Companies

New Delhi/Chennai: The publisher of southern editions of The Indian Express newspaper, Express Publications (Madurai) Ltd, plans to launch an initial public offering (IPO) sometime soon. Before that, it plans to sell stake to a private equity firm. The company is working on an aggressive expansion plan and the funds raised through these will help it bolster its operations and expansion. The...

Sept. 10 (Bloomberg) -- Dow Jones & Co., publisher of the Wall Street Journal, said some jobs will be cut after the company's $5.2 billion sale to Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. ``Where job cuts are unavoidable, we will communicate that as soon as practical,'' Dow Jones Chief Executive Officer Rich Zannino said in a regulatory filing today. Employees who lose their jobs will receive severance and...

AS WE count down to a federal election, Rupert Murdoch's vast Australian newspaper empire will no doubt report and comment on every last aspect of the contest, including whether our democratic processes are fair and transparent. Across the Pacific, New York's Hudson Theatre will host a different type of election on October 19, when Murdoch's shareholders in News Corporation gather for the 2007...

Only days after a Danish labour court granted freelance journalists the right to be represented by their union in bargaining arrangements a landmark collective agreement has been reached with one of the country’s major publishers. The International Federation of Journalists today welcomed the signing of an agreement between the Danish Journalists’ Union and Aller Press, which controls 80 per cent...

A last-minute agreement between Swedish Journalists' Union SJF and the Swedish Newspaper Publishers' Association over new pay and conditions for the country's journalists Thursday averted a major confrontation between more than 5,000 newspaper journalists and the country’s press employers. The deal means that industrial action planned to start mid-day Thursday was called off. The action would have...

RARELY if ever has a company risen so fast in so many ways as Google, the world's most popular search engine. This is true by just about any measure: the growth in its market value and revenues; the number of people clicking in search of news, the nearest pizza parlour or a satellite image of their neighbour's garden; the volume of its advertisers; or the number of its lawyers and lobbyists. Such...

Aug. 30 (Bloomberg) -- CNN, Time Warner Inc.'s global cable- television news channel, will stop using Reuters Group Plc's news service starting tomorrow, according to an internal e-mail. ``We are making significant investments in our own newsgathering while simultaneously reducing our reliance on agency material,'' according to the e-mail sent to employees by Atlanta-based CNN International's...

German political parties and media regulators are debating whether to introduce restrictions on certain foreign investors in the media sector. The topic is expected to gain prominence after regulators appoint experts in September. The debate is focussed on whether international financial investors should be blocked from taking stakes above 24.9% in media companies. Financial sponsors might also be...

The International Federation of Journalists and its regional group the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) today welcomed a court victory that gives new hope to thousands of freelance journalists who support union action and collective bargaining to defend their working conditions. The Danish Labour Court has ruled that a union blockade of the magazine publisher Aller A/S because of its...

Rupert Murdoch doesn't yet own the Wall Street Journal, but he's already flexing his muscles. In the last two weeks, the chairman of News Corp. has called at least three reporters who were considering leaving the top financial publication and asked them to stay, people familiar with the calls said Thursday. Some journalists in the newsroom took the gesture as a sign of Murdoch's commitment to keep...