Here we go…

Two days before the iPhone’s launch, fans around Asia are queuing up to buy Apple’s latest offering. They don’t seem to care that it’s raining or freezing cold or if lining up early means missing work or school.

The July 11 launch will be the first chance, after all,  for Asian consumers to own an iPhone.

“I’ve told my professor I was going to go buy an iPhone, and he gave me permission,” said Hiroyuki Sano, a 24-year-old graduate student who early on Tuesday arrived in rainy Tokyo from Nagoya to be first in line. Sano, speaking to Reuters, and incidentally wearing a T-shirt with an Apple logo, described his professor as an equally big Apple fan. “He sent me off cheerfully.”

The United States has already been through this, when the iPhone first went on sale a year ago. As the New York Times recalls, “TV news coverage was relentless. Hard-core fans camped out to be the first in line. Bloggers referred to Apple’s new product as the ‘Jesus phone’.”

The paper adds, “This time, though, when the iPhone 3G goes on sale in AT&T and Apple stores, iPhone Mania will be considerably more muted. That’s partly because the mystery is gone, partly because the AT&T service costs more and partly because there aren’t many new features in what Apple is calling the iPhone 3G. ”

But let’s be clear: There’s still a boatload of interest in this phone and plenty of people will be talking about it this week, offering their two cents on what they like and dislike about the iPhone.

One big name, the Wall Street Journal’s Walt Mossberg, is already weighing in, with a mixed review, knocking the battery life but applauding the phone’s introduction of third party software. 

“I’ve been testing the iPhone 3G for a couple of weeks, and have found that it mostly keeps its promises. In particular, I found that doing email and surfing the Internet typically was between three and five times as fast using AT&T’s 3G network as it was with the older AT&T network to which the first iPhone was limited.”

“Bottom line: If you’ve been waiting to buy an iPhone until it dropped in price, or ran on faster cell networks, you might want to take the plunge, if you can live with the higher service costs and the weaker battery life. The same goes for those with existing iPhones who love the device but crave faster cellular data speeds. But if you already own an iPhone, and can usually use Wi-Fi for data, you probably should hold off and get the free software upgrade before deciding whether it’s worth getting the new hardware.”

But is it worth a two-day wait in line, in the rain, wearing a silly T-shirt?

Keep an eye on: 

• Carl Icahn would have more support in his proxy battle against Yahoo if he pledged not to sell the company for less than $33 a share, said Legg Mason portfolio manager Bill Miller (Reuters) 
• WPP Group, the world’s second-largest advertising company, made a hostile 1.08 billion pound ($2.13 billion) bid for Britain’s Taylor Nelson Sofres, challenging its agreed merger with GfK Holdings AG (Reuters)
• A blind trust run by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is willing to pay between $4.5 billion and $5 billion to buy Merrill Lynch & Co’s 20 percent stake in financial news and data provider Bloomberg LP (NY Post)
• The smaller of Hollywood’s two performers unions ratified a new prime-time TV contract on Tuesday, undermining a last-ditch bid by the larger, more militant Screen Actors Guild to secure a richer deal (Reuters)
• NBC Universal Chief Executive Jeff Zucker is looking to spin off or sell some of the company’s assets when he attends a media conference (NY Post)

(Photo: Reuters)

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So Tribune Co is cutting jobs at The Sun in Baltimore and Hartford Courant.

Not to sound callous, but by this point should anyone be surprised by news that a publisher is getting rid of jobs? After all, this is shaping up to be one of the worst years in memory for the newspaper business.

The upshot: The Sun will lose 100 jobs, 60 of them in the newsroom, and the Courant will cut about 60 jobs. (Don’t forget, Tribune is also cutting jobs at the Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune)

But it’s not just Tribune. It seems everyone is cutting jobs as advertising revenue plunges thanks to the one-two combination of a weak economy and competition from the Internet for marketing dollars.

Here’s what the union had to say about Tribune’s cuts:

“Baltimore Sun employees are being punished for Tribune’s mismanagement,” Cet Parks, chief negotiator for the Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild, said in a statement. “Tribune’s answer to solving declining circulation and readership is to slash employees from the payroll and cut the news hole, salaries and benefits.”

Perhaps that is their answer — but is there a better one out there? So far, nobody seems to have found one.

Keep an eye on:

• WPP Group chief Sir Martin Sorrell is warning that Google is trying to do an end-run around ad agencies. But French rival Publicis is keen to partner with the search giant - and just about anyone else in the online realm (NY Post)
• Video games are known to improve hand-eye coordination but can they help someone quit smoking or lose weight? (Reuters)
• NBC has settled a lawsuit filed by the family of a man who killed himself when confronted with cameras for the documentary series “To Catch a Predator” (NY Times)
• It costs less to run run ads during “The Office” on Hulu than NBC.com. But keep in mind you can’t buy individual shows on Hulu, just demographics across a number of shows (Silicon Alley Insider)

(Reuters photo of Tribune Tower)

Remember those scary movie close-ups of a fly caught in a spider’s web, or some tourist who steps into quicksand, or another variation of the same? How with each twist and turn to get free, the captive enmeshes themselves deeper into the trap? 

We’re starting to get that uncomfortable feeling about Yahoo as it dodges the embrace of Microsoft while trying to orchestrate a partnership with Google that won’t encroach on its own business. The New York Post says today that a deal with Google, already at the “any minute now” stage for almost a month, could be sealed next week.
    
Some of the moves could provide a boost down the line, like a new ad-trading partnership with WPP Group, the world’s second largest advertising services company. 
    
[N.B. WPP chief Martin Sorrell said last week it was a shame Yahoo and Microsoft couldn’t work it out, since their break-up just leaves Google the biggest kid in the playground]
    
But Yahoo does not have that much more time to prove it can go it alone. Yesterday, Yahoo stood up to billionaire Carl Icahn, who officially launched his proxy fight to deliver the company back to Microsoft. That means there must be some resolution by the time Yahoo’s shareholders meet on July 3. (Reuters)

Keep an eye on:    
* “Gossip Girl” can’t save ratings for the CW network. (WSJ)
    
* Fox embraces Less Is More principle, cutting ad time for two new shows. (Hollywood Reporter via Reuters)

* Microsoft to save cheap laptop program for the world’s poorest schoolchildren. (WSJ)

(Photo: Reuters)

It may not seem as sexy as Yahoo-Microsoft, but there is another notable takeover saga brewing in media. This one is between WPP, the British advertising group, and Taylor Nelson Sofres, the market research firm.

Why does WPP want TNS badly enough that it continued to urge the research firm to engage in talks even after its $1.9 billion bid had been rejected?

It’s partly because research has become so much more essential to advertising these days. With so many media outlets, it doesn’t come as a shock that advertisers are desperate for more information about their products and markets.

WPP Chief Executive Martin Sorrell expressed surpise and disappointment that the board of TNS turned down WPP’s offer. But perhaps this is just a bit of cat-and-mouse, with WPP prepared to come back with a bigger number for TNS, which is also talking with Germany’s Gfk. 

“Given the potential for greater returns, we believe WPP could afford a higher offer,” analysts at UBS said in a note to clients.

Of course, nearly everyone was saying the same thing about Microsoft over the last few weeks, and we know where that went.

(Reuters)

Keep an eye on:

• NBC Universal has reach an exclusive deal with with the “Project Runway” production team, less than a month after it was outbid for rights to the cable show by Lifetime Networks. Now a new production team has to be put in place. (LA Times) 
• Microsoft is adding TV shows to its Zune marketplace, offering rougly 800 TV shows, each for $1.99, for download from places such as Comedy Central, MTV and NBCU. (paidContent)
• CBS Radio CEO Dan Mason, meeting with advertisers, dismissed the notion that the iPod and satellite radio will kill radio. “To say that an iPod or satellite radio, with little or no human connection will ever replace radio is absurd.” (paidContent)

(Photo: Reuters)