Media Industry Archive

Not many of us were expecting Chris DeWolfe and Tom Anderson to be dethroned from their founders’ posts at MySpace quite this fast, but dethroned they have been, almost six months before their contracts were to expire. Their dismissals come, notably — and I assume not at all coincidentally — before Facebook’s expected surge past MySpace as America’s no. 1 social network,...

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Even as it endures the humiliation of having been warned by the New York Stock Exchange that it is in danger of having its stock delisted, the McClatchy Company (MNI) reported huge losses based on steep advertising revenue declines in Q-1 today. The big newspaper chain said that it took a net loss of $37.7 million from continuing operations in Q-1, compared to just under $1 million in the same...

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If anyone needed more evidence of the emergence of mobile as the interactive platform of choice in the U.S., Apple’s Q-1 earnings report should put any remaining doubts to rest. Boosted by continuing strong demand for its iPhone, Apple had its best non-holiday quarter ever, posting revenue of $8.16 billion with net quarterly profits at a tidy $1.21 billion. All of this in the midst of a...

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New York, N.Y. If you’ve tried out any of the various geocoded, hyper-local media services, you’ve probably noticed that their data is still fragmentary and not always accurate. The problem is not with the geocoding technology itself, which as long as it is within range of the satellites that enable it to establish latitude and longitude always functions just fine. Rather, the...

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It’s time to face facts that Twitter is, always has been, and always will be about vertical categories. Even as most of us who are on Twitter self-aggregate by choosing who we want to follow at twitter.com, an increasing number of ad-supported sites are popping up that aggregate tweets around specific verticals. Here’s the activity in this area that I’ve witnessed just in the...

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NYT future looks gloomy after earnings announcement — A recent earnings announcement has revealed that the New York Times, already more than $1 billion in debt, will run out of cash in four quarters. The company posted worse-than-expected losses of 27 percent, mostly attributed to the slowdown in advertising. NewYorkTimes.com, the most trafficked U.S. news site, also posted a 5.6 percent...

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Not that surprising to read this morning that Wenda Harris Millard was leaving what, on paper, looks like a dream job — co-CEO of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia — to become president of media and entertainment advisory firm MediaLink. Not only has The New York Post been hinting recently of trouble between Millard and company founder Stewart, but Millard, whom I’ve known for years, is...

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First thing I read this morning was the 8-K filed by The New York Times. Yikes! The company reported $61.6 million operating loss in Q-1, compared to a $6.2 million operating profit a year earlier. If you set aside all the adjustments like depreciation, amortization, etc., and severance costs (of $25 million!), the company reported an operating profit for the quarter of $16.5 million, down...

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You remember Obama Girl, of course, star of the ultimate political crush video. Seen ThreadBanger yet, the DIY hit that features people creating new fashion statements out of their old clothes? (Play video above.) Okay, do you remember that episode where Sarah Silverman employed the “melting face” technique? These, and many other online video hits are all part of Next New Networks,...

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It would be hard to top msnbc’s brilliant work last week on those rather queer  “teabagging” events, urged on by the ever-breathless Fox News Network as it played to its hopelessly clueless small-town American audience who wouldn’t know a bad analogy if it hit them, ahem, straight between the lips (or hips, for that matter). Whatever, this is 420 Day, one of those true...

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