NEWSPAPERS ENHANCING VIDEO CONTENT

The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal each announced upgrades to their video services on Monday. NYTimes.com was relaunched with a new design, including a larger window for its videos, and a navigation system in which the videos appear in channels based on subjects, including World, U.S., Business, Science, Arts, Opinion, etc. Meanwhile, […]

MARKET SOARS; MEDIA STOCKS SOAR HIGHER

The Dow Jones Average rose 490 points on Wednesday — up 4.2 percent — but many media stocks soared even higher. While none of them were directly affected by the major driving forces of the upsurge — an increase in hiring by private businesses in the U.S.; word that central banks will cooperate to find […]

NEWS CORP FACES NEW INVESTIGATION

Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp now faces another investigation following allegations that the European edition of the Wall Street Journal concocted a scheme with a Dutch company to boost its circulation figures and to publish favorable stories about the company in return. In the wake of an apparent breach of ethics — if not the law […]

ANOTHER NEWS CORP SCANDAL EMERGES

Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp has been forced to defend itself on a second front as the British reporter who broke the News of the World phone-hacking story has followed up with a report that News Corp’s European edition of The Wall Street Journal inflated its circulation figures. The story by Nick Davies of Britain’s Guardian […]

STOCKS FALL; MEDIA STOCKS FALL FARTHER

As the overall stock market experienced another plunge in its recent roller-coaster ride, some investors in media stocks hung on for dear life Thursday. The Dow Jones U.S. Broadcasting & Entertainment Total Stock Market Index fell 4 percent, but media companies that rely the most heavily on advertising revenue plunged far more deeply. For a […]

DISNEY SHARES HIT HARD BY RECESSION WORRIES

The Walt Disney Company was clobbered by investors today (Wednesday) as its shares tumbled for a time below their 52-week low, dropping 13 percent — the worst percentage decline of any company on the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500. Investors largely ignored Disney’s better-than-expected quarterly report on Tuesday showing net income up […]

NEWS CORP SCANDAL HITS U.S. AS WALL ST. JOURNAL CHIEF QUITS

Les Hinton, CEO of Rupert Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal and the Dow Jones news service resigned today (Friday), becoming the first high-profile casualty in America of the continued scandal stemming from allegations of telephone hacking by the now-shuttered News of the World. Hinton had headed News International, the umbrella group for News Corp’s British newspapers, […]