Morning Media Newsfeed: Times Co. Posts Loss | Carvin Mulls Buyout

[emailonly]{{{ sbox300x250 }}}[/emailonly] Click here to receive Mediabistro's Morning Media Newsfeed via email. Times Co. Posts Loss, Hurt by Sale of Boston Globe (NYT) The New York Times Company reported a quarterly loss on Thursday, attributable in large part, the company said, to expenses related to the sale of the New England Media Group, which included The Boston Globe and some pension expenses. But analysts said the results were still positive because the company closed the chapter on selling off its portfolio of tangential assets and shifted its focus to its more profitable core product, journalism by The New York Times, its website and the International New York Times, formerly known as The International Herald Tribune. TheWrap The company posted a loss of $24 million, or 16 cents per share, for the three month period ending in October, compared with a gain of $2.7 million or two cents a share in the same period a year ago. Total revenues increased 1.8 percent to $361.7 million, up from $355 million the previous year. That was slightly less than the $417.3 million in revenues Wall Street had projected. Cost cutting paid off at the newspaper company, as operating profit rose to $12.9 million, compared with $8.9 million in the same period a year ago. Bloomberg The publisher now relies more on readers than advertisers for its revenue, and CEO Mark Thompson is working to meet new demand by creating tiered packages of content at different prices. Reuters More troubling is the decrease in digital advertising, once touted as an area of growth as print sales wither. In the third quarter, digital advertising fell 3.4 percent while print ad revenue dropped 1.6 percent. The turn in digital ad sales has to do with the rise of advertising exchanges, which puts pressure on prices. Capital New York The New York Times' sales team got a vote of confidence from Thompson, just two days after a report that the paper of record's sales reps are struggling. On a conference call with Wall Street analysts Thursday morning, Thompson touted Meredith Kopit Levien, the Times' new executive vice president of advertising, who "has already begun to make an impact on the structure and organization of our sales team," he said. NPR’s Twitter Maven Andy Carvin Says He Will Probably Take Buyout (The Washingtonian / Capital Comment) Taking the buyouts announced last month at NPR are longtime producer and news reader Jean Cochran and off-mike veterans Stu Seidel and Kee Malesky. The surprise on the list is social media guru Andy Carvin, who has only been with the organization seven years, and has become a well-known figure online for his coverage of the Arab Spring, helping to expand the role of social media in newsgathering. Poynter / MediaWire “Earlier this fall, NPR announced it would offer buyouts for staff to help balance the company’s budget by reducing the workforce by about 10 percent," Carvin explained. "Surprising even myself, I must admit, I threw my hat into the ring. Last Friday, I learned NPR has accepted my buyout request.” But Carvin hasn’t yet accepted it. The Washington Post / Erik Wemple Buyouts aren’t new to the news industry. The Post, for example, has cycled through a bunch of them dating back about a decade. Yet, here’s a question: Has anyone so brilliantly and nakedly leveraged such an opportunity? USA Today Jumps to Most Widely-Circulated Daily Newspaper (TheWrap) USA Today is the most widely-circulated daily paper in the country, according to the Alliance for Audited Media’s semi-annual report. The paper boasted an almost 70 percent growth year-over-year in average weekly circulation, from 1.71 million to 2.88 million, thanks largely to mobile app usage data being included for the first time. Its print-only circulation, on the other hand, actually dropped by 19 percent. Poynter / MediaWire Trouble is, that’s misleading. The Alliance for Audited Media has tracked a wide range of content distribution methods, including smartphone and tablet apps, for years, according to Neal Lulofs, AAM executive vice president. There’s nothing new in this six-month reporting period allowing USA Today to report visits to its apps as part of its overall circulation number in a way it couldn’t have done before. NY Post “Digital been our biggest area of concentration over the past year," said president and publisher Larry Kramer. About 130,000 of the gain comes from a promotion with daily digital users through the Hilton Hotel chain. [emailonly]{{{ jodslot01 }}}[/emailonly] Time Inc. Shakeup: Editors to Report to Business Side, Editor-in-Chief Martha Nelson Exits (Ad Age / Media News) Time Inc. CEO Joe Ripp began putting his stamp on the publishing company Wednesday, when employees were told that editors will begin reporting to the organization's business side, a reversal that sent a ripple of anxiety through its editorial offices. Editors of the company's magazines, which include People and Time, had previously reported to the company's editor-in-chief. Martha Nelson, a well-regarded veteran of Time Inc. who became its editor-in-chief in January, is leaving as part of the changes. NY Post The realignment atop the giant publisher, effective immediately, is the first big move by Ripp, who is preparing to spin off the company from parent Time Warner sometime next year. Nelson’s position is being eliminated completely. Fortune Media executive Norman Pearlstine is stepping down as Bloomberg LP's chief content officer, in order to take a similar position with Time Inc. Graham Rayman Is Laid Off From Village Voice (Capital New York) The Village Voice has laid off yet another veteran journalist. Staff writer Graham Rayman, a long-time investigative reporter who joined the Voice more than six years ago, was let go Thursday, Capital has learned. Rayman's termination, which was handed down by editor-in-chief Tom Finkel, is the latest in a string of downsizing at the Voice over the past several years. CNN Reporter Files EEOC Complaint Against Time Warner (TVNewser) CNN reporter Josh Levs has filed an EEOC complaint against Time Warner over their family leave policy which he claims is biased. Levs and his wife just had their third child. He claims that under Time Warner rules, all parents of new children have the option of 10 paid weeks off -- except biological fathers. [emailonly]{{{ sbox01 }}}[/emailonly] NBC News Subsidiary’s Deal With The Andersons Raises Old Ethics Questions (The Washington Post / Style) NBC News scored a series of scoops recently when its reporters conducted the first and only TV interviews with Brett Anderson and his daughter, Hannah, the California teenager who was abducted and whose mother and brother were murdered. In TV parlance, the Andersons were big “gets.” The interviews on the Today show, Nightly News and Dateline NBC were hailed by NBC News’ new boss, Deborah Turness, as “a major coup” in a memo to the division’s employees. But now NBC News plans to take its relationship with the Andersons a step further -- into potentially questionable ethical territory. TVNewser The Washington Post‘s Paul Farhi wonders whether NBC is wading “into potentially dicey ethical territory” with a deal to produce a documentary about the sensational murder and kidnapping story that played out over the summer. “No matter how they couch it, they’re offering money in exchange for an exclusive story,” says Kevin Z. Smith, the chairman of the ethics committee of the Society of Professional Journalists. “The networks have figured out new and different approaches” to paying sources, he says. Comcast Is Donating Heavily to Defeat The Mayor Who Is Bringing Gigabit Fiber to Seattle (The Washington Post / The Switch) One of Seattle mayor Mike McGinn's big policy initiatives has been expanding the quality and quantity of high-speed Internet access throughout the city. A public-private partnership plans to offer higher speeds at lower prices than most broadband providers currently offer. And incumbent providers, particularly Comcast, have invested heavily in defeating McGinn in Tuesday's mayoral election. While Comcast denies there is any connection between McGinn's broadband policies and their donations, the company has given thousands of dollars to PACs that have, in turn, given heavily to anti-McGinn groups. On Leaving The Guardian (The Guardian / Glenn Greenwald) As many of you know, I'm leaving the Guardian in order to work with Pierre Omidyar, Laura Poitras, Jeremy Scahill and soon-to-be-identified others on building a new media organization. As I said when this news was reported a couple of weeks ago, leaving The Guardian was not an easy choice, but this was a dream opportunity that was impossible to decline. We do not yet have an exact launch date for the new outlet, but rest assured: I'm not going to disappear for months or anything like that. The new site will be up and running reasonably soon. [emailonly]{{{ sbox02 }}}[/emailonly] Red Sox Drive Solid World Series Ratings (Adweek) In clinching their third World Series title in 10 years, the Boston Red Sox helped Fox post solid, if unspectacular, ratings. According to Nielsen live-plus-same-day data, Wednesday night’s clincher delivered a series-best 19.2 million viewers, an 11.5 household rating and a 5.7 with adults 18-49. The latter marks Fox’s highest prime time rating in the dollar demo since the Season 12 premiere of American Idol drew a 6.0 on Jan. 16. Was Condé Nast Right to Nix Their Internships? (10,000 Words) "Everything I learned about journalism I learned in J-school,” said no one ever. Where I learned best was in my internships -- the good, bad, ugly, paid, unpaid, unpaid (but for school credit!), East Coast, Congress Avenue, random roommate-living, sleeping-on-couches type of internships that many of us have done. Operating under that assumption, I’m still scratching my head as to why Condé Nast decided to can their highly-sought after internship positions altogether. Mother Jones Co-Editor Clara Jeffrey Talks About The Subreddit Ban of Her Magazine (On The Media / TLDR) /R/ politics is one of Reddit's most popular subreddits, with more than three million accounts subscribed. On Monday, its moderators added a bunch of websites to their banned list. The ban means that those sites' work is completely barred from being linked to on /r/ politics. The list includes outlets from across the ideological spectrum: Alternet, Drudge, The Huffington Post, Mother Jones, National Review, Reason, Salon, Vice and Twitter (!). I spoke to Mother Jones co-editor Clara Jeffrey about how the site found out about the ban, and how it's affected them. [emailonly]{{{ sbox03 }}}[/emailonly] Betsy Rothstein Out at FishbowlDC (Politico / Dylan Byers on Media) Betsy Rothstein, the trouble-starting scourge of the Washington media, has resigned as editor of the news and gossip site FishbowlDC. "Whether raging waters or smooth sailing, my three years at FishbowlDC have been the perfect storm. Onto new adventures. Stay tuned...," she tweeted on Thursday. Rothstein told Politico she had "nothing but gratitude for mediabistro," but would not comment on future plans: "I need to go out to the desert and meditate for a while and see what I should do next," she said. Sorry, Would-Be Walt Mossbergs: The Day of The Great Mass-Media Technology Critic Is Over (GigaOM) New Yorker magazine wonders who the “next great technology critic” might be now that Walt Mossberg and David Pogue have moved on -- but the truth is there isn’t going to be one or two, there will be hundreds. 1152 Useful Tips to Produce, Edit And Sell A Great Magazine: A Mr. Magazine Conversation With Men’s Health's Ronan Gardiner And Bill Phillips (Mr. Magazine) When publisher Ronan Gardiner and editor Bill Phillips talk about Men’s Health, the excited animation comes through in their voices and you instantly realize this isn’t your father’s men’s magazine anymore. And it never will be again. 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Morning Media Newsfeed: Times Co. Posts Loss | Carvin Mulls Buyout | USA Today's Circ Up

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