Rupert Murdoch's Wall Street Journal is going synergytastic with a new partner. Nope, not Sam Zell and his Tribune printing plants, although that's still going to happen.
No, the WSJ, bitchslapped by the reality of falling sales and rising costs, is joining up with HarperCollins in a three year plan to promote books written by the Journal's "expert editors and reporters." Neat!
Of course, since wire-service Reuters is now no longer an objective source of news, they put their two cents in about the upcoming book club with a grain of irony that even we couldn't top.
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Time was, you could rely on wire-services like AP and Reuters to give you the most dry, non-partisan story out there. Just the facts ma'am, with none (well, supposedly none) of the journalistic biases that other papers would then go on to employ while taking quotes and tidbits from the original wire sources.
But nowadays, even the Associated Press needs to have an angle. What was once considered "breaking" on AP is now old news by the time blogs are done with it. With embedded citizen journalists on the campaign trail, wire-services now have to provide subscribers something different in order to compete, though their "solution" is to become the same as everyone else.
Goodbye objectivity, hellooooo new journalistic standards.
This would be the impetus, one assumes, for that insane prejudge on Obama's DNC speech by AP that had everyone up in arms. And then the international AFP did the same thing with Palin's RNC speech!
So is the whole wire-service program becoming just another blog war casualty?
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Yes, Rudy Giuliani's speech about the qualifications of mayors ran long, which meant the RNC had to cancel the 15-minute "Meet Sarah Palin" video it wanted to show before the VP nominee took the stage. And yes, we were all a little anxious to see what the woman who could be a "heartbeat away" from the presidency had to say. But that doesn't mean we all took the pre-released notes about what Palin would say in her speech to whip together articles about what she actually said on stage — and then whip together articles for the wires before she even began talking. But there went Reuters and AFP, distributing copy about Palin's remarks prior to her making them. Sound familiar? That's because the Associated Press pulled this stunt at the DNC, running a precursory article about Barack Obama's speech before he took over the podium, leading to a pretty inaccurate summation of what went down that evening. (The AP even got the length of the speech wrong in its preemptive report; it had to update its copy to reflect the number of minutes Obama actually spoke.) And that whole thing got Keith Olbermann all riled up.
Citizen experts, and not citizen journalists, will be carrying Nokia handsets for Reuters, along with their regular journalists, in an attempt to expand the media giant's coverage in places where regular TV cameras might not be appropriate. Sure, the quality of a mobile phone's camera and microphone is really only good enough for web clips, but that's enough of an incentive for Reuters to begin handing out the phones to insiders. For example, says Ilicco Elia, a mobile product manager for the company, "being able to give a device to a famous footballer for example and say, you interview someone you find interesting would make for a very different piece." Yes indeed. Especially if it took place in the locker room. And the footballer was Cristiano Ronaldo. Yes, we can see why this is a wise investment.
When Thomson bought Reuters last month for $15.6 billion, they wasted no time in replacing the wire agency's jellyfish-y logo with a bland orange starburst. They really screwed us over when we had to be at the Reuters building for a meeting and COULD NOT FIND IT because it was missing its big blue sign. (An address like "3 Times Square" means nothing to us.) But now that the two mega info services are in a sexless marriage, it's time to analyze what happens when your market capitalization now stands at $28 billion, or more than double your closest competitor, Bloomberg.
On the plus side, there's smarts: Thomson, which grew from a single newspaper in Ontario in 1930 before fiddling with plenty of others, saw the declining revenues of the industry farther ahead than its rivals, and sold off most of its broadsheet stakes and going digital. Whodathunk.
But Bloomberg, argues Business Week, "has more cachet—every trader wants one of its terminals—and a sterling reputation for service. And customers say Thomson's financial offerings are a hodgepodge of acquisitions that don't always work together."
Perhaps, but guess who's not weathering a PR crisis launched by a bunch of pregnant ladies?
Canada's Thomson Corporation will buy Britain's Reuters in a $15 billion deal, now that shareholders of both companies have signed off on the deal, as have the courts. So how does a news wire service like Reuters command such a hefty pricetag? Because it generates only about 10 percent of its revenues from the not-very-profitable news gathering side (and using doctored photographs must offset some costs); most of its cash stream comes from providing finance and market data to high-paying clients. [Forbes]
Reuters media reporter Robert MacMillan is leaving the wire service for what we're assuming is a bigger payday at Rupert Murdoch's Wall Street Journal. In an email to colleagues, he writes that he's becoming "their publishing beat reporter, which means I will continue to write about the business of and the future of journalism. I have no contact information yet, but will write when I do." He starts February 4. And we're expecting a Plaxo update before then.
The BBC is planning to cut 2-3,000 of its 23,000-member workforce, or 12 precent. And if the Thomson-Reuters merger goes through, they could be looking at 3,000 axed.
Last week Reuters had its revenge on CNN for dropping its wire service by withholding the Osama Bin Laden video. But it was really CNN that shot itself in the foot. I-Report, the news service that uncovered the tape, offered the tape to CNN before Reuters. CNN just never replied to their email. Awkward. [Inside Cable News]
• Reuters bullpenner Ty Trippet explains why the news service may have put the lives of 21 South Korean hostages at risk because of a faulty report. ABC, who "confirmed" the report independently, also finds itself backtracking. (Did we mention it was the competition – the Associated Press – that jumped on this story?) [AP]
• Having got a look at Portfolio, it's time for Fortune EIC Andy Serwer to gloat. Then again, it's Jon Friedman's who's suggesting he start gloating, so nevermind. [MW]
• New-ish Elle creative director Joe Zee's biggest problem so far hasn't been how to handle the Lindsay Lohan September issue while the starlet deals with her cocaine bust — but how to get Gilles Bensimon off the masthead once and for all. [NYT]
• In the Manhattan Media-owned New York Press, there won't be any more tranny hooker ads. But there will be a Brooklyn edition! [NYO]
• Dylan Stableford has an exciting skateboard project to work on, which is why he's leaving Mediabistro's FishbowlNY. Perhaps Laurel Touby didn't offer any bonuses? Neal Ungerleider and Ron Mwangaguhunga – both with last names we're not sure how to pronounce – are taking over. (Announce-y type emails after the jump.)
Approximately 12 seconds (okay, three days) after all that hubbub over News Corp. making a bid for Dow Jones comes news that Canada's financial news services company Thomson Corporation is going after Reuters. Speculation puts the bid at $15 billion, which – after Reuters' share price spiked on the news, bringing its market capitalization to about $15.4 billion – might not be enough. Meanwhile, the 156-year-old company has one of those complicated ownership structures big media are so fond of these days, which doesn't necessarily impede the chances for Reuters accepting an offer, but it does force folks like us to study up on stock classes and trusts. Annoying!
If we had the time, energy, we'd go rustle up the latest figures for MySpace's membership numbers and report they've added another 5 million users in the last 12 seconds. Let's just all agree that their user base is huge, shall we?
And there's at least one party out there in jealous agreement: Reuters. But don't worry, they're not going to get all Sumner Redstone on us and fire a top exec for failing to snap up the social networking site. Instead, they're going to launch their own.
But it won't be for 12-year-old girls. Or 46-year-old men chasing 12-year-old girls.
Unless those 46-year-old men have a portfolio with JP Morgan.
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• Reuters appoints new leader.
• Liz Smith's crazies to appear in New York Post only three times a week instead of six.
• The Chandler family hope to one day bring their wrath on Tribune Co.
• More respected journalists abandon real jobs for stab at online political journalism. At least the site has a name (thepolitico.com) now.
• GE chief Jeffrey Immelt to NBC Universal: "You're doing a well job, Peacock."
• Tony Snow had told reporters "I don't know" more than 400 times. And he's down to just 3 "Shut the hell up"'s per day.
It's only Monday and already we've got a slew of media congloms teaming up for this week's stab at synergy.
Reuters and Yahoo paired up to let citizen journalists pollute the Internet with their Razr photos that are better suited for CollegeHumor.com. Comedy Central hops into bed with Amp'd Mobile to take an animated series built for cell phones to the broadcast airwaves. And Fox News is rubbing crotches with, uh, Yahoo's finance unit to syndicate Fox's business programming and deliver web-only clips. It'll be called Fox Business Now, which is like Disney-owned subscription-only broadband video news network ABC News Now, except it'll be seen by more than just the newsroom staff.
All of which is very excited, for the 16 people who carry Blackberrys, Treos, Sidekicks, Razrs, iPods, tablet PCs with EVDO broadband cards, and crack.
• CNN Headline News' attempt to reinvent its Headline Prime as a zero attention span-friendly Fox News is paying off.
• Kent Brownridge can only spend so much time in cow country.
• The WSJ nips three inches off its hips while getting a full MAC color makeover.
• Vogue plans an Indian edition, where thanks to malnutrition there are few hundred million young girls with the appropriate frail body type.
• CNBC's website gets a new look (video!), though probably still not enough to fend off Fox News' coming biz channel.
• Yahoo and Reuters team up to make anyone with a camera phone a roving paparazzi. Paid? Doesn't sound like it. But let's get all excited about citizen journalism again!
• Magazine publisher, philathorpist, billionaire, and Canadian Louise MacBain defaults on a charity cheque.
• CNET editor James Kim and his family still missing.
• With just a three-day schedule, the American Magazine Conference is forcing attendees to consolidate their "getting sauced" time if they want to attend any of the panels. Which means fewer people attending panels. [WWD]
• MSNBC talent Kristine Johnson was smart enough to defect to WCBS before Jeff Zucker took her job away. [IC]
• Now-former Reuters markets editor Joe Maguire confirms he was fired over his Ann Coulter book. First Amendment, Schmirst Amendment. [PFAW]
• President Bush's tactic of hiring a a media insider as his talking head has worked: The major papers are said to have been going too lightly on Tony Snow. [NJ]
• Page Six should stay out of the business of reporting DUIs. Especially those of Daily News employees. [P6]
• Glamour sort of admits it screwed up when launching its "Don'tspotting" fashion feature, where readers got to trash the fashion sense of others. Now EIC Cindi Leive is reaching out to critical bloggers. And, it seems, to crazies: She's asked for Coutorture's Julie Frederickson to weigh in. [WWD]
• Seattle's Stranger apologizes for a staffer writing music reviews while selling music ads. Bad, bad! [The Stranger]
Inside those MMRPGs – that's "massive multiplayer role-playing games," and if you knew what that stood for without Wikipedia, consider yourself cemented in Loserdom – like Ultima Online, Lineage, or Everquest, real people are doing fake things. Avatars design and sell clothing. Faux species build and sell homes. Sims go to the salon, get their hair did, then wait for their baby's daddy to pick 'em up in his hooptie. Everyone from Business 2.0 to Wired has already profiled the non-existant-but-real microeconomies that exist inside MMRPGs (and eBay, it seems). The next matter the media tackled in these virtual worlds was advertising: Marketers have been slapping clients' logos on virtual billboards, virtual packaging, and virtual T-shirts (though clothing with real brands, we're told, doesn't sell as well).
And now, Reuters breaks its own news with the announcement of a newly fabricated news bureau — in Second Life. Yep, the news agency is outfitting the popular MMRPG game's 900,000 users with its very own news outlet, where news from the outside world (how novel!) will be broadcast into their virtual lives.
Adam Pasick, a Reuters' media correspondent based in London, will serve as the news organization's first virtual bureau chief, using a personal avatar, or animated character, called "Adam Reuters," in keeping with the game's naming system. [...]
Reuters will have journalists reporting and writing financial and cultural stories within and about "Second Life" as part of the London-based company's strategy to reach new audiences with the latest digital technologies.
The best part is where Second Life users interested in discussing a Reuters article all gather in the Reuters Atrium, kick up their feet on a virtual Design Within Reach coffee table, order virtual grande skim vanilla lattes, and ignore each other while hovering over their virtual BlackBerrys.
When Bonnie Fuller told us last night that she polygraphs some of her sources for Star to ensure they're telling the truth, we nearly shit ourselves. And so did at least a dozen other media reporter types in the audience who we talked to at last night's Reuters panel "Public Figures, Private Lives." (That was after the audible gasp from the audience.)
Polygraphing sources? Does American Media Inc. even have the budget for that? (And if they do, doesn't David Pecker pad his own pockets with it?) We've heard murmurs about this before, but we've also heard murmurs about Mel Gibson not hating Jews. Do the tabloids operate on a Hollywood-level of mysticism we don't know about?
Apparently so. We touched base with a number of chief editors at the celebrity rags and, it turns out, polygraphing sources is not entirely uncommon. National Enquirer editor David Perel tells us: "We have polygraphed sources in the past and in fact made mention of it in the article we published, showing the result. Some sources do sign contracts, in particular when we are buying something exclusive, such as photographs." (The Enquirer, it's worth noting, is also a AMI title.)
That's "sign contracts," as in paperwork binding sources to their story and agreeing to testify in court should the magazine come under legal assault (read: accusations of libel). Fuller also said that's regular practice at Star.
But the meat (pun intended) of last night's panel – with Fuller flanked by Slate's Jacob Weisberg, Reuters' Paul Holmes, First Amendment attorney Floyd Abrams, former RIAA prez and media/GLBT issues consultant Hilary Rosen, and Splash News chief Gary Morgan – was devoted to the gays. Mark Foley this, House pages that. But what about Lance Bass and Reichen Lehmkuhl, yo? Forget closeted Congressman. How does Fuller handle covering gay celebs who aren't out?
Well, she doesn't. As most panel members agreed, sexual orientation remains a part of someone's private life, off limits to even tabloid scrawl. So yes, two gay (but not out) celebrities sleeping with each other will be kept under wraps, while two straight celebs are fair game. And besides, Fuller claims Star didn't even know about Lance and Reichen until the former *Nsync-er came out in People — which is less a debate over outing gay celebs than it is for finding new reporters. Seriously. There were photos of those two. Everywhere.
Update: While some editors didn't have much to say on the record, we did just hear from In Touch executive editor Dan Wakeford, who says: "We’ve never polygraphed a source in our four years of existence. Polygraphs are not accepted as court evidence. We make our stories accurate by avoiding single sourced stories and investigating them thoroughly." So booyah.
Above, the doctored and original versions (left to right) of a photo – of an Israeli air strike on Beirut – shot by Adnan Hajj, the freelance Reuters photog who was just dismissed by the news agency for submitting a Photoshopped version and violating the wire's "strict" photojournalism guidelines.
Caving to the pressure to uphold journalistic integrity, Vanity Fair today released this statement*:
The photo of Kate Moss on the September Style issue of Vanity Fair is not the original. Our photo editors spent a total of 112 hours Photoshopping it to death, removing any trace of blemishes, cellulite, and child birth. We should have run the original photo, unedited.
The original is below, at right.
* Just. Kidding.
• The party crew at Reuters really knows how to shake things up with liquor and ivy league humor. Cheney joke: "duck is not just a bird, it's a verb, too." Har, har. [Wonkette]
• It's tough to tell the difference between sound bites from Cookie and Playboy because (most) Playboy models are retarded and new moms have huge boobs. And with all these new hot moms posing for the nudie mag, things only get more complicated. [NYO]
• Nothing says "Happy 10th Anniversary" like shaking down those liberal cable and satellite operators for more money. Right Fox? [WSJ]
• Who knew the Belgians were really at the top of the journalism profession? So shocking that it isn't the Times. [E&P]
• Oh, Simon Dumenco. He sure does love bringing up that masturbating cat. [Ad Age]
• Forbes is bleeding staffers by the gallon. Lloyd Grove, we hope you're keeping your eyes peeled for all these job openings you'd be so perfect for. [Gawker]
Editorial Director
