Reuters writes that Nissan and Chrysler may begin to partner in building new cars

Reuters reports that Acer is replacing the head of recently acquired Gateway with one of its own executives.

The Wall Street Journal says that a bet by Goldman Sachs (GS) that subprime securities would fall made the company $4 billion

The Wall Street Journal reports that Lufthansa has bought a 19% stake in JetBlue (JBLU).

The Wall Street Journal writes that AMD (AMD) said it would not repeat it many mistakes in 2008.

The Wall Street Journal also reports that Microsoft is being sued in Europe by internet browser firm Opera claiming anticompetitive behavior.

The Wall Street Journal writes that huge investment by Dubai are raising concerns about how much debt it has.

The Wall Street Journal writes that Amgen (AMGN) is hoping to reverse it bad luck with treatment that will tap the $7 billion global market for osteoporosis medications

The New York Times reports that Nintendo is still having trouble keeping up with demand for the Wii costing the company hundreds of millions in sales.

The New York Times writes that the FDA rejected Merck’s (MRK) bid to sell cholesterol drugs over the conounter.

The New York Times writes that Boston Scientifc (BSX) will sell to businesses to raise capital

The FT reports that Dow Jones (DJ) investors approved a buy-out by News Corp (NWS).

Barron’s writes that Qwest (Q) has approved its first dividend since 2001.

Bloomber writes that Moody’s cut Citigroup debt ratings.

Douglas A. McIntyre

In November 2006, Yahoo! Finance had 406 million pageviews. AOL Finance had 239 million and MSN Money 155 million. Last month, the Yahoo! figure was 344 million followed by AOL at 338 million and MSN at 151 million. Not exactly the kinds of numbers Yahoo! wants to post.

In the tier of financial websites below the three portals, Dow Jones (DJ) sites had 95 million pageviews, down slightly from November of last year. Forbes had a big drop from 84 million pageviews last November to 56 million last month. CNN Money was fairly flat at 55 million pageviews. BusinessWeek has 21 million pageviews, up slightly. But the site still trails its rivals by a wide margin.

The Street.com (TSCM) dropped modestly year-over-year to 20 million pageviews. Reuters (RTRSY) rose slightly to 29 million pageviews. And, Bloomberg.com almost tripled to 29 million pageviews.

Yahoo! Finance has some work to do.

For a chart, click through to the next page and then enlarge.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Reuters writesThe Asian Development Bank cut growth rates for countries in Asia including China

Reuters reports that Novartis will cut 2.5% of its work force in the latest sign of trouble at bug drug companies.

The Wall Street Journal writes that The Fed said it will provide banks up to $40 billion in the next eight days to stimulate lending.

The Wall Street Journal writes that a large fund to bail-out SIVs may be losing steam as other alternatives are working.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Biogen (BIIB) has stopped its efforts to find a buyer. Shares fell sharply.

The Wall Street Journal reports that the takeover deal for SLM (SLM) has come to an end.

The Wall Street Journal writes that Rupert Murdoch’s purchase of Dow Jones (DJ) is nearly complete.

The New York Times writes that Northern Rock has named a new CEO and will take a $574 miillion write-down for exposure to credit markets.

The New York Times reports that the Illinois attorney general has subpoenaed documents from Countrywide (CFC) as it examines the company’s lending practices.

The New York Times writes that Bank of America (BAC) and Wachovia (WB) repoted larger-than-expected losses.

The New York Times also writes that an airline trade group expects profits in the industry to fall further next year.

The FT writes that the head of Goldman Sachs (GS) will be paid $70 million this year.

The FT reports that Paramount will launch a new feature film, Jackass, online, a move which will shake up the movie industry.

CNN Money says that the government upped its forecast for crude prices in 2010 by 20%.

Barron’s reports that an ITC judge has determined that Nokia (NOK) handsets do not infringe on Qualcomm (QCOM) patents.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Even if Rupert Murdoch had not bought social network giant MySpace for what appears to have been the absurdly low price of $580 million and had not made his audacious buy-out of Dow Jones (DJ), the head of News Corp (NWS) would have been remembered as one of the great media barons.

Shares in News Corp are flat this year, but rivals including Disney (DIS), Time Warner (TWX), and CBS (CBS) are down.

Murdoch has done an excellent job of managing a complex, global company while continuing to expand. In the September quarter, revenue moved from $5.9 billion last year to $7.1 billion in 2007. With the exception of the corporation’s small book and magazine operations, all of the company’s divisions grew. The company’s film and cable businesses did particularly well. The Fox Network has turned out to be one of News Corp’s biggest and best creations. Wall St. sometimes forgets that there were only three viable networks just a few years ago. Operating income is also up in the company’s newspaper businesses, which is highly unusual in the current climate.

Murdoch deserves extra points for guts. Most media companies are simply managing their current assets. MySpace is likely to have revenue of over $700 million this year, impressive given what Murdoch paid for it a short time ago. Smaller rival Facebook was recently valued at $15 billion.

And, Murdoch fought a long but winning battle to buy Dow Jones and may well create one of the largest business news platforms in the world by marrying it with his new Fox Business operations. It remains to be seen whether News Corp can justify the $5 billion price for Dow Jones, but very few chief executives would have even dreamed of making the acquisition.

Douglas A. McIntyre is the former editor-in-chief and publisher of Financial World Magazine which began the CEO of the Year Awards in 1981. He is also the former president of Switchboard.com

Times of London editor Robert Thomson has been named Publisher of The Wall Street Journal

Douglas A. McIntyre

GameStop was already a member of the S&P Mid Cap 400 Index.  As of the close at a $57.90 close it had a $9.3 Billion market cap.  Shares are now trading up 3.8% at $60.10 in after-hours trading and the stock has traded as low as $24.95 and as high as $60.80 over the last 52-weeks.

We have an update going out soon in the video game sector for our Special Situation Investing Newsletter subscribers.

Jon C. Ogg
December 5, 2007

Jon Ogg can be reached at jonogg@247wallst.com; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.

As the News Corp. (NYSE:NWS) buyout of Dow Jones (NYSE:DJ) nears its closure date, there continues to be a push for more financial news and information.

First Take is an effort that is meant to tag original commentary generated by MarketWatch itself about breaking news.  In short, Reuters outsourced news regurgitation factory in India won’t be doing this (not out of India anyway).

MarketWatch apparently tested this over the summer and decided to make it a product after it became a consistently successful draw and a major traffic driver for our readers.  I also asked our sources inside MarketWatch what the best use would be for traders and investors.  First Take is aimed at putting breaking news in context and perspective to help readers inform their investment decisions.

It is unclear if this is the first of many new efforts or if this will have to be tested alone for some time.  Our sources inside MarketWatch say this is the result of ongoing innovation in news coverage (e.g., Subprime Today) and investor tools (e.g., Portfolio) driven by reader demand.

The driving force behind this was you.  First Take came about as the result of reader demand for something to complement our breaking news coverage.

With more than 6 million monthly unique visitors, this new section has the potential of being one of the go-to sources for independent commentary and analysis outside of basic reporting and conflict-free compared to brokerage firms.

Jon C. Ogg
December 4, 2007

Ottaway, the local media group of Dow Jones, operates 8 daily and 15 (14 on its own site) weekly community media franchises in many resort communities.  Its own site statistics mention combined daily print circulation of 281,000, Sunday print circulation of 303,000 and online average daily unique visitors of 119,000.

The group’s newspaper assets include:

• The Times Herald-Record, in Middletown, N.Y.;
• Cape Cod Times in Hyannis, Mass.;
• The Inquirer and Mirror in Nantucket, Mass.,
• The Standard-Times in New Bedford, Mass.;
• The Pocono Record in Stroudsburg, Pa.;
• The Record in Stockton, Calif.;
• The Portsmouth Herald in Portsmouth, N.H.;
• Medford Mail Tribune in Medford, Ore.;
• Ashland Daily Tidings in Ashland, Ore.

It hasn’t really been a secret that Rupert Murdoch & Co., a.k.a. News Corp. (NYSE:NWS) was going to begin paring down some of the Dow Jones assets that were either overlapping or too small to make a dent.  When you own (or are soon to own) The New York Post, The WSJ, Fox and much larger online properties, this doesn’t even make a dent.

The company that immediately comes to mind as a buyer for this is GateHouse Media Inc. (NYSE:GHS) due to its ownership of 87 community daily newspapers and it owns many other media properties.

We produce a subscriber letter called the "Old Media/New Media" letter, which gives a weekly outlook and opinion forecast on the convergence (and divergence) of developments in old media and new media alike.  There is a reason that radio companies hate satellite, there’s a reason newspapers lag Internet content, there’s a reason telecom and cable companies fight for your eyeballs and telecom alike, and there’s a reason that old media is trying to become new media.

Jon C. Ogg
November 27, 2007

Jon Ogg produces the 24/7 Wall St. Special Situation Investing Newsletter; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.

The figures are based on percent of US market share of total visits.

Site                           Percent of US Visits                Year-over-Year Change

CNN Money               .0224%                                   (16%)

Reuters.com              .0220%                                    95%

TheStreet.com           .0185%                                    33%

TheFool.com              .0165%                                    59%

Bloomberg.com          .0129%                                    38%

Forbes.com                .0126%                                    14%

WSJ.com (paid)          .0111%                                    58%

Portfolio.com              .0058%                                    NA

BusinessWeek.com    .0049%                                    18%

Douglas A. McIntyre

But, the most important thing Mr. Murdoch said in his current trip to Australia is that "he was also planning to boost the numbers of subscribers to the Wall Street Journal’s Web site more than tenfold by making access free."

"We are studying it and we expect to make that free, and instead of having 1 million (subscribers) having at least 10-15 million in every corner of the earth," Murdoch added.

So, the mogul will assume that he will lose his one million subscribers who pay about $79 a year to get the paper online. But, with over 10 million or more daily readers, Murdoch must believe that he will pick up tons of new advertising. He recently bought Dow Jones (DJ) the Journal’s owner.

The effects of Murdoch’s decision could send a huge wave through the financial content business, threatening to take ad revenue from online versions of the New York Times (NYT), Pearson’s (PSO) Financial Times as well as the huge and profitable money sections of portals like MSN (MSFT) and Yahoo! (YHOO). In other words, it could change the dynamics of where online financial advertising is placed and which properties make money.

Murdoch has the instincts of a riverboat gambler. He may not win this hand, but he stands to do a lot of damage to the competition.

Douglas A. McIntyre