Time Warner’s magazine unit does not have a long future with Time Warner, as the media giant is apparently on the way to selling its magazine business. This information comes from Gordon Crawford, managing director of the Capital Group and a shareholder in the company that insists that the news is correct.
According to Crawford, the company plans to sell its Time Inc. unit, which includes titles such as Time, Fortune, People, and Sports Illustrated in what Crawford sees as an attempt to emulate AOL. By shedding its print division, Time Warner would essentially rely on its television stations and other …read more

The New York Times Company had originally intended to sell the Boston Globe newspaper company because of its financial struggles, but now the situation has turned around for The Boston Globe. However, Times Co. still plans to sell the newspaper, despite the fact that it could continue running the newspaper.
According to Times Co. executives, the process of selecting a buyer will not only depend on price, but also on how well the executives think that the new owner would be able to run the newspaper. Times Co. broke the news to several hundred Globe employees during two close hour-long sessions.
This …read more

The widely-touted war between traditional video rental outlet Blockbuster and newer alternatives like Netflix seems to be decidedly in the latter’s favor, as Blockbuster’s same-store sales continue to suffer. This has led Blockbuster to report results that missed analyst expectations, even though they marked an improvement of the company’s potential losses.
 
Blockbuster has also decided to lower its unadjusted earnings target by $35 million to a range from $270 million to $290 million. According to Blockbuster CEO James Keyes, Blockbuster will not undergo any dramatic changes to turn the company’s fortunes around, despite growing levels of competition from low-cost DVD rental …read more

The second quarter did not go so well for CC Media Holdings Inc. and Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings Inc., with both companies posting a significant drop in revenue thanks to weak advertising spending. CC Media, the owner of Clear Channel Communications, saw revenue of $1.4 billion create a net loss of $3.7 billion.
 
Compared to the company’s performance from a year ago, revenue has fallen from $1.8 billion and earnings from $282.3 million to their current states. From the last quarter to now, revenue fell 21 percent, exacerbating a situation that had already turned sour when Clear Channel incurred an impairment …read more

For those in the internet advertising business, the news must be strange to hear: internet ad sales, which have never been in decline since recovering from 2002’s dot-com burst, have finally slumped 5 percent in the first quarter. This means that the recession, which seemed to be mercifully sparing this sector of the Internet industry.
Much of the money to be made on the Internet comes from advertising, which means that this development is potentially concerning for both website developers and advertisers. Those who rely on Internet advertisement, though, are faring much better than newspapers and broadcasters. A decline in advertising in …read more

The uncertain economy of the last six months has even the most successful business looking at ways to cut money from its budget. Yet, slashing sales and marketing dollars can often have a disastrous effect on the bottom line. Here are five ideas to keep your product or service in customers’ minds without spending a fortune.

1. Start a blog. Seemingly everyone is blogging today…and you should too. You can start a blog on your Web site for very little (or no) money. Adding a daily–or weekly–post about non-sales news in your industry will keep your company …read more

A couple of days ago I wondered why some employers of writers, editors, etc. seem to believe they need the writers in their offices in order to get the work done. I’ve been thinking about this and a couple of things have occurred to me.
There may indeed be situations where the writer needs to be on site, although I have trouble figuring out what those might be. The most obvious is a writing team, like a newspaper or a magazine. There is a synergy that can happen that makes for a better product. Although I’ve seen that happen with groups …read more

If you’ve followed this blog for any length of time, you probably realize I believe every single freelance writer, editor, professional blogger, translator, tech writer, etc., should have their very own website, with their own domain name. It’s easy to do, and I’ve even written an article that will give you the overview you need to get started.
Now, along comes Eric over at Common Sense PR, suggesting that a website should also be a good source for journalists or other media. My first thought was something like, “oh, writers don’t need to worry about that.” And it’s true, his post …read more