Media Analysis

In what I must admit is a shocking turn of events, the Associated Press has moved byond attacking Google and others it has branded as content “thieves” to embrace a page from its opponents’ playbook. Literally. In an internal AP memo obtained by Talking Points Memo, a senior managing editor, Mike Oreskes, states that when two AP reporters found that one bookstore had...

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Just when you thought there wasn’t any one left to fire, AOL has told employees that it was looking for a mere 2,500 people to take a package and leave the company, representing a third of its workforce. Maybe, that seems like a strange way to go about things. Surely, there must be some deadwood among what, as of right now, is a total of more than 7,000 employees? Maybe that’s so,...

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When you hear that print publishers are in trouble these days, probably the first industry segments you think of are newspapers, magazines, and maybe books. But many different publishing niches that have operated profitably for decades are now coming under withering assault by new technologies, new business models, and aggressive new competitors. Take the staid old business information segment....

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For the second time in as many weeks, Vivendi (VIVEF.PK) is signaling that it may not sell its 20 percent stake in NBC Universal, which would thwart a $30 billion deal to make Comcast (CMSCA) the majority owner. If the much anticipated deal does not materialize in three weeks, there will be widespread fallout. Vivendi Chief Financial Officer Philippe Capron said today no board decision has been...

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What if you took a magazine and put it on the Web? The result would be this — former Star and USWeekly editor Bonnie Fuller’s Hollywood Life, which launched yesterday: Of course, I’m being a bit facetious here since there are so many magazines on the Web, but in a world where the simple, subtle user interface is supposed to rule, it’s jarring to be confronted with so much,...

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A few months back, National Public Radio (NPR) redesigned its website, with the aim of becoming a more robust news destination site. As part of that redesign, a number of multimedia elements have started appearing at its website this fall. One notable change was the inclusion of original text news reports, sometimes lengthy, as opposed to strictly audio reports, as had been the case in an...

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The simmering debate over pay versus free digital content that has media companies at each others’ throats comes down to one thing: convincing consumers to pick up the tab. But 80 percent of consumers recently surveyed by Forrester Research say they would discontinue their favorite free print content if they were asked to pay for it. Less than 10 percent of respondents would agree to...

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A few weeks ago, I wrote about MSG Varsity, the new cable news channel for Cablevision subscribers that covers high school sports in Cablevision markets like never before — and also seems like a direct competitive hit vs. Verizon FIOS and satellite TV, which offer no such local content. Now Comcast is doing something similar, taking the CBS online sports brand Maxpreps, and turning it into a...

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So, it looks like CNN has decided not to take the drubbing its getting in the ratings — and the press — lying down. It’s started to run an online ad that boldly makes the claim, “CNN delivers more news to more people, in more ways. MSNBC and Fox News aren’t even close.” That’s funny. Wasn’t I just reading — and blogging about — the fact that CNN was...

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As someone who has a blog on Blogger, independent of this one, that runs some spectacularly unsuccessful AdSense ads, it was nice getting a letter from my friends at Google yesterday afternoon offering me a $100 gift certificate. Well, sort of. While AdSense is the Google program for publishers that lets any publisher or blogger run search ads against his or her content, this gift certificate...

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