Media Industry Archive

Among the many ancillary effects of the collapse of traditional journalism over the past couple of years has been a steep decline in business coverage. Since we are business reporters here at BNET, each of us can name friends and colleagues who are no longer doing what they used to do where they used to do it. One voice I particularly miss is that of Dan Fost, who covered the media industry for...

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U.S. News begins paid weekly online edition — Following in the footsteps of The Economist and The Wall Street Journal, U.S. News and World Report will begin charging for a digital weekly edition of the magazine. The issue will be made available as a downloadable PDF file, and the subscription will cost $19.95. [Source: All Things Digital] GateHouse and Boston Globe linking case settles...

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As the age of print approaches its final years, its most treasured form — the book — stands much like Custer at the Battle of the Little Bighorn, surrounded, doomed, and all too soon to be slaughtered unmercifully. But, until then, the book industry is soldiering on, and bravely trying to utilize the web in innovative ways. Today’s edition of The New York Times Book Review,...

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Top-line: There are going to be five billion mobile units worldwide by 2012, according to Informa Telecoms & Media’s Global Mobile Forecasts, and nobody in media yet has a clue how to achieve a balance between content and advertising that could provide a sustainable business model over this huge new channel. That’s not a surprise. The relationship between the content side and...

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Digg cutting 10 percent of workforce — The popular social news site is scaling back ambitious expansion plans and is instead cutting roughly 10 percent of its work force. As part of a focus on 2009 profitability, Digg is also hiring a direct sales team. The economic climate also forced Digg to shutter plans to expand to a new office including a few international locations. The company...

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In what amounts to a mere footnote to this week’s earlier SEC filing detailing the terms of the $250 million investment in The New York Times by the world’s second-richest man, Carlos Slim Helú, late today the Times filed a note detailing the additional names of the extended Slim clan. The financial deal, which initially is in the form of a loan with a robust interest rate of 14...

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Google’s Board of Directors approved and the company announced a new “employee options exchange program” today. The company filed the requisite 8-K with the SEC and also detailed the plan on its blog: “Recognizing that about 85% of our employees have at least some stock options that are underwater (i.e., have an exercise price higher than the current market price of our...

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It’s hard to believe that, just as it was in January 2008, and January 2007, YouTube is still looking around for a viable ad model.  As advertisers still have a love affair with video, and that’s what YouTube serves, day in and day out, you’d think this would be an easy nut to crack, no? Now TechCrunch’s Erick Schonfeld is reporting that YouTube is planning to expand a...

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Big media companies can now sell their own ads on YouTube — In order to satisfy some larger content providers, YouTube will begin allowing media companies to sell advertising inventory for their videos on YouTube. Currently only a handful of large media companies, such a CBS, are allowed to sell their own ads. Previously, YouTube would handle ad sales and pay a share to the content...

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During the midst of yesterday Inauguration celebration, many of us could be forgiven if we temporarily overlooked the announcement by Google that it is ending its two-year-old program to help the newspaper industry sell print advertising. The effort will wind down as of February 28, and will effectively end Google’s partnership with around 800 newspapers. We’ve heard relatively...

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