Urgent: Citing 'significant risks,' News Corp. agrees to pay $500 million to settle Valassis coupon suit

With a federal jury trial scheduled to begin Tuesday in Detroit, News Corp. said today that it had agreed to pay $500 million to settle a suit from direct-mail and coupon distribution rival Valassis Communications. In July, jurors found News America subsidiary News America Marketing liable for both unfair competition and tortious interference with business practices, Crain's Detroit Business says. "Tortious interference is intentional conduct, usually in violation of civil law, that disrupts a company’s contractual relationships or business practices,'' the business journal says.

In a statement today, News Corp. said it had agreed to settle the suit because of newly emerged "significant risks" that it might lose at trial. “It has become evident to our legal advisors from pre-trial proceedings over the past couple of weeks that significant risks were developing in presenting this case to a jury,” said Deputy Chairman and President Chase Carey said. “That, coupled with concerns over the venue, led us to believe it was in the best interests of the company and its stockholders to agree to a settlement.”

Valassis contends that News America, the industry leader in in-store coupon distribution, coerces client companies to participate in its free-standing insert or FSI market in newspaper delivery where Valassis tends to dominate, Crain's said.

Federal jury selection was to begin Tuesday and the trial was expected to last at least six weeks before U.S. District Judge Arthur Tarnow in Detroit. In July, Valassis won a $300 million verdict against News America in a related case before Wayne County Circuit Judge Michael Sapala; that case is under appeal, according to Crain's.

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In minor saber-rattling, limits on union signs

Amid contract talks with the Independent Association of Publishers' Employees, Corporate has told Dow Jones & Co. managers to be vigilant for pro-union signs posted in unauthorized spaces.

"In past years," says a nearly 300-word memo sent Thursday, "we’ve seen IAPE encourage its members to 'show their support' by posting flyers and other union-related materials around the office. Please take note of the rules for this behavior and please make every effort to uniformly enforce our corporate policy." (Full text, below.)

Citing company policy, the directive tells managers that IAPE notices can only be placed on official bulletin boards, "and not affixed to walls, windows, doors, or other common spaces not generally used as bulletin boards."

A reader gave me a copy of the memo. "The company officials we talked to during a negotiating session said IAPE signs that were recently distributed were affixed to places they shouldn't be," the reader said. "As far as I remember, they didn't really say exactly. This was really the first week the signs were available."

Contract talks began Jan. 7 for a new agreement that would cover 1,700 Dow Jones workers in most of the company's locations, I'm told. Those employees include editorial, including at The Wall Street Journal, plus sales, information technology, technical support and printing operations.

In a Thursday note to members on its websites, the IAPE said: "Thursday, Jan. 28th, was another day at the bargaining table for IAPE and Dow Jones. No breakthroughs, but we didn't expect any today (it's still very early in the process.) We had discussions on shift differentials, telephone monitoring and premium pay — and we expect to follow up on each item at next Thursday's talks."

Memo's full text

From: Corporate Affairs
Sent: Thursday, January 28, 2010 12:01 PM
To: Corporate Affairs
Subject: A note to managers from Corporate Affairs regarding union signage

In past years, we’ve seen IAPE encourage its members to “show their support” by posting flyers and other union-related materials around the office. Please take note of the rules for this behavior and please make every effort to uniformly enforce our corporate policy.

Our policy has always been to maintain a professional and neat working environment. IAPE notices, announcements, and signs should be confined to IAPE bulletin boards where provided, and not affixed to walls, windows, doors, or other common spaces not generally used as bulletin boards. IAPE signage should not be placed on tables in conference rooms, cafeterias, rest rooms, or other “common areas,” nor displayed on filing cabinets, office equipment, or countertops. If you see improperly posted material – whether related to the union, negotiations, or otherwise – please remove and discard it.

Employees are generally free, within established local guidelines, to decorate their work space with personal photographs, knick-knacks, calendars, and similar items. Employees are generally permitted to display union-related signs in personal work space – again subject to established office rules. (For example, a reception desk may have restrictions different from a back-office cube, and exterior cube walls are generally treated differently from interior-facing walls.) We want our office space to be inviting to business guests, and therefore we don’t generally put work-related signs, notices, or other distracting material on walls, cabinets, or other places in public areas where they would be seen by visitors. The same applies to union-related signage. (Note that IAPE representatives should not place signage on chairs, work desks, computer monitors, or elsewhere in the office without the permission of the individual who occupies that particular space.) The union has been notified of this policy, which has been the same for many years.

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[Image: today's WSJ, Newseum]

Marketing 101 | Follow me on Facebook, Twitter

On Facebook, I'm Jim Hopkins in San Francisco. On Twitter, it's Gannett Blog.

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Report: WSJ's N.Y. city bureau to be even bigger

Expected to launch on April 12, The Wall Street Journal's New York City bureau will employ roughly three dozen staffers, three times more than the dozen or so the paper had planned for just three months ago, according to the New York Observer, adding that it represents Rupert Murdoch's most direct assault on The New York Times: "As we’ve reported, Mr. Murdoch has set aside a budget of $15 million for the project. There are plans for a daily stand-alone New York section, an Albany bureau, a City Hall bureau, a crime beat, a sports section and a culture section—in other words, a new, full-fledged New York paper, and one, incidentally, that is looking increasingly like the now defunct New York Sun."

Apple tablet | Papers live-blogging today's launch

[CEO Steve Jobs holds device in this New York Times photo]

I'm not at this morning's San Francisco debut for Apple's tablet, the much-hyped multimedia device that's expected to help newspaper publishers grab new paying readers. But the three national dailies are reporting details on what we now know has been dubbed the iPad, as the event continues unfolding; it started at 1 p.m. ET/10 a.m. PT:

• USA Today's Technology Live
• The Wall Street Journal's Digits
• The New York Times' Bits

Here's the WSJ's first video of the event, via Fox News:



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McClatchy to stay focused on ad-supported model

McClatchy Co. isn't following The Wall Street Journal's paywall lead anytime soon. CEO Gary Pruitt says MNI is willing to experiment with charging readers for online content. But the newspaper publisher, reporting fourth-quarter earnings this morning, remains focused on a business model based on advertising sales, he tells Dow Jones Newswires.

McClatchy is the first of the major publishers to report fourth-quarter results. Overall revenue fell 17% to $393 million. Advertising revenue was down 20.5%, compared with a 28.1% decline in the third. Citing continued progress in January, the company says it expects ad revenue to decline this quarter by a percentage in the low to mid-teens, according to The Associated Press.

Tips 'n' tales | All about web-based investigations

The Association of Alternative Weeklies is hosting its annual winter conference in the San Francisco Bay area next weekend. I'll be on a panel Friday, offering advice on how to do online investigative journalism. From the website for the meeting: "AAN West focuses on line-level staff, offering training and networking opportunities for sales, editorial, design and business personnel." My co-panelist is a staffer with PBS's Frontline World. Details of my panel, set for 2 to 3:30 p.m.:

Low Cost, Big Impact: How to Make the Web Work for You

Panel Discussion hosted by Jackie Bennion and Jim Hopkins. How can reporters and editors with little time and less budget maximize the use of the web for groundbreaking investigative projects? Hopkins and Bennion will go through tips, techniques and ideas for improving your use of the web to report, produce, publish and promote big stories.

Stock | In a bad market week, NWS fared worse

News Corp. shares fell 7% during the past five trading days, more than the 5% decline by the S&P-500 index, a widely watched barometer of broad stock market activity. Shares of major newspaper publishers I watch, with their change over the last five trading days, based on today's just-reported closing prices:

• Gannett: down 5%
• News Corp.: down 7%
• New York Times Co.: down 11%
• Dow Jones Industrial Average: down 5%
• S&P-500: down 5%

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Rupert Murdoch to headline Press Club talk

"There are few people in America who exercise so powerful an influence over what we see, what we hear, what we know about our world as Rupert Murdoch (left)," moderator Marvin Kalb says of the Feb. 9 event at the National Press Club in Washington. Tickets for "Rupert Murdoch: the Making of a Modern Media Mogul" have already sold out. But his 8 p.m. talk will be webcast at kalb.gwu.edu.

Stock | New NYT paywall doesn't rally investors

Stock markets are broadly lower in trading so far today. But major newspaper publishers are suffering even more -- despite the New York Times Co.'s announcement that it has settled on a pay model for its flagship paper. Among stocks I follow, recent prices and change:

• Gannett: $15.83, down 3%
• News Corp.: $15.37, down 3%
• NYT Co.: $13.14, down 4%
• Dow Jones Industrial Average: down 2%
• S&P-500: down 1%

New Murdoch-WSJ book 'mother of all tick-tocks'

That's New York Times media columnist David Carr's assessment of the soon-to-be published War at The Wall Street Journal: Inside the Struggle to Control an American Business Empire. The book, by the former Journal media writer Sarah Ellison, is set for publication May 12. Carr got an advance copy.

Posting on the NYT's Media Decoder blog today, he calls it "the mother of all tick-tock, an intimate look at how the Bancroft family fumbled away an asset they never really demonstrated much interest in as Murdoch pounced. When it comes to taking a measure of Murdoch, there is little of the moralistic keening that characterized the coverage at the time, with Ellison instead adopting a tone of an ichthyologist studying the feeding habits of a large, hungry shark."

Report: HarperCollins in e-book talks with Apple

The News Corp. book publishing subsidiary is negotiating with Apple to make electronic books available for the introduction of a new tablet device from Apple, according to people familiar with the situation, posing a challenge to Amazon.com, The Wall Street Journal is now reporting. "HarperCollins is expected to set the prices of the e-books, which would have added features, with Apple taking a percentage of sales. Details haven't been ironed out,'' the WSJ says.

Giving | What happened to News Corp.'s big gift?

As a "founding partner," the company contributed $10 million toward construction of the Newseum, a museum about news developed by the Freedom Forum journalism foundation in Washington, D.C. Initially budgeted at $250 million, it eventually cost nearly twice that amount when it opened in 2008 -- three years late. Following is an update on spending by the foundation and the museum.

[The Newseum opened in 2008 in Washington, D.C.]

The non-profit Freedom Forum foundation and its signature project, the Newseum in Washington, D.C., paid $1.4 million in bonuses to its top employees in 2008 -- a year when the foundation's endowment suffered multimillion-dollar losses, and the museum began a series of layoffs that extended through last year, newly released public documents show.

The bonuses included $375,000 to Freedom Forum Chairman and CEO Charles Overby (left), bringing his total 2008 pay to $991,044 in compensation and expenses, the documents show. The museum's then-president, Peter Prichard, got a $225,000 bonus; his total pay and expenses for the year were $665,927, the documents show.

The pay packages emerged in annual Internal Revenue Service tax reports for 2008, made public under IRS regulations. They are the most recent IRS reports filed by the two organizations, so do not include payments for last year. I received copies of the reports over the weekend after requesting them last week from Freedom Forum.

The 2008 bonuses included amounts deferred from the previous five years that were "contingent upon successful completion" of the Washington complex that houses the Newseum, plus Freedom Forum's offices, an apartment building, a restaurant and other facilities on Pennsylvania Avenue, the documents show. For example, Overby got a $100,000 bonus "based on 2007 performance," plus $275,000 in contingent bonuses from 2002-2005, the documents show.

The non-profit journalism foundation was established in 1991 by former Gannett Chairman and CEO Al Neuharth, with $650 million in assets from the old Gannett Foundation. The foundation and the Newseum, a museum about news, are managed by Overby and a number of other former Gannett executives and employees.

The Newseum complex's projected cost started at $250 million. But it mushroomed quickly, ultimately costing $450 million by the time it opened in spring 2008 -- three years late, according to my review last year of Freedom Forum and Newseum documents and IRS reports. Since its opening, the Newseum has struggled to control expenses; layoffs and other measures have reduced staff by 23%.

My review last year showed the foundation had given at least $67,500 to an adoption agency in Cocoa Beach, Fla., started by Neuharth's wife. Those gifts were among hundreds of grants made in 2000-2007 to non-profit groups that seemed to share little in common with the foundation's mission to support free press and free speech.

The 2008 returns show that Neuharth, 85 (left), was paid $225,000 in compensation, and another $231,953 in unspecified expense reimbursements. He did not receive a bonus. Neuharth worked an average of 40 hours per week, and his title is listed simply as "founder,'' the documents show. With his 2008 pay, Freedom Forum has now paid Neuharth nearly $1.3 million in compensation and expenses since 2006 alone, public documents show.

I've asked a Freedom Forum spokesman to explain the criteria for the bonuses, as well as its board of trustees's role in their approval. I also asked about the duties Neuharth performed for his compensation.

Freedom Forum and the Newseum are legally separate entities, each with their own governing boards. (Here's the Newseum's board of trustees.) The two boards have considerable overlap, however, and both include many long-time Neuharth associates; one member is his daughter, Jan Neuharth.

Overby and Prichard, who retired last year, have been the highest-paid employees of the two organizations for several years. In 2007, when no bonuses were paid, Overby got $577,024, and Prichard got $397,690, that year's tax reports showed. Prichard was a former top editor of USA Today before joining Freedom Forum and the Newseum. He was replaced last year by Ken Paulson, who also was USA Today's top editor at the time.

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Freedom Forum documents now available here

You can now download your own copies of the 2008 Internal Revenue Service reports filed by the Freedom Forum foundation and the Newseum, right here on News Corp. Blog. Freedom Forum's is here. And the Newseum's is here. Both documents are in .pdf formats.

Here's a tip: The $1.4 million in bonuses paid to top executives for 2008 are detailed starting on Page 37 of the Newseum's filing.

Wendi Murdoch reported in Machiavellian schism

I don't know how I missed Lloyd Grove's behind-the-scenes explainer on how CEO Rupert Murdoch's son-and-law fired that jaw-dropping broadside against Fox News founder Roger Ailes in last weekend's New York Times. But it's worth posting here, even at this late date.

Writing for The Daily Beast, Grove quotes a family insider as saying that it was Murdoch's third wife, Wendi (left), who encouraged his son-in-law's attack in the NYT's page-one profile of Ailes. Matthew Freud, married to Murdoch's daughter, Elisabeth, told the Times: "I am by no means alone within the family or the company in being ashamed and sickened by Roger Ailes' horrendous and sustained disregard of the journalistic standards that News Corp., its founder and every other global media business aspires to."

The players in this corporate whosaidit: Freud (left, with Elisabeth) is a publicist in London, and a great-grandson of Sigmund Freud. Elisabeth, 41, owns a television production company in London. Her brother, James Murdoch (below), 37, is chief of News Corp.'s Europe and Asia operations, and the current heir-apparent to 78-year-old Murdoch. Grove suspects that James and Elisabeth share the same negative views of the powerful Ailes, and that Freud is merely giving them voice.

But Grove takes it too far when he spins Wendi Murdoch's motivations into Machiavellian heights. "Wendi is a skilled inside player," Grove writes, "and a possible result of this corporate PR embarrassment would be to undermine Rupert's confidence in Elisabeth and James, thus ultimately advantaging Wendi's children -- 8-year-old Grace and 6-year-old Chloe Murdoch -- in the inevitable successionary rivalry. It would help, of course, if Rupert hangs on as long as his formidable 100-year-old mother."

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Save the date | Q2 results out Feb. 2 (New York)

The company will report its fiscal second-quarter financial results on Tuesday, Feb. 2, at 4 p.m. ET (New York), after the close of American stock markets. It has scheduled a 4:30 p.m. conference call with Wall Street media stock analysts that same day.

Fox TV | Anatomy of NBC's slide to a 'punch line'

In a new story, The New York Times traces the network's embarrassing decline to also-ran among the four broadcast networks are NBC affiliates. "It has been an unseemly spectacle for a company that prides itself on a smooth corporate culture," the NYT says today, "and the disastrous culmination of a high-stakes gamble" last year by NBC Universal CEO Jeff Zucker to move talk show host Jay Leno to the 10 p.m. slot, passing The Tonight Show to the younger Conan O’Brien.

Murdoch, prince in talks over Rotana investment

[Meeting: Murdoch, Alwaleed]

The meetings between CEO Rupert Murdoch and Saudi billionaire investor Prince Alwaleed bin Talal focused on a deal where News Corp. would buy 10% of entertainment conglomerate Rotana Media Services. Alwaleed owns 7% of News Corp., making it the company's single-biggest investor after the Murdoch family.

Rotana, which hosts NWS's Fox channels in Saudi Arabia on its TV network, also owns rights to more than 2,000 Arabic movies and the world's largest Arabic language music library, The Wall Street Journal reports today.

Over the past two decades Prince Alwaleed, through his Riyadh-listed conglomerate Kingdom Holding Co., has focused his investments on banks, hotels and media firms, the WSJ says. It owns 7% of News Corp., according to the most recent proxy statement to shareholders. Kingdom also has built sizable stakes in companies including News Corp., Citigroup, Apple and Time Warner.

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Fox News | Critic Rainey slams coverage of Haiti

[In Haiti: Screenshot shows Cooper video posted today]

Praising Fox News's top competitor, CNN, the Los Angeles Times says today that the cable channel's determination to stick with the news during the Haiti disaster "stands in stark contrast to its competitors, particularly Fox News." Times TV critic James Rainey says that by yesterday, CNN had nine correspondents and anchors -- including Anderson Cooper -- and some 40 others on the ground, along with generators and equipment that allowed it to broadcast pictures far superior to the competitions' grainy, streaming images.

Rainey adds: "A Fox insider told me she didn't want to be quoted but called those assessments unfair, saying that coverage outside of prime time of the disaster had been considerable and would be ramped up Thursday night. During Fox's equivalent of the evening news, Shepard Smith did provide significant coverage of Haiti. Greta Van Susteren devoted a chunk of her program to the disaster, though not from the scene, as intended, when her plane was turned away from Haiti's crowded main airport."

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Surprises in NWS's political action committee

A deeper look at News Corp.'s political action committee, News America Holdings, reveals a more complex network: one that exhibits surprising trends on who's getting the loot. (Hint: many Democrats!) Death and Taxes magazine has just published fresh details.

Haiti | How they're playing the story online

Home pages from about 11 p.m. ET at the three national dailies; which one has the greatest sense of urgency?



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Stroudsburg | Fronting today

News Corp.'s Pocono Record

• Stroudsburg, Pa.
• President: Joe Vanderhoof
• Managing Editor/Online: Marta Gouger
• Contact us list

Got a News Corp. front page to recommend? Find it in the Newseum's page one database, then post a link in the comments section, below. To e-mail confidentially, write jimhopkins[at]gmail[dot-com]; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the rail, upper right.

[Image: Newseum]

Blogger asks: How long can pubs afford to print?

Widely read blogger Alan Mutter has crunched reams of data to arrive at his sobering conclusion about the future of newspapers. Much of his analysis today rests on the outlook for advertising revenue this year and beyond. He offers three scenarios:

• Optimistic Case – Ad sales drop 10% in 2010, are unchanged in 2011, and then grow at 2% a year in 2012 and each subsequent year.
• Middle Case – Ad sales fall 15% in 2011, slide 5% in 2012, and then decline 2% in 2012 and each subsequent year.
• Pessimistic Case – Ad sales plunge 20% in 2010, drop 15% in 2011, and then decline 5% in 2012 and each subsequent year.

Now, it's your turn: Which of Mutter's three scenarios best describes the outlook for News Corp.? Please post your replies in the comments section, below. To e-mail confidentially, write jimhopkins[at]gmail[dot-com]; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the rail, upper right.

Urgent: O'Brien rejects NBC late-night plan

Putting himself further into play among competing networks, Tonight Show host Conan O'Brien (left) says in a statement that he won't accept NBC's plans to shift the show into a 12:05 a.m. time slot, in order to accommodate the network's plans to move Jay Leno to a later start.

O'Brien's statement follows positive signals yesterday from News Corp.'s Fox Entertainment, where President Kevin Reilly "strongly endorsed O’Brien in an interview with The New York Times. "He would be a very compatible fit for our brand,” Reilly said. “He is one of the few guys on the planet that has demonstrated he can do one of these shows every night.”

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Stock | Newspaper shares now in broad selloff

Updated at 4:14 p.m., with closing prices: Following a strong year-to-date rally, newspaper stocks were down sharply today, with several companies faring worse than broader stock market indexes. Companies I follow, with closing prices moments ago:

• Gannett: $16.40, down 5%
• New York Times Co.: $13.86, down 6%
• News Corp.: $15.89, down 4%

Compare that with the Dow Jones Industrial Average, off less than 1%, and the S&P 500, down 1%.

Stockton set to charge for online news today

In the latest foray into asking readers to pay for online access, News Corp.'s Record in Stockton, Calif., is scheduled to lower a paywall on its website today. The shift was announced in late December. Here's today's front page:

The Record

• Stockton, Calif.
• Publisher: Roger Coover
• Editor: Mike Klocke
• Contact us list

Got a News Corp. front page to recommend? Find it in the Newseum's page one database, then post a link in the comments section, below. To e-mail confidentially, write jimhopkins[at]gmail[dot-com]; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the rail, upper right.

[Image: Newseum]

Urgent: Sarah Palin to be Fox News contributor

The former vice-presidential candidate (left) "will not have her own regular program,'' The New York Times is now reporting, "though she will host a series that will run on the network from time to time.'' Financial terms have not yet been disclosed.

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Is Times whistling past graveyard over WSJ move?

New York Times reporters say there's not a lot of talk in their newsroom about The Wall Street Journal's soon-to-launch New York City bureau, according to New York magazine. "The Times already has the apparatus to dominate city coverage," one staffer told the weekly. "That takes years to build, and the Journal doesn't have any of that."

The NYT was first to break the news about the Journal's move onto its backyard. New York says: "While originally reported to launch in April, it looks like the bureau will begin reporting its own stories by February. Its goal is to compete with the Times on its own turf: the news, politics, and culture of New York City (and State!). Starting with a reported staff of 12 and a budget of $15 million, obviously that's a tall order."

The magazine is wondering whether Sewell Chan's recently announced transfer to the NYT's Washington beat from the successful City Room Blog is good news for the Journal's nascent bureau.

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Hyannis | Fronting today

News Corp.'s Cape Cod Times

• Hyannis, Mass.
• President and Publisher: Peter Meyer
• Editor in chief: Paul Pronovost
• Contact us list

Got a News Corp. front page to recommend? Find it in the Newseum's page one database, then post a link in the comments section, below. To e-mail confidentially, write jimhopkins[at]gmail[dot-com]; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the rail, upper right.

[Image: Newseum]

In new profile, powerful Ailes leaves rivals behind

The creator of News Corp.'s profit engine -- Fox News -- is believed responsible for $700 million in operating earnings for the parent company, more than CNN, MSNBC and the evening newscasts of NBC, ABC and CBS combined, The New York Times says today in a must-read profile of CEO Rupert Murdoch's right-hand man.

That success has put Roger Ailes (left) "at the pinnacle of power in three corridors of American life: business, media and politics,'' the NYT's David Carr and Tim Arango report. "In addition to being the best-paid person in the News Corporation last year, he is the most successful news executive of the last 10 years, and his network exerts a strong influence on the fractured conservative movement."

Ailes is well-paid for his outsized contributions to NWS' bottom line: he made $23.7 million last fiscal year in salary, bonuses and other compensation -- more than Murdoch, who got $19.9 million. Ailes' annual pay was more than double the $10.9 million he received in 2007, according to the August 2009 proxy report to shareholders, a public document filed annually with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

His influence extends well beyond the Fox News franchise. The Times says Ailes threatened to quit when he heard that Murdoch was going to endorse Barack Obama via the editorial page of the New York Post -- an allegation that Ailes denies.

But he isn't universally loved within the Murdoch empire or his family. In a strikingly candid statement, Murdoch's son-in-law, Matthew Freud, an influential publicist in London, told the Times: "I am by no means alone within the family or the company in being ashamed and sickened by Roger Ailes' horrendous and sustained disregard of the journalistic standards that News Corporation, its founder and every other global media business aspires to."

Freud is married to Elisabeth Murdoch, a London television producer; she is one of Murdoch's three adult children.

What's more, the NYT notes, Lachlan Murdoch (left) -- Rupert's eldest son, and once his heir-apparent -- quit a senior News Corp. post in 2004 when he felt Ailes was encroaching on his corporate territory.

Conspicuously absent in the story are any views on Ailes held by the third child, James, 36, the only one of the siblings employed in the company. James is chairman and CEO of the company's operations in Europe and Asia. He's also a member of the board of directors, and is seen as a likely successor to Rupert.

Moreover, Ailes' position as a megaphone for right-leaning causes and candidates has made him a high-profile target among his most rabid critics. "His movements now are shadowed by a phalanx of corporate-provided security,'' the NYT reports. "He travels to and from work in a miniature convoy of two sport utility vehicles."

His security benefit cost NWS $54,494 last fiscal year, the August proxy report says.

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[Today's New York Post, Newseum]

Fox TV | News Corp. said suitor for Conan O'Brien

Amid reports he may be shunted aside so Jay Leno can return to his late-night berth, Tonight Show host Conan O'Brien (left) is mulling options that could include accepting a purported offer from News Corp., The Wall Street Journal is now reporting.

"One suitor is News Corp.'s Fox network, which has had early discussions with O'Brien's circle about hosting another late-night show," the Journal says, citing "people familiar with the matter."

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Fox TV | An appraisal of The Simpsons, on its 20th

Tough-to-please New York Times TV critic Alessandra Stanley assesses the 20th anniversary special for The Simpsons, airing this Sunday night, and finds plenty to recommend. "Mostly it’s a typical half-hour of animated lunacy and a reminder to apostates of why they loved the show in the first place,'' she writes today.

Protecting local flank, NYT expands City Room Blog

As The Wall Street Journal moves deeper onto its local turf, The New York Times said today that it's beefing up its two-year-old City Room Blog, with more features and a new top editor. "In the coming weeks,'' the NYT says in a statement, "City Room will roll out a series of new features, including daily columns that will delve deeply into the workings of major New York City institutions like the police department, the schools and the courts, and an ambitiously expanded daily look at what the city's blogosphere is talking about."

Sewell Chan (left), the founding bureau chief, will be moving to a new assignment within the Times. His replacement will be Andy Newman, a veteran Times reporter, "who has excelled in both the print newspaper and its online enhancements,'' the paper says.

The Times' move follows the WSJ's reported decision last fall to open a New York City bureau, staffed with about a dozen reporters.

City Room mixes original reporting with reader conversations. Among the website's most active blogs, it posted 3,314 items and received 82,535 comments last year. Since inception, it has consistently ranked among the paper's top five most popular blogs.

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[Photo: NYT Co.]

Remember the teletype? Now, hear it again

I've just added a widget in the top rail, right, that includes an audio file of a clattering teletype machine. Look for The Teletype Room. When's the last time you heard one of those?

WSJ creates new 'corporate' news reporting group

In another bid to promote more cooperation between Dow Jones & Co. divisions, The Wall Street Journal said today that it's creating a new "corporate group," responsible for coverage of big companies and topics, including General Electric, IBM, Procter & Gamble, telecommunications, New York retail and fashion, and recruiting and management.

Andrew Dowell, who has been global news editor of Dow Jones Newswires, was named to lead the new group, according to a company statement. Dowell will report to Matt Murray, deputy managing editor of national news for the WSJ, and Gabriella Stern, senior editor of global news coverage for Dow Jones Newswires. His new role is effective immediately.

"We formed the New York corporate group to focus on the importance and raise the visibility of the main corporate beats that the Journal covers. This group will also help to strengthen the cooperation between Newswires and Journal reporters," said Robert Thomson, editor-in-chief of Dow Jones & Co. and managing editor of the WSJ.

This latest move comes two days after a consolidation of top-level management duties within Dow Jones & Co.

Please post your replies in the comments section, below. To e-mail confidentially, write jimhopkins[at]gmail[dot-com]; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the rail, upper right.

What happens after copyeditors get laid off?

The Minneapolis Star Tribune isn't a News Corp. newspaper, but its just-announced decision to eliminate the jobs of 18 copyeditors and one copy desk chief offers clues about how newspapers are shifting work around.

More of these jobs across NWS could be lost -- especially at the company's more than dozen U.S. newspapers in the Local Media Group -- as the company consolidates more work to reduce overhead.

In Minneapolis, here's what will happen after the 19 jobs get cut, according to a memo obtained by MinnPost:

• Some reporters might serve a shift as a copy editor or line editor in any given week.
• More pages will be templates and easier to produce.
• Most stories will now flow from team leader to designer to slot.
• Reporters and team leaders will be required to write initial headlines for their stories.

How have copyediting duties changed at your paper? Please post your replies in the comments section, below. To e-mail confidentially, write jimhopkins[at]gmail[dot-com]; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the rail, upper right.

[Image: today's Star Tribune front page, Newseum]

Fox films | Why Alvin's worth more than Avatar

Avatar's $1 billion in ticket sales may grab all the headlines for News Corp.'s Fox movie studio, which released the futuristic sci-fi blockbuster. But Fox's other holiday movie, Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel, may well be worth more, Rolfe Winkler argues on Reuters' Breaking Views website. Why? Avatar may well be a one-time event, given that it took director James Cameron 15 years to produce the epic.

But Alvin is a franchise, notes Winkler. He says the first film grossed $361 million worldwide, while the newest one has taken in $255 million after just 12 days.

Avatar is nothing to sneeze at, of course: It's expected to add $100 million "and counting" to NWS' $4 billion in operating profits, Winkler says. "But,'' he writes, "multiply by five the $40 million the Squeakquel is expected to squirrel away to reflect the likelihood the venerable franchise will endure.''

Related: read Winkler's article in full via The New York Times

Please post your replies in the comments section, below. To e-mail confidentially, write jimhopkins[at]gmail[dot-com]; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the rail, upper right.

Publishers' shares touch 52-week highs anew

Stocks in three newspaper companies I follow have set new 52-week highs in trading so far today, capitalizing on a recent surge in investor optimism over the outlook for revenue in the fourth quarter. The companies, and their new highs:

• Gannett: $16.69
• New York Times Co.: $13.93
• News Corp.: $16.67

[Source: Google Finance]

Stock | In new SEC filings, a Murdoch puzzler

[A newly filed document for director James Murdoch; bigger view]

I'm pretty good at reading obscure company filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. But a series of new ones filed yesterday on behalf of about a dozen News Corp. board members has left me stumped. Maybe someone reading this post can help.

These are Form 4 filings, public documents disclosing transactions by insiders. Most of them concern relatively small numbers of shares, some in the form of what look like options. Two of them, however, involve much larger blocks of shares held by director James Murdoch (left), who also is head of the company's operations in Europe and Asia. He is, of course, one of CEO Rupert Murdoch's adult children, and a likely heir-apparent to his father.

Although both were filed yesterday, they cover two different transaction dates: Jan. 1, 2009, and Jan. 1, 2010. The 2009 document is here; 2010's is here. The number of shares described is virtually identical in both cases. The one I've posted above is the more recent.

As I interpret them, Murdoch is acquiring and immediately selling 133,333 shares of NWS for $13.69 each, for a total price of $1.8 million. Can anyone confirm my calculation?

Related: all the company's recent SEC filings on News Corp.'s investor relations page

Please post your replies in the comments section, below. To e-mail confidentially, write jimhopkins[at]gmail[dot-com]; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the rail, upper right.

WSJ, Dow Newswires consolidated in single unit

In a bid to flatten the management structure, Dow Jones & Co. has merged The Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones Newswires and Factiva into a single division, with a new chief at the top, the company said yesterday.

In the new structure, Todd Larsen has been named president of Dow Jones, with responsibility for commercial operations, according to a company statement. Meanwhile, Stephen Daintith has been named Dow Jones' chief operating officer, with oversight for strategic guidance; he retains his chief financial officer duties as well

Larsen had been chief operating officer of the Consumer Media Group, which includes the WSJ, Barron's and MarketWatch.

In the switch, Clare Hart has resigned as president of what had been the Enterprise Media Group, the division that comprised the Newswires, Factiva, Financial Information Services, and other operations.

The new structure unites Enterprise Media and Consumer Media within a single division; the company statement does not identify the new division's name, however. Remaining a standalone unit: the Local Media Group, comprising eight daily newspapers and 15 weeklies in six states.

Apparently anticipating suggestions that Hart had been pushed out, Dow Jones' CEO Les Hinton says in the statement: "This isn’t about personalities, and it’s not about costs. It's about the best way to operate an information business at a time when technology provides new tools for delivering news and new opportunities for keeping businesses and individuals informed."

In a story today on the move, the WSJ says: "Since News Corp. bought Dow Jones more than two years ago, it has pushed the staffs of the Journal, Dow Jones and MarketWatch to work more closely together. The business-unit merger announced Monday immediately unites the news operations fully under Robert Thomson, managing editor of the Journal and editor-in-chief of Dow Jones." Thomson had shared oversight of Dow Jones Newswires with Hart.

The combination doesn't involve any layoffs among Dow Jones’s roughly 6,000 employees, a spokesman, told The Associated Press in a story published by The New York Times.

Please post your replies in the comments section, below. To e-mail confidentially, write jimhopkins[at]gmail[dot-com]; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the rail, upper right.

How you may be reading newspapers by March

[iTablet? One of many mock-ups of Apple's rumored new device]

From a just-posted Wall Street Journal story: Apple plans to unveil a new multimedia tablet device later this month, but doesn't plan on shipping the product until March, people briefed by the company told the paper. Among many possible uses: reading newspapers. Price: around $1,000, the WSJ says, adding: "The tablet is expected to be a multimedia device that will let people watch movies and television shows, play games, surf the Internet and read electronic books and newspapers."

Please post your replies in the comments section, below. To e-mail confidentially, write jimhopkins[at]gmail[dot-com]; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the rail, upper right.

Tina Brown on what's really killing newspapers

"Greedy managements squeezed every cent
out of the bottom line and turned
their newsrooms into eunuchs."

-- Daily Beast co-founder Tina Brown, in a new post knocking down as a "load of spam'' the notion that the Internet is killing papers.

Portsmouth | Fronting today

News Corp.'s Portsmouth Herald

• Portsmouth, N.H.
• Publisher: John Tabor
• Executive Editor: Howard Altschiller
• Contact us list

Got a News Corp. front page to recommend? Find it in the Newseum's page one database, then post a link in the comments section, below. To e-mail confidentially, write jimhopkins[at]gmail[dot-com]; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the rail, upper right.

[Image: Newseum]

Forecast: WSJ, NYT to post 20% ad-page gains

That will be for the October-to-December period at The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, the WSJ says today, in a new story quoting Wells Fargo securities analyst John Janedis. "He estimates that the Times will show increases of at least 75% in the banks/financials, domestic automotive and telecom ad categories."

Blogger: Don't uncork champagne on news stocks

The average annual rise in newspaper industry stocks last year was 200.6%, leading blogger Alan Mutter says today in a new post.

"But don’t uncork the champagne just yet,'' he writes today in a new post. "When you compare the value of the publishing shares at the end of 2009 with where they stood four years earlier, you will find that they have shed, on average, nearly three-quarters of their value since 2005, the halcyon year for modern newspapering."

NWS shares are one of the few exceptions in Mutter's review, however.

The performance from 2005-2009 for major stocks I follow, with their 2005 closing prices, according to Mutter's analysis:

• Gannett: down 72.7% from $54.31
• New York Times Co.: down 51.9% from $25.71
• News Corp.: down 4.3% from $16.61

Earlier: company-by-company share performances for 2008-2009

Please post your replies in the comments section, below. To e-mail confidentially, write jimhopkins[at]gmail[dot-com]; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the rail, upper right.

Averting blackout, Fox and Time Warner OK pact

The two companies said last night that they'd agreed on new terms for a contract covering Fox Broadcasting stations in New York, Los Angeles, and other markets, The New York Times says, preventing a blackout of the weekend’s college bowl games in millions of homes. The Wall Street Journal's story is here. Neither of the companies is showing statements on their websites, however. The showdown with Time Warner Cable had threatened to cut off viewers from much-watch football bowl games this weekend, plus mainstays including The Simpsons.

NWS, Time-Warner extend higher fee talks

Continuation of the tense negotiations prevented millions of Time Warner Cable customers from losing access to Fox Broadcasting programming, including popular weekend football game coverage.

The two companies are renegotiating a contract that officially ended at midnight Thursday and have been unable to reach an agreement on fees that News Corp. is asking to be paid for carriage of its national broadcast network, says The Wall Street Journal.

The New York Times is covering the talks on its Media Decoder blog.