Morning Media Newsfeed: FNC Wins Election Night | CBS Launches Digital News Service

[emailonly]{{{ sbox300x250 }}}[/emailonly] Click here to receive Mediabistro's Morning Media Newsfeed via email. Midterm Election TV Ratings: Fox News Tops Broadcast Nets, Beats Cablers Combined (TVNewser) Fox News Channel was the most-watched network -- on broadcast and on cable -- during coverage of the midterm elections. Fox News beat CNN and MSNBC in both total viewers and the adults 25-54 demo, combined during primetime hours. Capital New York FNC, CNN and MSNBC were all down compared to the 2010 midterm elections, and CNN and MSNBC were also down compared to the 2006 midterms, which saw President Bush in his sixth year in office see the Democratic party take control in Congress. All told, an average of just over 10 million people watched the three cable news channels Tuesday night, with an average of nearly 13 million watching on broadcast TV. THR / The Live Feed Fox News Channel boasted a whopping average of 6.3 million viewers for all of primetime. Compared to the last four Tuesdays, FNC's 1.516 million viewers in the core news demo of adults 25-54 was improved by 303 percent. CNN, which has been solidly in second place for the last six months, was up by 480 percent to 812,000. That left MSNBC in third. Coming off of a middling October, the net still surged 315 percent -- albeit only netting 481,000 demo viewers. TVNewser In addition to online coverage, each of the Big 3 broadcast networks produced one-hour primetime midterm election specials at 10 p.m. According to Nielsen overnight time period data, CBS was the clear winner at 10 p.m., averaging 5.367 million viewers to NBC’s 4.270 million and ABC’s 3.507 million. AllFacebook On Election Day, 27 million U.S. Facebook users generated 85 million interactions -- likes, shares and comments -- including those who used the social network’s “I’m a Voter” feature. CBS to Launch Digital News Channel Thursday (Re/code) CBS plans to launch its new digital news channel Thursday, an effort to get the broadcast network into 24-hour news. CBS Interactive head Jim Lanzone confirmed the company’s plans for the news video site during an onstage interview at the Web Summit in Dublin, Ireland. TVNewser The streaming news network, called CBSN, will originate from CBS News HQ in New York. Jeff Glor, anchor of the Sunday edition of CBS Evening News, and CBS News correspondents Elaine Quijano and Michelle Miller, are among the CBS Newsers expected to contribute. Deadline Hollywood CBS CEO Les Moonves announced the CBSN service in his quarterly call with analysts and referenced several other digital initiatives, including an alliance with Sony’s planned online service and a possible direct-to-consumer offering from Showtime in 2015. The network joins its corporate cousin Viacom in agreeing to provide programming for Sony. Mashable Showtime, which is owned by CBS, is a rival to Time Warner's HBO, which will also begin to offer some form of an online subscription service in 2015. Moonves has not been shy about pushing his company into the online business. CBS had already announced that it will begin to offer a comprehensive Internet-based service that will include live TV as well as archived on-demand video of CBS shows. Time Warner Boosts Forecast After Beating Estimates (New York Post / Reuters) Time Warner reported better-than-expected quarterly revenue and profit, helped by higher subscription fees for channels offered by its Turner Broadcasting and HBO businesses. Shares of the company, which also raised its adjusted profit growth forecast for 2014, were up 3.4 percent at $77.50 in morning trading on Wednesday. Capital New York Time Warner’s overall revenues were up 3 percent, while operating income decreased 38 percent, largely due to programming and restructuring costs. Time Warner said it expected to have more than $400 million in severance and restructuring costs, but executives added that it expected to save $450 million as a result of the cost-cutting. The company is also taking a write-off of nearly $500 million on programming it is abandoning, though because some of the shows were licensed from Warner Bros. the actual cost was closer to $340 million. THR Time Warner also raised its full-year earnings outlook, now forecasting high teen percentage growth, up from the low teen gains predicted previously. The earnings report was the company's first since a well-received investor day last month, during which Bewkes said the conglomerate has "more than sufficient scale" and the company would double its earnings over the coming years. NYT During last month’s conference, the company’s marquee cable network, HBO, announced that it would begin offering an Internet streaming service next year that would not require a subscription to a traditional television cable package. The opportunity could be significant. The company has said that there are 80 million homes in the U.S. without HBO. For the quarter, HBO’s revenue grew 10 percent, to $1.3 billion. [emailonly]{{{ jodslot01 }}}[/emailonly] News Corp. Revenue Rises 4 Percent (Variety) News Corp. reported a 4 percent increase in its revenue for the most recent quarter, with a boost from its book publishing and digital real estate and education segments. But advertising revenue for its newspapers continued to fall in its fiscal first quarter 2015. Capital New York Overall revenues in the news and information segment, which also encompasses Dow Jones, decreased 3 percent, or $44 million dollars, with total segment advertising revenues down 7 percent, largely due to weakness in print advertising. Chief executive Robert Thomson touted "considerable strength" at the book publisher HarperCollins and the online real estate company REA Group, where News Corp.'s 62 percent stake boosted digital real estate segment revenues by 24 percent to $112 million. The book publishing unit, where revenues were up 24 percent to $406 million, was bolstered by the acquisition this year of the global romance publisher Harlequin. WSJ / Risk & Compliance Journal News Corp. said Wednesday it spent another $14 million in the last quarter in the investigation into a series of scandals arising from initial misconduct at a defunct tabloid the media company owned. The $14 million figure was lower than the $17 million it spent in the same quarter last year. News Corp. said in August it had spent a total of $169 million in its last fiscal year on the scandal. CBS Quarterly Earnings Exceed Expectations on Political Advertising (THR) CBS on Wednesday reported third-quarter earnings of $3.03 cents per share on $3.37 billion in revenue, beating Wall Street's expectations due in part to political advertising and Thursday Night Football. CBS was expected to earn 73 cents per share on revenue of $3.32 billion. Variety Net income from continuing operations tumbled to $72 million or 13 cents per share in the period, compared with $431 million or 70 cents per share a year earlier. The company cited higher costs associated with TV programming, including the addition of new NFL games on Thursday nights. But the quarter included several non-recurring events. Including a $1.56 billion gain related to a spinoff of CBS Outdoor, CBS had a profit of $1.64 billion or $3.03 a share, compared with $494 million, or 80 cents a share in the year-earlier period. Deadline Hollywood The main Entertainment unit, which includes the CBS TV network and studios, saw a 1 percent increase in revenues to $1.91 billion. The company attributes that to higher licensing, and affiliate and subscription fees. The NFL came with a price: operating income at the Entertainment operation fell 25.4 percent to $294 million largely due to outlays for the games and $8 million in restructuring costs. Tribune Publishing’s First Earnings Report: ‘We Have Much Work to Do’ (Poynter / Biz Blog) With downbeat third quarter results already recorded by McClatchy and the New York Times Co., Tribune Publishing followed suit Wednesday in its first quarterly earnings report and conference call as a public company. Tribune Publishing operated at roughly break even, recording a tiny net loss (less than a tenth of a percent) on revenues of $404 million. Capital New York The Chicago-based newspaper company, which owns the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Baltimore Sun and several other titles, reported a 9.5 percent advertising decline to $221 million, which contributed to a $156,000 loss in net income. Digital ad revenues were down 7.4 percent and total revenues for the three-month period that ended Sept. 28 were down 4.7 percent. Tribune Publishing was spun off from the Tribune Company in August into a standalone newspaper operation. [emailonly]{{{ sbox01 }}}[/emailonly] NYT Names Dean Chang Metro Print Editor (FishbowlNY) The New York Times has tapped Dean Chang to be its Metro section print editor. Chang most recently served as Times’ city editor. He previously worked for the New York Daily News. Capital New York Chang previously oversaw the metro section's coverage of crime and courts, as well as its much talked-about "sin" beat. Shifting Chang to a print-focused role will allow other editors to hone in on the section's Web and mobile operations, section editor Wendell Jamieson said. Weather Channel Cuts 40 More Staffers (TVNewser) Pink slips were handed out Wednesday morning at the Weather Channel. As many as 40 staffers are being cut from the ranks of senior producers, show producers and weather producers. Atlanta Journal-Constitution The eight-month-old morning show with Sam Champion took some cuts but the shrinkage has not impacted on-air staff. Compared to Turner Broadcasting, which cut more than 10 percent of its staff recently, these trims are not as severe on a percentage basis. About 1,475 people were given early retirement or were laid off there, with about 1,000 in Atlanta. Why In-House Innovation Is A Great Plan for Legacy Outlets (CJR / Behind The News) In the last few years, a growing number of media outlets have undergone a critical shift in organizational structure to build innovative products. Rather than focus on retaining customers for platforms that may not be viable, legacy outlets are fostering innovation from within to diversify revenue and stay relevant. It might, dare I say, be trending. [emailonly]{{{ sbox02 }}}[/emailonly] New Media Desk, Several New Hires, One Promotion at Washington Examiner (FishbowlDC) The Washington Examiner Wednesday announced several new hires and one promotion. Former FishbowlDC writer Eddie Scarry is departing Mediaite for the Examiner’s newly created Media Desk, to be joined by T. Becket Adams from the Examiner’s commentary section. Sarah Westwood and Ethan Barton have both also been hired as investigative reporters. And joining in December, Claire Daniel will join the Examiner as a senior digital media strategist. Gray Television Renews With NBC (TVSpy) Gray Television says it has reached an agreement in principle with NBC to renew all of the station group’s network affiliates. The agreement covers 24 stations in 21 markets across the U.S. The terms of the deal were not revealed. Personal Media Publishing Platform Jux.com Shutting Down by End of Month (GigaOM) Reinventing personal media sharing isn’t easy: Salt Lake City, Utah-based Jux.com learned this lesson the hard way over the last few years, and announced Wednesday that it will shut down by the end of the month. [emailonly]{{{ sbox03 }}}[/emailonly] Judy Collins, Woody Allen’s Singing Writer And The Dish on The Definitive Bob Hope Biography (FishbowlNY / Lunch) The usual head-spinning Wednesday scene at Michael’s got an added boost of adrenaline as Michael McCarty and his indefatigable staff presided over the jam-packed dining room while preparing for the evening’s main event. Journalistic Crowdfunding Platform Beacon Signs Deal With Newsweek (GigaOM) Beacon, the crowdfunding-for-journalism platform that launched almost a year ago, continues to sign up new journalists. But it is also growing in a different way -- namely, by signing partnerships with existing media outlets to do crowdfunding campaigns based around a single topic. The latest is a project with Newsweek that was announced on Wednesday. The Verge Appoints A Silicon Valley Editor (Poynter / MediaWire) Casey Newton is The Verge’s new Silicon Valley editor, the technology publication announced Wednesday. He previously covered Silicon Valley as a senior reporter, with editors at Verge HQ in New York overseeing his work. Mediabistro Blogs FishbowlNY Our Interview with Danny Boome, Host of Good Food America Lost Remote MTVOther Launches YouTube Series Braless PRNewser Everyone Still Confused by #AlexFromTarget AgencySpy We Hear… Big Changes Coming to DDB New York 10,000 Words Mashable Wins Election Night with #LegoSenate TVSpy Alaskans Agree with Former Reporter, Say ‘F@*k It! Let’s Legalize Marijuana’ TVNewser CNN Had 24 Reporters on Election Night, But Did Better with Just One (and a Pizza) FishbowlDC Several New Hires, One Promotion at the Washington Examiner SocialTimes How Brands Can Become More Emotionally Intelligent on Social Media AllFacebook For Retailers on FB, the Holiday Shopping Season is Already Well Underway AllTwitter More Voters Following Political Leaders on Social Media Inside Mobile Apps Disney Movies Anywhere Launches on Google Play InsideFacebook Could Brands Find a Space in Facebook’s Rooms? GalleyCat Laura Numeroff Turns to Kickstarter for the Work for Biscuits Series MediaJobsDaily NPR Issues Social Media Reminder to Employees on Election Day UnBeige Barry Friedman, Richard Dupont Among MAD Visionaries Advertise on Our Blog Network

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Morning Media Newsfeed: FNC Wins Election Night | CBS Launches Digital News Service

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