Monday, November 16, 2009
Waiting for Vivendi: Comcast-NBCU Deal Needs a “Oui”
When will Comcast and GE’s NBCU finally unveil their hookup plans? When Vivendi says they can. Which should be sooner than later.
Friday, October 30, 2009
BusinessWeek’s Future Is Cloudy, but Better Than It Could Have Been: The Grim Non-Bloomberg Scenario
BusinessWeek employees are waiting to hear if they’ll have jobs once Bloomberg takes over the publication, and I’m told that staffers expect to hear their fate shortly after Thanksgiving. That has to be unnerving, but I can at least offer a little bit of comfort in the worst-case scenario employees would be facing had they been purchased by private equity firm ZelnickMedia. The short version: Almost everybody gets fired.
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Another Media Reporter Packs His Bags: Timesman Arango Headed to Iraq
Doesn’t anyone want to cover the media beat anymore? First, BusinessWeek’s super-sourced Jon Fine departs for a six-month globe-hopping sabbatical. Now the New York Times’s Tim Arango is leaving town as well: Instead of writing about moguls and mergers, he’ll be reporting from Iraq.
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Sun Valley Diary: Where’s the New York Times’s Sun Valley Diary?
Every year, media moguls gather at the Allen & Co. Sun Valley conference to listen to each other gab, parade around in casual wear and occasionally make deals. And for the last several years, the New York Times has provided excellent on-the-ground coverage, usually via Dealbook’s Andrew Ross Sorkin. Not this year.
Friday, May 15, 2009
Yet More Cost-Cutting Coming to Forbes?
My former co-workers at Forbes are convinced that another round of cuts–it would be the third since November–is coming to the publisher. This won’t assuage their fears: High-profile investor Roger McNamee of Elevation Partners is stepping down from Forbes board and giving his seat to a member of his company’s “cost-cutting team.”
Friday, March 27, 2009
What Do Maxim Magazine, Chrysler and Your Tax Dollars Have to Do With Each Other?
More than you think. Or more precisely, they all have former media bank bigwig Steve Rattner in common.
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Condé Nast’s Most Drastic Cuts Yet: The Disappearing Town Car
Sure, fabled magazine publisher Condé Nast has been forced to shutter magazines and trim its staff. But now you know things have really gotten dire: They’re cutting back on cars. Top Condé editors are eschewing the use of chauffeured autos to make their way across Manhattan and beyond. Alas, that kind of cost-cutting likely won’t stave off another round of layoffs.
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Condé Nast CEO Chuck Townsend to the Troops: Keep Your Heads Up, and Your Expenses Down
Condé Nast is reportedly “having the worst year of any publisher,” the New York Post reported last month. So, the fact that that CEO Chuck Townsend sent out an all-hands memo entitled “Managing Through Challenging Times” must have sent a shiver through the magazine empire this afternoon. The good news: He doesn’t mention layoffs or reorgs. The bad news: He warns of “difficult decisions” ahead.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Cablevision to Investors: Sorry We Bought That (Really Expensive) Newspaper Last Year
What happens when you pay a whole lot of money for a newspaper as the newspaper industry is in freefall? You have to make an embarrassing admission to shareholders a year later. Last week, we saw News Corp. go through this exercise when it wrote off half the value of the $5.7 billion it spent on Dow Jones and The Wall Street Journal. Now it’s Cablevision’s turn: The Long Island-based cable company is writing off as much as 70 percent of the $650 million it spent on Newsday last year.
Friday, January 30, 2009
A News Corp. Bull Throws in the Towel; Wall Street Journal Layoffs Coming?
Longtime Rupert Murdoch fan Rich Greenfield says he’s worried that money losers like Dow Jones will pull News Corp. down, and cut his rating to “sell.” Perhaps this will cheer him up: The Wall Street Journal is reportedly bracing for layoffs next week.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
New York Times’s Front Page: Worth $29 Million a Year?
Too bad the New York Times waited so long to start selling off real estate on its prized front page: It could be a real moneymaker for the paper, which desperately needs one.
Monday, December 29, 2008
How to Land a Media Job After a Layoff: Get a Publicist
There are way too many media people who have lost their jobs in recent months. But only one who got as much ink as Paige Ferrari, a 26-year-old former editor at Radar Magazine. That’s worked out well for her.
Thursday, December 4, 2008
More Media Layoff/Shutdown Roundup: Time Inc., Forbes, NBC Universal, IAC
If you had any romantic notion that the beginning of holiday season meant an end to media layoff season, think again. This looks to be a particularly bad few days at Time Inc., where many of the magazines that asked workers to quit last month will now be firing them instead. But there are cuts, or planned cuts, coming to all manner of media companies.
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
[UPDATE] Time Inc. Layoffs: Publishers, Top Execs at Southern Progress and Cooking Light Out
Time Inc. is cutting something like 600 employees, but for the past few weeks it has been doing so in small steps: 10 here, 30 there. That will change today when up to 250 people at Time Warner’s magazine unit are expected to get pink-slipped. Leaving the company along with them, executives from Cooking Light and Southern Progress.
Friday, November 14, 2008
Time Inc. Layoff Update: 30+ From Essence, Entertainment Weekly; Many More to Come
Another day, another few dozen firings at Time Inc. The Time Warner publishing unit let more than 30 people go from its Essence and Entertainment Weekly titles yesterday. That brings the total body count to about 250, which means that CEO Ann Moore still has a long way to go before she gets to her rough target of 600 job cuts this year.
Featured MediaMemo Posts
Latest MediaMemo Videos
api-video/find_all_videos.asp&fields=all&site=atd&count=40&doctype=128&type=allthingsd-section&query=MediaMemo
View All Jobs | Post a Job Job Listings
A sponsored service from SimplyHired
MediaMemo Posts by Date
MediaMemo Posts by Category
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. Read more »
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.
