Star-Tribune Kindle Edition

Mediaweek.com reports that Minneapolis's Star-Tribune has revealed a new edition of the paper for the Kindle E-reader.
The Kindle device and software, developed by an Amazon.com subsidiary, allows readers to purchase and read a black-and-white edition of many newspapers around the country.

According to the report, The Star-Tribune edition costs $10 per month, or 75 cents a day—25 cents more than the cover price of a weekday edition.
And other Kindle edition prices are similar.
The Boston Globe, the Chicago Tribune and The Washington Post all charge $10 per month.

USA Today charges $11.99, The New York Times $13.99, and The Wall Street Journal costs $14.99 per month.

View the story here.

Journalist sells Hollywood news site

Entertainment business writer Nikki Finke announced Tuesday that she has sold her news Web site, Deadline Hollywood Daily, to Mail.com Media Corp (MMC), The Wall Street Journal reported.

The sale is a move that may possibly hint at the growing value and popularity of small, online media outlets.

Finke, who has written for Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times and New York Magazine, is the founder and writer of DeadlineHollywoodDaily.com.

Finke has been the “Deadline Hollywood” columnist for LA Weekly since 2002, writing about the business, politics and culture of the infotainment industry. Together, her print column and her Deadline HollywoodDaily.com have won first place in major entertainment journalism contests, including the Southern California Journalism Awards' Entertainment Journalist Of The Year and the National Entertainment Journalism Awards, in which she swept every online category.
According to the Wall Street Journal story, neither Finke nor MMC Chief Executive Jay Penske, son of auto-racing magnate Roger Penske, would disclose the amount of the sale.

Dow Jones adds financial journalists to global team

Dow Jones, parent company of The Wall Street Journal, announced the addition of two business journalists to their editorial staff for the Dow Jones Newswires this week.
Jamie Miyazaki, a former Tokyo Dow Jones Newswires correspondent, joins the Hong Kong team as a senior writer covering Asia.
Syndicated international loan market writer and former contributor to Loan Radar news service, Alessandro Pasetti, will also join the Dow Jones as a senior writer in their London office.
View the full story here.

WSJ chimes in on press coverage

NPR talks with economics editor of The Wall Street Journal, David Wessel, to chat about the highly-criticized role of media coverage during the financial meltdown on Tuesday's Talk of the Nation newscast.
Listen to the conversation here.

Dow Jones trims benefits

Though The Wall Street Journal's circulation and site usage has increased, its parent company News Corp. is cutting back benefits in the face of economic woes.
Dow Jones Chief Executive Les Hinton announced the cuts in a memo Tuesday. The cuts will freeze the Money Purchase Plan and reduce health care subsidies for the retired.
Hinton said some of the money saved in the cuts would be put toward new health and wellness benefits.
Hinton said in the memo, "We want to give Dow Jones employees - whose ages, family situations, and career profiles are more varied than ever before - increased choice and enhanced coverage while providing individuals with better ways to manage health care costs."
Read the full story here.

Wall Street Journal prints in India

The Dow Jones & Co. announced Tuesday it will print The Wall Street Journal Asia in India. The move is part of the company's expansion into India and China. It will be printed in New Delhi and Mumbai and delivered the same day to subscribers in major Indian cities.
See the story here.

Chronicling the Bear Stearns collapse

Casey Common of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune offers his analysis of "Street Fighters," a new book which chronicles the demise of Bear Stearns.
Wall Street Journal reporter Kate Kelly wrote the book after chronicling the Bear Stearns' dismantling in a three-part series for the paper.
That series served as the book's foundation.
Common says the book is "tightly written" and that it "zooms in on the three days leading to the fire sale of Bear Stearns to J.P. Morgan Chase & Co."
To read more about the book click here.

Google's Cheng to join Bloomberg

The Wall Street Journal reports that a director for product management at Google is leaving the company to join Bloomberg LP.
Ien Cheng will become the Bloomberg multimedia group's chief of staff, a role that will have him overseeing television, radio, Web and mobile properties.
From the story:

Mr. Cheng’s hire signals a continuation of a broader effort by Bloomberg to reduce its reliance on sales of the financial-data “terminals” that account for most of its revenue. The evaporation of thousands of financial-sector jobs in the past year has slowed terminal sales, prompting the company founded by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg to focus on making money on the large newsgathering operation that supplies the terminals with news, say people familiar with the situation. Last fall the company hired former Sony BMG Chairman and NBC News President Andrew Lack to run its multimedia business.

Dow Jones plans expansion in India

Editor & Publisher reports that Dow Jones, parent company of The Wall Street Journal, is doubling its investment in its operations in India.
From the story:

"India is an increasingly important market for us," said Bruce MacFarlane, vice president and managing director, Asia Pacific, Dow Jones Enterprise Media Group. "The opportunities are significant and will only continue to grow as the Indian market becomes more and more hungry for high-quality business news and information."

WSJ to introduce micro-payment service

The Financial Times reports that News Corp has plans to take its paid content model one step further.
This year the company will introduce a micro-payment service that allows visitors to pay for individual articles and premium subscriptions to The Wall Street Journal’s website.
From the story:

"The move will position the Journal as the first big newspaper title to adopt a model many are cautiously studying as they seek to reduce their dependence on plunging advertising revenues. It comes as John Kerry, the senator leading congressional hearings on the future of journalism, told the FT it was conceivable that publishers could be given limited exemption from antitrust laws to discuss online models."

News Corp. posts results; newspaper division hit hard

News Corporation released its first quarter results Thursday, showing an operating profit of $755 million, down 47 percent from the previous quarter.
The newspaper division, however, was hit particularly hard, according to The New York Times:

The company’s newspapers in particular had a dismal performance. Newspaper operating income fell to just $7 million for the quarter that ended March 31, from $216 million a year earlier. Advertising revenue at The Journal fell 33 percent. News Corporation took a large write-down for the quarter that ended Dec. 31 to reflect the decline in the value of The Journal.

Chairman Rupert Murdoch remained optimistic, saying, "It is increasingly clear that the worst is over... The days of precipitous declines are gone."
Murdoch also stated that at least some News Corp. outlets will begin to charge for content online soon, according to Editor & Publisher.

In a conference call with analysts and journalists after the release of the media and entertainment giant's quarterly results, Murdoch said The Wall Street Journal has proven newspapers can charge for online content.
Asked specifically if he envisioned charging readers for that content from his general interest newspapers such as The Times of London or The Sun, Murdoch replied, "We are absolutely looking at that. Very much so."

As for a general time frame, Murdoch said that some newspapers should begin charging within the next year.

Click here for the Times article, and here for the Editor & Publisher article.

FBN Stock Market Editor: "We're not going to hit bottom until 2011 or 2012"

In an interview with Woman Around Town, Elizabeth MacDonald, stock market editor at the Fox Business Network, shared her views on the economy, the bailouts and a future turnaround for the markets. MacDonald said she is pessimistic, and noted that she does not anticipate a market bottom until 2011 or even 2012. She said the bailouts, which were a product of "hysterical blindness," may not work. "I have lots of concerns including the impact of government's fiscal recklessness (which I should note also occurred under President Bush) and a potential national security issue now that China holds massive amounts of U.S. debt," she added.

MacDonald has the following advice for investors:

Start socking away your money in a decent bond fund with long-term bonds, not short-term debt instruments, which tend to be more volatile, and max out your 401(k). Save, save, save because the U.S. government is deeper into the economy than ever before. And your taxes and costs are going to go up.

MacDonald has received multiple awards for her business coverage, including the Gerald Loeb Award for Distinguished Business Journalism. Prior to joining FBN, she worked for Forbes and The Wall Street Journal.

For more click here.