News Corp.

When some future historian writes the book about how newspapers went the way of the steel industry (if there are books in the future, of course), today could be the lede:

• The Los Angeles Times notified 150 newsroom staffers that they're getting fired today, months after they already cut dozens of jobs; the paper's publisher "stepped down," and will be replaced on an interim basis by Randy Michaels, a man with a career in radio.
• The New York Times' stock dropped another 3 percent today, falling to $13.21 and, at one point, hitting another decade-low of $13.00
• The Wall Street Journal is buying out half a dozen staffers
• The Chicago Tribune's editor-in-chief, Ann Marie Lipinski, is resigning, and wrote in her farewell memo, "it would be inaccurate to attribute it to any one event." This comes less than a week after the Tribune announced it would cut 80 positions from its newsroom, the second wave of cuts this year for the paper.
• McClatchy's stock went down 3.14 percent, Gannett down 0.9 percent, News Corp down 0.77 percent.

Yesterday we wrote about the suit a thrice bed-bug-bitten former Fox News employee filed against the owner and maintenance company of News Corp.'s headquarters at 1211 Avenue of the Americas. We were skeptical of Joan Clark’s claim in the New York Supreme Court lawsuit that she suffered Post Traumatic Stress Disorder following three separate bed bug attacks in the network's offices, but perhaps we dismissed her case too soon.

Dr. Bob Lynn, a leading addiction recovery specialist who ran the state of New Jersey’s PTSD initiative following 9/11, told us that “the case can be made that bed bugs were responsible.  read more »

The lawyer for a bedbug-bitten Fox News employee suing the landlord and maintenance company of 1211 Avenue of the Americas today blamed his client's condition on foreign visitors to New York.

“My position is that it comes from foreigners,” Mr. Schnurman told The Observer. “Because it became so inexpensive for foreigners to travel here, I believe they brought it into our hotel system.”

His client, Joan Clark, claims in her lawsuit in New York Supreme Court that she's “suffering from emotional distress” from the bedbug attacks inside the News Corp. headquarters at 1211 Avenue of the Americas, which is owned by Beacon Capital Partners.  read more »

Say goodbye to the Financial District, suckers!

The Media Mob's John Koblin links to a PaidContent report that Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones staffers will be working out of News Corp.'s Midtown headquarters at 1211 Avenue of the Americas by spring of 2009:  read more »

We just caught up with Robert Thomson, who, it was just announced, will be the newspaper's next managing editor, on the phone. "I feel privileged," he said. "I'm looking forward with much excitement to making the Journal, and its news wires, which is the greatest news organization in the world, even greater."

He will move down to the newsroom's ninth floor tomorrow, and will take over chief editing duties over the paper immediately.  read more »

Here's the News Corp. press release. More coming shortly.

Robert Thomson has been appointed Editor-in-Chief of Dow Jones and managing editor of the Wall Street Journal, effective immediately, Rupert Murdoch, Chairman of Dow Jones & company, announced.

The Dow Jones Special Committee today unanimously endorsed Mr. Thomson's appointment following his nomination by the Company last week.

 read more »

Check out the above rendering. We got it on Monday afternoon at a press conference to tout the deal struck this weekend between the Related Companies and the M.T.A. over the development rights of the West Side rail yards.

Look closely. An old rendering, from Related's original rail yards bid in November, featured a sign above the concert stage that read "myspace.com". It was, of course, a reference to then-anchor tenant News Corp., owner of MySpace.  read more »

Two nights ago, Rupert Murdoch told The Observer that he went "a little too far" by declaring that his purchase of Newsday was a certainty, which he boldly told reporters and investors earlier in the week. This afternoon, he has withdrawn his offer.  read more »

Rupert Murdoch was standing in a deep corner of the Rose Hall at about 7:30 p.m. last night to toast his fellow influencers: It was the Time 100 celebration, an event that drums up publicity for the magazine's decreasingly influential list of the 100 most influential people in the world.

The day before, Mr. Murdoch had promised investors and reporters listening in on a News Corp. investors' call that he'd prevail in his purchase of Newsday over rival bidders Mort Zuckerman and the Dolans.  read more »

For the past two weeks, Robert Thomson, publisher of The Wall Street Journal, has been busy not being the paper’s editor.

It hasn’t been easy. Since April 22, when Marcus Brauchli resigned as the newspaper’s managing editor, Mr. Thomson, who was forced to describe himself in an interview with The New York Times as the interim “head of content” for the paper, has had nine meetings (in person and on conference calls) to soothe the fraying nerves of his orphaned editorial staff.

“There was a real panic here for a few days when Marcus left,” said one reporter.  read more »

Tomorrow marks the one-year anniversary of the original CNBC report that Rupert Murdoch was interested in buying Dow Jones at $60 per share. And one year later, nothing seems to have calmed down at the Wall Street Journal.  read more »

It seems like all the cool kids have been gravitating toward Facebook lately, but MySpace isn't out of style just yet. Today, the News Corp.-owned social networking giant announced its partnership with three major music companies -- Sony BMG, Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group -- in creating a new online music service, according to The Wall Street Journal (a fellow Rupert Murdoch product). The ad-supported MySpace Music will offer free tunes and video streaming, as well as paid-for MP3 downloads and other digital goodies like ringtones, and MySpace's COO told the Journal that the new service would build on the site's already popular music environment, giving it "the potential to be a significant revenue driver." Could be bad news for iTunes, but as far as the competition with Facebook goes, that site still seems to be way ahead in the "killing time while at work" department -- Scrabulous anyone? More from WSJ after the jump.  read more »

Condé Nast is inching closer to a new West Side tower.  read more »

Newsweek reports that Judith Regan, the outspoken publisher who used to have her own imprint at HarperCollins, is in "conversations" with News Corp. about settling out of court the $100 million dollar lawsuit she filed against the company last month. Citing unnamed media executives, Newsweek reports that "Regan has a tape recording that presumably helps to buttress her allegations in her suit."

None of the people who spoke to Newsweek could say what exactly might be on the tape or where it came from, but four sources said top-level executives were aware of it.    read more »

A chemical explosion on the 45th floor of News Corp.’s flagship 1211 Avenue of the Americas injured one person this morning, with the incident taking place in a mechanical room.

The injury is not considered-life threatening, and four floors have been evacuated. Our colleagues over at The Observer's Media Mob blog have a bit more info.  read more »

The News Corp. shakeup continues.

New York Times new boy Tim Arango reports that James Murdoch, Rupert's younger son, will step down as the head of British Sky Broadcasting in order to take on a newly created position which makes him the number 3 executive in News Corp., behind his father and New Corp. president Peter Chernin.

The Times confirms that the timing of the move is related to News Corp.'s acquisition of Dow Jones, which goes into effect next week.

Is there a New York news story thse days without a Rupert Murdoch connection?  The Observer reports that one city developer is centering its pitch for the Western Railyards, on the far west side of Manhattan, on a plan that would allow News Corp. to consolidate its New York offices.  And yes, that includes The Wall Street Journal.

When Michael Wolff started shopping his biography of Rupert Murdoch, he opted to go with a "high six-figure" offer from Doubleday instead of taking the risk of having his previous publisher, Harper Collins, put out the book. (Mr. Murdoch's News Corp. owns Harper Collins.)

But these days Mr. Wolff has emerged as something of a sympathizer—at least with Mr. Murdoch's ambition to own The Wall Street Journal.

In The Times:  read more »

Yesterday, lots of Wall Street Journal staffers and one former Dow Jones board member, James Ottaway, talked to the Observer about what, in the final hours of News Corp.'s bid to buy Dow Jones, had increasingly become the central issue: Could Dow Jones set up a $30 million fund to pay the lawyers and bankers who had advised the Bancrofts on the sale-and have Rupert Murdoch foot the bill?  read more »

You might think that a family journalism dynasty would be more conscious of deadlines—but alas, the Bancrofts have already blown News Corp.’s 5 p.m. cutoff. Family advisors and Dow Jones board members tried convincing holdout family members to accept Rupert Murdoch’s $5 billion bid, according to the Wall Street Journal.  read more »

The Wall Street Journal is citing sources on both sides of the deal saying that the purchase of Dow Jones Inc. by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. is almost a done deal.  read more »

TV Guide is making a move.

The periodical’s parent company, Gemstar-TV Guide International, Inc., recently signed a multi-year lease for over 85,000 square feet at 11 West 42nd Street, according to a press release. TV Guide’s editorial department and TV Guide Online are among the departments that will be moving. The move, reported by The New York Post earlier today, will happen in December 2007.

Gemstar-TV Guide, which has 300 employees based in New York, currently occupies two floors at the News Corporation building at 1211 Sixth Avenue. In the West 42nd Street building, they will inhabit the 16th and 17th floors and a portion of the 18th, and there will be “a private, internal staircase” connecting the floors.  read more »