Media Industry Archive

Score one for Viacom in the public relations battle that has broken out over Time Warner Cable’s alleged refusal to pay more for carrying Viacom channels including Nickelodeon and Noggin. I’ve scanned in a picture from an unforgettable ad that ran in today’s New York Times using insipid kiddie cartoon character Dora the Explorer to demonize Time Warner. “TIME WARNER...

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As we’ve often noted here, one of the most important metrics for a media site’s importance is time-on-site (TOS). As a stand-alone metric, it is not particularly significant, but if it’s allowing a company to monetize content, either through ad page views, a free registration + demographics upsell, or a partner integration (via widgets, etc.), this measure of stickiness is one...

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Certainly wasn’t expecting to cover actual news this week, but this headline just came across the transom: Consumers Union is buying Gawker Media blog Consumerist, which devotes itself to the trials and tribulations of the contemporary consumer. As one example of what Consumerist covers, here’s a headline from today: “DirecTV’s “Free Professional...

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The web sprang to life as a virtual fantasy world for geeks, most of whom were young adult males (YAMS). But geeks come in all shapes, sizes, ages and genders, so a business plan built exclusively on the stereotypical geek is self-limiting its ability to scale. And since for a media site, scale is one of the key factors to achieving profitability, it’s never a good idea to turn potential...

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Ad spending worst since Depression — For the first time since The Great Depression, advertising spending is likely to see three consecutive years of decline. Prior to the current cycle, the last three years where a spending decline occurred were 1961, 1991 and 2001. [Source: Ad Age] Hollywood ends year on high note — Led by dog-flick Marley and Me’s $37 million take, the movie...

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The Kelsey Group and ConStat apparently released a report in November which said that 10 percent of U.S. mobile users accessed social networks over their mobile devices. (The study was picked up by Mediapost just last week.) Ten percent of anything may seem small, but this is one of those reports that may actually telegraph the start of something big; the financial crisis looks unlikely to...

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Gannett, the largest U.S. newspaper chain, laid off thousands of employees, the Tribune Company sought bankruptcy protection, The New York Times put its headquarters building and other assets up for sale, in Detroit the papers cut back home delivery to three days a week. From Seattle to Miami, newspaper after newspaper announced layoffs, as many of their stocks fell to penny-stock range or were...

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New York Times to sell stake in Red Sox — The Times is planning to sell its 17.5 percent stake in the Boston Red Sox in an effort to raise $150 million to $200 million in cash. The company may also sell The Boston Globe and About.com to gain additional breathing room. [Source: Silicon Alley Insider] Post and Sun to share content — Longtime rivals, The Washington Post and The...

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Most of us, in tallying the carnage in the media industry, are using the usual metrics: layoffs, revenue and share price declines, bankruptcies. But there are other indicators as well, particularly this time of year, when huge amounts of money are spent on spreading the holiday spirit. The cancellation of the Condé Nast Christmas party comes to mind as one example that things are not well in...

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If we could wind back the clock to last spring, critics and dissident shareholders were practically begging The New York Times Co. to shed non-essential assets, and cut back on its print operations, while investing in Internet properties. For reasons known only to them, the company’s insular management team resisted all these steps, as if they somehow knew better than the chorus outsiders...

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