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MURDOCH'S EDITORS KNOW HIS VOICE
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Martin Peers martin.peers@wsj.com and Aaron O. Patrick aaron.patrick@wsj.com]
Some owners of newspapers seldom, if ever, speak to their editors. Rupert Murdoch is not one of them. To generations of newspaper editors, the News Corp. chairman and chief executive's voice is familiar: He telephones to pass on news tips or story ideas, complain about the tone of the paper's coverage, or just catch up on gossip. Mr. Murdoch's hands-on style differs markedly from the traditions of the publisher he now wants to buy. The Bancroft family, the controlling shareholder of Wall Street Journal parent Dow Jones & Co., has long maintained a distance from the company's operations. The family, which owns 24.7% of the equity but through supervoting stock has voting control, has board representation but no involvement with direct management of the paper. While the editorial page has a conservative political viewpoint, a strict separation is enforced between the editorial page and the newsroom, designed to ensure opinion and news coverage don't mix. The Bancroft family is steeped in that culture, and a sense of pride in the company's long history and independence has led them to endure an often-sluggish stock price over the years. For that reason, how Mr. Murdoch might change the culture of the Journal is likely to be an issue as Dow Jones and the Bancrofts consider his bid.
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB117815037579090204,00.html?mod=todays...
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WHY NEWSPAPERS ARE BUYOUT TARGETS
[SOURCE: The Christian Science Monitor, AUTHOR: Ron Scherer]
Even for America's newspaper families, the media oligarchies that control many of the nation's broadsheets, the economics of continuing to publish a newspaper is challenging. Circulation is hard to maintain when information is free on the Internet. Meanwhile, there are fewer and fewer department stores, which are traditional advertisers in big city papers. And within the newspaper families themselves, an increasing number of members want to diversify their assets, as they try to get a better return on their investment. For some families, one solution has been a sale. From a pure business standpoint, the Murdoch bid of $5 billion, or $60 a share, might make sense for News Corp., whose media empire includes Fox Broadcasting. This fall, Fox plans to roll out a business news channel to compete with CNBC. Ownership of Dow Jones would thus give Fox access to reporters and information. If Mr. Murdoch or another media company were to take over Dow Jones, some worry that it would mean yet more concentration in the industry. "We're seeing a decline in the commitment of resources for doing journalism," says Bob McChesney, professor of communications at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Mark Crispin Miller, who teaches media, culture, and communications at New York University, notes that some members of Congress are worried about this trend. But, he adds, "No one will go near it."
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0503/p03s02-usec.html

TRIBUNE PETITIONS FCC FOR WAIVER
[SOURCE: TVWeek, AUTHOR: Ira Teinowitz]
The Tribune Employee Stock Ownership Plan is asking the Federal Communications Commission to let it keep the Chicago Tribune, Newsday and the Los Angeles Times, as well as WGN-TV, WPIX-TV and KTLA-TV and several of its other newspapers and TV stations, pending the FCC adopting new media-ownership rules. In filings Tuesday made necessary by Tribune Co.'s $8.2 billion sale to Sam Zell and the ESOP, the company argues that its TV stations operate in competitive media markets and that the FCC has already decided once that newspaper-broadcast cross ownership limits are "no longer in the public interest" as part of media ownership rules. The cross-ownership rule bars companies that own a broadcast station or newspaper in a market from buying each other. The ownership rules were set aside by an appellate court and never took effect. However, Tribune pointed to the court's suggestion that the cross ownership change could be justified in its request for the FCC to grant it a waiver to keep the stations until it finalizes a new set of media-ownership rules. In separate filings on each market, Tribune argues that having joint ownership benefits consumers in the markets and doesn't affect advertisers. It also cites growing competition, including with the Internet.
http://www.tvweek.com/news.cms?newsId=11985
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CLEAR CHANNEL HAS DEALS FOR 362 RADIO STATIONS
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal]
Clear Channel said it has entered definitive agreements to sell 362 radio stations in 72 markets for a total of about $820 million since beginning its efforts in the fall to sell its television stations and 448 radio stations in 88 markets. Clear Channel said it is continuing to look for buyers for the remaining 86 stations in 16 markets. It expects to receive about $1.88 billion in after-tax proceeds for TV and radio stations under definitive agreements.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB117816313126390625.html?mod=todays_us_ma...
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