The dangerous march toward monolithic media has now threatened the irreverent and vibrant alternative press. The latest assault on the independent press is the creation of a mega-chain of weeklies that stretch from Florida to Seattle. The merger of Phoenix-based New Times Media and New York-based Village Voice Media, which owns the Seattle Weekly, is bad for democracy. The merger places 17...
How bad is the New Times alt-weekly chain’s takeover of Village Voice Media for the Voice-owned L.A. Weekly? Pretty bad. New Times founder and executive editor Michael Lacey, never famous for his tact, has long had the habit of dismissing competitors in the Birkenstock-wearing world of alt-weeklies as "raggedy-ass" publications filled with "espresso-crazed lefties," and he expands his empire with...
IN terms of brazen spin, Stephen Mayne's reports of the News Corporation annual general meeting in New York were classics. Talk about the pot calling the kettle black! Mayne, doubling as a reporter and shareholder activist, accused News of indulging in brazen spin, yet he was incapable, or unwilling, to keep his own passions and conspiratorial opinions under control. Mayne, the former owner of the...
WHEN the city of Vail, Colorado, wanted the local cable company to provide better programming without raising its prices, Liberty Media chairman John Malone pulled the regular shows off air and replaced them with a screen that showed nothing but the names and phone numbers of the mayor and city manager. Vail backed off, according to L. J. Davis, author of The Billionaire Shell Game: How Cable...
Two of the largest alternative newspaper chains in the United States have decide to merge. New Times Media is buying Village Voice Media to create a company of 17 publications. The new company will have a combined weekly circulation of 1.8 million papers and 4.3 million weekly readers. The merger process is expected to be completed in early 2006. The new company will retain the Village Voice Media...
Although News Corp's share price has fallen since the move to the United States, Rupert Murdoch says he is confident that, eventually, investors will see benefits in leaving Australia. Despite the company's record profits, its share price has fallen more than 10 per cent since it reincorporated in Delaware in last November. In his chairman's address at the first annual general meeting since the...
MID-TOWN Manhattan's Hudson theatre is a long way from Adelaide, but the theatrics of News Corp's annual meeting were again provided by Stephen Mayne, who had to take a longer flight to annoy Rupert Murdoch this year. The move to America doesn't seem to have excited the shareholders too much, with only 30 or so turning up for tea and sympathy with Rupert. They were outnumbered by reporters and...
It didn't feel like a rebellion, more a minor uprising, but as a succession of small shareholders berated Rupert Murdoch from the floor of New York's Hudson Theatre, the News Corp chairman's patience began to wear thin. The company's first AGM since moving from Australia to America had begun amicably enough at 10am on Friday, as a small gathering of around 100 investors, analysts and journalists...
News Corp chairman Rupert Murdoch suffered a shareholder backlash today, although the billionaire angrily denied there was an "outcry" about his company's controversial 'poison pill' takeover defence measure. Just over 13 per cent of News Corp shareholders opted to withhold their vote in the re-election of four of the company's directors. It was viewed as a protest against Murdoch's controversial...
News Corp chairman Rupert Murdoch suffered a shareholder backlash, although the billionaire angrily denied there was an "outcry" about his company's controversial `poison pill' takeover defence measure. Just over 13 per cent of News Corp shareholders opted to withhold their vote in the re-election of four of the company's directors. It was viewed as a protest against Murdoch's controversial...
