Marketplace

Curiouser and curiouser...

The battle for Dow Jones and the Wall Street Journal keeps getting more intriguing. Word this morning is that GE and a company called Pearson could make a joint bid for Dow Jones. Pearson owns the Financial Times of London. So, if the deal were to go through, the FT, the Journal, CNBC and the Dow Jones newswires would all be under one roof. So what's GE's interest? It's trying to protect its CNBC franchise as Fox News owner Rupert Murdoch, who's already made a bid for Dow Jones and the Journal, prepares to start up his own financial news channel.

Permalink

Murdoch stands alone

General Electric and Pearson have bowed out of the Dow Jones bidding game, and so once again Rupert Murdoch's $5 billion unsolicited bid remains the lone offer for the parent company of The Wall Street Journal. GE, parent company of NBC Universal and CNBC, and Pearson, publisher of the Financial Times, say they couldn't make the numbers work.

Permalink

Tell it like it is, NYT

If you haven't been following along, the New York Times has caused quite a stir in the media world this week, putting forth a massive amount of information on Fox media mogul Rupert Murdoch. Yesterday an in-depth look at his career and business dealings. Today his ties to China. And the Gray Lady didn't pull any punches. News Corp is calling it a "malicious assault."

Meantime, it looks like an agreement could be announced today paving the way for Murdoch to take over the Wall Street Journal. Reports say Murdoch and the paper's publisher, Dow Jones, were close to a deal last night on how to protect the Journal's editorial independence.

Permalink

Stuck between Murdoch and a hard place

Dow Jones is doing some frantic last-minute shopping for an alternative to Rupert Murdoch's $5 billion bid. Some members of the Dow Jones board are in Los Angeles today meeting with California billionaire Ron Burkle, who may be their last hope. Then again, The New York Times is reporting that the talks are probably not significant because supermarket king Burkle doesn't have an offer.

The meeting's apparently happening in part to appease Leslie Hill, a member of the Bancroft family which controls 64 percent of Dow Jones. A lot of folks don't want to see Murdoch gain control of the Wall Street Journal's parent company because they believe his News Corp promotes sensationalism and partisanship. On the other hand, there have been reports that if the Murdoch bid fails, there will be deep cuts in the Journal's newsroom staff due to declining ad sales.

Permalink

OK so it's a free plug...

...but it's good for you and the folks at the Wall Street Journal have been having a rough time lately so what the heck: WSJ.com is free to everyone today. Read and enjoy while the wall is down.

Permalink

It's going to be some lunch

Rupert Murdoch is going to sit down for some grub with Dow Jones CEO Richard Zannino today to sort out some outstanding issues for Murdoch's proposed takeover of the Wall Street Journal's parent company. Meanwhile, a member of the family that controls Dow Jones is still trying to block the deal. Reports say Christopher Bancroft is talking to hedge funds and private equity firms about buying enough voting shares to thwart Murdoch's $5 billion takeover bid.

Permalink | Comments (1)

Coming down to the newswire

Rupert Murdoch is oh-so-close to acquiring Dow Jones and the Wall Street Journal. A tentative agreement between Murdoch's News Corp and Dow was made yesterday, all $5 billion worth. Dow's board votes tonight, but the biggest hurdle to getting the deal done comes Thursday when it's presented to the Bancroft family. Its members control 64 percent of Dow, and at this point they remain sharply divided on whether to sell to Murdoch.

Permalink

New York Times lite

Today, a slimmer version of the Times hit the stands. The paper cut about two inches off its width, a move that's expected to save about $10 million a year — but there'll be about 10 percent less space for news.

Permalink

NFL: It's only a few bad seeds

The National Football League hasn't been getting the best press lately. The legal problems of players like Michael Vick and Pacman Jones have dominated the headlines, so today the NFL launches a new ad campaign to highlight its "good apples." Like new Cleveland Browns quarterback Brady Quinn, who just graduated from Notre Dame, talking about how he wants to go to law school someday. Other spots feature Tennessee Titans quarterback Vince Young talking about why he has tattoos and Browns linebacker Willie McGinest telling his mom he loves her.

Permalink

Looks like the news is gonna be reruns, too

TV and radio news writers at CBS could soon be walking the picket line with other writers.
About 500 unionized news writers are expected to approve a strike authorization tomorrow.
The CBS News employees are represented by Writers Guild of America East. They've been working under an expired contract since April 2005. Drama and comedy writers are entering the second week of the entertainment industry strike that's shaken network and cable television.

Permalink

Taming the Wild, Wild Web

There's a new, self-declared sheriff in town. Ratings giant Nielsen wants to be a piracy cop.
Nielsen is unveiling a new service to help ensure video distributed on the internet is done in ways that's okay with the owners of the content. The Wall Street Journal says Nielsen is hoping to target media companies like NBC Universal and the Discovery Channel, as well as sites like MySpace and YouTube. The service would filter clips through a database to see if the video's been authorized by its production company. No authorization, no posting it on the web.

Permalink

Taxes are not sexy

The price of racy magazines could be going up in South Carolina. That's what a state senator wants to see. A Republican from Greenville wants to impose a 20 percent sin tax on glossies like Playboy and Hustler. He says the move could raise nearly $400,000 to go to the state's program for managing sex offenders.

Permalink

Murdoch has eyes on Newsday

Rupert Murdoch might be adding yet another newspaper to his list of media properties in New York.

According to the Wall Street Journal, which he owns by the way, Tribune has agreed to sell Newsday to News Corp. for about $580 million. Newsday would become part of a joint venture with the New York Post. That would help News Corp. balance the $50 million in annual losses that the New York Post brings in now.

The deal might face some regulatory issues. Three major newspapers might be just too many for Rupert Murdoch to own in the same city.

Permalink

European telecom has eyes on Sprint Nextel

Europe's biggest telecom firm may be planning to pick up America's third largest wireless company. The Wall Street Journal reports that Deutsche Telekom is considering a bid to acquire Sprint Nextel Corporation. Deutsche Telekom already owns T-mobile USA, the fourth biggest wireless company. Buying Sprint Nextel would rocket the German firm to the No. 1 spot in the U.S. wireless market. Investors reacted to the news by pulling back from Deutsche Telekmon. Shares fell by 1.2 percent today. But Sprint may be getting a bump from the attention. Shares were up in pre-market trading.

Permalink

Ladies Love Cool . . . Sears

Remember the Softer Side of Sears? It looks like the retailer is now looking to dial up its street cred. Sears is adding a line of clothing designed by none other than LL Cool J.
The hip hop star will put his label on street wear and accessories. The line will be available -- just in time for back to school sales -- starting in September. Sears is also teaming up with MTV to produce a back to school movie, "The American Mall," airing on MTV Aug. 11. Hopefully teens won't be turned off by the prospect of also buying a tool set and a washer-dryer at the place they go looking for clothes.

Permalink

Maybe sales will get better in Time

"A flight to quality." That's how the outgoing CEO of The Economist explains the magazine's increasing popularity with readers. At a time when American publications are struggling, the British magazine is seeing big gains in ad sales and circulation in the U.S. Profits are up 23 percent. By comparison, sales of the leading US magazine, TIME, dropped last year after the publication increased its price to offset lagging ad revenues.

Permalink

XM, Sirius shares falter on bad report

This was shaping up to be a pretty good week for satellite radio outfits XM and Sirius. Last weekend, the head of the FFC gave his blessing to the proposed merger of the two companies. That wasn't enough to seal the deal, but it was a positive indicator.

How things change -- shares of XM and Sirius took a dive yesterday following the release of a Goldman Sachs report predicting a bleak future for satellite radio. It said younger subscribers would gradually migrate to other technologies, like MP3 players. Goldman advised investors to sell their stocks in the companies.

Permalink

Now if the weather's bad, you can blame NBC

The Weather Channel has been one of the last privately-owned cable channels.
No more. Meet the new owners: NBC Universal and private equity firms Bain Capital and Blackstone Group. The New York Times reports the group paid just under $3.5 billion for the channel and related properties like weather.com. The Weather Channel's parent, Landmark Communications, was hoping to get $5 billion for this deal. Under the terms, the channel will be run as an independent operation, rather than being merged into NBC's Weather Plus.

Permalink