Reuters: The Senate is near its first vote on healthcare.
Reuters: Dell (NASDAQ:DELL) is betting on corporate spending for its recovery.
Reuters: Time Warner’s (NYSE:TWX) AOL showed that the worst is not over for media job cuts.
Reuters: China cyber-spying against the US will probably grow. Read More
The old media is running out of time. The online editions of The Washington Post (NYSE:WPO), New York Times (NYSE:NYT), and Time, Inc (NYSE:TWX) properties do well, but not well enough to off-set losses at their print properties. Read More
Not too many years ago, one senior newspaper executive said that there was nothing wrong with cutting costs but that, eventually, a company could cut so much that it would disappear up its own arse. The Audit Bureau of Circulations yesterday reported that the average American newspaper lost 10% of its circulation in the six months ending September 30, based on the 379 papers that filed data with the firm. All of the country’s largest newspapers do so. Some of the most well-known newspapers in the industry reduced their circulations much more than 10%. USA Today, the Gannett (NYSE:GCI) flagship, had a drop of over 17% to 1,900,116. The Boston Globe, which is owned by The New York Times Company (NYSE:NYT), had a fall of more than 18% to 264,105. Read More
Daily circulation at the nation’s newspapers dropped 10% for the six months ending September 30 according to industry measurement service Audit Bureau of Circulations.
It is not clear whether newspapers are helping themselves by shrinking both the size of the pages they are printed on and the number of daily subscribers that they have. The industry’s theory is that if it charges more for newsstand copies and home delivery that marginal readers will fall away and profit-per-reader will rise.
The only problem with a shrinking reader base is that advertising rates have to come down as well. Fewer readers, and advertisers want a better deal. Read More
Updated throughout the day.
Update 11.03 AM EST P&G (PG) may buy the household prooducts unit of Sara Lee (various)
Brian Moynihan, a Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) executive and possible CEO candidate is under scrutiny for his role in the Merrill Lynch buy-out (NYPost)
The head of Galleon operations in Asia may try to buy that arm of the fund company (Reuters)
China may cut stimulus programs now that its economy is expanding rapidly again. (MarketWatch)
Twitter may be able to use data deals with Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) to sharply increase its revenue. (NYTimes)
John Meriwether of the collapsed Long-Term Capital Management hedge fund may make his third run at the money management business (FT)
A New York Times (NYSE:NYT) executive accused The Huffington Post of “copyright theft on numerous occasions.” (SAI)
Douglas A. McIntyre
There are a number of ways to rank brand values. One of the most important is the level at which a brand contributes to the market value of a public company.
24/7 Wall St. asked Corebrand, the brand research and consulting firm, to look at the top 100 brands based their contribution to market capitalizaton. Using this method, the hardest working brand was Hershey (NYSE:HSY), followed by Coca-Cola (NYSE:KO) and Harley-Davidson (NYSE:HOG)
Corebrand described the process briefly to 24/7 Wall. St.
24/7 Wall St.: Corebard often refers to the brands on this list as the”hardest working brands”. How did you come to that description?
Corebrand: There are a lot of people measuring and examining the “strongest brands” or the “most valuable brands”. Our opinion is that examining one without the other is somewhat meaningless. How “strong” a brand is nice to know but not very relevant unless you understand how that strength benefits business. Similarly, “value” is little more than a measure of corporate size unless you understand the drivers of that value and how to influence it. By examining the strength of the brand and it’s contribution to total market value, we can help companies and their leadership manage that strength and value over time.
24/7 Wall St.: Is there any advantage or disadvantage to having a brand value be a very large percentage of market cap in the present and as an indication of a company’s future performance?
Corebrand: The brand will need to be in balance with the rest of the company’s assets. A company should strive to have it’s brand strong enough to fend off competitors or changing market conditions but not so strong that it becomes overly dependent on the brand as a single driver of value. If a company can achieve and maintain its appropriate maximum strength without becoming over-dependent, it will see greater returns in bull markets and retain greater value in bear markets.
The list: Read More
Reuters: Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) beat earnings forecasts.
Reuters: The IRS is probing some homebuyers’ tax credit gains.
Reuters: The US is ready to bring more insider trading cases.
Reuters: More US companies are cutting bonuses. Read More
The newspaper industry must be looking up. Recently, Gannett (NYSE:GCI) said its last quarter was better than expected. Today, The New York Times Company (NYSE:NYT) said it would keep The Boston Globe which has been for sale for several months.
The Times said earlier this year that The Globe would loss $85 million in 2009, but was able to get Globe unions to knuckle under and agree to large cuts in staff and compensation. A former publisher of the Globe, Stephen Taylor, and Platinum Equity both submitted bids which a New York Times reporter says were for about $35 million in cash and pension obligations. Read More
Bloomberg is, according to several reports, the most likely buyer of the largest business magazine in America. BusinessWeek is being sold by McGraw-Hill (MHP) Bloomberg has the balance sheet and editorial staff to support the publication’s $40 million in losses and probably bring them down sharply.
Bloomberg today announced that it will set up a joint venture with The Washington Post (WPO). The Post had a news partnership with the LA Times. The 47-year-old deal was killed earlier this week, perhaps because the huge layoffs that the Times have crippled the paper’s ability to produce good stories.
The new Post deal with Bloomberg will lead to the paper distributing stories on Bloomberg’s terminals and creating a joint online business section. The Post is losing huge amounts of money. Having a rich business partner with substantial news gathering ability could be critical to it keeping its financial pages among the most important in the US. It will also help the Post compete with the rival New York Times (NYT) and Wall Street Journal in covering global business and economic stories.
Bloomberg is quickly becoming one of the most important media companies in the nation. Its Bloomberg TV operation is beginning to challenge CNBC. It has broadened it programming with shows including the Charlie Rose interview show, underscoring Bloomberg’s aspirations to move beyond business news.
Bloomberg now has more than 1,500 editors and writers around the world. That puts it makes it almost as large as the Associated Press. There is no reason Bloomberg cannot go head-to-head as a supplier of content to major newspapers, cable and TV companies, and Internet properties.
Bloomberg’s advantage is that the company is privately held and has revenue of $4 billion from its trading terminal business. The firm is highly profitable according to most analysts. Bloomberg can afford expanding its news operations in a way that no other organization in the world can.
Bloomberg is quickly becoming one of the most powerful media companies in the US and that status is likely to grow.
Douglas A. McIntyre
Updated regularly throughout the day.
Update: Rusal, the world’s biggest aluminum firm, may have an IPO on The Hong Kong exchange. The company is controlled by Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska and has $7.4 billion in debt. (MarketWatch)
Not a rumor: Man sues Bank of America (BAC) for “1,784 billion, trillion dollars” (Reuters)
Natural gas prices could drop 19% (Bloomberg)
Time Warner (TWX) will sell its Time, Inc. magazine group (BusinessWeek).
Kraft (KFT) will up its bid for Cadbury for hostile takeover. (MarketWatch)
Market negative on Yahoo!’s (YHOO) new ad campaign creative. (reliable).
The Administration may put $35 billion into helping state and local housing agencies. (WSJ)
CBS (CBS) may announce a deal with GlobalPost which will provide the network with overseas reporting (NYT)
Major US banks could post big improvementsin Q3 earnings if they write-up the value of toxic assets (FT).
Douglas A. McIntyre
Reuters: Obama pushed his economic message before the G20 summit
Reuters: A Senate panel took up healthcare legislation.
Reuters: Bank of America (BAC) missed a deadline for supplying information from Congress and now faces another threat from the SEC. Read More
The media industry is being shaken to it foundations by the recession and the movement of advertising dollars from old media to the internet. The public’s trust of the media is dropping rapidly, which will not add to the ability of the press to recover its viability.
Pew Research reports that American look at the media and biased and lacking independence. According to its latest survey, “Just 29% of Americans say that news organizations generally get the facts straight, while 63% say that news stories are often inaccurate.” Read More
Reuters: GM has made its decision on Opel and will announce it today.
Reuters: Foreign car makers are having trouble with the affluent market in China
Reuters: Steve Jobs made a presentation at Apple’s (AAPL) latest public meeting.
Reuters: OPEC will hold prices steady. Read More
The Times of London reports that the Guardian Media Group may close its venerable Observer newspaper. The cuts by the firm may have to go deeper than that based on its most recent financial statements.
In the media company’s last fiscal year, revenue fell to 409 million pounds from 502 million the year before when exceptional items are backed out. The firm lost almost 68 million pounds compared to 3.7 million the year before, on an operating basis. Read More
The media made a big deal of the fact that the DJIA rose above 9,000 for the first time in nearly eight months. The index was under 6,550 in early March, do the advance has been 38% since then, but the index is still well below 14,000 which it hit in October 2007. The Dow would have to rise 54% to get back to that point. That is an extraordinarily depressing figure given how far the market has already come and how hard it will be for it to rise to that number in what is still a harsh economic environment. Read More
Reuters: Microsoft’s (MSFT) results and forecast were weak.
Reuters: CIT (CIT) may sell its aviation finance business.
Reuters: Fatigue at the Fed is leading to questions about its expanded role.
Reuters: Twitter will pitch add-on tools to businesses.
Reuters: Vodafone (VOD) stuck to its full-year forecast.
Reuters: Amex (AXP) and Capital One (COP) had large cars losses. Read More
Reuters: Microsoft (MSFT) is putting more R&D in India.
Reuters: CIT (CIT) confirmed that it rasied $3 billion.
Reuters: Bernanke said Fed can control inflation.
Reuters: California lawmakers agreed to a state budget.
Reuters: Small business groups are seeking help to keep companies afloat.
Reuters: TI (TXN) profits and outlook beat expectations. Read More
Reuters: The US may give CIT (CIT) short term loans.
Reuters: Intel (INTC) issued a positive forecast and indicated that the PC market may be improving.
Reuters: The US CPI was up more than expected.
Reuters: Obama is considering a rental option for homeowners so that they can stay in their homes.
Reuters: Calpers may sue rating agencies over bad calls. Read More
Reuters: The economic crisis will dominate the G8 summit.
Reuters: A NY court ruled against AIG (AIG) in a battle with former CEO Greenberg.
Reuters: Google (GOOG) will launch an operating system for low end PCs to compete with Microsoft (MSFT).
Reuters: US apartment vacancies are near historic highs. Read More
The New York Times (NYT) and the largest union at The Boston Globe have reached an agreement that will almost certainly keep the paper operating, but that could change sometime next year.
The Times reports that the Guild, which represents 700 employees at the Globe, has agreed to pay cuts of almost 6% and changes in job security for senior employees. Read More
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