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Merger

The Washington Post reports that Newsweek and The Daily Beast are merging. So far they have no name for the new venture. I think NewsBeast could work. Or how about the Daily Week. Also being considered (by wags) is the Beastly Week. Also liked is Beastly News. I'm sure they are open to suggestions. Give 'em some.

Industry

It is called the news industry because they manufacture news.

Suggested by a comment at Watts Up With That

Down By Half

The demise of the Pravda and Izvestia media is in full swing.

CNN continued what has become a precipitous decline in ratings for its prime-time programs in the first quarter of 2010, with its main hosts losing almost half their viewers in a year.

But the news is not all bad for them. Some of it is much worse.

Fox News had their best year of all time in 2009. Now that we’ve finished the first quarter of 2010, it’s clear FNC is showing no signs of letting up –they just finished their best quarter ever, in total day total viewers.

It was also the second highest rated quarter ever in prime time total viewers.

First the viewers go. Then the advertisers. The fact that Fox news is rising proves it is not the media. It is the message.

And that is not the only place where the message is ruining the media. The newspaper business is also troubled by a Death Watch. Time is not on their side. Well maybe the magazine is. But - No Fear. There is a magazine Death Pool too.

Think of my little magazine here. Depending on how you count it I gather 140,000 eyeballs a year. Or take the other place I blog, Classical Values. About 1,100,000 eyeballs a year. Nothing special really. But time is limited. And every minute a reader spends here is a minute not available for other media. After a while and with enough alternatives it is going to hurt. And hurt big.

I'm reminded of the Marxist long march through the institutions.

To few Americans is Antonio Gramsci a familiar name. That is to be regretted because the work of the late Italian Marxist sheds much light on our time. It was he who first alerted fellow revolutionaries to the possibility that they would be able to complete the seizure of political power only after having achieved "cultural hegemony," or control of society's intellectual life by cultural means alone.

Well they gained control of the culture all right. In fact they have strangled it to death. Good for them. They now control a corpse. And if you have watched Weekend at Bernie'syou know just how much trouble it is trying to keep a corpse animated.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Time Magazine Failing - Will Buy Weak Companies

Time Warner is getting rid of Time. The reason? They can't sell space. Even with a disdainful picture of Glenn Beck on the cover.

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Time Warner Inc will eventually sell the Time Inc magazine unit and could buy holdings in its core entertainment category, Gordon Crawford, managing director of its largest shareholder, said during a presentation this week.

"Time Warner just spun off their cable division, they are going to sell their print division, they are going to spin off AOL and they're just going to be Warner Brothers, HBO and the Turner Networks," said Crawford, managing director of The Capital Group.

How about acquisitions?

Time Inc's magazines include popular titles such as People and Sports Illustrated. In the second quarter, revenue at Time Inc publishing, the largest U.S. magazine publisher, fell 22 percent to $915 million due to a 26 percent decline in advertising revenue.

While Crawford did not name specific acquisition targets, he did say there would be a "winnowing process" during which weaker companies in the sector would be gobbled up.

I guess their success will depend on whether they can strengthen the weak companies they buy. With the fringe media in serious decline due to being mainly left wing in a center-right country (not to mention the internet) their days are numbered.

Meanwhile FOX seems to be doing fine. In the middle of one of the greatest economic downturns in decades. Well that is what downturns are for. The winnowing out of weak sisters. I expect the NYTs will not be far behind.

Local News

The Sterling, Illinois man who went on a murder spree has been captured.

GRANITE CITY, Ill. - Police and FBI agents captured an ex-convict suspected of killing eight people in two states as he smoked a cigarette outside of a southwestern Illinois bar Tuesday night.

Nicholas T. Sheley, who was the subject of a multistate manhunt after authorities linked him to the deaths of eight people in Illinois and Missouri, was arrested around 7 p.m. outside of Bindy's, a Granite City bar, said bartender Katie Ronk.

Sheley ordered a glass of water and went to the bathroom before another bartender and customer recognized him, Ronk said. The customer, Gary Range, said he left the bar and notified a police officer parked in the lot outside,"I told (the police officer) the description and the officer said, 'That's him.' He got on the radio and eventually there were police all over the place," Range said.

I think this points out a few of the most salient facts of life. If you are going to go on a murder spree don't hang out in bars, don't drink anything, don't go to the bathroom, and don't smoke cigarettes.

Seriously though, I had read about this guy today and of course as irrational as it is you start worrying about your friends and family.

We live about 50 miles from Sterling and have a close friend from that area (who lives in Rockford). So your mind starts going into those dark alleys. The vast majority of which are actually blind alleys. I think this points out the old military dictum made famous by Patton, "Never take council with your fears." The best thing to do is face them, realize most won't come to pass and if you are still worried, take what steps you can to strengthen your defenses. Even if it is only mental preparation. "What would I do if...."

Cross Posted at Classical Values

News You Can Use

The news writers, producers and editors are going on strike. Sadly it is only C BS.

CBS News writers, producers and editors voted to authorize their labor union to call a strike after working without a contract for two years, Reuters news agency reported Monday.

About 81 percent of the nearly 300 CBS members of the Writers Guild of America voted to authorize the strike, the union said in a statement. The union represents 500 CBS employees in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Washington, D.C.

It's a start.

It is too bad Dan Rather has filed suit against the network. This could have been a golden opportunity.