Media Industry Archive

New York, N.Y. — Why is it that whenever I land here, in the media capital of the U.S., something back home in California decides to jar me by changing, without any warning? Now, obviously, we all know that Yahoo is enduring one of the most painful identity crises since Oedipus, but why exactly, did the company choose this particular day to launch a redesign of its home page? And the logo...

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Seeing yesterday on YouTube that the Google-owned video site plans a YouTube Live event on Saturday night left me with a feeling of deja vu. Or at least the thought that I thought YouTube had done this before. In fact, it hasn’t. And so, should you care to tune in (log in?) at 8 p.m. EST, for the first time you’ll see a host of YouTube luminaries, including musical stars Akon and...

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One of the more intriguing indications of how new media is supplanting old media is a posting by Robert MacMillan on the Reuters Blog MediaFile last night. He said he had just returned from the media power restaurant Michael’s in Manhattan, where Arianna Huffington had announced that her Huffington Post will begin funding investigative reports next year. The Post emerged as a big winner...

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Rumors persist that the New York Times plans to put its About.com unit on the block, but About CEO Cella Irvine doesn’t sound like she’s down with that plan. Here’s what she told MediaPost earlier this week: As you know, we don’t comment on rumors concerning potential acquisitions or divestitures. What I can tell you is that one of the pillars of the Times...

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It almost seemed anti-climactic yesterday when Yahoo finally announced that Jerry Yang would be stepping down as CEO, after a disastrous 17-month tenure, just as soon as a replacement can be found. (The news stabilized the company’s stock a bit, and it closed at $11.55/share, up 8.65 percent on the day. Yahoo has traded as low as $9.86/share recently.) When Yang took over the top job in...

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Jerry Yang’s demise as Yahoo CEO was signaled almost two week ago, when Google backed out of its planned search ad partnership with the struggling Internet giant. When antitrust concerns in Washington doomed the deal, Yang had no arrows left in his quiver. Even though Yang still believes in a Microsoft acquisition of Yahoo — he said so on the day the Google deal fell through —...

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It’s time to check back in with our friends over at Topix, where, a couple months ago, CEO Chris Tolles told me the “(user) participation is the content.” He was referring the the high volume of comments on Topix pages all over small towns in the U.S., where he has been strategically focusing the company’s content development strategy. In a couple days, Topix will be...

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Over the past few months, we’ve frequently speculated here that The New York Times Co. may be in worse financial condition than it was admitting. Evidence is emerging that we were right. The Silicon Alley Insider has been digging through the company’s latest SEC filings to find that the Times owes its creditors a huge $400 million payment next May, but it only has $46 million in...

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When you think about it, a corporation’s reputation, like an individual’s, is extremely vulnerable. There are so many variables at play — earnings reports, stock price variations, product lines, brands, customer satisfaction, employee satisfaction, community involvement, product liability lawsuits, regulatory battles, global investments, and many more  — that it is...

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( 6:30 PT 11/11/08: This item has been updated. — DW) As we reported here last night, exclusively, Al Gore’s Current TV is laying off staff today. I have now recieved a copy of the company’s announcement. Here it is in its entirety: “Current Media today announced changes to its structure and staffing.  Approximately 60 positions have been eliminated in the company’s...

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