For a mogul who’s spent a lifetime snatching up newspapers across the globe — and who spent the better part of his time talking about them on Wednesday’s quarterly earnings conference call — we found it surprising that he insists he’s not spending more money on the dying print business.

Murdoch: “From day one, the financial press has been fixated on portraying this move as a change in strategic direction; the company is now focused on allocating more of its capital on print businesses. That is not our intent, nor is it factually correct. We have not changed our playbook.”

Murdoch argued that Dow Jones, the splashiest of his newspaper buys yet, is barely a newspaper publisher at all. To lay out that argument, Murdoch appears to have abandoned his earlier argument that a free Wall Street Journal online would be better than a subscription-based site.

WSJ.com still has more than 1 million paying subscribers, up 11 percent compared to last year. (It’s unclear if he meant that the site added 11 percent more subscribers compared to the same period last year.)

Then there’s the paper itself, where Murdoch sees big opportunities to boost ad sales and circulation volume and revenue. Individually paid subscriptions rose 1.6 percent to 1.46 million and overall circulation rose 0.3 percent to 2.07 million. Circulation revenue rose 6.8 percent in the quarter, slightly below the 7.3 percent growth in 2007.

Its biggest growth area remains its enterprise division, which houses the Dow Jones Index, Factiva and Newswires — all of them subscription businesses. He says the Dow Jones Indices business revenue rose 37%, with profits up nearly 50% in the quarter ended March 31st. Factiva revenue grew 10 percent.

Dow Jones’s financial information and services group revenue rose 13% , with profits up over 8%.

All this in the first quarter after the purchase! Then again, maybe Murdoch thinks some people have set the bar higher than that.

This is destined to be an extra-inning game; to use an overly used metaphor, we’re only in the first innings. Those of you expecting to see immediate dramatic results in 12 weeks are kidding yourselves and setting an unrealistic bar. Over time, as we have done dozens of times at News Corp, most recently with SKY Italia and MySpace, we’ve made our acquisitions work, generating great returns to our shareholders. We’ll do it again at Dow Jones. It may take time, but I am as confident of it as any acquisition I have done.

Then there’s his Newsday bid, which was one of the more exciting parts of the conference call. Boxed in by Newsday reporters on the call, Murdoch spoke frankly about his confidence in landing the Long Island daily.

No, I don’t think Cablevision will prevail. Just be patient for a couple of days (inaudible). We’re certainly not in the business of getting into an auction here …

We’re hoping to wrap it up within the next week. And I don’t mean the end of next week, I mean within the next seven days … It takes two to agree. But we’re at a pretty advanced stage. I’ll just leave it at that at the moment.

Nope. No newspapers here.

(Photo: Reuters/David Moir / News Corp. Chairman and CEO Murdoch stands with Scotland’s First Minister Salmond during the official opening of the News International press printing plant at Eurocentral near Glasgow in central Scotland.)

Who says the newspaper business is doomed? Circulation and advertising may be in the dumps, sure, but judging from the bidders lining up to buy Newsday there are plenty of moguls still keen on newspapers.

The latest development: The Wall Street Journal reports that Cablevision is planning to bid as much as $650 million for the Long Island daily, which likely catapults it ahead of other bidders like News Corp, which owns the New York Post, and Mortimer Zuckerman, who owns the Daily News.

Cablevision’s bid could come within two days, the report said, adding that it was unclear whether whether Cablevision is working with New York Observer owner Jared Kushner in its offer. Beyond Cablevision’s cable assets, it owns the New York Knicks, the New York Rangers, Madison Square Garden and Radio City Music Hall.

The New York Times offered a different view. It, too, said Cablevision is preparing a bid, but it reported that the owners of the New York Observer have dropped out of the race.

Cablevision? Zuckerman? New York Observer? News Corp? What’s going on here?

These are smart, successful media companies and executives, so they must know something. Indeed, the New York Times reported that people briefed on its finances says that Newsday last year generated more than $80 million in income and about $500 million in revenue.

And it is, after all, the key paper in a relatively affluent area.

But get this: The New York Times also reports that some executives at companies interested in Newsday “learned over the last month that its printing, trucking and subscription operations were more troubled and inefficient than they knew. Paradoxically, that has persuaded them that the paper was worth more than they initially thought.”

Go figure.

Keep an eye on:

• With time running out a self-imposed deadline in contract talks with actors, major Hollywood studios say the two sides remained far from a deal and that excessive union demands are to blame (Reuters)
• Comcast Corp, the largest U.S. cable operator, on Thursday posted a fall in first-quarter net profit as it lost basic video subscribers because of fierce competition from phone and satellite companies (Reuters)
• Microsoft indicated a willingness to up its bid for Yahoo to $33 per share, but Chief Executive Steve Ballmer has also appeared ready to walk away from the deal altogether if need be, the Wall Street Journal reports , quoting people with knowledge of the situation. It reported that Microsoft’s board met Wednesday without reaching a decision.
• Talk at the 2008 leadership conference of the American Association of Advertising Agencies centered on politics and the economy (The New York Times)

(Photo: Reuters)

Newspaper circulation: It’s rising! Well, at some papers it is. That’s according to figures that came out from the Audit Bureau of Circulations on Monday morning. Most papers, as everyone knows, are reporting falling circulation in all their editions, whether during the week or on the weekends. Still, out of the more than 500 papers that reported, there were some more positive stories to tell. Here’s a list of the top circulation gainers, according to the ABC.

The big gainer? El Diario La Prensa , in Spanish, serving a growing part of the U.S. population. The Miami Herald has published El Nuevo Herald for years. Is it time for more big-city dailies to consider a Spanish edition?

Tribune Co under Chief Executive Sam Zell has really loosened up in the past few weeks. Just think back to the April 1 Web site “redesign,” not to mention this subsequent so-crazy-it-was-surreal press release.

It’s all part of Zell’s goal of getting folks at the debt-riddled company not to take themselves too seriously, but someone forgot to tell the lawyers. Check out excerpts from the press release issued on Wednesday:

CHICAGO, April 23, 2008-Tribune Company today announced that Don Liebentritt has been named general counsel and that David Eldersveld, the company’s senior counsel/mergers and acquisitions, has been promoted to vice president/deputy general counsel and corporate secretary. Crane Kenney, who has served as Tribune’s general counsel since 1996, will step down to devote all his time to his duties as chairman of the Chicago Cubs.

Liebentritt is a senior advisor with Equity Group Investments (EGI), a private investment firm where he served as president from 2000 to 2005. He is also an officer and director of various private affiliates of EGI. Liebentritt will be responsible for directing all of the company’s legal affairs and will assume his new duties in mid-May.

Eldersveld, who joined Tribune in 2005, has been responsible for negotiating and managing the legal aspects of acquisitions, divestitures, joint ventures and other strategic investment transactions for Tribune and its business units. He will assume his new responsibilities immediately.

Where is the funny?

(Photo: Reuters)

You can say one thing for Gary Pruitt , McClatchy’s CEO and perhaps the most ardent defender of the newspaper business — he knows what we all want.

Here’s his comment from the analyst call he did today to discuss McClatchy’s first-quarter earnings :

We want to make sure we maintain our ability to generate revenue.

Who could ask for anything more?

Pruitt also showed off his lighter side in an exchange with Goldman Sachs’s Peter Appert. When the analyst said he was going to ask an unfair question, Pruitt responded, “That’s because I’m going to give you an unfair answer.”

Cue laughter, then cue crying because Appert’s question is at the heart of what most newspaper people want to know: Isn’t there a point where you can’t cut your way to profitability anymore?

Pruitt’s answer:

We feel we have no choice. Given the revenue trends, we’re simply going to have to reduce costs. We do believe that we can sustain a good record on costs throughout this year. We face increasing newsprint prices later in the year and that will work against us. But on the other hand, we are looking at further efficiencies throughout the company and we suspect that when you exclude any severance costs and the effect of newsprint pricing, we should be able to sustain a double-digit run rate on expense decline.

(Photo: 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.

If nothing else, he’s more than assured us that his puzzle people will never be considered “synergies,” and if they were, they could probably hide out in the Sunday acrostic all day long.

And on an endnote, perhaps if the shareholder checked nytimes.com, she might find all manner of Sudoku.

(Photo: Reuters, ‘Father of Sudoku’ Maki Kaji)

Another day, another story about job cuts and cost cutting in the publishing business.

This time its the New York Times, where an offer of voluntary buyouts may turn into involuntary dismissals.

Back in February, the company said it would eliminate 100 newsroom jobs amid the weakening economy and declining revenues from advertising and circulation. An attempt was made to keep the move bloodless but that didnt quite work. In an internal memo, assistant managing editor Bill Schmidt said the number of people expected to take buyouts likely won’t meet the 100 target.

This comes in the wake of other publishers job actions, including The Modesto Bee , a McClatchy paper, where about one-quarter its 455 employees were offered buyout packages in every division, although the company says the buyouts will affect a “very small” number of the newsroom’s 90-plus employees and thus should have a minimal impact on readers.

Also, Newsweek  is reportedly shrinking its rank and file as 111 staffers on its news and business sides accepted a buyout.

By the way, Radar has a list of those who took the New York Times buyout offer, including Pulitzer Prize winners John Noble Wilford and David Cay Johnston, and Linda Greenhouse, the newspaper’s legendary Supreme Court correspondent.

(WSJ )

Keep an Eye on:

• Mario Gabelli, one of Media General’s largest shareholders, said he plans to vote for a slate of directors nominated by a dissident shareholder looking to make changes at the struggling media company. (AP via Star Tribune)
• Hollywood director Barry Sonnenfeld fears that children today will grow up with “no concept of the right to privacy and in fact not understand the need for it.” (Hollywood Reporter )
• Yahoo may have started gaining share in the Web search ad market against Google even as Google’s share of search audience inched up. (Reuters)

(Photo: Reuters)

According to the Publishers Information Bureau, advertising revenue for magazines declined in the first quarter, hurt by the automobile industry’s continued troubles and concerns about the economy. Total revenue fell 1.2 percent to $5.2 billion, down 1.2 percent, with pages down 6.4 percent.

Ad page declines were felt in Automotive; Technology and Home Furnishings & Supplies, while ad pages gained Food & Food Products, Retail and Media & Advertising.

Business and news magazines took it on the chin too. Ad pages for BusinessWeek tumbled 19.4 percent in the quarter while rival Forbes dipped 13.2 percent, and Fortune declined by 1 percent.

The bad ad pages news also hit news magazines such as Newsweek and Time, and U.S. News & World Report.
(Mediaweek)
(New York Post)

Keep an eye on:

• CNET Networks plans to debut in-depth news and information on 11 industry sectors on its business manager Web site BNET.com. (Reuters)
• Google’s US search-query volume growth accelerated modestly in March, which suggests that Google will likely meet or exceed analysts recently reduced estimates. (AlleyInsider)
• We are the Chicago Sun-Times: We going to be profitable! Roger Ebert is coming back! So buy the company! (Chicago Tribune)
• David Bowie, Blondie and Gnarls Barkley publisher Chrysalis Group said on it had ended talks with would-be buyers after rejecting a 104 million pound ($205.4 million), 155 pence-per-share cash offer. (Reuters)
• News Corp plans to raise its stake in Premiere AG to the 25 percent to 26 percent range. (WSJ )
• Time Warner to cut 450 New Line jobs. (Reuters )
• AOL buys blog content engine Sphere. (TechCrunch )

(Photo: Reuters)

Sam Zell has a new round of ideas for how to fix Tribune. Read on for details. (Check Tribune’s temporarily redesigned Web site too, and remember: if you give people puppies, you can pay for Iraq coverage.)

CHICAGO, April 1, 2008-Tribune Company, the largest employee-owned media company in the nation, today announced it has changed its name to ZellCoMediaEnterprises Inc. or ZCMEINC. Zell, who made a fortune in real estate before deciding he’d like to dabble in an industry completely unfamiliar to him, announced the change in his record-setting 437th email to exhausted employees this year.

“H—, I put $315 million into this thing, and we’re on the hook for $13 billion-the least I ought to get is my name on the company’s stationery,” said Zell, who remains chairman and CEO of the newly named enterprise.

The company also announced a series of revenue-generating efforts, including a newly signed $600 million deal to rename historic Tribune Tower in Chicago. The new name of the landmark building will be unveiled at a ceremony held outside its Michigan Avenue entrance at noon today. Zell is expected to attend.

“While everyone was wringing their hands and worrying about renaming Wrigley Field, I went out and got a great company to put its product’s name right over the main entrance to this great building,” said Zell. “Finally we’ll have the money to renovate the place and put in a heating and cooling system that doesn’t date back to the days of Colonel McCormick.”

Just to remind employees of how important it is that the company increase revenue in order to meet its considerable debt payments, the company has installed debt-o-meters at each of its business units and on the company web site, www.tribune.com.

The company, which publishes nine daily newspapers in some of the country’s top markets, also unveiled plans to go completely paperless, using edible ink and a newly designed licorice printing system.

“Now our newspapers can be put to good use for something other than news, information, and lining bird cages,” said Randy Michaels, executive vice president of the company’s broadcasting and internet divisions, who’s also fooling around with newspapers. “Although I’m told it’s a little dry, a family of four will be able to get a week’s worth of nourishment off the Sunday edition of the Chicago Tribune.”

Additional revenue-generating initiatives can be found on the company’s web site, www.tribune.com.

Sam Zell in his latest memo tells Tribune employees — the ones who haven’t been spiked — that he’s happy to see them so hard at work coming up with new ideas to help the publisher and broadcaster thrive. Employees have been so helpful, in fact, that Tribune has created an online “IdeaBank” for submissions, rather than the talktoSam AT tribune.com address that he’s been using. As he explains below, this will let other people in the company see them.

By the way, participation is expected, Zell says. Now get to work.

As I’ve said repeatedly, the best ideas for this company will come from you, and we’ve seen a number of these innovations come to life in the past 60 days, including: a new morning show in Hartford, a free newspaper targeting young adults in Baltimore, a new national news section in Newport News, and spadia ads in Orlando and South Florida. We need to test a lot of ideas; we recognize that some won’t work. But, we’ll never find the ones that do work, unless we try them.
To open up this idea exchange across the company, we are launching an online IdeaBank, accessible via TribLink.
Going forward, I’d like you to direct your ideas to our IdeaBank, rather than sending them to talktoSam@tribune.com. This will enable others across the county to see them. I will still read and respond to all of the ideas that are submitted, and I still encourage you to e-mail me directly with comments and questions.
The IdeaBank has a crowd-sourcing element, so you can tag ideas you think are particularly good. You can also sort ideas by categories, and we’ll feature the top Revenue-Generating ideas, as determined by their popularity, on the front page of the site. We’re placing special emphasis on revenue-generating ideas because, as you know, that is our current focus. (One reminder: Ideas should cost significantly less than the revenue they produce.)
Most importantly, I want to convey that this is not some lighthearted initiative. I expect you to participate. Make deposits. Make withdrawals. Review the ideas to determine how you might adapt them to your business unit. And, managers, by reviewing and analyzing these ideas, you dramatically increase the probability of their viability.
So, be prolific. The future of our company is literally in your hands.
Sam

(Photo: Reuters)