Tag Archives: News event
Deal for CNBC parent closes
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Cable company C0mcast Corp. has completed its acquisition of NBC, which includes business news channel CNBC, multiple media organizations reported Saturday.
Reuters reports, “Comcast chief executive Brian Roberts said on Saturday that the transaction creates ‘the ideal entertainment and distribution company.’
“Comcast sees it as a potent combination alongside its 23 million video subscribers and nearly 17 million Internet subscribers.
“The Philadelphia-based company hopes to take advantage of an evolving media world as viewing habits change and audiences expect to find their favorite entertainment on the TV set as well as the PC, tablet and smartphone.”
Read more here.
Why Thomson Reuters is launching a new ad campaign
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Elaine Wong, the media and marketing reporter for Forbes, writes Monday about why Thomson Reuters is starting a new ad campaign using a new ad slogan.
Wong writes, “The combined entities launched a campaign, which centered on the theme of ‘Intelligent Information,’ right after that. While that effort succeeded in raising the newly formed brand’s awareness level to 90 percent, the majority of its consumers were still not quite familiar with the scope of Thomson Reuters’ businesses, per Eileen Lynch, the company’s global head of brand strategy, advertising and marketing. That is, existing clients might have known about just one or two frequently used Thomson Reuters services, but not the rest.
“Thomson Reuters sees great opportunity for growth if business customers are familiar with its whole suite of products, which includes data pertinent to those in the financial, legal, tax, accounting, healthcare, science and media professions. ‘The largest driver was this sense that people really understood us in the vertical they would engage with us in…They gave us great credit in the space they were comfortable in, but didn’t know we were in all these [other verticals] as well,’ Lynch says.
“For instance, a lawyer using Thomson Reuters’ legal information service may greatly benefit if he or she knew about or had access to similar resources in the legal and healthcare space. That’s because business is increasingly becoming more global, and many sectors require outside or cross-knowledge of other industries, Thomson Reuters says. Plus, the company’s consumer set now includes more individuals at the CEO level, so ‘it’s important for them to understand the breadth of these offerings,’ Lynch says.
“And the timing itself makes sense. Over the past year, Thomson Reuters has been heavily ramping up its product offerings in each of its core sectors. In May 2010, Thomson Reuters introduced ‘Insider,’ a video platform for those in the financial community. It followed that up a few days later with an announcement for Westlaw Expert Center, a ‘one-stop, comprehensive resource for finding, researching and connecting with expert witnesses,’ the company, at the time, said.
Read more here.
Comcast deal for NBC includes stipulations that Bloomberg requested
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The Federal Communications Commission ruled Tuesday that cable operator Comcast could acquire NBC Universal, which owns business news network CNBC, but it included some stipulations that rival Bloomberg L.P., which owns Bloomberg Television, had lobbied for.
Brian Stelter of the New York Times writes, “Broadly, the Federal Communication Commission said that Comcast must not favor its own content over competitors’ content on its cable systems. Specifically, the commission said that ‘if Comcast neighborhoods its news (including business news) channels, it must include all unaffiliated news (or business news) channels in that neighborhood.’
“In the deal, Comcast will own CNBC, a rival to Bloomberg TV. Essentially, Bloomberg wanted to make sure that if Comcast clusters together news channels, Comcast won’t leave Bloomberg TV out of that group.
“‘In today’s order, the F.C.C. has taken strong action to preserve independent news programming, and protect competitors against discrimination,’ Dan Doctoroff, the president of Bloomberg L.P., said in a statement. ‘The F.C.C. has recognized the critical importance of neighborhooding and ensuring that independent channels are treated fairly and consumers are protected.’”
Read more here.
Business NH magazine sold
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Business NH magazine, a monthly publication covering New Hampshire business, has been sold to its associate publisher, according to published reports.
Charles McMahon of the Portsmouth Herald writes, “Mahoney, a Portsmouth resident, sold Millyard Communications Inc., the publisher of Business NH Magazine and the producer of the Made in NH Try It and Buy It Expo and seven other statewide events, to Heidi Copeland of Peterborough, the magazine’s associate publisher.
“The transfer in ownership became official Dec. 31. Terms of the transactions were not disclosed.
“‘The team at Millyard has done a superlative job covering the New Hampshire business community and featuring issues that matter to the magazine’s readership,’ Mahoney said.
“Business NH Magazine started in 1983 and was touted as New Hampshire’s first statewide monthly business publication. Mahoney purchased it in 2003.”
Read more here.
USA Today buys tech news site
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David Kaplan of PaidContent.org reports that USA Today has purchased Reviewed.com, a tech news site that covers gadgets.
Kaplan writes, “Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Robin Liss, Reviewed.com’s founder and CEO, will remain at the head of the Boston-based site.
“The purchase comes a few months after USAT’s major reorg, that included over 100 layoffs and reoriented its news operations around ‘content rings’ instead of its four traditional departments of news, money, life and sports.
“In a statement, Dave Hunke, USAT’s president and publisher, described the move as part of the paper’s integrated consumer media strategy. For the past year, Gannett has also been trying to provide more more marketing programs for advertisers outside of direct sponsorships of its content.”
Read more here.
Dolan buys another data firm
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The Dolan Co., which owns business newspapers across the country, announced Wednesday that it acquired DataStream Content Solutions LLC, a which provides federal legislative and regulatory data.
The terms were not disclosed. Its subsidiary Potomac Publishing was included in the transaction.
The Minneapolis-based company has made a big push into government data in the past four months. In November, it announced that it has created a legislative reporting and data service in conjunction with Telran Inc. In August, it acquired Federal News Service, the provider of verbatim transcripts of important events in the nation’s capital.
“DataStream’s successful subscription-based model is a good example of how we plan to grow this part of The Dolan Co. in the future,” CEO James Dolan said in a statement.
DataStream’s processes and technology transform highly complex and unstructured data into valuable products and services for its business and government clients. It specializes in applying XML markup language to convert complex and unstructured data into “smarter” forms, allowing flexible queries and dynamic database updates.
Dolan owns the Long Island Business News, Mississippi Business Journal, the Colorado Springs Business Journal, the Idaho Business Review and the Daily Journal of Commerce in Portland, Ore., among others.
Read more here.
South Carolina biz publications sold to private investment group
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Charleston Regional Business Journal, GSA Business, the Columbia Regional Business Report and SCBIZ magazine have been sold to a private investment group, according to a story on the Charleston paper’s Web site.
All four publications are located in South Carolina. All had been owned by Brown Publishing, which had gone through a Chapter 11 bankruptcy court reorganization earlier this year.
The story states, “SC Business purchased the publications from a holding company that had bought the publications from the bankruptcy estate of Ohio-based Brown Publishing Co.
“SC Business consummated the purchase with capital from Virginia Capital Partners LLC, a Richmond, Virginia based private investment group. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
“Existing management will remain in their current roles with Lisa Jones as publisher of GSA Business and Bob Bouyea as publisher of the Columbia Regional Business Report. Grady Johnson, who has been named president and who will continue as group publisher, is looking forward to growing the business.
“‘We are anxious to return our focus to growth and serving the state’s business community. With the assistance of Virginia Capital, we look forward to continuing our mission as South Carolina’s media engine for economic growth,’ Johnson said.”
Read more here. Virginia Capital is also an investor in Virginia Business, a monthly business magazine.
Other former Brown Publishing business publications that have been sold in recent months include Utah Business magazine, the The Business Ledger in Naperville, Ill. and the Fort Worth Business Press and Collin County Business Press in Texas.
Law journal can publish info about company investigation
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Keith Alexander of The Washington Post reports Saturday that a judge lifted a temporary restraining order that had prevented the National Law Journal from publishing information about a federal government agency investigation into juice manufacturer POM Wonderful.
Alexander writes, “But on Wednesday, the law journal filed an emergency appeal, seeking to overturn Bartnoff’s temporary restraining order. Then on Friday, nine media organizations, including The Washington Post, the New York Times, Dow Jones & Co., the Associated Press and the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, filed a brief with the District’s appellate court supporting the law journal’s request.
“By Friday afternoon, POM attorneys had asked Bartnoff to rescind the order. After hours of telephone calls between Bartnoff and attorneys for POM and the law journal, Bartnoff lifted the order that prevented the publication from identifying the agency, the Federal Trade Commission.
“‘We have won our fight,’ David L. Brown, editor in chief of the National Law Journal, said after the judge lifted the order. The publication is distributed to about 15,000 lawyers and judges.”
Read more here.
Forbes CEO sued by Kozlowski
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Dennis Kozlowski, the former CEO of Tyco International who is now in prison, is suing Forbes CEO Steve Forbes for libel, reports Jonathan Stempel and Jennifer Saba of Reuters.
Stempel and Saba write, “In papers filed Friday with the New York State Supreme Court in Manhattan, Kozlowski alleged that ‘false and defamatory statements’ about him were published in Forbes’ 2009 book ‘Power, Ambition, Glory: The Stunning Parallels Between Great Leaders of the Ancient World and Today … and the Lessons You Can Learn.’
“The complaint seeks unspecified compensatory damages, plus punitive damages equal to triple the compensatory award. John Prevas, a faculty member at Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida, and co-author of the book, is also a defendant.
“Forbes is editor-in-chief of Forbes magazine, and Random House, publisher of the book, is owned by Germany‘s Bertelsmann AG.”
Read more here.
Who "owns" business news?
by Chris Roush
Washington & Lee journalism ethics professor Edward Wasserman writes in the Miami Herald about the tricky question of who owns news after it’s been reported, using the recent court case between Briefing.com and Dow Jones & Co., the parent of Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal, as his news peg.
“That’s why it’s important that earlier this month a financial news website called Briefing.com paid an undisclosed sum to settle a suit brought by Dow Jones & Co., the worldwide business news powerhouse. Dow Jones sued in April to stop the Chicago-based website from helping itself to breaking news off the Dow newswire. During two weeks in February, Briefing.com allegedly copied 72 headlines and parts of 107 articles within minutes of their appearance on the Dow wire, according to a Reuters report.
“Now, what’s most notable about this case is that Dow Jones didn’t just allege copyright infringement. Copyright prohibits stealing somebody else’s words. It protects expression, not ideas. If Dow broke a story, copyright alone wouldn’t stop another website from rewriting that story and posting it.
“But Dow sued under another principle as well, the notion of ‘hot news.’ This is a somewhat vague doctrine that dates from a 1918 Supreme Court decision upholding a news service’s right to claim breaking news as ‘quasi property,’ according to an analysis in the University of Minnesota’s Silha Bulletin. That means the authors who broke the news could claim an exclusive right to the information itself, at least for a time.”
Read more here.