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With rumors of mergers and acquisitions still swirling, Tribune Co. today sold the two smallest (by circulation) newspapers in its portfolio to Gannett. The Greenwich Time and the Stamford Advocate have modest readership but are in premium advertising market. (As much as any newpaper ad market could be considered premium in the currently difficult print ad marketplace.

At a sales price of only $73m, the transaction is small for Tribune but it fits with the company’s stated goal of liquidating at least $500m in non-core assets. The sale may or may not help with Tribunes ongoing effort to sell itself as a whole.

Getty Images, one of the dominant companies in the Stock Photo industry, and a company comfortable with growth via acquisition, announced it would acquire the holdings of MediaVast, Inc (the parent of photoservice Wireimage) for approximately $200m in cash. The deal will give Getty an increased archive of celebrity photos and video to add to its already vast library of images and video, including the royalty-free istockphoto.com that it acquired in 2006. (Wireimage owns the largest entertainment photo and video archive in the industry).

Wireimage will retain its photographers, executive staff and name. Wireimage and all of Mediavast’s other assets, which also include the Film Magic and Contour Photos business lines, will be incorporated in the editorial division of Getty’s business which focuses on providing images for new services.

The deal will likely close in the next two months but may draw some antitrust regulatory oversight or review before being completed.

The list of potential suitors for the Tribune Co. is starting to read like a supermarket tabloid about celebrity couples.  The Tribune Co which owns a range of media and entertainment properties including the LA Times, Newsday, more than 20 TV stations, the Chicago Cubs, and sizeable investments in Food Network, Career Builder, Topix and others,  has had itself on the market since around September 2006 around which time S&P lowered the company’s credit status to “junk.”  

Since special committee was formed by the Board of Directors to oversee the process, rumors and reports have put Tribune in bed with virtually every private equity company from the Blackstone Group to the Carlyle Group.   Billionaire moguls have also been rumored on the dance card.  Last month the Financial Times reported Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp was interested in taking a substantial minority stake.  The Wall Street Journal separately reported investors Eli Broad and Ronald Burke had submitted a bid.  Now the Chicago Tribune is reporting that Chicago local, and real estate mogul, Sam Zell is trying to structure a deal.

Why is this deal so hard to get done?  The simple answer is some combination of three things Click to Read More

Gannett Co  (NYSE: GCI), the nations largest newspaper company based on circulation volume, reported Q4 earnings.

The company announced net income was up 3% on the quarter.  Earnings were up $10.2m to $353.5m ($1.51/share).  Revenue was up 7.5% to $2.21b.  Both returns beat analyst consensus estimates.

In the rough newpaper ad market, the company had ad revenue up 3.7% but that was partly attributed to an increase in December from an extra week.  USA Today was the best performer with 13% ad growth (8% if adjusted to remove the extra week).

The television station holdings had Q4 revenue of $270.6m, up 30.3%.

More detailed press coverage on Gannett’s finances can be found at:

Yahoo Finance
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Marketwatch

New York Times  (NYSE: NYT), reported Q4 earnings.

The company took an impairment charge of $814m to for the declining value of the Boston Globe property.  Inclusive of that charge, for Q4 the times reported a loss of $648m equal to EPS per share of ($4.50) versus $0.43 for the prior year.

Revenue came in at $931m, up from $893.   By division, advertising accounted for $626m and circulation $235. Other divisions provided $70m.   All three categories were up over Q4 of the prior year.

More detailed press coverage on New York Times’ finances can be found at:

Yahoo Finance
Google Finance
Marketwatch

Getty Images (NYSE: GYI), owner of istockphoto.com and its own library of stock video and film footage, released earnings for the 4th quarter.

4th quarter revenues were up 9.5% to $203.5m. For the fiscal year, revenue reported was up 10% to $807.3m.  Royalty free licensing revenue was up 15% in Q4 and 13% on the year. Rights managed growth was down 1% for the quarter but up 3% on the year.

Film footage, as opposed to still images accounted for 5% of total revenue.

Internationally, 46% of Q4 sales were from the Americas.  46% originated in Europe, Middle East or Africa (EMEA).  Only 8% of sales came from the Asia Pacific region.

More detailed press coverage on Getty Images’  finances can be found at:

Yahoo Finance
Google Finance
Marketwatch

Of the thousands of hopefuls who line up to audition for American Idol there are invariably a few who can’t sing and don’t know it.  There are also a few contestants with phenomenal talents.  The vast pool of wishful candidates fall somewhere in the middle of these two poles.   For that hopeful majority, producers and talent scouts stand as the gatekeepers to commercial success.  These overworked middlemen are charged with the tough task of plucking the talents from the pile and throwing back those unworthy.  Some amazing talents will be promoted (and some not so amazing ones), and likewise, some amazing talents will be overlooked.  It’s the nature of the business; at least the way it’s been so far.

The same phenomenon exists in publishing too.  Many dream of writing the great American novel, or even some low brow burlesque romance tale, but select few navigate the rough waters from hope to finished draft to literary agent through publication.

Fortunately, in the views of many aspiring talents, the gatekeepers have lost some power.   Changes in communication and media technologies, specifically, blogging, net video and the music industry, have helped bring about Click to Read More