Media Industry (Print, Publishing, Digital etc.)

[winston]

Conrad Black released from federal prison in Fla.

Official: Ex-media mogul Conrad Black released from federal prison in Fla. on $2 million bond

DON BABWIN
AP News

Jul 21, 2010 18:11 EDT

Former media mogul Conrad Black quietly left a federal prison in the blazing central Florida heat Wednesday, free on bond after serving just two years of a 6 1/2-year sentence for defrauding investors, officials said.

Earlier in the day, U.S. District Judge Amy St. Eve in Chicago set his bond at $2 million and ordered him not to leave the country, pending the outcome of the appeal of his 2007 conviction.

She set a Friday court hearing for the former Hollinger International Inc. chairman to hear conditions of his release and also was considering a request from Black's attorneys to let him return to Canada, where he owns a home in Toronto.

Black left a low security facility at the Coleman Federal Correctional Complex undetected by the dozens of reporters waiting in the nearly 100 degree weather outside the rural prison. Prison spokesman Gary Miller in Coleman, Fla., confirmed Black's release but declined to offer details.

Black arrived at his oceanfront Palm Beach mansion hours later in a black SUV. Reporters and photographers swarmed the vehicle but it didn't stop as it went through a gate that closed behind it.

Attorney Miguel Estrada said Black would prefer not to stay in Palm Beach for long.

"Palm Beach is not an option long term," Estrada said after the Chicago hearing. "His home is in Canada."

Estrada said the Federal Bureau of Prisons issued Black an ID that would allow him to fly to Chicago. The bond was paid by Black's friend and former business partner, Roger Hertog.

In 2007, Black and three former Hollinger executives were convicted of defrauding shareholders out of $6.1 million. One of the prosecutors' arguments was that Black deprived the company of his faithful services as a corporate officer, breaking the so-called "honest services" law.

Black also was convicted of obstruction of justice after jurors saw a video of him carrying boxes of documents out of his offices, loading them into his car and driving off with them. The documents were sought by government investigators.

The U.S. Supreme Court last month limited the scope of the honest services law, leaving it to the 7th Circuit to determine whether to overturn Black's conviction in whole or in part. The appeals court Monday granted Black's motion for bail as he appeals his fraud conviction.

It remains unclear, however, where Black's case stands in light of the Supreme Court's ruling. Before their weekslong deliberation in 2007, jurors were instructed they could convict Black either on the conventional or "honest-services" types of fraud. But it's unclear which charge the jury relied on.

Federal prosecutors have said they would continue to urge any honest services convictions for Black be upheld. U.S. Attorney's office spokesman Randall Samborn in Chicago declined to discuss the case Wednesday pending the appeal.

Hollinger International once owned the Chicago Sun-Times, The Daily Telegraph of London, The Jerusalem Post and hundreds of community papers in the U.S. and Canada.

At the core of the charges against Black was his strategy, starting in 1998, of selling off the bulk of the small community papers, which were published in smaller cities across the United States and Canada.

Black and other Hollinger executives received millions of dollars in payments from the companies that bought the community papers in return for promises they would not return to compete with the new owners.

Prosecutors said the executives pocketed the money, which they said belonged to shareholders, without telling Hollinger's board of directors.

But Black's lawyers have maintained that federal prosecutors failed to muster adequate evidence that he defrauded anyone or tried to hide key documents.

___

Associated Press writers Sophia Tareen and Karen Hawkins in Chicago and Brian Skoloff in Palm Beach, Fla., contributed to this report.

Source: AP News

[winston]

Who Owns The Media?

The 6 Monolithic Corporations That Control Almost Everything We Watch, Hear And Read

Back in 1983, approximately 50 corporations controlled the vast majority of all news media in the United States. Today, ownership of the news media has been concentrated in the hands of just six incredibly powerful media corporations. T

hese corporate behemoths control most of what we watch, hear and read every single day. They own television networks, cable channels, movie studios, newspapers, magazines, publishing houses, music labels and even many of our favorite websites.

Sadly, most Americans don't even stop to think about who is feeding them the endless hours of news and entertainment that they constantly ingest. Most Americans don't really seem to care about who owns the media. But they should. The truth is that each of us is deeply influenced by the messages that are constantly being pounded into our heads by the mainstream media.

http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/arch ... r-and-read

[iam802]

Post Co. discloses Newsweek's price tag: $1

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Post-Co-d ... et=&ccode=

Notes:
- AOL recently acquired TechCrunch (a popular tech blog) for about US$40M
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUS321877707920100928

See the irony?

[winston]

Another sign that things are not that hot ? Or is it because the industry is dying a slow death ? I used to read 3 to 4 newspapers a day but nowadays, I read one every few days ..

US Newspaper Ad Revenue Drops

US newspaper advertising revenue declined for the 20th quarter in a row in the three months ending in June, according to Newspaper Association of America (NAA) figures published Thursday.

Total print and online advertising spending fell 6.93 per cent to US$5.99 billion in the second quarter compared with a year ago, the NAA said.

Print advertising spending declined 8.88 per cent to US$5.19 billion, while online advertising spending grew 8 per cent to US$803.4 million, rising for the sixth quarter in a row.

Among the categories of advertising, classified ads suffered the biggest drop during the quarter, declining 10.85 per cent to US$1.24 billion, the NAA figures showed.

NAA’s president and chief executive John Sturm welcomed the continued rise in online advertising spending during the quarter.

“This trend clearly demonstrates the progress that newspapers have made, and continue to make, in leveraging the power and reach of their digital platforms,” Sturm said in a statement.

He said online advertising accounted for 14 per cent of all newspaper advertising spending through the first half of the year, up from 12 per cent for the same period last year.

Sturm also said the industry was experiencing “the effects of a slowing economic recovery, particularly in those categories most dependent on consumer spending.”

US newspapers have been grappling with declining print advertising revenue, eroding circulation and the migration of readers to free news on the web, and online ad revenue growth has not kept pace with losses on the print side.

Source: AFP

[iam802]

Oracle of Omaha Buys His Hometown Paper

http://paidcontent.org/article/419-orac ... own-paper/

The newspaper industry is savoring some good news with the announcement that Berkshire Hathaway is taking over the Omaha World-Herald Company for $150 million. The deal represents a further expansion of newspaper holdings by Warren Buffett’s legendary company.

Berkshire Hathaway released a statement on Wednesday that it is in the process of acquiring the flagship Omaha World-Herald as well as six other Nebraska daily papers and several weeklies

“The World-Herald delivers solid profits and is one of the best-run newspapers in America,” said Buffett whose company also owns the Buffalo News and is the largest holder of Washington Post (NYSE: WPO) stock.

Buffett explained his view of the purchase and the industry to the World-Herald:

“It’s not a crazy price. It certainly is not a bargain price,” he said. “I was willing to pay more than I would have for some papers I don’t feel have as good of a future.’‘

He said that the newspaper industry has obviously been going through many challenges in the digital age. But he said the Buffalo News has dealt with its problems and is profitable, as is the World-Herald.

“I think newspapers . . . have a decent future. It won’t be like the past. But there are still a lot of things newspapers can do better than any other media. They not only can be sustained, but are important.’’

Buffett has in the past questioned the direction of the newspaper industry, including its decision to give away content. He has also called the Buffalo News holding “not totally rational” and told a shareholder meeting in 2009 that he wouldn’t buy most US newspapers “at any price.”

But he seems to have overcome these misgivings as Berkshire Hathaway will pay $150 million in cash and take on another $50 million to acquire the Nebraska papers. According to the CEO of the Omaha World-Herald Company, the acquisition will allow it to escape a restrictive ownership structure which has forced the company to continually reacquire controlling share interests from outgoing employees.

The World-Herald story added that the financial wizard still reads five newspapers a day and that he has a sentimental attachment to them. Buffett says his parents met at a Nebraska student newspaper and that the $5,000 he earned as a paper boy formed the basis of the investment that eventually grew into Berkshire Hathaway.

...

[iam802]

Maybe not just Singapore. Worldwide 'publishing' business is facing tough challenges. 'Dead wood business' need to change.

I suspect lots of 'old men' books will be left on shelves.

So, when will Amazon Kindle be available in Singapore. Or is MICA imposing restrictions that make it difficult for ebooks to be available in Singapore easily?

--
Page One bookstore at VivoCity to close in February

http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNew ... 47645.html

[winston]

Online ad revenue overtakes newsprint in China

China's revenue from online advertising was higher than the equivalent in newsprint for the first time in 2011, a study by the market research firm iResearch said, quoted in the Global Times Saturday.

Web advertising in the world's second largest economy generated 51.19 billion yuan ($8.11 billion), while newsprint advertising brought in 45.36 billion yuan, iResearch said, a trend it predicted would continue in 2012.

The three largest advertising platform providers last year in terms of revenue, according to Beijing-based iResearch, were Baidu, dominant on the Chinese market, followed by Taobao's e-commerce sites and search engine Google.

At the end of 2011, there were 513 million internet users in China, up by 56 million over one year. Some 194 million made purchases online -- an increase of 20.8%, according to the China Internet Network Information Center.

In the third term of 2011, online ad revenue increased by 83.1% compared to the same period in 2010, Analysis International said, reported by state media in November.

Source: AFP Global Edition

[winston]

There Are Currently 1,350 English-Language Daily Newspapers in the United States, Down From 1,400 Five Years

Source: AFP Global

[iam802]

I recall that even Singapore Airlines is experimenting with doing away with the in-flight magazines...with magazines or news to be supply on-screen.

It just shows the shift that this industry is facing.

Just like when is the last time one buys ST for news

News either appear on the Internet first..or in Wan Bao

[iam802]

Wikipedia kills Encyclopedia..

When I was still a student ages ago, a rich classmate shared that the only reason that he had a set of Encyclopedia :

Hidden Content:

... because it looks nice on the bookshelf.

--
Encyclopaedia Britannica to end print editions

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/03/14/en ... -editions/