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NEWS OF THE INDUSTRY

The price of debt: McClatchy stock tumbles on steep bond interest rate

The Associated Press - 06 Feb 2010

McClatchy Co. shares tumbled Friday along with the broader market after the newspaper publisher agreed to pay steep interest rates to push back its deadline for repaying debt.

Report: N.Y. Times execs met quietly with Steve Jobs about iPad

Editor & Publisher - 06 Feb 2010

Some 50 top executives of The New York Times, including Publisher and Times Co. Chairman Arthur Sulzberger Jr. met earlier this week in a New York restaurant with Apple CEO Steve Jobs, who demonstrated the iPad and talked it up as "the future of media," according to a report by Daniel Maurer on New York magazine's Web site.


Arbitrator sides with former News-Press editor

The Associated Press - 06 Feb 2010

An arbitrator has rejected the Santa Barbara News-Press' $25 million claim against its former editor and ordered the newspaper's owner to pay more than $900,000 in fees stemming from their dispute.

Seattle Times Co. renegotiates debt

Editor & Publisher - 06 Feb 2010

The Seattle Times Co. has renegotiated its debt, giving the publisher increased ability to continue publishing "high quality, independent journalism," as the company indicated in a letter updating its readers on its financial status.

Extra! Extra!   from the Guild Reporter


MORE NEWS OF THE INDUSTRY

Journos aren't helpless against market forces

Alan D. Mutter - Reflections of a Newsosaur - 05 Feb 2010

Without question, there never has been a bigger response to this blog than the one that greeted the piece the other day encouraging journalists to demand to be paid decently for their work.

Google News to publishers: Let's make love not war

Mark Glaser - Mediashift - 05 Feb 2010

In the view of some traditional media execs, Google is a digital vampire or a parasite or tech tapeworm using someone else's content to profit. As that rhetoric heated up in the past year, Google has responded not with equal amounts of invective but with entreaties to help publishers.

Monster's HotJobs deal shuts 200 papers out of Yahoo newspaper consortium

Jennifer Saba - Editor & Publisher - 04 Feb 2010

Monster Worldwide's agreed acquisition of Yahoo's recruitment platform HotJobs means as many as 200 papers will be shut out of of the Yahoo newspaper consortium (NPC).

Arthur and the Blue People

Ken Doctor - Content Bridges - 04 Feb 2010

As if the New York Times' Arthur Sulzberger and Janet Robinson didn't have enough headaches, trying to figure out how to fend off that other daily beast known as the Wall Street Journal. Until December, 2007, when Rupert Murdoch pulled off the coup of his lifetime, cajoling, wheedling and finally hard-lining just enough of the Bancroft family into selling the prize Journal to him, the Journal had been a national business daily -- not the Times' direct competition.

Newspaper Web site traffic slipped in Q4

Jennifer Saba - Editor & Publisher - 03 Feb 2010

Newspaper Web site traffic is falling month-over-month, according to new figures provided by the Newspaper Association of America. The association today published the latest Q4 data for newspaper Web sites provided by Nielsen Online. The number of unique users declined when comparing October (73.2 million uniques) to November (72.3 million uniques) to December (70.3 million uniques).


Carl Nolte

13 years later, Herb Caen's voice is missed

Carl Nolte - The San Francisco Chronicle - 02 Feb 2010

Tomorrow is the first of February, an important day in the history of San Francisco. It will be 13 years exactly since Herb Caen died. Old San Franciscans revere Caen. A lot of new San Franciscans never heard of him. For the record, he was a newspaper columnist in this town for 58 years, longer than anybody. He was the uncrowned prince of San Francisco, a magic city of his own invention.

Gannett's 4Q improves as cost cuts offset ad woes

Michael Liedtke - The Associated Press - 02 Feb 2010

Gannett Co. posted its largest profit of the year in the fourth quarter as cost-cutting efforts were aided by a lessening decline in advertising sales. But shares of the biggest U.S. newspaper publisher tumbled after company executives didn't offer any hope for an upturn in newspaper advertising this year.

Associated Press strikes deal with Yahoo

Michael Liedtke - The Associated Press - 02 Feb 2010

The Associated Press has signed a licensing deal with Yahoo Inc. that gives the news cooperative a steady stream of revenue at a time less money is flowing in from newspapers and broadcasters.

Media General refinancing debt

Mark Fitzgerald - Editor & Publisher - 01 Feb 2010

Moody's Investors Service late Thursday assigned a relatively high, but still speculative-grade or "junk" credit rating, to Media General Inc.'s offering of $350 million in senior secured notes that will be used to pay down debt.

New York Times adds 1,100 Bay Area subscribers

Chris Rauber - Business Times - 01 Feb 2010

The New York Times has nabbed an extra 1,100 Bay Area subscribers after launching its San Francisco Bay Area section last fall, according to Jim Schachter, a senior Times executive.

MediaNews Group reportedly worried its phones will be shut off

Michael Roberts - Westward - 28 Jan 2010

In its reporting about the impending bankruptcy filing by Affiliated Media, the holding company of MediaNews Group, its owner, the Denver Post left the B-word out of the headline -- and its published version of an Associated Press story about the filing left out intriguing info included by other papers, including details of MediaNews boss Dean Singleton's salary.

More good news for McClatchy: Credit upgrade likely

Mark Fitzgerald - Editor & Publisher - 28 Jan 2010

Moody's Investors Service, the big credit rating agency, said Wednesday it is reviewing The Miami Herald parent for a possible upgrade of its corporate credit rating. Moody's said the $875 million refinancing McClatchy is proposing could improve its liquidity and ability to handle debt in an rebounding economy.

The iPad: Quick publisher scorecard

Ken Doctor - Content Bridges - 28 Jan 2010

I've well used the Moses metaphors; others prefer the Jesus Tablet. But the dramedy around The Apple Launch has been as much Mel Brooks as Biblical. It's just more interim technology after all. In fact, it's become a tabula rasa for all our digital hopes and dreams, with the silliness merging with the real import. (And will we remember where we were when the announcement was made?)

McClatchy CEO: 'Some evidence' classified ads recovering; Miami Herald parent swings to Q4 profit

Mark Fitzgerald - Editor & Publisher - 27 Jan 2010

The McClatchy Co. CEO Gary Pruitt said Wednesday there is "some evidence that classified advertising is recovering" as the nation's third-largest newspaper publisher reported it swung to a profit in the fourth-quarter.

With Apple tablet, print media hope for a payday

Brad Stone and Stephanie Clifford - The New York Times - 26 Jan 2010

With the widely anticipated introduction of a tablet computer at an event here on Wednesday morning, Apple may be giving the media industry a kind of time machine -- a chance to undo mistakes of the past.

Next for MediaNews: Rolling up ailing dailies

Alan D. Mutter - Reflections of a Newsosaur - 26 Jan 2010

Ailing newspapers in Detroit, Minneapolis-St. Paul and San Francisco eventually could shrink or shut down after MediaNews Group emerges from bankruptcy. The prospect of future seismic shifts in the newspaper industry from Salt Lake City to York, PA, were signaled last week when Affiliated Media, the parent of MediaNews, filed for bankruptcy to eliminate all but $165 million of its $930 million in debt.


Dean Singleton

MediaNews Group bankruptcy story reads differently in Denver -- which doesn't run info about Dean Singleton's salary

Michael Roberts - Westward - 26 Jan 2010

A blog published last week noted that the Denver Post had managed to report about an impending bankruptcy filing by the holding company of its parent firm, MediaNews Group, without using the word "bankruptcy" in the headline -- a neat example of spin.


On eve of Apple tablet debut, study disses Kindle as newspaper e-readers

Editor & Publisher - 26 Jan 2010

An in-depth study of the Kindle as a newspaper e-reader finds it comes up short in reader satisfaction. But the study out of the University of Georgia also suggests tablets with color, photos and touch screens -- all features, no doubt, of the highly anticipated Apple tablet -- could find a market among newspaper readers.

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