What will the newspaper of the 21st century look like? Can Tribune cut its way to growth?

What can possibly be done to cheat the death spiral its papers and those of the industry faces?

Tribune COO Randy Michaels offered one solution during its latest call with lenders:

“We went around to see what we could unplug. It turns out we were still maintaining the 1998 mainframe from Times Mirror. Nothing goes into it. Nothing goes out of it. And then we unplugged it and nothing stopped. So we’ve stopped the service contract, stopped the maintenance. We’ve actually disconnected about half of the equipment on the eighth floor. We have surplus air conditioning. While that may not be material, it represents the kind of opportunity that exists here. We’re busy changing the culture to save money.”

In other words, people don’t kill newspapers. Machines kill newspapers.

But not quite. People are to be blamed as well, Michaels suggested in the same breath, especially congregations of them:

“I realized that in the first few months here, I was always busy, but not getting a lot done … Twelve people would show up in the office. We had a culture of meetings. I’m sure they were informative and helpful. Everyone could stay busy going to meetings. We’re actively campaigning against meetings if something could be handled by a conversation in the hall or a quick email. We’re having a lot fewer meetings and getting more done.”

(Photo: IBM.com / Not the actual mainframe Tribune’s cost cutters unplugged.)

Are Microsoft and WPP gearing for an asset swap?

Advertising Age’s Abbey Klaassen is reporting that the two companies — criticized for overpaying for their respective digital advertising acquisitions — have rekindled six-month-old discussions to scratch each others itch.

Microsoft may possibly be seeking to shed its Avenue A/Razorfish, one of the units of aQuantive it purchased last year in a $5.9 billion deal. Avenue A accounted for about 60 percent of aQuantive’s revenue. But getting anywhere close to $3.5 billion would be far-fetched. The division’s market value is close to $800 million, Klaassen calculates.

Enter WPP’ s Martin Sorrell, who has also sought to unload Open AdStream, the ad-serving division of 24/7 Read Media, which WPP purchased for $649 million.

The hitch: Sorrell sees m&a activity in emerging markets like China, not the United States.

Keep an eye on:

• Merrill Lynch may seek to revise its contract with MGM to see if the studio violated any terms by “axing” Paula Wagner as UA’s CEO (NY Post)
• Beijing Olympics were a big ratings success for NBC, but profit estimates of as much as $100 million are too high. (FT)
• Consumer electronics companies want your TV to talk to your fridge. (NYTimes)

(Photo: Reuters / WPP’s Martin Sorrell)

Media companies aren’t the only ones who needed Google’s help. The Wall Street Journal is reporting Verizon and Google are nearing a wide-ranging agreement that will see Google as the default search provider on Verizon handsets.

It’s not the first time the two have reportedly come close to landing a partnership. They were in discussions last year as well. 

At issue, according to the report, is Google’s desire to save information from user searches in order to enhance the relevancy of its ads. Verizon, like other carriers, have been unwilling to part with such valuable consumer data. Another hang-up is the revenue split from the ads.

Regardless, Google’s Android phones are expected to hit the market shortly, making deals like this just one part of the Internet search leader’s massive mobile ambitions.

Keep an eye on:

• Courts warn media companies on take-down notices (Wired)
• Advertising slowdown continues, says WPP (Reuters)
• Apple’s iPhone 3G launches in India with no mass hysteria and a price tag of $700 (Reuters)

(Photo: Reuters)

Tired of being the punch line in Apple’s wildly successful “Get a Mac” ad campaign, Microsoft has pulled out the big guns and turned to … comedian Jerry Seinfeld. The software giant is planning on spending about $300 million to clean up its image, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Pop quiz: What has Jerry done since “Seinfeld” went off the air some ten years ago? (Does “Bee Movie” count if he never actually shows his face?)

Consider, even the nerdy PC guy in Apple’s ads — author and humorist John Hodgman, whom Wired deemed cool enough to grace its cover last year– has kept busy lately. In between writing books and stories for The Paris Review, Wired and the New York Times, he’s found time to pop up on “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” and host lectures in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, which at one time or another suffered the reputation as hipster central.

Hodgman is expected to show up in Ricky Gervais’s upcoming film “This Side of Truth” next year. 

If the nerd in Apple’s ads has already notched up the cool meter ahead of Seinfeld, perhaps Bill Gates should just show up alone in the ads. Would be a lot cheaper too.

What’s worse? Alleyinsider’s Peter Kafka digs up a 2007 Fast Company profile of Microsoft’s ad shop Crispin Porter + Bogusky… and discovers the firm uses Macs.

Keep an eye on:

• Go to college. Get an iPod. (NYT)
• IAC’s five-way split is done. Now seeking deals. (paidContent)
• Tech startup Hillcrest Labs sues Nintendo over motion-sensing technology. (Reuters)

(Photo: Reuters)

Even before a deal to bankroll Steven Spielberg and David Geffen’s new studio has closed, India’s Reliance ADA Group is now on the hunt for U.S. mobile content publishers including game makers, according to the Wall Street Journal.

“The thought is to build a distribution model across the world,” Rajesh Sawhney, president of Reliance Entertainment, a unit of Reliance ADA, told the Journal. “For the content we’re acquiring now, we want to exploit it globally.”

Reliance hired Silicon Valley consultants VSC Consulting to scout out targets. The Mumbai-based conglomerate is also seeking to license content from big producers. This all comes on the heels of signing deals with eight Hollywood production house run by the A-listers George Clooney, Tom Hanks and Brad Pitt.

The latest suggests Reliance has cast its gaze beyond Hollywood.

Keep an eye on:

• Beijing Olympics attract record viewers. (Reuters)
• China TV companies are expected to pay at least 10-times more for the rights to broadcast the Olympics. (FT)
• Hulu reaches 105 million video streams in July. (paidContent) Hulu selects Crispin Porter + Bogusky. (AdWeek)

(Photo: Reuters / Reliance ADA Chairman Anil Ambani)

It’s been available for a few months for unlocked iPhones, but Simplify Media’s iPhone application has finally hit Apple’s App Store. Simplify Media’s software, which can also be used on the iPod Touch, will let users stream entire iTunes libraries wirelessly.

Start by downloading the desktop version of Simplify Media’s software for the PC, Mac or Linux and create a screen name. Then find and download Simplify Media’s iPhone application from iTunes or directly from the iPhone or iPod Touch.

The software will let you stream your entire iTunes music catalog and those that belong to up to 30 of your friends who also have the application running on their computers.

Bloggers reported that an earlier version of the software for the iPhone was buggy. We haven’t played around with the latest version yet. The iPhone software is free for the first 100,000 downloaders, Gizmodo says. (Gizmodo)

We’re not entirely sure if the current round of leaks will lift Sirius XM out of its $1.40 per share doldrums, but screenshots of a new iPhone application in development that will let users stream Sirius XM radio stations could put a new shine on the company.

The shots, leaked to Orbitcast, show a login screen that would appear to imply that the service would likely only be available to existing Sirius or XM subscribers or subscribers to the mobile service. We’ve seen various mobile applications that do just that over the years for Windows Mobile phones. But this is the first to offer a common platform for both services — and months ahead of the company’s own timeline for an interoperable receiver.

Citigroup’s Tony Wible thinks the link to Apple “highlight that SIRI’s value lies in its content and not its hardware or infrastructure.” And such applications could help it gain share in the audio entertainment market. “SIRI bears argue that AAPL’s products will take share from SIRI, but we disagree as both MP3 players and satellite radio have unique advantages that leads us to believe both will co-exist. New satellite radio plans create a greater opportunity for synergies between the two,” Wible writes.

We think it could potentially create an ancillary income stream and soften its reliance on automotive contracts at a time when U.S. car sales limp along. Perhaps more importantly, such applications makes Apple, and its ubiquitous devices, a partner rather than a direct rival.

The application, called StarPlayr, developed by GeeksToolBox, could nudge Sirius XM away from Apple’s line of fire.

(Photo: Orbitcast.com)

It looks like cable networks advertising held up quite well, despite investors fears, says Pali Research’s Richard Greenfield.

“We are encouraged that all but two reported double-digit increases in advertising revenues; particularly in light of the weakening economic environment,” he writes on his blog, citing quarterly earnings reports. He expects growth to slow in the third quarter and a pick-up in the fourth.

His comments echo those of Gabelli & Co associate portfolio manager Larry Haverty, with whom we spoke right after Viacom reported a sharp fall-off in second quarter ad revenue at MTV Networks.

Here’s what Haverty told us:

I’ve seen it probably many more times than I care to. When you hit prior to the Olympics, advertisers get very conservative. They either are an Olympics sponsor or they run and hide. If you are looking at spending money in the months preceding and during Olympics, you probably are not going to do it.

What Viacom saw is indicative of that. It’s being punished way more than they should be. You’ll see other companies reporting slow down. I would expect the ad market to bounce back pretty nicely.

Not everyone, including ad buyers, shares this view.

Greenfield’s chart on second quarter cable network ad revenue growth:

(Chart: Pali Research / Richard Greenfield)

Vanity Fair media scribe Michael Wolff spent hundreds of hours with News Corp Chief Rupert Murdoch and the people who love and hate him, so you don’t have to.

The fruits of his labor — “The Man Who Owns The News: Inside the Secret World of Rupert Murdoch” — hits shelves Feb. 17, 2009 for $27.95.

Here are a couple of things we’d like to know (in no particular order):
* Just how many more Dow Jones employees he plans to hire for its global expansion?

* When is a purchase too good to pass up?

* Viacom’s Sumner Redstone’s got MonaVie. What’s Rupert’s secret?

* When will the WSJ run comics? (We love the sketches, but it won’t cut it for the kiddies.)

* Did he find his wedding ring?

From Random House: With unprecedented access to Rupert Murdoch himself, and his associates and family, Wolff chronicles the astonishing growth of Murdoch’s $70 billion media kingdom. In intimate detail, he probes the Murdoch family dynasty, from the battles that have threatened to destroy it to the reconciliations that seem to only make it stronger. Drawing upon hundreds of hours of interviews, he offers accounts of the Dow Jones takeover as well as plays for Yahoo! and Newsday as they’ve never been revealed before.

(Photo: Random House)

Is silver-haired media investor Mario Gabelli playing matchmaker?

In an interview, he says that it’s about time Cablevision get down to business and hook up with Time Warner Cable. Gabelli, who runs hedge fund Gamco Investors,  a top Cablevision shareholder, tells Bloomberg the family run cable operator and networks company should be “making love with Time Warner Cable.”

Gabelli’s proposal goes much further than the potential moves proposed by Cablevision CEO Jim Dolan. Not content with just a stock buyback or a dividend or even just spinning off some businesses, Gabelli suggests Cablevision should do nothing less than break up the company and hand over the cash to shareholders.

It’s no secret how Time Warner Cable has coveted Cablevision’s New York area cable systems. On more than several occasions over the past decade, Time Warner has held talks to varying degrees to snatch the systems.

From Bloomberg: “They have made a commitment to follow through,” said Gabelli, who two days ago called on Cablevision to sell Rainbow and use the money to buy back stock. “If they don’t, there are board seats available.”

We bet he’ll be pressing his case at a series of investors meetings the Dolans are planning to hold with top investors.

And how happy would he be if Jim Dolan came through this time?

Bloomberg: Breaking up the company would be “like hitting a grand slam home run in the bottom of the ninth inning of the seventh game of the World Series,” he said.

(Photo: Reuters)