Thursday, November 5, 2009
Does Your Mom Edit Your Blog? Google Wants to Know.
Why did Google start labeling blogs as “blogs” in its search results? Eric Schmidt thinks it may have to do with your mother.
Scripps Books Travel Channel in $975 Million Deal
It’s official: Scripps Networks Interactive has won the Travel Channel auction. In a deal that values the channel at $975 million, Scripps will acquire a majority interest in the property while current owner Cox retains a 35 percent stake. News Corp., among others, had been bidding for the channel.
YouTube’s Newest Partner: Will Ferrell
Slowly but surely, YouTube has been able to bump up the number of “premium” content creators willing to hand over some of their stuff to the world’s biggest video site. Here’s yet another one: Funny or Die, the comedy site backed by Will Ferrell, Sequoia and HBO, among others.
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
MySpace’s “Work in Progress”: Losing Money and Traffic, Blowing Google Guarantees
Did Rupert Murdoch wait way too long to fix MySpace? It’s easy to get that impression from the News Corp. earnings call today.
The takeaway: The site is losing traffic and money and is going to get at least $100 million less from Google than it once thought. “It’s a work in progress,” News Corp. says, over and over again.
News Corp. Saved by Movies and Cable, Hammered by Broadcast and Print
Rupert Murdoch and company aren’t exactly celebrating, but they did provide a better earnings number than Wall Street expected. They can thank Fox News, and yet another “Ice Age” movie. Not helping the cause: The company’s broadcast TV and newspaper properties. Not very relevant: MySpace, et al.
Why Time Inc. Is Slashing Jobs: The Chart
Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes kicked off his quarterly earnings call by explaining why the company is cutting hundreds of jobs in its Time Inc. magazine unit.
But if you’re impatient, you can simply look at this grim chart, which details the publisher’s Q3 performance
Comcast Won’t Talk About NBCU, Will Talk About Internet Video
Comcast couldn’t mollify Wall Street about its pending deal to buy NBC Universal this morning, because it refused to talk about the deal at all. The company did spend time, though, explaining the peril and possibilities that Web video poses for the cable giant.
Time Warner Gives Wall Street a Pleasant Surprise, but Has Bad News for Time Inc. Employees
Yesterday, Viacom told Wall Street that its third quarter had been better than most analysts expected. Today Time Warner delivered a similar report: Revenue was on track, but cost savings improved the bottom line. That won’t help hundreds of Time Inc. employees who face job cuts this quarter. Meanwhile, the company can’t ditch AOL soon enough: It has already spent $100 million prepping it for a spinoff this year.
Netted, a Web-Centric Tipsheet, Tries Squeezing Into Your Inbox
Everyone loves to complain about email. Except for the growing batch of entrepreneurs using it to launch newsletter businesses. Latest example: Netted, a Web-centric recommendation guide from the guys who bring you the Webby Awards.
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Beatles on iTunes? Nope. MP3? Yes.
No, you still can’t buy the Beatles on iTunes. But next month, you will finally be able to buy the band’s music–legally–in MP3 form. Provided you’re willing to pay way, way up.
Spring Design: Here’s How Barnes & Noble Turned Our Reader Into the Nook
Puzzled by the weird story of the “Alex,” the would-be e-reader that looks something like the “Nook,” the e-reader Barnes & Noble introduced last month? Then this won’t clear anything up: Spring Design’s court case against the bookseller, which it says broke an “implicit promise” and stole its idea for a two-screen device.
A Slow-Motion Recovery: Viacom Says Things Aren’t Getting Worse
Here’s another quick glimpse of the advertising market, courtesy of Viacom. The cable giant says ad sales are still down, but that the rate of decline is slowing. And in the fall of 2009, that constitutes pretty good news.
Don’t Tell a Soul! Media, Tech Moguls Take Manhattan for Semisecret Quadrangle Conference.
Wouldn’t you like to bump elbows with media moguls and hear from the likes of Eric Schmidt, Biz Stone and James Murdoch? Me too! Alas, Quadrangle’s Foursquare conference is closed to the public and the press. But at least I can tell you whom you won’t be hearing from.
Monday, November 2, 2009
Apple’s iTunes Pitch: TV for $30 a Month
Would you pay $30 a month to watch TV via iTunes?
That’s the pitch Apple has been making to TV networks in recent weeks. The company is trying to round up support for a monthly subscription service that would deliver TV programs via its multimedia software, multiple sources tell me. The industry finds this idea both tempting and terrifying.
Hearst’s UGO Gets New Blood, Still Needs CEO
Hearst’s dude-centric UGO site, which has been without a permanent CEO since June, is still looking for a new boss. But in the meantime, it has some new blood: The company has brought in Hearst veteran Christopher Johnson to run programming and product strategy and hired Julie Shumaker to run 1UP, the gaming site it bought earlier this year.
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About Peter
Peter Kafka has been covering media and technology since 1997, when he joined the staff of Forbes magazine. Most recently, he has been the managing editor of the tech and media Web site, Silicon Alley Insider.
Ethics Statement
Here is a statement of my ethics and coverage policies. It is more than most of you want to know, but, in the age of suspicion of the media, I am laying it all out.
