Yahoo-Microsoft Search Deal Leaves Newspapers on Sidelines

Search advertising does have an impact on newspaper companies. Most consortium members take Yahoo search and paid search, both services that would be replaced by Microsoft's new Bing and related products. The newspapers' paid search deal with Yahoo has provided a steady, if small, revenue ...

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Forget Newspapers’ Local-Local: Think Location, Location, Location

Hard as it may be to believe, we may have entered a new rocky period for newspaper companies. It would be a period in which the real estate on which they sit determines their market value. Consequently, their real estate value may determine who wants to sell the newspaper property and who wants ...

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Paid Newsday Site? What’s 4 1/2 Minutes Worth to You?

Want to know how likely it is that Cablevision's new charge-for-Newsday-online will work? A few rational arguments to follow, but consider this number: The average unique visitor on Newsday.com spends four minutes, 25 seconds per month on the site. Ouch. That number can sub for lots of focus ...

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Sam Zell’s Plan D: It’s All About Buying Time

Buying time, though, is what everyone in the newspaper industry is doing. The New York Times did it today as well, mortgaging its landmark building for $225 million. Scripps is doing it by "selling'' the Rocky Mountain News. All the companies are doing it as they refinance their businesses with ...

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Tribune’s Descent Sends New Shock Waves

* We've learned that Zell isn't too good with math. He told Portfolio's Joanne Lipman just last month that: "When we looked at the historical numbers, we saw an average erosion of about 3 percent. At the time we underwrote the transaction, we used a 6 percent erosion." But look at Tribune's 4Q, ...

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Centro’s Real Cities Signals Online-Only Ad Push, Fueled by Technology

Today’s announcement that Centro is taking over the Real Cities Network isn’t really an exclamation point. It’s more like a period, marking movement between eras. Centro has brought local news websites significantly more revenue over the past several years. Real Cities, on the ...

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Tribune’s 2Q: Three Numbers Stand Out

There’s little intrigue in Tribune’s second quarter earnings announcement. As the company says, "Our publishing results are, for the most part, in line with industry trends, which remain consistent with what we reported in the first quarter." Such consistency, ...

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Frankly, Candidly, Truthfully: Newspapers CEOs Talk About 2Q

It’s time for second-quarter newspaper earnings reports, with Gannett leading off Wednesday, with the long tale of woe to follow. Given the many newspaper staff cutbacks, which I thought might include the investor relations people, I’ve put together a few boilerplate remarks that I ...

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L.A. Times: The Inconvenient Poster Child

Is the L.A. Times the new ground zero of newspaper staff cuts and frightsizing? Los Angelenos, of which I am one by nativity but not choice, may think so, imagining L.A. as the center of everybody’s universe. It’s not, of course, but the saga of the Times has been one of the more ...

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The Newest Barbarians, Toting Spreadsheets

Sam, I get it. You’re being aggressive. When you add to Randy Michaels’ aggressive talk about cutting newspaper size and staff that “I promise you he is underestimating the level of aggressiveness with which we are attacking this whole challenge,” you seem to be proudly ...

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