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Time may be running out for the CW network. Two years after CBS Corp. and Time Warner Inc. combined their second-tier networks UPN and WB into the youth-oriented CW to pool young viewers prized by advertisers, the network's hopes of surviving are looking increasingly bleak. Despite the buzz about "Gossip Girl," a prime-time soap opera about a group of rich kids on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, the network has lost about 28% of its target audience of 18 to 34 year olds so far this season. Its ratings during this month's "sweeps" period -- the all-important measure upon...

As Washington Post staffers reached the deadline to decide whether they would take buyouts, newsroom sources confirmed that WaPo Executive editor Leonard Downie will retire no later than inauguration day, 2009. An announcement could come as early as today. Former International Tribune editor David Ignatius and post managing editor Phil Bennett are the leading inside candidates to succeed Downie, who has been paper's top editor since 1991, when he succeeded Ben Bradlee. Many of Bennett's colleagues described him as "moody," and he may have suffered from backing Susan Glasser to become the assistant managing editor for national news. Glasser was...

Lee Enterprises Inc. took a goodwill impairment charge of $772 million in a revised financial report that pushed its loss to $716.4 million, or $15.90 per share, for its second fiscal quarter ended March 30. The new figures, disclosed in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing late Wednesday, revised a report in April that had indicated a loss of $4.45 million, or 10 cents a share, for the quarter. In addition to the taking the non-cash goodwill impairment charge, Lee recorded a $115.97 million charge to reduce the carrying value of amortized intangibles, and a charge of $3 million to...

Bids on the Star Tribune's five-block plot of land in downtown Minneapolis are due today, according to an offering memo obtained by the Pioneer Press. The marketing of the 12.4 acres — billed as the largest private land holding in the central business district — marks a rare opportunity for developers. It also comes at a time when the Star Tribune and its owners, Avista Capital Holdings, are dealing with declining revenue and profit, and the extra cash could come in handy. Last year, the Minnesota Vikings offered to pay $45 million for four of the five blocks in the...

Following up on vows to bring spending in line with its shrinking revenues, The Seattle Times Co. sliced the staff at its flagship newspaper by 125 employees this week. Of the total, 73 were laid off and 52 left voluntarily, with 51 accepting buyout offers, spokeswoman Corey Digiacinto said. The Times announced a month ago that, to help save $15 million, it would freeze 60 unfilled positions and lay off up to 131 employees. Voluntary departures trimmed the number of layoffs needed by more than 40 percent, Digiacinto said. Before this week's cuts, The Times had 1,845 full-time and part-time...

For decades, this has been the week for network television to strut its stuff. But not everyone is in the mood to party this year. Typically, the major broadcast networks -- Fox, ABC, CBS and NBC -- have spent about $5 million each to whip up excitement among advertisers for their new fall schedules. They would fly hundreds of stars and executives to New York for extravagant presentations at tony Manhattan venues, followed by lavish parties. The five networks, including the upstart CW, rounded up $9.3 billion in prime-time commercial sales in the weeks after last year's "upfront" presentations. But...

The McClatchy Co. figures the value of its not-quite-half stake in Blethen family-controlled Seattle Times Co. has tumbled to barely one-tenth of its worth just two years ago. In a Securities and Exchange Commission filing, McClatchy estimated its 49.5% stake in the publisher of The Seattle Times has a value of $12.06 million. That's a drop of more than one-third from the carrying value it assigned its Times Co. interest last December -- and represents a 88% drop from its estimated value of $102.2 million at the end of 2006. McClatchy acquired the stake in the Times Co. in its...

News Corp. has revoked its bid for Tribune Co.'s Newsday, a company spokesman said, leaving Cablevision Systems Corp. the likely victor of the auction for the Long Island daily. News Corp., which publishes the New York Post and The Wall Street Journal, had bid $580 million for Newsday and already had an informal agreement to acquire the paper, but was unwilling to match the $650 million subsequently offered by Cablevision, a cable systems operator. New York Daily News owner Mortimer Zuckerman also bid $580 million for the newspaper but it wasn't immediately clear whether he would submit a higher offer....

ASBURY PARK Gannett Co. Inc. on Friday said it was offering buyouts to a total of 160 workers at five of its six newspapers in the state of New Jersey, as advertising revenues decline. The buyouts were offered to employees over age 55 who have at least 15 years of service with the company, said Judi Dorsey, vice president for human resources at the Asbury Park Press, Gannett's flagship paper in the state. The 160 employees targeted were asked to respond to the offer by the end of next week. Layoffs are possible if not enough buyouts are accepted, Dorsey...

Troubled Journal Register Co. warned late Friday in a regulatory filing that it probably will be in default of its loan covenant before the end of July. Journal Register (OTC: JRCO.PK) said it was in compliance with the total leveraged financial covenant in the first quarter of the year ended March 30, but it is likely to be in default in the second quarter unless business picks up in some unexpected dramatic way. "Unless there is significant improvement in the company's operating results during the second fiscal quarter or the company is successful in obtaining an additional amendment to the...

The St. Petersburg Times will be seriously redefined on May 19. That's when the paper will implement changes designed to emphasize material readers have told us they value most in the weekday paper and bring down costs. The big changes: Floridian, our daily features section, will publish just on Sundays, while our business section will merge with our B section metro news in a new section. TV listings, comics, Dear Abby, crossword puzzles and the more popular syndicated elements of our features section will move to a new section called BayLink. As always, when circumstances compel the Times to reimagine...

THE hottest spot in town on the media scene was the Time 100 party last night at Jazz at Lincoln Center to honor the 100 people that the weekly magazine deems to be the world's most influential. Somewhere between 30 and 40 honorees were expected to be on hand for last night's event, which meant that the majority of those who were named the world's most influential - such as Mayor Bloomberg - didn't attend the black-tie bash. Time Managing Editor Richard Stengel said that so far the magazine has not ranked the honorees in any particular order. While some...

A continued weak advertising environment resulted in an 8% decline in first-quarter operating revenue and a 16% drop in operating cash flow for Tribune Co., parent of the Los Angeles Times, KTLA-TV Channel 5, the Chicago Tribune and other media holdings. However, because of Tribune's conversion to a tax-advantaged, employee-owned company in December, it posted a one-time, $1.86-billion income tax adjustment that resulted in net income of $1.82 billion for the quarter that ended March 31, compared with $11 million in the same 2007 period. Quarterly operating revenue was $1.11 billion, compared with $1.21 billion a year earlier, and operating...

Broadcast TV networks' upfront advertising sales will be down this year, posting a drop of between 2% and 14%, a leading Wall Street analyst said. A "material decline is probable given ratings declines, the disruption in the development cycle due to the recent writers' strike and economic woes," Jessica Reif Cohen of Merrill Lynch said in a report published yesterday. Next week, the broadcast networks will meet with advertisers, presenting their fall schedules in what are expected to be less lavish circumstances than in past years. Production disruptions from the 100-day Writers Guild of America strike, as well as uncertainty...

New York Times Co. will lay off some staffers in its flagship newspaper's newsroom to meet its goal of cutting 100 positions. In a letter to the staff, published on the Poynter Institute's Web site, New York Times Executive Editor Bill Keller said, "While the overwhelming majority of our reductions did indeed come from volunteers, we have been forced to resort to a relatively small number of layoffs to meet our assigned goal." Mr. Keller didn't mention the number of people to be laid off and the company declined to comment. In mid-April, assistant managing editor Bill Schmidt had encouraged...

The owner of the Star Tribune has informed investors that it has written down the value of its $100 million investment in the newspaper by 75 percent to reflect deteriorating conditions since the purchase in March 2007. "In the past year, the newspaper industry has suffered greater than expected declines in circulation and advertising revenue, particularly in print classified advertising," the memo from New York's Avista Capital Partners said. "The outlook in the near to medium term remains uncertain." The write-down, taken at the end of 2007, reflects the estimated loss of value and is consistent with the falling stock...

The Lexington Herald-Leader is looking to trim its staff of 385 full-time employees by 4 percent through a voluntary buyout program. A statement released by the Herald-Leader said there is no set number of employees it hopes will take the buyout, nor has the paper released information publicly or to its staff as to what the eligibility requirements are. "…our business models are changing," a statement emailed by Herald-Leader Publisher Tim Kelly said. "We plan to continue our focus on both our print newspaper as well as Kentucky.com. At the same time, we plan to pay attention to our current...

The Star Tribune's hiring of private equity powerhouse Blackstone Group could result in a fundamental restructuring of the paper's debt, a process that may include anything from new loan terms to additional equity investors in the paper... Such a restructuring, coming only 15 months after Avista Capital Partners took possession of the Star Tribune, reflects just how rapidly the newspaper business -- and the credit markets -- have deteriorated in the past year. Across the country, in big cities and small, newspapers are struggling with declining readership and steep declines in advertising, especially lucrative real estate and automobile classifieds. McClatchy...

It's time for higher education to help save newspapers Chronicle of Higher Education That's what former Fortune staffer Lee Smith says. "The plan I have in mind would call upon the richest institutions to set aside 3 percent of their endowments to buy The New York Times. That's for a start. Additional purchases of other newspapers by other endowments should follow."

AS REAL-LIFE broadcasters get set to announce their fall schedules next week in New York, they're still scratching their way out of a trench, otherwise known as the worst season in the history of the network TV business. Not a single one of the new fall series broke through to a big audience, even the ones that looked can't-fail on paper, such as ABC's spinoff "Private Practice" and NBC's now-dead revival of "Bionic Woman." Every network except Fox has posted significant ratings declines for the season. Even as existing series have gradually returned from the three-month writers strike, viewers have,...

The Minneapolis Star Tribune, reeling under a heavy debt load and plummeting advertising sales, is on the brink of bankruptcy, The Post has learned. One of the nation's top dailies, "The Strib," as it is known to readers in the Twin Cities, recently hired the Wall Street powerhouse Blackstone Group to restructure its balance sheet after failing to meet its debt obligations, according to people familiar with the company. The broadsheet is unlikely to shutter its doors, but its creditors, including the banking giant Credit Suisse Group, figure to eventually end up controlling the paper. Down the road, the creditor...

The Washington Post Co. on Friday reported a 39 percent drop in first quarter profit, hurt by an early retirement program charge at Newsweek and a continued loss of revenue from its newspapers. The Washington-based corporation said earnings fell to $38.8 million, or $4.08 per share, compared with $63.9 million, or $6.70 per share, a year earlier. The company said revenue climbed 8 percent to $1.06 billion from $985.6 million. Quarterly results included a $15.3 million, or $1.60 per share, expense related to Newsweek's early retirement program. Even excluding the costs of the retirement program, earnings fell well below the...

How bad are things in the (print) newspaper industry? Don't ask. After another jarring 3.5% decline over the past six months, print-paper circulation will drop to about 50 million this year--the lowest level since 1946 (62 years ago). That's during a period in which the US population has doubled, meaning that per-capita newspaper consumption has been cut in half. For more on this horrorshow, read the latest from the Dean of Newspaper Demise, Alan D. Mutter, at Newsosaur. Just don't do it if you've got friends or family (or money) in the industry. If your career, portfolio, or fortune isn't...

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution plans to cut its distribution area from 74 to 49 counties, a move that will eliminate 62 jobs. The cutback will pare circulation by about 2.2 percent daily and 1.9 percent Sunday, the company said Wednesday. The change takes effect June 2 and marks the second time in a little over a year that the AJC has trimmed its print distribution area to cut costs. Counties affected in the latest round are mainly in the northwest corner of the state, along the South Carolina border and northeast of the Columbus area. After the cuts, the AJC will...

Many top shows are back but ratings continue to fall By Toni Fitzgerald Apr 30, 2008 The writers’ strike is long over, but broadcast ratings have yet to return to their pre-strike levels. A number of shows have fallen to season or series lows following their return after the strike, and most are down from last fall. It’s a pattern seen across every network as the May sweeps kick off. Last week ABC’s “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Ugly Betty” posted their second-lowest ratings in adults 18-49, averaging a 6.5 and 2.5, respectively, in their first original outings since January. Fox’s “American...

Time Warner Inc. reported a 36% drop in first-quarter net income as the media conglomerate announced plans to give its 84% stake in Time Warner Cable Inc. to shareholders. Chief Executive Jeff Bewkes said, "We've decided that a complete structural separation of Time Warner Cable, under the right circumstances, is in the best interests of both companies' shareholders." He added the company is "working hard" on a deal expected to be finalized "soon." Time Warner officials have been weighing what to do with the stake for years. The cable operations, which Time Warner sold a stake in through a 2007...

For the second week in a row, “The CBS Evening News With Katie Couric” has notched record low ratings. The newscast dropped some 50,000 viewers to average 5.34 million total viewers for the week of April 21, according to data from Nielsen Media Research. “Evening News” had averaged 5.39 million viewers the previous week. Finishing first in the broadcast network flagship news race for the week was “The NBC Nightly News With Brian Williams” with 8.01 million total viewers. ABC’s “World News With Charles Gibson” averaged 7.79 million viewers, a quick rebound of some 280,000 from 7.51 million viewers the...

The WB brand, born as a broadcast network in 1995 and closed in 2006, will return as an online video Web site, combining short original series with classic shows, the Warner Brothers Television Group announced Monday. TheWB.com, and a complementary site for children called KidsWB.com, are part of a “digital destination” strategy by Warner Brothers, a subsidiary of Time Warner, to tailor Web sites to specific audiences. In trying to compete for consumers’ time, Warner and other media companies have sought new outlets for content, sometimes bypassing the traditional network structure and creating broadband Internet channels. “My 20-year-old daughter and...

A.H. Belo Corp., the newspaper pure play spun off from Dallas-based Belo Corp., reported its first quarterly result was a loss of $8.7 million, or 43 cents a share, on revenues that tumbled 8.8% to $160.2 million. Advertising revenue, including print and Internet revenue, fell 12% in the quarter compared to a year ago. The chain was particularly hard hit at its major California property, where ad revenue for The Press-Enterprise in Riverside plummeted 26%. A.H. Belo said its newspaper margin -- measured by EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) -- fell by 5 percentage points to 9%....

The Orange County Register and its affiliated publications will immediately lay off between 80 and 90 employees, or 5 percent of its workforce, because of declining advertising revenue, President and Publisher Terry Horne said today. Horne cited Orange County's sluggish economy, especially in real estate, as eroding local retail, automotive and classified advertising. The company provided no financial details. This is the third round of layoffs in a year for Orange County Register Communications, the umbrella brand for the Register newspaper, Web sites, magazines and other community publications. The company also completed a voluntary severance program to cut staff in...

In an effort to streamline its operations, The News & Observer Publishing Co. will offer voluntary buyout packages to some employees today. The package will be offered to 230 of the newspaper's roughly 900 employees, though a small percentage of those people are expected to accept and leave the company. Publisher Orage Quarles III said the decision to trim the company's staff came following a period of declining revenues and other factors such as the rising cost of newsprint and gas. "It's almost a perfect storm of factors," he said. "We've got to get the organization to a size that...

Decreases in Ads and Viewers Mean Change Is in the Air for Big Three NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- The big three TV network newscasts lost about 1.2 million viewers last year, and advertising on their three big morning news shows fell to an estimated $1.03 billion. The average viewer is 60 years old, and the demographic marketers most want to reach is more likely to be facing a computer screen than a TV screen when the evening news comes on. Collectively, ABC, NBC and CBS's network newscasts lost about 1.2 million viewers in 2007, according to an analysis of Nielsen...

First in a series. NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- By now you know the story: The business of newspapers is in decline. It's a terminal decline, if you believe experts such as Jeffrey Cole, director of the Center for the Digital Future at the University of Southern California at Annenberg. His research suggests traditional media in general must learn to shrink but newspapers in particular are a special case. "When an offline reader of a paper dies, he or she is not being replaced by a new reader," he said. "How much time do they have? We think they have 20...

NEW YORK Print circulation continues on its steep downward slide, the Audit Bureau of Circulations revealed this morning in releasing the latest numbers for some of the country's largest dailies for the six-month period ending March 31, 2008. When a full analysis appears it is expected to find, according to sources, the biggest dip yet, about 3.5% daily and 4.5 for Sunday. The following circulation compares the new data to the same period a year ago. Daily circulation is the Monday-Friday average. --The New York Times lost more than 150,000 copies on Sunday. Circulation on that day fell a whopping...

Is there still money to be made from “Matlock”? Within the last few months, television distributors have opened up their libraries of classic content online, making thousands of episodes of programs like “The Twilight Zone” and “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” available free. On Monday, Warner Brothers is expected to add a new twist, announcing the rebirth of the WB broadcast network as an Internet destination and offering programs like “Everwood” online. In putting old episodes online, broadcasters are tapping into the “long tail” of niche content that the Internet has monetized. While executives are reticent about the costs involved,...

With print revenue down and online revenue growing, newspaper executives are anticipating the day when big city dailies and national papers will abandon their print versions. That day has arrived in Madison, Wis. On Saturday, The Capital Times, the city’s fabled 90-year-old daily newspaper founded in response to the jingoist fervor of World War I, stopped printing to devote itself to publishing its daily report on the Web. (The staff will also produce two print products: a free weekly entertainment guide inserted in the crosstown paper, The Wisconsin State Journal, and a news weekly that will be distributed with the...

Local television stations across the country are suffering a decline in advertising revenue in the tough economy, despite a blockbuster political season. Buffeted by the faltering real-estate market and shrinking auto sales, total ad revenue for local stations nationwide fell 2.3% in the first quarter compared with the year-earlier period, according to the Television Bureau of Advertising, a trade group for local stations. And the second quarter is on pace for a 3% to 5% decline... These figures follow a flurry of downbeat earnings reports and disclosures from television groups in recent weeks. Gannett and Journal Communications this week reported...

WASHINGTON The Commerce Committee sent to the U.S. Senate floor a resolution to nullify changes to the longtime ban on same-market common ownership of newspapers and broadcast stations. The resolution targets last December's Federal Communications Commission vote, along party lines, that permits daily newspapers in the nation's 20 largest markets to own either one lower-rated TV station or radio station. Cross-ownership would continue to be prohibited in smaller markets. But the many critics of the rule change say it includes exemption provisions that could permit cross-ownership elsewhere. Speaking to reporters after the vote, the resolution's chief sponsor, Sen. Byron Dorgan...

PDN online, (Photo District News) does not allow their material to be posted on FR but this is worth a look. A guy who works for the San Jose Mercury News has been so discouraged by the continuous layoffs in the news industry, he has started taking pictures of empty hallways and bulletin boards. You can read the story by clicking the link below. Read more here.

To judge by the ads, the most loyal adherents to CBS' quasi-journalistic programming are impotent and incontinent. It so happens that they share these afflictions with the network's actual news division. Katie Couric is reportedly itching to bolt her gig as the anchor of broadcast TV's worst-rated evening newscast. Last month, Shelley Ross lost her job producing The Early Show, the worst-rated morning newscast, after problems concerning temper tantrums and tequila parties. Most weeks, the perfectly decent Bob Schieffer, who will retire after the 2009 inauguration, sees Face the Nation to a finish as the third-rated Sunday show. And the...

McClatchy posts 1Q loss on lower revenue on weak economy; Florida, California worst hit NEW YORK (AP) -- McClatchy Co. swung to a loss in the first quarter as a weakening economy and competition from online rivals led to a 15 percent plunge in advertising revenues at its newspapers. McClatchy said Wednesday it saw the problems continuing into the second quarter, though it expected the declines to moderate. Investors dumped shares in the Sacramento, Calif.-based company, pushing them down 65 cents, or 7.3 percent, to $8.22 in afternoon trading. Earlier in the day the stock touched a new 52-week low...

One week after media reports cast doubts about Katie Couric’s future on the “CBS Evening News,” the third-place broadcast set a new record low for viewership. The “CBS Evening News” attracted an average of 5.39 million viewers last week, placing the newscast more than two million viewers behind the second-place “World News with Charles Gibson” on ABC (7.51 million). The “NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams” ranked No. 1 for the week with 8.17 million viewers. While the network nightly newscasts have posted audience declines for more than two decades, a new record low for the “Evening News” will likely...

Journal Communications 1st-quarter profit down sharply; year-earlier period boosted by sale MILWAUKEE (AP) -- Media company Journal Communications Inc. said Tuesday its first-quarter profit plunged 91 percent, as the year-ago period was boosted by gains from a sale. The company also saw continued publishing and broadcasting revenue declines. But results from continuing operations met Wall Street's expectations. For the period ended March 30, net income tumbled to $6.7 million, or 11 cents per share, compared with $73.3 million, or $1.05 per share, in the previous year. Income from continuing operations fell to $6.3 million, or 10 cents per share, from...

Topic: Miscellaneous items Date/Time: 4/21/2008 3:51:11 PM Title: Snow joins CNN as political contributor Posted By: Jim Romenesko News Release For Release: April 21, 2008 Tony Snow Joins CNN as Political Contributor Former White House press secretary Tony Snow will join CNN as a conservative commentator beginning today, it was announced by Jon Klein, president of CNN/U.S. A well-known and respected observer of politics with a longstanding news background, Snow will contribute to CNN as the network continues to broadcast winning political coverage. Snow most recently served as press secretary to President George W. Bush from April 2006 to September...

DES MOINES, Iowa Newspaper publisher Lee Enterprises Inc. reported a loss for its second fiscal quarter, primarily the result of a previously announced charge related to future liability involving the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. The company said Monday it lost $4.45 million, or 10 cents a share, in the quarter ended March 30. A year ago, the company reported it earned $11.9 million, or 26 cents a share. Excluding one-time charges, the company earned 8 cents a share in the second quarter compared with 19 cents a year ago. Sales declined 4.7 percent to $247.7 million for the quarter and circulation...

Gannett Co. Inc. blamed a slowing economy for fewer advertisements in its newspapers and on its television stations as it announced Monday that revenue and profits declined in the first quarter of 2008. The McLean, Va.-based media company owns the Cincinnati Enquirer and Community Press newspaper locally. Net income fell 8.9 percent to $191.8 million, or 84 cents per diluted share, from $210.6 million, or 88 cents per diluted share, in the year-ago period. Revenue declined 8.4 percent to $1.68 billion for the first quarter compared to $1.83 billion during the same quarter last year. It was the fifth straight...

Thousands of Chinese Americans protested outside CNN's offices in Hollywood this morning, calling for the dismissal of commentator Jack Cafferty, whose recent remarks about Chinese goods and the Beijing government inflamed a community already angry about international condemnations directed at the host country of the upcoming Olympics. The protesters lined Sunset Boulevard from Cahuenga Boulevard to Wilcox Avenue chanting "Cafferty, Fire," and singing patriotic Chinese songs. "We understand free speech," said Lake Wang, 39, of Thousand Oaks. "But what if Cafferty said this about other racial groups? I think he would be fired. I think he's jealous of China." The...

CBS Chief Executive Les Moonves gave his embattled anchor and her news division a vote of confidence yesterday, telling a staff meeting that Katie Couric "is my anchor today, tomorrow and in the future." But the public display does not change the reality that Couric is likely to relinquish the anchor chair after the election, according to two top network executives who declined to be named discussing a private meeting. Moonves asked to address the Friday staff meeting, held at the CBS News offices in New York and broadcast to network bureaus around the world, out of concern that Couric...

U.S. News Slashes Rate Base, Frequency A spokesperson for U.S. News declined to comment on the changes, which were confirmed by media buyers. Lucia Moses APRIL 17, 2008 - In another sign of the ongoing contraction in the newsweekly category, U.S. News & World Report has whacked its rate base to 1.5 million from 2 million this year, while cutting its frequency to 36 issues from 46. A spokesperson for U.S. News declined to comment on the changes, which were confirmed by media buyers. As previously reported, Newsweek cut its guaranteed circ by 16 percent to 2.6 million this year,...

When the Newseum opened last week in Washington, D.C., more than a few critics pointed out that it was a strange time to throw a party. And indeed there is a certain irony to debuting a seven-story, $450 million museum of journalism at a time of budget cuts, shrinking revenues and contracting newsrooms. Last week the American Society of Newspaper Editors reported that 2,400 full-time newspaper jobs were lost in 2007, the largest annual drop in 30 years. Meanwhile, less than one person in five believes what he reads in print, according to the Project for Excellence in Journalism, a...