"All things media" thread

[Glenn]

Huffington Post More Valuable Than Some Newspaper Cos.
News Blog's Infusion of Cash Sets It Apart From Rivals Like Drudge

Posted by Michael Learmonth on 12.01.08 @ 05:47 PM

As long-rumored, The Huffington Post took $25 million in new funding at a $100 million valuation. It's a healthy sum given the company has aggregated a huge audience -- 8.8 million people a month, accordng to Quantcast -- primarily on links to content it does not produce (newspaper stories) or pay for (columns).

The funding means Arianna Huffington's news blog is now considered more valuable by its backers than quite a few publicly traded newspaper companies, such as Lee Enterprises, owner of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and 52 other papers (market cap: $36 million), A.H. Belo, owner of the Dallas Morning News and the Providence Journal (market cap: $35 million), and Media General, owner of the Tampa Tribune and Richmond Times-Dispatch (market cap: $34.6 million).

It puts Huffington Post in the same league as McClatchy Corp., owner of the Sacramento Bee, Miami Herald and 28 other dailies (market cap: $150 million). In a press release, Huffington Post said it will use the funds from Oak Investment Partners for acquisitions, an "investigative journalism initiative" and localized versions, which will no doubt be even more dependent on the resident struggling local dailies such as in Chicago, where it already has a local site.

Granted, Huffington Post has few of the costs of running a daily newspaper and none of the debt carried by many of these companies. Like The Drudge Report, The Huffington Post built a business linking to content; unlike Drudge, Huffington Post has now raised a considerable amount of money ($37 million, all told), and has quite a few employees (46).

Despite the downturn crippling media, and especially newspaper stocks, Huffington Post still has a ways to go to catch up with New York Times Co. (market cap: $1 billion) and The Washington Post Co. (market cap: $3.3 billion).

http://adage.com/digitalnext/article?article_id=132924

[geerussell]

I like the site, though taking the full feed of it is a bit like drinking from a fire hose.

[Glenn]

Tribune Co. bankruptcy

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081208/ap_on_bi_ge/tribune

[Tahoe]

SWAT THIS FUCKER!

[Glenn]

"Seattle could become the first major U.S. city without a daily newspaper."

http://www.time.com/time/nation/arti...llnation-yahoo

[Tahoe]

I'm actually glad to see that liberal rag go under.

[DennyMcLain]

I'm actually glad to see that liberal rag go under.

Didn't we used to have a poster from Seattle?

I do remember PNF was from Portland or something.

[Uncle Mxy]

I'm actually glad to see that liberal rag go under.

I believe there's some sort of cascade effect owing to a joint operating agreement, so both the liberal and conservative papers would go down.

[Glenn]

2 floors of WSJ headquarters in NYC evacuated

17 mins ago

NEW YORK – Police have evacuated The Wall Street Journal's mailroom and another floor of the newspaper's building after several envelopes were opened that contained a suspicious white powder.

Police say at least four envelopes were opened and others were left unopened in the mailroom Wednesday. The Journal said it had received more than a dozen envelopes containing the substance.

The newspaper says on its Web site that the mail was addressed to several executives. The return address was Knoxville, Tenn.

One of the evacuated floors is used by newspaper executives and editorial page employees.

The powder is being tested, and those who came into contact with it have been isolated.

The Journal is published by Dow Jones & Co., a division of the media and entertainment company News Corp.

[Glenn]

Times Publishing Co. Announces Plans To Sell Congressional Quarterly, Inc.

ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA, Jan. 28, 2009 – The Times Publishing Co. of
St. Petersburg, Fla., announced today it is exploring the sale of Congressional Quarterly, Inc.

Based in Washington, D.C., Congressional Quarterly is the nation’s leading publisher of news and information on politics, public policy and legislative activity at the federal, state and local levels.

With nearly 170 reporters, editors and researchers covering governmental activity, CQ is recognized as a leader in the development of Web-based information products.