Stories related to: News Corp

Rupert Murdoch has dropped his $580 million bid for Newsday . Cable operator Cablevision has offered $650 million for the Long Island daily, and Murdoch’s News Corp. said a higher bid would be “uneconomical.” The media tycoon’s dropout was unexpected, Reuters says, considering Murdoch recently told investors a deal was nearly done. A $580 million bid from Mortimer Zuckerman, owner of the rival Daily News , remains on the table. More »

Tensions are running high in the Wall Street Journal ’s newsroom, the New Republic reports, as staffers wonder just where this Murdoch thing is going. Managing editor Marcus Brauchli’s resignation still hangs heavy in the air. Murdoch pushed Brauchli to resign, and paid him millions to sign a non-disclosure agreement. “We're a business newspaper, so we know a sell-out when we see one,” one angry staffer said. More »

MySpace fell short of revenue targets in the most recent quarter, but, Adam Ostrow argues in Mashable, it’s still proven a phenomenal deal since Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. bought it for $580 million in 2005. Revenues from its unit are pulling close to its purchase price and it’s on track to make more with music downloads, sponsorships and targeted ads. More »

Rupert Murdoch's media conglomerate tripled its profit last quarter on improved results from its cable and broadcast networks and the sale of DirecTV, MarketWatch reports. News Corp. earned $2.7 billion, or 91 cents a share, up from $871 million, or 27 cents a share, in the same quarter last year. Revenue jumped 16% to $8.75 billion, exceeding analysts' estimates. More »

Let’s stop kidding ourselves, Jack Shafer writes in Slate: Rupert Murdoch is seizing control of the Wall Street Journal , and we might as well be done with the “Special Committee” that was supposed to protect editorial independence. The Bancroft family insisted on the creation of the board, which then proved itself  "a set of high-paid flunkies" who sat on their hands as the paper’s top editor was forced out. More »

A committee formed to protect the editorial independence of the Wall Street Journal from Rupert Murdoch’s influence said today the solicited resignation of managing editor Macrus Brauchli violated an agreement with Murdoch's News Corporation, Reuters reports. The committee is supposed to review all high-level hirings and firings, but, as Brauchli opted to resign, it learned of his ouster only after the fact. More »

More top Wall Street Journal execs have been spit out by the Murdoch machine, and the staff they leave behind is furious they’re leaving so quietly. Zipping their mouths was part of hefty severance packages, David Carr notes in the New York Times , and as the line evaporates between editorial standards and owner's whims, the protectors of journalistic independence are missing in action. More »

Rupert Murdoch is betting new federal standards limiting media ownership to one TV station and one newspaper (per market) won't keep him from buying a fifth New York outlet. The mogul has long held waivers to control media in excess of the rules, and he doesn't think recent enforcement pledges will stop him from winning permission to own Newsday , the Times reports. More »

Continuing to report on the aftershocks of its own takeover, the Wall Street Journal does a postmortem on the departure of top editor Marcus Brauchli, detailing his uncomfortable position between a demanding new owner and the paper's institutional “DNA.” Rupert Murdoch wanted to build a direct competitor to the New York Times , with more general news and shorter stories, and felt the managing editor was holding up the overhaul. More »

After Marcus Brauchli officially resigned as managing editor of the Wall Street Journal this afternoon, the paper said it will "begin a search for Mr. Brauchli's replacement immediately." That may prove difficult: Brauchli, who will remain with News Corp. as a consultant,   wasn't given the control over the paper he felt management had promised, the New York Times reports. More »

Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. empire is closing in on a deal to buy Newsday from the Tribune Company for an $850 million package, reports Reuters. Under the terms of the deal, Newsday would be run as a joint venture with the New York Post , but the papers would remain separate for now. Tribune would get $550 million in cash and retain a 5% stake in Newsday . More »

Four months into the Rupert Murdoch era, the Wall Street Journal ’s managing editor is resigning. Marcus Brauchli, in the job since May, has tried to chart a path between Murdoch and the paper’s traditionalists, sources told Time, which broke the story on its website. The split is said to be amicable, and Brauchli is likely to take another post with the company. More »

A newly Rupert Murdoch-ified Wall Street Journal throws down the gauntlet at the New York Times tomorrow , reports Newsweek , in the biggest battle of newspaper titans since Hearst v. Pulitzer. Murdoch is looking for (more) power and respect from the journalistic elite at a time when the Gray Lady is weakened by a huge loss of advertising and revenue. More »

US Internet users watched 10 billion online videos in February, cNet reports, with statistics released by ComScore showing a 66% gain from February 2006. Unsurprisingly, Google’s video sites (chiefly YouTube) accounted for 35.4% of the 10 billion views, the largest portion for any one site. More »

Yahoo's board meets today to examine the options for avoiding a hostile takeover by Microsoft, the Wall Street Journal reports. Experts think a Microsoft grab is still the most likely scenario, but the situation has grown increasingly complicated in the midst of discussions of an AOL-Yahoo merger, Yahoo's proposed trial of Google ads, and rumors of News Corp. joining Microsoft's side. More »

Falling ad revenues could push Sam Zell's Tribune Company to sell Newsday , the Long Island newspaper with the 10th-highest circulation in the nation, the New York Times reports. Among those interested are Rupert Murdoch, who already owns the New York Post . Also in the running are the owner of the Daily News and the family that runs Cablevision. Tribune announced yesterday it lost $78 million in the fourth quarter. More »

PageSix.com, the online version of the New York Post 's celebrity gossip column, is shutting down after just three months, Gawker reports. The Rupert Murdoch project attracted 1 million pageviews last week when it published photos of Eliot Spitzer's escort, but, "given the difficulty in the economy, it was not the right time for this launch," said one manager. More »

For the first time since Microsoft made an unsolicited—and unwelcome—$44.6 billion bid to take over Yahoo Jan. 31, executives for the two companies sat down this week to discuss what a post-merger company might look like, reports the Wall Street Journal. No negotiations took place, the Journal notes. Microsoft officials pitched their vision, and Yahoo officials mostly listened. More »

The last month has made media boss Rupert Murdoch "a lot more pessimistic" about the outlook for the US economy, Reuters reports. Ad revenue is below expectations at his TV stations and newspapers and he expects "a temporary downturn for a year or so" at Dow Jones, the News Corp. boss told a media conference yesterday. It's the strongest public statement  yet among top media leaders concerning fears about a pending advertising recession. More »

Growing Web 2.0 companies like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Slide are biding their time before going public, making sure to run up their value as much as possible to fetch top dollar with an IPO, reports Business Week . It’s a far different approach than companies took before the dot-com bubble burst, when the fast track to an IPO was the goal. More »