Murdoch's Paywall Expands

From a News International press release:

From June, the new sites, www.thetimes.co.uk and www.thesundaytimes.co.uk, will be available for a charge of £1 for a day’s access or £2 for a week’s subscription. Payment will give customers access to both sites. The weekly subscription will also give access to the epaper and certain new applications. Access to the digital services will be included in the seven-day subscriptions of print customers to The Times and The Sunday Times.

Pay Wall Coming for NYT; Content Deal with Apple?

Following on the heels of news that Rupert Murdoch has started to build pay walls around his news content, reports out of New York magazine indciate that NYT is about to follow with its own pay walls, and perhaps a content deal with Apple:

New York Times Chairman Arthur Sulzberger Jr. appears close to announcing that the paper will begin charging for access to its website, according to people familiar with internal deliberations. After a year of sometimes fraught debate inside the paper, the choice for some time has been between a Wall Street Journal-type pay wall and the metered system adopted by the Financial Times, in which readers can sample a certain number of free articles before being asked to subscribe. The Times seems to have settled on the metered system.

One personal friend of Sulzberger said a final decision could come within days, and a senior newsroom source agreed, adding that the plan could be announced in a matter of weeks. (Apple's tablet computer is rumored to launch on January 27, and sources speculate that Sulzberger will strike a content partnership for the new device, which could dovetail with the paid strategy.) It will likely be months before the Times actually begins to charge for content, perhaps sometime this spring.

Citi Never Sleeps,' Says the Bank's Advertising Slogan. But Its Directors Apparently Do...

....so says WSJ, as the Rupert Murdoch media empire has gone into attack mode against the Citigroup board of directors.

A New York Post editorial is calling for all of the directors to be removed and the Wall Street Journal saying most of them did not deserve to remain. Murdoch owns both papers.

Says WSJ:

When taxpayers are being asked to provide the equivalent of $1,000 each in guarantees on Citi's dubious investments, how can these men possibly deserve to remain on the board?

WSJ calls for the resignation of Chairman Sir Win Bischoff, who has held senior positions at Citi since 2000, and seven fellow directors, former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, John Deutsch, Richard Parsons, Franklin Thomas, Michael Armstrong, Alain Belda, and Kenneth Derr, who have all served for more than 9 years.

NyPo keeps things simple.

The Headline: BOUNCE THESE BOZO BANKERS

The Conclusion:

There should be no mistake about where the responsibility resides.

That would be with the Citigroup board of directors - and Robert Rubin in particular.

News Corp. 4Q Profit Rises 27%

Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. earned $1.13 billion, or 43 cents per share, during its fiscal fourth quarter. A year ago the company earned $890 million, or 28 cents per share. The company's revenue jumped 17% to $8.6 billion.

News Corp does not report results on the basis of continuing operations, making year-to-year comparisons somewhat inexact as its lineup of properties changes. Last year the company divested its large stake in DirectTV, sold its interest in Gemstar-TV Guide International and other properties, introduced the business channel and other ventures, and acquired Dow Jones & Company.

"Although we clearly face more challenging macro-economic conditions in fiscal ’09, we’re well positioned to deliver continued, if somewhat less robust growth," Murdoch, chairman and CEO of News Corp., said in a statement.

News Corp. displayed double-digit percentage income growth in all business segments except television, where income declined by 28% as ad revenue slid.

Filmed entertainment income more than doubled to $220 million from $106 million a year ago. The company said the quarter featured several successful home entertainment releases, including "Juno" and "27 Dresses."

Cable network programming profit increased by 10% from a year ago, helped by growth of 14% from Fox News Channel.

Despite the turmoil in the newspaper industry News Corp.’s newspapers and information services business saw a 17% jump in full-year earnings. The increase stemmed from revenue growth in Australia and the addition of Dow Jones, the publisher of The Wall Street Journal.

News Corp.’s book publishing unit, namely HarperCollins, boosted its quarterly income by $7 million to $28 million. The company pointed to strong sales of a number of titles, including “Bright Shiny Morning” and “Stolen Innocence.”

WSJ Frontpage Coverage of Nothing

Given the near useless changes in naked short-selling rules announced by SEC Chairman Chris Cox, it is quite remarkable to see this front page headline from WSJ:

SEC Moves to Curb Short-Selling

The SEC didn't move to curb short-selling. As we explained, yesterday, it made a small technical change to its naked short-selling rules, which should have about as much impact on market activity as the impact of my eating a donut would have on global warming.

Apparently, WSJ staffers are taking to heart Rupert Murdoch's order to come up with headlines that sell newspapers, damn the truth.

Then, of course, Chris Cox must be a good source for WSJ staffers, since the ridiculousness doesn't stop with the headline. Get a load of these breathless WSJ lead paragraphs for an essentially useless change in naked short selling rules:

The Securities and Exchange Commission took unprecedented action against short sellers on Tuesday, acting on a widespread concern that negative bets against bank and brokerage stocks might be exacerbating the financial sector's woes.

In a dramatic emergency order, the SEC said it would immediately move to curb improper short selling in the stocks of struggling mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, as well as those of 17 financial firms, including Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch & Co...

The actions represent one of the most extensive attempts by a government agency in recent years to control short selling.

Is WSJ serious? "Dramatic emergency order"? Useless emergency order is more like t.

Wall Street Journal Newstand Price Increased

On July 28, WSJ will increase the price of its newstand price by 50 cents, to $2.00. After the paper increased its cover price from $1 to $1.50 last year, average single copy sales fell by about 8%.

But, we should be getting more fun front page headlines. "The paper's editors are being urged to think more about how they can use the front page to boost newsstand sales — not something that has traditionally been a major focus," reports Jeff Bercovici at Portfolio.

Michael Ames Reports...

...from Sun Valley that there's nothing to report at the annual Allen Mogul's Conference .

Even Rupert Murdoch agrees, according to Ames:

Friday night and Rupert Murdoch was back in the Duchin Room lounge, sipping drinks. I asked him if there was any sense in sending so much press to Allen & Co.

"No."

So why are so many of them here?

"They think they will sniff something out," Murdoch told me. "But there's no story, aside from me crawling on all fours looking for my wedding ring."

Ames full report is here.

Rupert Murdoch Loses His Wedding Ring

For real.

He got drunk at a lodge bar in Sun Valley (where this week's mogul summit is being held) last night, and after all the other moguls went back to their rooms, Murdoch hung around the lobby looking for his ring. "So began a frantic 15-minute scramble among reporters hungry to please the mogul," Reuters reports. But alas, it's still missing.

Story via Gawker