Media Industry Archive

It’s been a rough ride for McClatchy Co. (MNI), the nation’s third-largest newspaper company, and a proud name in journalism for over a century and a half. Started in Sacramento in the decade following the Gold Rush, McClatchy has spent most of its history operating newspapers in two of California’s richest agricultural valleys – the Sacramento and the San Joaquin. But, starting in the...

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On the one hand, let’s all applaud Verizon FiOS for integrating Twitter and Facebook into its television offering, as part of an app store that will also include things like an ESPN Fantasy Football widget. On the other hand, don’t get too excited by the headlines you read about it (except for the one above, which manages expectations very well, I must say). Look under the covers...

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Over the weekend, I unleashed one of those long rants that sometimes sweep over me when I’ve been driving in the hot California sun for too long, without access to a creative outlet to let off steam. The result this time was: Why No Disruptive Models Emerge Inside Media. It turns out that this piece resonated with a number of deeply experienced, successful industry execs who have been...

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Television is here to stay because usage is growing, pricing power is holding, national brand advertising is staying and the medium’s basic model is evolving. Pay and ad-supported cable networks in particular will “avoid the fate of other traditional media assets,” according to Morgan Stanley analyst Benjamin Swinburne. His report to clients, that was not released publicly but...

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With an economic recovery now unlikely for at least another 12 months, media execs are facing bigger problems with revenue shortfalls, mounting debt, shrinking advertising dollars and a new wrinkle — delinquent receivables. Unpaid bills from the business that media companies do with each other are likely to begin taking a bigger bite out of the bottom line, particularly where struggling...

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Following the lead from another chief executive, AOL CEO Tim Armstrong is having a first 100 days coming out party, which has been covered extensively by Mediaweek, PaidContent.org, AllThingsD, and probably, well, 100 other blogs that are too long-tail to document here. But, as all three of the sources above contained information that the others didn’t necessarily have, for the purposes...

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One thing quite clear from that cache of internal Twitter documents leaked to TechCrunch last week is that the micro-blogging service has been holding ongoing talks with Google about the ways the two companies might work more closely together. It’s also evident that Google is taking its much smaller partner very seriously. Just check out the number of official Twitter accounts Google is...

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In its continuing search to expand its business model toward some new mix of revenue that might help sustain its expensive news-gathering system, The New York Times is actively considering approaching foundations for the kinds of grant support that helps non-profit news organizations stay afloat. This news broke Friday night, when Bill Mitchell posted an article based on his interview with...

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[UPDATE: As of last night -- as in August 4th --  Paula Abdul says she's not coming back, and she appears to mean it. That said, I'm still not sure this is entirely over. Time to cue up the emotional outpouring of support, and her return to the show at the very last minute.] Just like the swallows coming home to Capistrano, preparation for another season of “American Idol” is upon...

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Advertising Age has a fascinating blog post about an art-house cinema in Amsterdam, called De Uitkijk, that is saving itself by screening YouTube clips (and other online clips of that ilk). It began as a promotional idea to help advertise the cinema, and it works like this: every month the movie house picks a theme for what it calls Upload Cinema, and fans submit clips online that fit that...

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