The possible sale of Yahoo’s HotJobs would be a huge blow for members of the Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) Newspaper Consortium, as the alliance is the only source of help-wanted-ad revenue for nearly 200 papers. But that’s apparently not deterring papers from joining. The newspaper alliance announced five new members—Freedom Communications’ California flagship, The Orange County Register as well as The Gazette in Colorado Springs; the North Jersey Media Group’s The Record and Herald News; and The San Diego Union-Tribune.  That gives the consortium 814 newspaper members, accounting for 51 percent of all Sunday circulation. The Yahoo alliance has been one of the few bright spots for newspapers in recent months. A recent estimate by AdAge found that the two-and-a-half-year-old consortium sold $50 million in Yahoo ad inventory, with about “several million” dollars in sales being added each week. More after the jump E.W. Scripps (NYSE: SSP), which list most newspapers has been struggling with online ad sales, has said that the consortium has contributed 30 percent to their online ad revenues in Q1, or roughly $800,000. Also, Cox Newspaper’s Atlanta Journal-Constitution, which, combined with Yahoo, cites comScore (NSDQ: SCOR) figures that indicate it has increased its online audience reach in its home city alone from 15 percent to 80 percent. Still, with 592 newspapers in the consortium relying exclusively on HotJobs for help-wanted ads—an area that has been hit particularly hard as unemployment has approached 9 percent nationwide—many members have expressed some wariness about how this might affect the value of the consortium over time. Also, Yahoo has seen the rollout of its APT ad delivery and targeting system move more slowly than it would like. Currently, roughly 160 newspapers are now live on APT. During Yahoo’s Q1 earnings call in April, CEO Carol Bartz downplayed the delays in adding APT to its newspaper members, telling investors that there is no official “rollout” of the ad platform and that it is designed to be in a constant state of evolution. A Yahoo rep added that the APT integration plan is on track, with more newspapers signing on over the course of the year in order to accommodate the continuing growth in consortium membership.

Undeterred by a possible sale of Yahoo’s HotJobs and what it would mean for its newspaper alliance, five newspapers have decided to join the Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) Newspaper Consortium. The new members are Freedom Communications’ California flagship, The Orange County Register as well as The Gazette in Colorado Springs; the North Jersey Media Group’s The Record and Herald News; and The San Diego Union-Tribune.  The latest additions give the consortium a total of 814 newspaper members, accounting for 51 percent of all Sunday circulation. The Yahoo alliance has been one of the few bright spots for newspapers in recent months. A recent estimate by AdAge found that the two-and-a-half-year-old consortium sold $50 million in Yahoo ad inventory, with about “several million” dollars in sales being added each week. More after the jump E.W. Scripps (NYSE: SSP), which list most newspapers has been struggling with online ad sales, has said that the consortium has contributed to a 30 percent gain in online ad revenues in Q1, or roughly $800,000. Also, Cox Media’s Atlanta Journal-Constitution, which, combined with Yahoo, claims to have increased its online audience reach in its home city alone from 15 percent to 80 percent. Still, with 592 newspapers in the consortium relying exclusively on HotJobs for help-wanted ads—an area that has been hit particularly hard as unemployment has approached 9 percent nationwide—many members have expressed some wariness about how this might affect the value of the consortium over time. Also, Yahoo also has seen the rollout of its APT ad delivery and targeting system move more slowly than it would like. Currently, roughly 160 newspapers are now live on APT. During Yahoo’s Q1 earnings call in April, CEO Carol Bartz downplayed the delays in adding APT to its newspaper members, telling investors that there is no official “rollout” of the ad platform and that it is designed to be in a constant state of evolution.

Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) execs have always been more than a little circumspect when it comes to discussing how well the 800-member Yahoo Newspaper Consortium is doing. But AdAge’s Nat Ives has done some math and estimates that the alliance has sold $50 million in Yahoo ad inventory, with about “several million” dollars in sales being added each week. And although Yahoo doesn’t like to provide figures, since last fall, a number of consortium members have been singing its praises, especially since Yahoo began rolling out its APT ad distribution and targeting system for its newspaper partners earlier this year. EW Scripps (NYSE: SSP) has praised the program, saying its contributed a 30 percent gain in online ad revenues in Q1, or roughly $800,000. And while Cox Newspapers’ Atlanta Journal Constitution wasn’t able to make much of its own internal targeting efforts over the past five years due to a lack of inventory, by adding Yahoo’s inventory to the mix, the paper was able to expand its coverage area and attract telecom and fast food marketers that typically concentrated on billboards, not newspapers. In addition to the hope APT has provided, as we noted earlier, McClatchy (NYSE: MNI) plans to work with Yahoo on offering “rate incentives” to advertisers to encourage them to purchase ad inventory more regularly. While all this is well and good, some newspaper consortium members I’ve spoken to are a little concerned that Yahoo may be considering a sale of its HotJobs property. And though even online help wanteds have been down across the board due to the economy, many members have been counting on it to help offset the declines.

Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) execs have always been more than a little circumspect when it comes to discussing how well the 800-member Yahoo Newspaper Consortium is doing. But AdAge’s Nat Ives has done some math and estimates that the alliance has sold $50 million in Yahoo ad inventory, with about “several million” dollars in sales being added each week. And although Yahoo doesn’t like to provide figures, since last fall, a number of consortium members have been singing its praises, especially since Yahoo began rolling out its APT ad distribution and targeting system for its newspaper partners earlier this year. EW Scripps (NYSE: SSP) has praised the program, saying its contributed a 30 percent gain in online ad revenues in Q1, or roughly $800,000. And while Cox Newspapers’ Atlanta Journal Constitution wasn’t able to make much of its own internal targeting efforts over the past five years due to a lack of inventory, by adding Yahoo’s inventory to the mix, the paper was able to expand its coverage area and attract telecom and fast food marketers that typically concentrated on billboards, not newspapers. In addition to the hope APT has provided, as we noted earlier, McClatchy (NYSE: MNI) plans to work with Yahoo on offering “rate incentives” to advertisers to encourage them to purchase ad inventory more regularly. While all this is well and good, some newspaper consortium members I’ve spoken to are a little concerned that Yahoo may be considering a sale of its HotJobs property. And though even online help wanteds have been down across the board due to the economy, many members have been counting on it to help offset the declines.

Another newspaper goes down… Following through on the threat it made five months ago, Gannett (NYSE: GCI) is pulling the plug on the 138-year-old Tucson Citizen after failing to find a buyer to take it off its hands, the paper’s website reported. This will be one of the last news stories the paper’s site features. After the last print edition rolls off the presses on Saturday, the website will be “modified” as an opinion-only online pub, with no news or sports coverage. The paper’s 60 staffers would find out later Friday afternoon who would be laid off. —Long-shot: As the March 21 deadline Gannett set for the paper to be bought or closed neared, several potential buyers emerged. But Gannett could not come to a deal. One of the last bidders was Stephen Hadland, CEO of the Santa Monica Media Company, which publishes five weekly newspapers around LA. He claims to have amended the $500,000 cash bid for the Citizen, but Gannett refused to budge on its demand for $800,000. Despite being denied, Hadland still considers himself to be a potential buyer. He plans to plans ask Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard to file a temporary restraining order on the closure of the paper. He pointed to a similar action taken by the Hawaii AG’s office when Liberty and Gannett attempted to shutter the Honolulu Star-Bulletin when Liberty and Gannett. —Lee Enterprises (NYSE: LEE) wins: The Citizen is published from Monday to Saturday as part of a joint operating agreement (JOA) with Lee Enterprises, which owns the rival Arizona Daily Star. The closure of The Citizen would certainly benefit Lee, at least in the short short-term. The closure follows closely on the heels of other prominent newspaper deaths, including the 146-year-old Seattle Post-Intelligencer,  which parent Hearst Newspapers turned into a significantly scaled down web-only pub in March; and in February, EW Scripps (NYSE: SSP) ceased publication completely of Denver’s Rocky Mountain News just shy of its 150-th birthday.

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Cablevision (CVC) continues to feud with Scripps (SSP) over the rates it pays to broadcast HGTV and the Food NetworkTime Warner (TWC) just ended its own bitter war with News Corp. (NWS) over the rates it pays to broadcast Fox channels.And now Comcast has waded into its own mess by allegedly screwing the Tennis Channel out of about 22 million sets of eyeballs by giving preferential treatment to its own programming over that created by others. Earlier this week the Tennis Channel which is owned by Teddy Forstmann’s IMG and was started with nearly $100 million in VC funding ...

By now the only people who don’t know about the now-settled battle royale between Fox (NWS) and Time Warner (TWC) over re-transmission fees are the ones who still gather around the radio in the family room each evening and listen to the news while Mom prepares supper.The terms agreed to by the two sides weren't revealed but according to reports Fox was seeking $1/month per subscriber from Time Warner up from the $0.35 it was receiving at the time. By comparison ESPN gets about $4 per account and TNT gets $1.Reasonable? Greedy? A little bit of both?Fox launched an ...

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The publishing industry has long been grappling with sinking advertising revenue, and the global economic meltdown has worsened the situation. This comes in the wake of a longer-term secular decline as more readers choose to get news free online, thereby making the print-advertising model increasingly irrelevant. Circulation Falling Prey to Internet Newspapers have fared far worse than [...]

(MNI) Publishing Industry Stock Review – January 2010 – Industry Outlook

The publishing industry has long been grappling with sinking advertising revenue, and the global economic meltdown has worsened the situation. This comes in the wake of a longer-term secular decline as more readers choose to get news free online, thereby making the print-advertising model increasingly irrelevant.[More...]

E.W. Scripps Company (SSP), a diverse media company, restructured its newspaper division management in order to improve its advertising sales and local news content. The changes announced will include the setting up of an operating committee comprised of two new national positions, responsible for sales and content, as well as four other positions with responsibility for [...]

(SSP) E.W. Scripps Company Restructures Management

By request, here is the latest update on the Phoenix list: ACCO Brands Corp (ABD), American Axle & Manufacturing Holdings I (AXL), ArvinMeritor Inc (ARM), Belo Corp (BLC), Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings Inc (CCO), Crosstex Energy Inc (XTXI), Dana Holding Corp (DAN), Delta Petroleum Corp (DPTR), Developers Diversified Realty Corp (DDR), Eastman Kodak Co (EK), Emcore Corp (EMKR), EW Scripps Co (SSP), FCStone Group Inc (FCSX), Ferro Corp (FOE), First Industrial Realty Trust Inc (FR), Gannett Co Inc (GCI), Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co (GAP), Hercules Offshore Inc (HERO), ION Geophysical Corp (IO), iStar Financial Inc (SFI), Phoenix Cos Inc/The (PNX), Sunrise Senior Living Inc (SRZ), Technitrol Inc (TNL), Warren Resources Inc (WRES), YRC Worldwide Inc (YRCW) and Zale Corp (ZLC).There are 26[More...]

E.W. Scripps Company (NYSE:SSP) said today it is going to split itself into two publicly traded companies and the stock is up 7% on the news.

The E.W. Scripps Co will include the company's newspapers and local television stations. The second company, Scripps Networks Interactive, will include Home & Garden Television and the Food Network, and the Shopzilla online shopping service -- this is the one we really care about.  

Scripps Networks is the company's largest division that includes its popular national lifestyle television networks, Q2 2007 revenue grew 7.6 percent year over year to $308 million. Segment profit for the division increased 9.2 percent to $164 million for the period. Online revenue at Scripps Networks grew 26 percent to $19.4 million during the second quarter. Second-quarter financial performance at Scripps Networks was favorably affected by growth in advertising sales, both on television and the Internet, and higher affiliate fee revenue. However, softness in total-day ratings among key demographics at HGTV and Food Network held back advertising revenue growth during the quarter.

Scripps Networks, which includes television and interactive brands HGTV, Food Network, DIY Network, Fine Living and Great American Country, accounted for 48 percent of the company's consolidated revenue during the second quarter.

Scripps Chief Executive Ken Lowe will be president and chief executive of the interactive company, while Chief Operating Officer Richard Boehne will run the newspaper and TV station company.

Scripps owns about 20 daily papers, including the Cincinnati Post and the Knoxville News Sentinel in Tennessee.

Wall Street increasingly views the newspaper business as a losing proposition because advertising sales are falling and circulation is dropping as more people get their news online.

"This has been probably the toughest 24 months in the history of the newspaper industry," Boehne said on a conference call with financial analysts. "We're eager for that to level out."

That has led some investors to urge companies like Scripps to spin off their publishing operations so they do not drag down the value of their broadcast operations

 "I think this achieves what the shareholders have been wanting, to get out from under the burden of the old-media valuation and focus on the higher-value media business," said Benchmark Co analyst Ed Atorino.

Belo Corp earlier in October said that it would spin off its newspapers from its 20 television stations and their Web sites. Investors cheered the move because it promises to free the broadcast operations from the lethargic newspaper business.

Other companies with significant publishing and broadcasting operations include Media General Inc and Gannett Co Inc.

Scripps expects to complete its transaction, which will take the form of a stock dividend in Scripps Networks Interactive, in the second quarter of 2008.

Both companies will be based in Scripps's current headquarters of Cincinnati. The split "is not expected to have a material effect on the day-to-day lives of its employees," the company said.

The Edward W. Scripps Trust would maintain control of both companies by electing a majority of board members for each.

Separately, Scripps said it was not having "current discussions" with Tribune Co about buying the Chicago-based publisher and broadcaster's 31 percent stake in the Food Network.

"We've stated many times we're always interested in obtaining that last piece of the Food Network, but at the right price," Lowe said during the conference call.

NOTE:Sources taken from Reuters article - E.W. Scripps to split into two companies

Article written by Ted Gottsegen

Contributor at TheStockMasters.com

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