide effort to "trim newsprint use and cut down on rising material costs."
Martin Baron, editor of The Globe, acknowledged the move is also a response to consumer trends, made to satisfy and "meet the needs" of readers. "Fundamentally, people are changing the way they use the newspaper," he said.
The Globe had enlisted the help of focus groups, outside consultants and "an e-panel made up of frequent Globe readers who [agreed] to be sounding boards." Through the research, The Globe found readers value local over national and international news. According to Baron, readers "are willing to get their national and international stories from other sources."
For the full story click here.

Another AP cancellation notice

The Columbus Dispatch announced it has given notice to the Associated Press that it plans to cancel its contract with the news wire service. The cancellation will take effect on Jan. 17, 2011.
From the official statement:

The changes to AP's rate structure were not as substantial as we were led to believe or that we need to maintain our service. Given the choice of maintaining our staff or AP's service, it's in the best interests of our operation to maintain our local reporting staff.

The Dispatch also requested that the AP "immediately cease transmitting any content generated by The Dispatch that is enterprise in nature." The paper's contract with the AP required The Dispatch to make "spontaneous news" available to the AP. However, the contract did not cover "enterprise, investigative and feature content."
For more click here.

Tribune Co. to drop AP

Editor & Publisher reports Tribune Company announced its plans to drop the Associated Press in two years. While the Tribune Co. is the first major newspaper chain to drop the AP, it "joins a growing list of newspapers that have sought to end AP contracts" in response to the AP's announcement that it will introduce a new "controversial rate structure" in 2009.

AP spokesman Paul Colford said he did not have further details about the cancellation notice but acknowledged that, "in this climate," a lot of newspapers "are re-examining their strategies."
Tribune Co. owns nine dailies, including the Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune.
For the full story click here.

Portfolio: "The bigger the company, the smaller the gains"

Shares of big media companies have taken a beating in recent years. Portfolio reports that in the last year alone, "between last week and the same week a year ago,"shares of Time Warner have declined 50 percent, Viacom is down 59 percent, shares of G.E. have tumbled 46 percent and News Corp. shares slid 65 percent. Shares of Disney experienced the lowest decline, losing "just" 34 percent in value.
One reason for the declines and poor performance may be the lack of collaboration between divisions of major conglomerates. Portfolio notes that the "supposed synergies...have never really blossomed."
To cope, some companies, such as Time Warner, have completely detached entire divisions from the big company. Time Warner successfully spun-off Time Warner Cable last spring, "which delivered shareholders over $10 per share in dividends." Prior to that move, the cable division's performance was dragged down by the conglomerate's other divisions, and "the unit's success was never reflected in the larger company's share price."
Recent moves by other big-media companies suggest that, "in general, if a media property is strong, it performs better outside of a conglomerate than inside one."
Ultimately, the performance of big media may depend on the caliber of its management. However, sometimes even the best management team may be "overextended" when trying to manage all of the various divisions of a giant conglomerate.
For the full story click here.

Bloomberg hires new multimedia chief executive

The New York Times reported today that Bloomberg L.P. has appointed Andrew R. Lack, former president of NBC news, as its new multimedia chief executive.

Mr. Lack said on Tuesday, “Plain and simple, this was all about getting back to something I love, news.” He said he had been impressed by the resources of Bloomberg, especially at a time when other news outlets were contracting.

The move comes just a few months after Bloomberg announced it would divide up its business, separating the news, data and financial products.
Bloomberg’s TV news channel, which falls under its multimedia group, is broadcast into 250 million homes worldwide.

To read more, click here.

Fox attacks CNBC’s Jim Cramer

The New York Post reports that Fox Business Network, which just marked its one-year anniversary, has begun airing ads on CNBC attacking Jim Cramer, host of CNBC’s Mad Money financial program.
CNBC vigorously defended Cramer and struck back at Fox.

“It is a predictably desperate attempt by a completely irrelevant network with ratings so pathetically small they refuse to make them public," said a CNBC spokesman. "As recent market events attest, Jim Cramer has proven once again to be one of the most insightful and knowledgeable commentators in business news today."

According to the article, a Fox spokeswoman defended the ad, saying Cramer's "irresponsible, sloppy commentary and wildly inaccurate predictions" have damaged CNBC's integrity.

To read more, click here.

Financial magazines see a boost in Web traffic

Web sites of financial magazines have enjoyed a surge in traffic during the financial crisis.
From the article:

Figures from Nielsen Online show that for the month of September -- even before the real market meltdown began -- unique visitors to Cnnmoney.com, the Web home of Fortune, Money, and Fortune Small Business, jumped 30 percent to 10 million, and page views surged 142 percent, to 257 million, compared with September 2007. Businessweek.com saw a 25 percent surge in visitors, to four million, while page views jumped 84 percent to 20 million. Forbes.com reported a 4 percent growth in unique visitors, to eight million, and a 17 percent growth in unique views to 126 million.

For more stats click here.

Highly-leveraged media companies may face problems

New York Post reports that the financial crisis could spell trouble for media companies with a lot of debt on their balance sheets. Radio and TV, who rely heavily on advertising, may struggle to pay their debts as economic conditions continue to worsen.
Companies looking to refinance existing debt will also face an uphill battle.
According to Harold Vogel, an independent media analyst, it will cost companies much more to borrow money than it did just one year ago. Vogel cautions that "some companies are going to have significant problems."
Companies including Tribune Co., Univision Communications and Clear Channel Communications "loaded up on debt late in the leveraged buyout boom." As of August, Tribune Co. is carrying more than $12.5 billion in debt, while Univision's debt exceeds $10 billion. Clear Channel has about $8 billion of debt.
Bishop Cheen, an analyst with Wachovia Securities, said investors are especially concerned about middle-to-smaller-market radio, television and publishing companies. Sources say radio is particularly vulnerable.
According to Cheen, larger media players including Time Warner, Disney and News Corp, that are not as highly leveraged, are "better positioned."
For more click here.

CNBC has its best week ever

Just in time for its fifth birthday celebration, CNBC has set another viewership record. According to a report by TVNEWSER, CNBC had its best week ever during last week's market fall.
From the posting:

For Business Day programming (5am-7pmET), CNBC averaged 570,000 Total Viewers the week of Oct. 6. That's up 5 percent from the previous high set the week before. CNBC also had its best week in 7 1/2 years in the A25-54 demo averaging 153,000 viewers. With two weeks of October data, CNBC is having its best month ever averaging 555,000 Total Viewers; more than doubling last October's viewership.

Read more here.

Business magazines fare better in overall magazine downward slide

Folio reports that the downward trend is continuing for consumer magazines. Citing the recent Group Publisher's Report from TNS Media Intelligence, reporter Erik Sass writes, "In the nine months from January-September, total PIB ad pages for 36 big magazine publishers dropped 9.5 percent, compared to the same period last year."
According to the report, Time Inc., publisher of Time and People, saw ad pages drop 9.3 percent, ad pages at Forbes are down 18.5 percent and the Washington Post Co., publisher of Newsweek, is down 14.6 percent.
At the other end of the spectrum, some business magazines were winners.
The Economist Newspaper Group saw ad pages go up 5.9 percent and the publisher of Fast Company and Inc. magazines saw an increase of 12.6 percent.

Read the entire article here.

NYT: online advertising "has slowed to a crawl"

The New York Times reports that online revenue from advertising at newspaper Web sites is falling. The news comes after 17 quarters of growth in the area. According to the Newspaper Association of America, online revenue was down 2.4 percent compared with last year's figures, to $777 million. This has been the first ever year-over-year drop. 

However, overall online advertising is "strong." According to TNS Media Intelligence, graphic-rich ads found on newspaper Web sites grew 7.6 percent in the second quarter. 

For more click here. 

BusinessWeek.com's EIC discusses the recent pace of news

PRWeek has a Q&A today with John Byrne, editor-in-chief of BusinessWeek.com and executive editor of its print counterpart. Byrne, who has also been editor-in-chief at Fast Company, talks about coverage during the crisis and his site's new online initiatives.
Of the crisis, Byrne says:

What every journalist yearns for is when the news is really important and it is being read by a lot of people. All of these developments in the world of business are creating record traffic for us as well. In September, we broke the 10 million-plus unique visitors number for the first time, 10.1 million. The reach of the Web site is now more than twice as large as the magazine's audience. We had one of our highest number of page views ever recorded for that month as well.

Read the entire article here.

NYT columnist wins Nobel prize in economics

American economist and columnist for The New York Times Paul Krugman, 55, has won the Nobel prize in economics "for his analysis of how economies of scale can affect trade patterns and the location of economic activity." 

Krugman was the sole winner of the prize. The honor is typically shared by two to three researchers. 

Krugman was praised by The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences for formulating "a new theory to answer questions about free trade." The academy said his theory "has inspired an enormous field of research." 

"What are the effects of free trade and globalization? What are the driving forces behind worldwide urbanization? Paul Krugman has formulated a new theory to answer these questions," the academy said in its citation. 

Prize committee member Tore Ellingsen said Krugman's analyses support free trade and do no seem to favor protectionism. 

In his NYT column, "Conscience of a Liberal," Krugman has criticized the Bush administration and has "come out forcefully" against Sen. John McCain during the financial crisis. Krugman called McCain "more frightening now that he was a few weeks ago." He has also referred to the GOP as "the party of stupid." 

For the full story click here. 

Star-Ledger saved, faces new problem

The New Jersey Star-Ledger avoided folding earlier this week after negotiating a new contract with the drivers union.
However, that doesn't mean the paper has solved all of its problems, according to the New York Post.

There were eventually 409 volunteers for a buyout that included a year's pay. That is more than 50 percent of the non-union work force of 756. The company said it needed 200, and would accept up to 230.
With so many people trying to quit with a package it is going to be a big headache for Publisher George Arwady and Editor-in-Chief Jim Willse to put out the paper.

According to the article, sorting out whom to grant a buyout to, and whom to reject, could take the rest of the month to complete.

Click here to read more.

Newspapers growing in Emirates

The Los Angeles Times reports today about the growing newspaper business overseas, specifically in the United Arab Emirates.
Borzou Daragahi writes about the National, a daily which launched in April. The paper has an editorial staff of about 240 and its owners are “bullish on print journalism.”

"Don't panic!" editor Martin Newland advises his counterparts in the West. "Don't head to the hills yet. Let's not throw out the business of journalism just yet."

Newland, a 46-year-old Briton of partially Argentine stock, has reason to be optimistic. Although most newspapers are laying off reporters and editors, the English-language National, which launched in April, has quickly built an editorial staff of about 240 reporters, stringers and editors, luring many from Western papers. Newland is a former editor of London's Daily Telegraph and the business editor is from the Wall Street Journal. While many newspapers in America are scaling back, the National plans to expand by adding a seven-section Saturday edition, and it has stationed correspondents around the world.

Read the full article here.

Money problems force Columbian to move out of new building

The Columbian in Vancouver will move out of its new building in response to the company’s financial issues, according to a report by The Seattle Times. Publisher Scott Campbell made the announcement on Wednesday, saying that they need to generate more revenue from the $30 million downtown building and it will either be leased or sold. More from the article:

Campbell also said the company is trying to negotiate a new loan and may seek Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection from creditors. Chapter 11 gives a business time to reorganize and return to financial health. The Columbian's newsroom, advertising and circulation departments occupy four of the building's six floors, and won't move until the first quarter of 2009. The Columbian, which has been through two rounds of layoffs in the past 10 months, employs 282 people including 12 employees of the Camas Post-Record, which it also owns.

Read the full article here.

Employee concessions save The Star-Ledger

Richard Perez-Pena writes that The Star-Ledger in New Jersey is safe for now. But at what cost? The paper’s owners announced Wednesday that the business is safe for now after employees agreed to buyouts and other work concessions. The company’s drivers, for example, agreed to a wage freeze among other things. From the article in The New York Times:

The paper will reduce its work force through buyouts from more than 1,000 people to fewer than 800, said Donald Newhouse, president of Advance Publications, which is owned by his family. A similar cost-cutting program staved off the potential closure of a smaller sister paper, The Trenton Times.
Mr. Newhouse has said that The Star-Ledger, based in Newark, is on a pace to lose $40 million this year, as the economy slows and the newspaper industry suffers through the sharpest drop in advertising revenue since the Depression. With the buyouts and union concessions, the paper should return to operating in the black, he said, but he added that the times were too uncertain for firm predictions.

Read the full article here.

Cityfile: Concern about Portfolio's future

Citing an anonymous insider, Cityfile.com asks, "Is Portfolio On the Rocks?"
The article examines the publication's recently-released lackluster circulation figures and questions if long lead times will be the publication's undoing.

"The website keeps up with daily news, sure," says our source. "But the magazine is the big cost center, and it's stale as soon as it hits the newsstand."
Portfolio's September issue, for example, questioned whether Vikram Pandit and Citigroup would be able to survive the financial crisis. Citi, however, is still in business (at least for now); several of its rivals, however, haven't been quite as lucky. And while the web gives Portfolio an opportunity to offset the print magazine's datedness, Portfolio.com has generally failed to give its competitors a run for their money. The site debuted more than a year ago and yet it still garners just one-tenth the traffic of Forbes.com and is half the size of BusinessWeek.

Read the full article here.

Summed up: Cut sections and closings

In the slew of news recently about slashed sections and slimmed down newspapers, you might have missed an item or two. Well, never fear, MediaPost.com and WSJ.com remind us of the cuts in summaries of recent activity around the country.
Erik Sass of MediaPost.com says, "Printed metro daily newspapers may soon belong in the Newseum. Publishers are slimming newspapers down by cutting sections; some are ceasing publication entirely. In fact, it's surprising just how many good-sized daily newspapers have closed in the last couple of years."

Read his summary of recent cuts and closings, including the shut down of the International Herald Tribune's Web site, here.

The Wall Street Journal's piece by Russell Adams also touches on Wednesday's layoff announcement by the Houston Chronicle and Tuesday's announcement by the Cleveland Plain Dealer.

The Street: Biz media lacks perspective

Marek Fuchs asks, “Does anyone remember perspective?”
In an article on TheStreet.com, Fuchs cites the coverage of Costco’s fourth-quarter earnings to show the failings of business media.
Fuchs says Costco announced in July that the company’s earnings would be “well below” expectations. But yet, when the earnings actually came out earlier this week, little, if any, reference was made to the July announcement. Instead, Fuchs found headlines and leads that were lacking the whole story.

Here's a Reuters headline, quite positive: "Costco profit up 7 percent."
And a Reuter's lead, equally positive: "Costco Wholesale Corp reported a higher quarterly profit on Wednesday as price-conscious shoppers headed to the discount retailer's warehouse locations for bargains on food and gasoline."
In its original version, the article made no mention of July. It's been updated since, with a couple of paragraphs about July near the end, but the damage has already been done. The July mention is necessary to put near-terms trends in Costco's business into perspective -- and is there anything more needed in today's consumer environment than perspective?

Read the more here.

Jobs rumor affects Apple stock; who's at fault?

A blogger on e-Consultancy.com published an article today examining the citizen journalism fiasco that erupted late last week when a rumor spread stating that Steve Jobs had had a heart attack.
The rumor sent Apple's stock price plummeting, and many are now debating who is at fault.

Obviously, everyone involved is pointing fingers at someone else. So just who is to "blame"?
In my opinion, everyone.

The blogger explains why he chose to place blame on the original rumor poster, CNN's iReport, the Silicon Valley Insider blog that picked up the rumor and posted it, and the Apple investors who reacted without getting the news from a trusted source.

Click here to read more.

Forbes.com launches "The Financial Adviser Network"

Forbes.com announced it will launch "The Financial Adviser Network" that will feature unique content targeted especially to financial advisors and high-net worth investors. 

From the story:

The Financial Adviser Network will include an Adviser Commentary section where top advisers and other industry experts provide key insights about critical news, new products and best industry practices for building wealth; an Adviser Network Directory that lists advisors by name, firm and industry; Adviser Blogs for community dialogue; a weekly poll; and a custom Financial Adviser Widget accessible from the Financial Adviser Network and the Forbes.com homepage. 

In addition, The Financial Adviser Network will contain "top news stories, special reports such as Forbes.com's proprietary 'Top 50 Fee-Only Advisers' list,  educational resources from Investopedia.com (A Forbes Media property), and access to the Forbes.com premium Investment Newsletters. "

For more click here. 

Biz coverage changes at Winston-Salem Journal

The Winston-Salem Journal announced some business coverage changes including the elimination of the weekly Market Review stock session and the beefing up the financial pages on the paper's Web site, journalnow.com.
The Market Review was a free publication for subscribers, but the number of readers had shrunk to less than 2,000.
The changes are part of a series of modifications to the paper, efforts to reduce overall costs.
For more click here.

The future of the NYT

New York Magazine offers an in-depth look at the Ochs-Sulzberger family, a 27 member unit, that will eventually inherit The New York Times.
The story asks what the Sulzbergers will hold sacred in the future as they watch their fortune shrivel in the Internet age.
The report questions, "Will prestige and legacy alone be enough to sustain the next generation? As the financial fortunes of the New York Times wither, the sad truth is that they may not have a choice."
Check out the story here.

The Economist: "Magazine of the Year"

Advertising Age recently named The Economist "Magazine of the Year."
The story announced the award praises the magazine's relevant economic coverage, a Web site the drew 3.4 million unique visitors in July and its addition of 69 new magazine advertisers this year.
From the story:

As many media outlets have played up their writers and pundits as personal brands, sometimes putting their names in huge fonts and heavy type, The Economist has continued to eschew bylines. It continues to send reporters to overseas bureaus. It covers seething conflicts in places like Russia and Georgia before they become hot wars. It follows the trends that increasingly shape life in the U.S. before Americans declare them important.

CNN's citizen journalism under fire

Bloomberg reports that CNN's attempt at online citizen-journalism on its iReport.com backfired when a bogus report claimed that Apple Inc. CEO Steve Jobs had suffered a heart attack.
The report initially sent apple shares down 5.4 percent.
The story says the Securities and Exchange Commission's enforcement unit is trying to determine whether the posting was intended to push down Apple's stock price.
From the story:

The event underscores the need for news organizations to verify content generated by users before it is published, William Grueskin, dean of academic affairs at Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, said in an interview from New York. CNN competitors Fox and MSNBC also have added interactive features to stretch resources and follow their audience to the Web.

WSJ lays off two online biz editors

BusinessWeek is reporting that The Wall Street Journal let go of online staffers Cybele Weisser, the personal finance editor, and Laura Lorber, the small business editor.
Reporter Jon Fine reports that, "it’s not clear whether these cuts are isolated, or whether something larger is brewing at the Journal or even throughout Dow Jones. But remember, for what it's worth, that the last major round of layoffs within Dow Jones, which happened in mid-July, were preceded by a smaller cut of five high-ish level online Journal staffers."
To read the Fine's blog click here.

Financial Times to tackle breaking news with more video

The Financial Times is planning more "video scoops" for the site as correspondents experiment with smaller cameras to shoot their own news video, according to reports from journalism.co.uk.
"We could improve the work flow that we've got at the moment, in order to turn things around more quickly. I think that's one of the key things, because it's one of the big delays. Once you've got the video, there's quite a delay before its goes online," Richard Edgar, head of video, told Journalism.co.uk."We're beginning to see that some of the technically savvy correspondents are asking us for small cameras that they can take with them. At the moment it's more for [producing] packages, so it's not under time pressure, but that is one way that I think you would be able to turn material round."
To read the full report click here.

FBN averages 81,000 viewers Monday

The New York Times reports that 81,000 was the average number of people tuning in to watch Fox Business Network for any given hour from 1 p.m. to 10 p.m. on Monday. The number indicates success, surely, but there is still a long road ahead for FBN to challenge CNBC on a daily basis.
From the story:

The figure is a milestone for the nearly year-old channel, which had never drawn an audience large enough to be considered statistically reliable by Nielsen for an extended time period. Still, the achievement was relatively small and fleeting: during the same period, on Monday, as the House rejected a bailout bill and the Dow closed down nearly 778 points, CNBC drew an average of nearly 900,000 viewers, 10 times that for Fox Business. Two general-interest news channels that covered the markets extensively averaged more than both. The Fox News Channel had 2.68 million viewers, and CNN had 1.88 million.

Kohn to depart Post-Dispatch

Cision reports that Ed Kohn, the assistant business editor of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, has been laid off.
Kohn is a 36-year newspaper veteran and has been with the paper since 1976. He has served as assistant business editor since June 2001.
For more click here.

New design director: Dow Jones and WSJ

Tomaso Capuano has been named design director for The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones & Company, according to a release from the company.
Capuano, who was most recently the creative director for WSJ., will be responsible for design across the Journal and Dow Jones.
"Tomaso is one of the publishing industry's most brilliant design directors and we are looking forward to him applying his considerable skills at Dow Jones," said Robert Thomson, managing editor of The Wall Street Journal and editor-in-chief of Dow Jones & Company.
For more click here.

BANG replaces president and publisher

The president and publisher of the Bay Area News Group, John Armstrong, is being replaced on Oct. 15, according to reports from the Constra Costa Times.
Taking over will be David Rounds, vice president of circulation for the San Jose Mercury News.
The story says that the company's leadership decided that Armstrong "didn't have the skill set that really was a good fit for the company as it moves forward."
From the story:

Michael "Mac" Tully, president and publisher of the Mercury News and group vice president for Bay Area News Group, or BANG, made the announcement before a crowded Contra Costa Times newsroom that, along with the other East Bay papers, has seen dozens of layoffs and employee buyouts this year as the newspaper industry flails under a limp economy and changing reader habits...Tully, former publisher of the Kansas City Star who took over leadership of BANG early this year, declined to elaborate on the decision to replace Armstrong, saying only that he had needed time to assess the operation.

Report says U.S. media companies have healthy liquidity

A new report by Fitch Ratings shows that U.S. media and entertainment companies have "generally healthy'' liquidity. An article at Bloomberg.com by Andy Fixmer breaks down the report. Fixmer writes that according to Fitch analysts, diversified companies, including Walt Disney Co., News Corp., Time Warner Inc. and Viacom, "are best positioned to weather market conditions." Tribune Co., however, has a "very limited margin of error." Fixmer writes:

An 8 percent drop in the publisher and broadcaster's earnings before interest,taxes, depreciation and amortization would violate loan terms, Fitch said.

Read the full article here.