Here are some of the day’s stories on the media industry:

Movie studios try to harness “Twitter effect” (Reuters)
“Audiences are voicing snap judgments on movies faster and to more people than ever before on Twitter, and their ability to create a box office hit or a flop is forcing major studios to revamp marketing campaigns. The stakes are especially high this summer season when big budget movies like “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,” which opened on Wednesday, play to a core audience of young, plugged-in moviegoers,” writes Alex Dobuzinskis.

Sun-Times chief optimistic about sale of company (Chicago Tribune)
But, Michael Oneal writes: “In a court filing last week, creditors in the Sun-Times’ bankruptcy case raised concerns about the sale efforts, noting that the company has “limited time” before it “can no longer sustain the losses being incurred from operations.” They warned that unless a buyer is found soon, “time could run out, or a buyer could be located that would only pay a fire-sale price.”

Goldman makes peace with blogger in trademark case (Reuters)
“The agreement required blogger Michael Morgan to post a disclaimer on his goldmansachs666.com website, saying it has no affiliation with the financial firm. Morgan, a Florida investment adviser, uses his blog — whose name combines Goldman’s name with numbers used to evoke connotations with the devil — to criticize the bank and its large profits,” writes Martha Graybow.

Reuters Opens its Kimono (CJR)
“Wright, Reuters’s global editor of ethics, innovation, and news standards, brandished the thick stack of paper to drive home the point that “we’ve moved beyond the time when people were carrying around books with style guides.” We’re also apparently beyond the time when all journalism organizations charge people for said style books,” writes Craig Silverman

Here are some of the day’s stories on the media industry:

‘Tonight Show’ Audience a Decade Younger (NYT)
“In Mr. O’Brien’s first month as host, the median age of “Tonight Show” viewers has fallen by a decade — to 45 from 55, a startling shift in such a short time. This audience composition means advertisers can now address almost exclusively young viewers on “Tonight,” and NBC is already contemplating a shift in how it sells the show,” writes Bill Carter.

Springer’s daily Welt dreams of going international - again (Reuters)

“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,” writes Nicola Leske.

Just the Messenger: Mediaite.com Focuses on Celebrity of Journalism (WP)
On the newly launched website, Howard Kurtz writes: “Mediaite paints with a colorful palette, even if its hues will appeal mainly to journalists and those who obsess over them. By hiring bloggers who worked for Mediabistro and the Huffington Post, Abrams has put together a sassy critique of media missteps and foibles, an overall take not driven mainly by ideology.”

Cubs sale finalized for TribCo (Crain’s)
“Tribune Co. has finalized a deal to sell the Chicago Cubs to a bidding group led by bond salesman Thomas Ricketts. Documents describing the fully financed deal were sent to Major League Baseball over the weekend, a source familiar with the negotiations said Monday. The value of the deal is between $850 million and $900 million, the source said.”

Food Network magazine is media’s next wave (MarketWatch)
“Hearst executives are very pleased with the magazine’s progress. The company started out by printing 300,000 copies last fall. Hearst now projects the publication’s rate base, the circulation figure that publishers promise to advertisers, will climb to 900,000 later this year and to 1.1 million in 2010,” writes Jon Friedman.

Hulu plans September bow in U.K. (Variety)
Steve Clarke writes: “Hulu, co-owned by News Corp., NBC Universal and Providence Equity Partners, is believed to be offering broadcasters equity stakes in the U.K. service plus a share of online advertising revenues. (Disney has a deal pending to become a co-owner.)”

In other news:

• Two new blogs offer daily tips for business journalists (BusinessJournalism.org)

• Behind the launch of the Rocky Mountain Independent (Westword)

• Talking Point$ Memo (CJR.org)

Google just keeps on truckin’. The Internet powerhouse posted results yesterday that show advertisers haven’t completely cut their spending — at least not on search.

Excluding one-time charges, profit was $5.10 a share, beating the average analyst forecast of $4.95 according to Reuters Estimates.

Revenue rose 18 percent to $5.7 billion — a shadow of the 50 percent growth levels that Google used to enjoy, but considered by analysts to be a robust performance given the weak economy and corporate cutbacks in advertising spending.

But CEO Eric Schmidt also took pains to keep investors, analysts and the press realistic about the world today: “Now clearly we’re in a worldwide recession as everybody knows, rising unemployment, foreclosures, that sort of thing,” he said on a conference call. “But we don’t know how long this period will last. We obviously hope it will be short.”

Shares of Google were up more than 4 percent in early trade, and analysts offered mostly upbeat responses to the earnings despite Schmidt’s caution.

“We would be buyers of Google shares coming out of 4Q earnings. Macro risks remain, but we think Google grows high-single digits in ‘09 & is among the best-positioned companies to weather the storm,” wrote Barclays analyst Douglas Anmuth, who reiterated an “overweight” rating on the company and set a price target of $460.

You just know this sort of talk drives Steve Ballmer bonkers.

Keep an eye on:

• Tribune Co selected Tom Ricketts, the head of a Chicago investment bank, as the lead bidder for the Chicago Cubs baseball team, after receiving support from the bankrupt media firm’s creditors (Reuters)
• General Electric Co reported a 44 percent drop in quarterly profit, while media division NBC Universal’s profit declined 6 percent as strong cable earnings were offset by declines in the local stations (Reuters)
• The New York Times is in advanced negotiations to sell a substantial portion of its 52-story headquarters building on Eighth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan to W. P. Carey & Company (NY Times)

(Photo: Reuters)

The Washington Post and The Sun in nearby Baltimore will share some of their journalism, at least the stuff that they don’t try to kill each other to get first as they compete across the hedgerows and parkways of suburban Maryland. Here are some details from the release, sent out on Tuesday:

The Post and The Sun have agreed to share the newspapers’ day-to-day coverage of certain Maryland news and sports. In addition, The Post and The Sun may draw on each other’s national, international and feature stories that are distributed by the LAT-WP News Service, to which both contribute. The exchanges will allow each paper to take advantage of the other’s strengths and expertise in specific subjects around the region and the world.

As part of this accord, exclusive stories will not usually be shared, nor will coverage of such competitive subjects as Maryland state government and University of Maryland athletics.

I couldn’t find a piece in The Sun, which is owned by Tribune Co (which recently filed for bankruptcy), but figure it will be reasonably similar to the Post story, which includes this paragraph:

The deal comes as both newspapers, like the rest of the industry, struggle to retain readers and cut costs as the economics of the business shift.

Robert McCartney, the Post’s Metro editor, said that the move can help the paper save money, but declined to get into how that will happen. He did say that sharing some stories could help each paper assign reporters to areas in their home turf where they need more coverage, something that in theory could cut costs. He declined to offer other specifics on savings.

One way would be cutting the size of the local news and sports teams as a result of abandoning coverage areas — not that that would make anyone happy, though it is something that more people in our business have come to expect as a reality. Tribune has been doing this at its papers, while the Post earlier this year offered buyouts.

McCartney said the paper is always looking at staffing levels, but again, didn’t offer specifics.

Sun Editor Tim Franklin, who is retiring from the paper, wrote this in an e-mail: “We are not planning staff reductions as a result of this partnership. For The Sun, there will be cost savings in travel expenses, freelance and potentially other news syndicate fees.”

(Imagine the Washington Redskins and Baltimore Ravens cooperating in football and you get an idea of how momentous this Washington Post/Baltimore Sun partnership is. Photo: Reuters)

Here’s something funny that I found at the bottom of a Google News search results page the other day:

The selection and placement of stories on this page were determined automatically by a computer program. The time or date displayed reflects when an article was added to Google News.

That sounds like another way of saying that the time and date the story showed up there do not necessarily match the time and date that the story was first published.

So why is that interesting? I don’t know for sure if this is why they did it, but it could have something to do with the recent flap between Google and Tribune Co over a story about UAL Corp going bankrupt — six years ago. The 2002 Chicago Tribune story wound up being displayed as a seemingly fresh looking story on Google News search results after the article somehow went live inside the website of the Tribune-owned South Florida Sun-Sentinel paper in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

The article wound up being picked up by an investor-run information service distributed by Bloomberg News, and prompted investors to nearly destroy United’s stock price before everyone figured out that the story was old. This caused a war of words between Google and Tribune, with the Chicago-based newspaper publisher saying that it was Google’s fault that the story showed up, especially with a time stamp that made it look new. Google naturally blames Tribune.

Is this Google modifying its terms to clarify the true nature of time on its website? Is this a response to the UAL brouhaha? We don’t know yet, as we’re still waiting to hear back from Google’s press team.

(Photo: Reuters)

In the media world, it looks like it’s time for a trim. Whether that’s jobs, travel expenses, or anything else, budgets are coming down… With the economy in the sick ward, what did we expect?

Yahoo is among those expected to outline ways to cut expenses, including further job cuts, a source tells Reuters. The announcement will likely come when it reports quarterly results on Tuesday:

The Internet company will discuss the scale and timing of the future layoffs, but specific details on the exact jobs to be eliminated will not be disclosed, the source said.

Over at NBC Universal, they are also cutting some costs. The Wall Street Journal says the media company wants to shave $500 million from its 2009 budget. That would be about 3 percent.

The question is can any of the other media companies be far behind?

Keep an eye on:

• Is the decision by Paramount Pictures to push back two major holiday films an early indication that the economic crisis is taking a toll on Hollywood? (WSJ.com)
• The Screen Actors Guild’s board voted to have a federal mediator brought into labor contract negotiations with Hollywood studios (Reuters)
• Tribune Co, the heavily indebted U.S. newspaper publisher and broadcaster, plans to borrow $250 million from an existing line of credit to gain more flexibility amid the world financial crisis (Reuters)
• The fake Sarah Palin has been doing great things for “Saturday Night Live,” but the real one put “SNL” over the top to its highest overnight ratings in 14 years (The Hollywood Reporter)

(Photo: Reuters)

Another day, another twist in the latest Sumner Redstone drama. This time, the media mogul’s company, National Amusements, announced that it’s having sit-downs with its lenders over some debt covenants? What are the covenants? And how much debt to they cover? Nobody outside of the company seems quite sure at this point.

What we do know, is that all of this has been caused by the sharp drop in CBS and Viacom shares — since they are worth far less as assets than they were a a month ago, we assume that some debt-to-assets ratio has become a problem.

What does this mean for Viacom and CBS? Not much, in the short term. Stock of both were steady to slightly higher in early trade. But it does underscore what’s at stake for Redstone, and probably turns up the heat on the companies to perform better and get the stock price moving higher.

Keep an eye on: 

• Google Inc profits surpassed Wall Street quarterly forecasts, as the Internet search and advertising leader held deepening economic gloom at bay (Reuters)
• NBC Universal’s Spanish-language television operation has cut 85 jobs, reducing its workforce 5 percent (LA Times)
• The final U.S. presidential debate was watched by about 11 percent fewer Americans than watched the “town hall” format the week before (AdAge) 
• CBS College Sports said Thursday that it was laying off nearly one-quarter of its staff, or about 30 employees (NY Times)
• Tribune Company has given a two-year notice to the Associated Press that its daily newspapers plan to drop the news service, becoming the first major newspaper chain to do so since the recent controversy over new rates began (Editor & Publisher)

(Photo: Reuters)

We’ll be paying close attention to Goldman Sachs today for reasons other than the wrenching financial crisis. Our interest relates to the investment bank’s Communacopia conference, an annual meeting of some top media players.

Of course, it’s impossible to escape Wall Street’s woes, even at a media conference. After all, there are questions about the ripple effect on the economy — and that includes the advertising business, the bread and butter of media.

We spoke to a number of experts and the consensus was that while financial services make up just 6 percent of advertising spending in the United States, which is no small sum, the bigger issue is the influence that the crisis has on confidence throughout Corporate America. Watching this week’s turmoil, will corporations be as free with spending?

Here’s how Zain Raj, chief executive of Euro RSCG Discovery, a unit of France’s Havas advertising company, put it:

 ”Normally, when Wall Street sneezes, Madison Avenue ignores it. In this case, Wall Street has pneumonia and Madison Avenue better realize it.”

Whether in presentations or on the sidelines of Communacopia, that’s sure to be a topic of conversation. Let’s hear what News Corp, Time Warner and CBS, among others, have to say.

Keep an eye on:

• McClatchy will slash 10 percent of its workforce for the second time this year and is cutting its dividend as the U.S. newspaper publisher struggles with punishing advertising revenue declines (Reuters)
• The Newhouse family doesn’t expect to get the cost-savings it needs to save New Jersey’s Star-Ledger and plans to tell staff that the paper will be sold or closed on Jan. 5 (NY Post)
• Sam Zell faces a lawsuit by current and former members of the Tribune Co Employee Stock Option Plan and other retirement programs (paidContent.org)

(Reuters photo of Goldman Sachs headquarters)

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.)

Tribune Co is making good on its promise to use its own reporters to break news about Tribune. It’s not the company’s fault if that news is depressing.

Chief Executive Sam Zell held a conference call with reporters at its papers on Tuesday, prompting a profusion of press coverage in Tribune-owned publications on Wednesday. Some of the most interesting excerpts showed up in The Hartford Courant:

Tribune Co. CEO Sam Zell Tuesday defended his decision to order large cuts at newspapers across the chain, including The Courant, saying that no one could have predicted the dramatic drop in advertising revenue that followed his takeover of the company seven months ago.

Zell, in a conference call with Tribune reporters, said newspapers are confronting “some of the worst advertising numbers in the history of the world,” and said the only alternative to eliminating employees and cutting the size of the papers would be to allow the businesses to fail.

“The reality is, what’s my choice?” Zell asked. “Do I try and create a business that can be viable and preserve two-thirds of the jobs? Or do I let all 100 percent of them go by the wayside because I’m not willing to confront the realities of the environment?”

What about his desire, expressed earlier this year, that he not make the business all about cutting jobs?

“I don’t believe it’s fair to hold me to the sentence that I expressed when I was [in Hartford] six months ago,” Zell said. “I don’t know that anybody has a frame of reference on advertising revenue destruction that, in effect, is as bad as this, going all the way back to the Depression. So I think the circumstances are dramatically worse than anyone could have possibly predicted.”

More coverage here:

The Morning Call (Allentown, Pennsylvania)

Newsday (Long Island, New York)

Chicago Tribune

The Sun (Baltimore, Maryland)

For reporters who cover Tribune, this is all very interesting stuff. Here’s hoping cost cuts don’t force those papers to cut the Tribune beat.

(Photo: Reuters)