MediaFile

German publisher Axel Springer plans to launch an international weekly edition of its flagship daily, Die Welt, in a 48-page tabloid format starting February 2010. Springer is still mulling distribution options but the paper will likely be available from airlines.

Die Welt is a conservative daily founded in 1946 by British occupying forces after the Second World War and acquired by Axel Springer in 1953. It has around 690,000 readers.

The thinking at Springer Verlag is that Die Welt could fill a void for non-German readers who are interested in news from continental Europe, while attracting lucrative new advertising customers.

That’s an interesting idea, considering the current dismal state of newspapers and remembering past attempts of others to attract English readers.

In April 2000, the F.A.Z. launched an English edition as a supplement in the International Herald Tribune - in what the New York Times called an opening up of “the first-class coverage of one of Germany’s best newspapers to the English speaking audience”.  That project was a first in German publishing.

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, after today, will be an online only paper, the latest casualty in the beleaguered newspaper business. 

The news is no better for papers in Tacoma, Boise and elsewhere. 

Keep an eye on:

Walt Disney Co. has put the long-delayed expansion of its Hong Kong theme park on hold after failing to agree with the city’s government on a cash infusion (Reuters) U.S. retail sales of Apple Inc’s Mac computers fell 16 percent in February on a unit basis, even as low-cost netbooks helped Windows-based PCs sales rise 22 percent (Reuters)

New York Times Co Chairman and Publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. managed to deflect major shareholder insurrection this year by agreeing to offer two board seats to a dissident investor’s rival slate, where one presumes they might be somewhat more placid than when they were banging on the walls of the Gray Lady. Now it looks like he might be working the same charm on disaffected puzzlers.

At Tuesday’s annual shareholder meeting, one woman who said she was an investor in the company asked why the Times didn’t run a Sudoku puzzle. Such a move, she explained to Sulzberger as he stood before his audience at the lectern, would no doubt be a big boon for circulation.

Here’s Sulzberger’s response:

I know it’s something we’ve looked at but I cannot answer the question as to why we haven’t done it yet. Our puzzle is one of the great puzzles of the world and it continues to be a huge draw for us. But I will certainly make your thoughts known to the puzzle people.

The New York Times’ fancy new building on 8th Avenue comes at a cost. First there was the falling glass and other debris, then there was that annoying issue of mice making a home in the skyscraper.

But how’s this for a cost? The New York Times headquarters building is likely to depreciate at a rate of $8 million per quarter, according to its latest earnings release.

What’s $8 million per quarter? Here’s our rough breakdown:

$2.67 million per month $88,889 per day $3,704 per hour $62 per minute $1.03 per second

In other words, the building lost $30 — give or take — while you were reading this post.

The New York Times made its peace with hostile hedge fund Harbinger Capital Partners by nominating two members of its rival slate to its board, but a few hundred miles south in Richmond, Virginia, Media General declared war instead.

Media General Chief Executive Marshall Morton stopped just short of challenging Harbinger executive Philip Falcone to a duel, and instead derided the lack of experience of three board members that Harbinger is trying to elect to the company after building up an 18.2 percent stake.

Morton elucidated in an interview with Reuters on Wednesday:

- On why the newspaper publisher and broadcaster has suffered a 61 percent stock drop in the past year: Today’s world is a world where the customer is in charge, not us anymore. Media General was pretty early in figuring out that the customer was platform-independent.