News Corporation Ltd.

Are you better off than you were a year ago? If you're Roger Ailes, you sure are.

According to Silicon Alley Insider's Peter Kafka, the Fox News president and chairman earned an unbelievable $19.9 million in the last 12 months, according to S.E.C. filings from News Corp.

"What did he do to earn that?" Mr. Kafka asks. We wonder the same since in July, The Washington Post's Howard Kurtz reported that the Fox Business Network averaged 8,000 viewers during the day, as noted by Felix Gillette.

Per Mr. Kafka:

Primarily, he ran Fox News, which is still crushing the competition.  read more »

On Wednesday morning at 11 a.m., Arthur Sulzberger and Janet Robinson will be managing a conference call that, from the looks of it, won't be much fun.
 
They'll be reporting The New York Times Company's second-quarter earnings. Last time they did one of quarterly earnings calls, The Times reported big losses; there was a plan to cut 100 newsroom jobs, some through straight-up layoffs rather than superannuation and retirement deals.
 
And in the past few weeks, it's only gotten worse: the company's stock has fallen to a decade low, and tumbled more than 15 percent in just this month.  read more »

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Rupert Murdoch spoke at The D Conference this week, and laid out more non-specific but interesting plans for The Journal.

For months, it's been speculated that Murdoch cares more about figuring out the actual structure of the paper, and then he'll get down to the dirty business of assigning the right reporters to the right assignements, and signing a few superstars.  read more »

Arianna Huffington made The New York Times on Friday morning for a blog post she wrote on her Web site about John McCain. In that post Ms. Huffington wrote that a few years back McCain told her at a dinner party that he did not vote for George W. Bush in 2000. This made McCain look like a hypocrite, and his campaign responded by calling Ms. Huffington “a flake and a poser and an attention-seeking diva.”  read more »

And how was your day? If you're a media critic or reporter, it was anything but slow.

Starting last night when "Time Reporters" broke the news that Wall Street Journal managing editor Marcus Brauchli would be leaving the paper followed closely by The Wall Street Journal's Merissa Marr reporting Sam Zell's Tribune Co. was "closing in on an agreement to sell its Long Island newspaper Newsday" to her paper's parent company, News Corp., this was a day of constant scoops and fast (sometimes loose) seat-of-the-pants analysis.  read more »

On Thursday, Wall Street Journal staffers received a memo from managing editor Marcus Brauchli and books director Roe D'Angelo announcing a new book-leave policy.

It seemed simple enough: if reporters want to write a book they need to inform editors ahead of time; the paper can start providing some marketing help—all pretty pro forma stuff. Mr. Brauchli wrote that the change allows the paper to "protect our interests in books based on Journal reporting."  read more »

News Corp. owner Rupert Murdoch wants to move his recently purchased Wall Street Journal out of Manhattan's financial district by the end of the year.

Mr. Murdoch is proposing that the Journal newsroom move out of its home at the World Financial Center adjacent to the World Trade Center site and into his News Corp. headquarters in the "canyon" on Sixth Avenue, according to newsroom sources.  read more »

Having just completed its purchase of Dow Jones, News Corp. has announced that it will be selling eight of its Fox-affiliated TV stations to Oak Hill Capital Partners for approximately $1.1 billion in cash.

The sale--which includes stations in Cleveland, Birmingham, and Kansas City--will leave News Corp. with 27 owned-and-operated stations.  read more »

The Related Companies’ bid is all about News Corp., the running back the developer drafted to drive deep into the West Side.

“Because of the guidelines, everybody’s pretty much looks the same," Related’s chairman, Stephen M. Ross, said about the West Side Rail Yards proposals that were shown to the press Sunday (and are now on display to the public). “Nobody’s got real architecture yet anyway. So it’s really about the concept about what you are doing, why is yours more unique and how do we look at this.”

Related’s architectural model event sort of looked half-finished: it showed just the first 10 or so floors of the buildings’ bases. The reason was to show off the ground-floor experience. (Accompanying renderings do show the tops of the towers.)

But it was clear that Mr. Ross is not using pretty buildings and cordial landscaping to sell this bid anyway. He’s using Rupert Murdoch.

“It was important to us to see how we could meet their vision, their needs, how we could take their brands and make a great place,” Mr. Ross continued. “So, to give you some examples, we can have movies in the park here: with the river behind you, 20th Century Fox showing the premiere of their weekly movies in the park in the summer time. This is about how people will want to come here. We will have the studios over there, placing them in the right locations, using their brands, Fox Sports, Fox Business, The Wall Street Journal, taking these different things and using them to advantage, activating the space with them.”

MySpace would be there too, along with concert series (as pictured above). Pre-game NFL shows and presidential debates could also be shown on the big screen.

It was unclear whether he would scare New Yorkers or excite them with all this talk about giving Mr. Murdoch's companies such a, um, platform. But Mr. Ross scored big last time he invited a media company under his roof: Time Warner bought its space at cost, but gave Related the leverage it needed to win the competition for the Coliseum site. This time, Mr. Ross said NewsCorp. is getting a “great deal,” but would not be more specific.

The flagship tower, to be designed, like most of the commercial space, by Kohn Pedersen Fox, would rise about 1,100 feet high and include two million square feet, enough to allow Mr. Murdoch consolidate his New York offices. It would be located on 10th Avenue and have a large plaza on its western flank looking out onto an axis of open space that would reach to the river. Another building would house the first-ever Equinox hotel.

A number of other residential buildings (designed by Robert A.M. Stern) and office towers (designed by KPF and Arquitectonica) complete the bid. Some 440 apartments would be permanently affordable.

Alexis Glick and Kevin Magee, Executive Vice President, FOX News, will be ringing NASDAQ's opening bell at 9:20 AM in celebration. (Watch it here. Scroll down.) Here's the inaugural schedule for ease of enjoyment:

8:00 AM: Money for Breakfast — Wealth, success and happiness … satisfy your hunger!  read more »

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With Rupert Murdoch talking about taking The Wall Street Journals Web site free, Financial Times is girding its loins for battle.

 

The newspaper announced yesterday that later this month it will initiate a program that allows online readers to access 30 articles a month without registering as paying members of the site.

Presently most of its content requires a subscription.  read more »

When the Dow Jones board agreed to sell to Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., a condition of the sale was that News Corp. establish a "Special Committee" to guarantee the editorial independence of Dow Jones publications.

That part of the sale agreement was filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission yesterday. And for the obsessives, FishbowlNY has posted the entire agreement online here.  read more »

Here was former Dow Jones board member James Ottaway Jr.'s reaction to the news that the Dow Jones board was ready to approve the sale to Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.:

It’s a bad thing for Dow Jones and American journalism that the Bancroft Family could not resist Rupert Murdoch’s generous offer.

It’s a sad thing that the 105-year family tradition of protecting Dow Jones independence as a public trust will end.  read more »

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David Faber, the CNBC reporter who first broke the news that Rupert Murdoch had offered $5 billion to buy Dow Jones, is now reporting that Dow Jones will agree to the sale.

According to Faber, a "definitive agreement" is expected from the Dow Jones board tonight. You can click through here to see CNBC video of his report.

A print extract accompanying the video presently reads in part:  read more »

While you were sleeping, the proposal to sell Dow Jones, Inc. to Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. got more complicated.

The Bancroft family, which controls Dow Jones Inc., missed a self-imposed deadline yesterday to line up enough votes to agree to sell the company to Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.  read more »

The Wall Street Journal reports today that the Bancroft family is still divided over whether to sell Dow Jones, Inc. to Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. for $5 billion.  read more »

At around noon on Tuesday, Geoffrey V. Raymond, a New York based portrait artist, showed up at One World Financial Center, the offices of Dow Jones, Inc., with a four-foot-tall painting of Rupert Murdoch's face.

Security officers clapped on their headsets, unsure of the building's regulations for unexpected art exhibitions. After some deliberation they sent him curbside, where he remained for the rest of the afternoon.

"I have carved a niche out of painting controversial Wall Street figures," Mr. Raymond said, standing proudly next to his latest, “The Annotated Murdoch.” With the face centered on the canvas, passersby stopped to write their thoughts around the border with magic markers that Mr. Raymond provided. A red marker was reserved for Dow Jones employees.

A self-described cross between Jackson Pollack and Chuck Close, Mr. Raymond has created images of former New York Stock Exchange chairman Richard Grasso and Goldman Sachs chief Lloyd Blankfein. He said he is currently working on a portrait of CNBC reporter Maria Bartiromo (nickname, “Money Honey”) as the Virgin Mary.
He said he chose to paint Mr. Murdoch because of his internal anxiety about the potential Dow Jones take over.

"The acquisition of The Wall Street Journal by somebody like Rupert Murdoch is certainly cause for concern,” he said. “I find it ratifying that people want to write on my painting.”

By mid-afternoon around 30 commenters ratified Mr. Raymond’s reconstitution of Mr. Murdoch.

“I don't care,” scrawled one strangely apathetic passerby. “Keep the WSJ out of this scumbag's hands” wrote a more opinionated signatory.

“We want truth liberty and the American way," one Dow Jones employee wrote, while another complained, "Fox News is no news."

On the center of the canvas in red ink were written the words, "news is sacred."

Joshua Prager, a senior special writer at The Wall Street Journal, approached the canvas to write the legend: “Unfair and Imbalanced, stay away.”

“I think people have a lot to say and a lot of thoughts to express,” Mr. Prager said. “This is just another outlet for them to do so.”

Mr. Raymond said that lots of Dow Jones employees had looked at the painting, but only five had actually written on it by mid-afternoon.

He said one employee had begun writing but stopped when he saw his editor walking by.

"I think there's a degree of corporate paranoia," Mr. Raymond said.

Mr. Raymond plans to stand outside of Dow Jones everyday this week, weather permitting, and will measure his success in graffiti.

And then he’ll put the painting up for sale on Ebay, starting the bidding at $3,500.

"It only takes two rich guys to make the action a success," Mr. Raymond said with a smile.

One previously undecided member of the Bancroft family, who votes about 15 percent of Dow Jones shares, has come out against a deal to sell the company to Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., The Wall Street Journal reports.

Jane Cox MacElree, whose daughter, Leslie Hill, brought Brad Greenspan and Ron Burkle's counterproposal before the board of directors of the company, is said to have stated her position during family meetings begun in Boston yesterday.  read more »

Shortly before 8 p.m., Bancroft family lead trustee Michael Elefante emerged through a revolving door, from the back entrance of the Hilton Hotel, in Boston’s financial district. There, he very briefly addressed reporters, waiting outside in the light rain.  read more »

On Thursday, July 19 Dieter von Holtzbrinck resigned from his position as a board member of the Dow Jones Company—a move that the Wall Street Journal first reported on Thursday evening.

Mr. Holtzbrinck’s actions come two days after his fellow board members voted in favor of Mr. Murdoch’s $5 billion bid to purchase Dow Jones. Mr. Holtzbrink abstained from the vote.  read more »

Today's Wall Street Journal has some valuable retread over the events at Tuesday night's meeting between representatives of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. and the board of directors of Dow Jones Inc., which is considering selling itself to the Australian-born media mogul.  read more »

The Securities and Exchange Commission has given notice to Dow Jones board member David K.P. Li that he will be investigated for insider trading after a couple to whom he is "indirectly linked" made $8.2 million in a matter of days by buying Dow Jones stock immediately before news leaked that Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. was planning a takeover bid.  read more »

After yesterday’s big meeting between News Corp. chair Rupert Murdoch and Dow Jones C.E.O. Richard Zannino, the Journal reported that Rupert Murdoch “suggested the possibility of nominating [Mr. Steiger] to the board of News Corp., according to a person who was there.”

But the last we heard, Mr. Steiger’s special assignment was to oversee the paper’s coverage of the Dow Jones deal.  read more »

Last night, Dow Jones Richard F. Zannino finished a marathon session with News Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch by hammering out a tentative agreement to sell him the company.  read more »

On a recent Saturday, James Ottaway Jr., the retired newspaper executive, attended a wedding in Rhode Island. The bride, a young artist named Xu Jin, was a longtime friend of Mr. Ottaway’s.  read more »

The News Corp. chief, according to the Associated Press, appeared "frustrated" with the Bancrofts:

"They keep changing their minds," Murdoch told The Associated Press in Sun Valley, Idaho, during a conference of top media executives hosted by investment banker Herbert Allen. Murdoch is a regular guest at the conference, which has become a landmark event for media power players since the early 1980s.

(AP via Forbes)

Supermarket billionaire Ron Burkle is set to meet with members of the Dow Jones board today to discuss a possible bid to rival that of News Corp. magnate Rupert Murdoch.

Mr. Murdoch is said to be hammering out the details of a deal, and London newspapers Friday declared it all but done.

Still, rumors surfacing over the weekend that Mr. Burkle would meet with board members were confirmed yesterday.

Of course, all reports offer the conventional wisdom that Mr. Burkle is unlikely to be able to top Mr. Murdoch's offer of $5 billion.  read more »

We'll have more to say shortly on Joseph Kahn's pretty impressive and exhaustive account of Rupert Murdoch's activities in China.

But the biggest news in the piece has to be the war that's now going on between Mr. Murdoch and The Times.  read more »

In case you missed this, my colleague Michael Calderone stopped by a party last night in Manhattan hosted by News Corp, where Michael Bloomberg presidential buzz was in the air.

From Newsweek senior editor Lally Weymouth's introduction:

“Everybody in New York that I know thinks he’s a brilliant mayor, and everyone thinks he would be a brilliant president.”

But the line of the night unquestionably goes to Fox News executive Roger Ailes, who is upset that the Democrats won't participate in a presidential debate co-sponsored by Fox.

“The candidates that can’t face Fox, can’t face Al Qaeda,” he said. “And that’s what’s coming.”

This afternoon, Rupert Murdoch and his son James meet with three members of the Bancroft family to discuss his bid to buy Dow Jones, Inc., publisher among other things of The Wall Street Journal. The meeting will be held at the offices of Wachtell Lipton, advisers to the Bancrofts, and has been designed as "part social gathering and part business meeting," the Journal reports.  read more »

“I’m disappointed that the family is going to meet with Murdoch and am very skeptical that it can write any agreement to guarantee the editorial independence of Dow Jones—independence that Rupert Murdoch would respect,” the Dow Jones shareholder tells The Observer.  read more »

Since the day Rupert Murdoch's bid to buy Dow Jones, Inc. became public, The Wall Street Journal, a Dow Jones property, has been reporting assiduously on the reactions of the Bancroft family, which controls the company.

Slightly buried in today's Wall Street Journal piece about a statement from the Bancrofts released last night indicating their willingness to talk to Mr. Murdoch about a sale:  read more »

In a statement released last night, the Bancroft family, which controls Dow Jones Inc., accepted Rupert Murdoch's invitation to meet members of his family to discuss the possibility of selling the company to News Corp.  read more »

The Wall Street Journal has published a letter the newspaper reports was distributed this morning to members of the Bancroft family, which controls Dow Jones, Inc., the Journal's parent company.  read more »

Perfection eludes us,” said Col Allan, editor in chief of the New York Post.  read more »

Syndicate Public Relations, Dec. 20, La Esquina, 203 Lafayette Street    read more »

Syndicate Public Relations, Dec. 20, La Esquina, 203 Lafayette Street  read more »

In April 2006, celebrity publisher Judith Regan began working on what she called "Project Miami." It  read more »

In April 2006, celebrity publisher Judith Regan began working on what she called "Project Miami  read more »

For media figures who have previously made the climb to the World Economic Forum at Davos, Switzerla  read more »

In recent weeks, a new billboard has popped up across the street from the Daily News’ remote quart  read more »

On the fifth anniversary of the Sept.  read more »

On the fifth anniversary of the Sept.  read more »

You'd think that after all the heckling John McCain endured at the New School back in May, conservative Republicans with Presidential ambitions might be a little wary of accepting Bob Kerrey's invitations. But not Newt Gingrich. He is scheduled to give a political talk about the "American Dream" at the liberal school on September 13.

Apparently the spirit of ideological cooperation extends even to the sponsors: The Milano School for Management and Urban Policy and News Corporation.

Ok, kids, get your orange signs ready.

--Jason Horowitz

About that fund-raiser Rupert Murdoch hosted for Hillary Clinton today: we heard that it went off as planned this morning at News Corp headquarters with about 60 people in attendance.

If anybody has additional details -- well, you know where to find us.

-- Jason Horowitz

Bill Clinton has accepted an invitation from Rupert Murdoch to address News Corporation executives this August at a corporate retreat in Pebble Beach.

A News Corp. spokesperson confirmed that Murdoch had invited Clinton and globe-trotting New York Times op-ed columnist Thomas Friedman to speak at the event, which will be held at the Pebble Beach Golf Club. Friedman declined due to a scheduling conflict, according to the columnist's assistant and the News Corp. spokesperson. But Clinton was available and willing. "We have a good relationship with the former President," the spokesperson said.

--Gabriel Sherman

“When this thing dropped down on me,” said Jared Paul Stern, “it made it sound lik  read more »

On the remarkable videotape that shows Jared Paul Stern allegedly trying to shake down California bi  read more »

Last month Rupert Murdoch, chairman and C.E.O. of News Corp.  read more »

Remember the old Herblock Watergate cartoon?  read more »