Amid the secular and cyclical slowdown in print advertising, McClatchy Company (MNI, the third largest newspaper company in the U.S. and the publisher of 30 daily newspapers including the Miami Herald and Sacramento Bee, reported third-quarter 2009 results.
McClatchy is facing the same dramatic decline in advertising revenue, as the rest of the newspaper industry. Total advertising revenue fell 28.1% year-on-year to $266.1 million. However, circulation revenue stabilized, up 6.7% to $69 million due to increase in circulation prices. As a result, total revenue slipped 23.1% to $347.4 million.
To combat the downturn, management undertook cost-cutting initiatives, focused on building Internet operations and reduced debt load. McClatchy had lowered its headcounts, and cut executive pay. The company was able to lower its cash expenses by 29.4% and total operating expenses by 30.2%.
Health care reform legislation will be on President Barack Obama’s desk by Christmas, Americans will be mandated to buy insurance and those who can’t afford coverage will have a public option — or maybe they won’t, Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, told reporters from around the country today.
Four of the five committees that have approved legislation “will have a public option,” as an alternative for people who can’t afford private coverage, he said during a teleconference organized by Families USA, a health consumers advocacy group based in Washington, D.C.
This is a trailer for the new Kevin Booth documentary. This time he focues specifcally on Marijuana (as the title clearly indicates) as opposed to his last film, American Drug War, which evaluated all or most drugs related to the drug war. I hope he include the reality of Obama’s (at least so far) abandoment of his campaign promises concerning law enforcement’s handling of drugs. Anyway, I’ll be seeing this soon.
The Atlantic
Ticket distributor Ticketmaster and concert promoter Live Nation have been hoping to merge. Britain’s antitrust regulator objected today in a preliminary ruling. It believes the merger would severely limit competition and hurt consumers. I think it’s right, and its decision is something of a no-brainer.
Let’s break it down. Imagine you want to go see a concert. Since Live Nation has, by far, the strongest influence in the concert space, you will probably be going to one they promoted or produced. So to buy those tickets? Well, you probably have to go through Ticketmaster, since it has vast control over concert ticket distribution.
How cornered would they have the market? According to this CNN Money article from back in February about the proposed merger, their combined market share would be close to 80%. If that isn’t a threshold for antitrust regulation, then I’m not sure what is.
It makes sense business-wise for them, but as a frequent concert attender I am concerned about prices sky-rocketing.
Does a moment pass when Kim Kardashian isn’t selling? If she’s not hyping her workout video, she’s touting her online shoe club, her new book or her sisters’ “reality” TV spinoff, a gripping look inside their high-end Miami boutique.
Shameless self-promotion is the stock in trade among the famous-for-being-famous crowd. But should the self-described “Armenian Princess” have to tell the world if she’s getting paid for the endless stream of products — Famous Cupcakes, Balenciaga shoes, Quick Trim weight loss capsules — she touts seemingly round the clock as one of the most popular users of the micro-blog site Twitter?
A health-care reform bill drafted by the Senate Finance Committee would cost $829 billion over the next decade and would meet President Obama’s goal of reducing the federal budget deficit by 2019, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said Wednesday.
We have a winner?!?
The bill would also expand coverage to 94 percent of Americans by 2019, the CBO said, up from the current 85 percent.
And the phrase “public option” is AWOL in this piece.
Forbes General Motors said Wednesday it would wind down its Saturn brand after Penske Automotive Group abruptly called off negotiations to buy the unit.
Penske pulled the plug because it couldn’t secure future products for Saturn showrooms beyond 2011, when GM is scheduled to stop producing Saturns.
Although it had negotiated a supply agreement with another manufacturer, the deal was rejected by that manufacturer’s board of directors, Penske said in a statement. “Without that agreement, the company has determined that the risks and uncertainties related to the availability of future products prohibit the company from moving forward with this transaction.”
Makes sense I mean Mike T. is the only person to ever own a Saturn.
NEW YORK — AOL LLC said Tuesday it has hired Shashi Seth from software maker Cooliris Inc. for the position of senior vice president of global advertising.
AOL could certainly use a new advertising strategy. Does anyone actually USE AOL’s services anymore…besides AIM? Ten years ago sure but now my browser is Firefox, my service comes from Verizon, and I search with Google.
Great idea buying AOL, Time Warner. What’s that? Ten years later AOL is a worthless asset?
Kids Like You & Me (KLYAM) 