Publishing

German press crunch time could imperil democracy

21 Nov 2012

The oldest national paper is insolvent and Financial Times Deutschland is in limbo. German quality publications are suffering from the familiar problems of old media in the internet age. The sector is vital for the country. It might soon have to argue for a public bailout.

Pearson should "show, not tell" with Penguin books

5 Nov 2012

Merging Penguin with Random House may well beat selling the publisher for cash to Rupert Murdoch. Still, parent Pearson wants investors to take this largely on trust. It’s not a huge transaction - but if the venture struggles later, Pearson’s fuzzy assurances will be worthless.

Pearson plays long game with Penguin

29 Oct 2012

Merging Penguin with Bertelsmann’s Random House to create a publishing giant makes sense. And Pearson, which will own 47 pct, has carefully built in a range of exit options. Investors may need convincing, but this complex setup could plausibly be better than taking hard cash now.

Random Penguin could fly

26 Oct 2012

Consolidation makes sense as publishers swap paper and ink for bits and bytes. Hence Bertelsmann and Pearson’s talks to combine Random House and Penguin. The $3.4 bln tie-up could significantly cut costs, while gaining heft to take on the industry’s new digital kingmakers.

New York Times cash can stretch only so far

25 Oct 2012

The U.S. newspaper publisher’s ugly Q3 erased about 15 pct of its market value and put further demands on a roughly $1 bln war chest. Shareholders, including the Sulzberger family, will want a dividend and pension funds are short. The Times, however, could use the cushion.

Investors may live with outrageous News Int payoff

16 Oct 2012

Rebekah Brooks, the former CEO of News Corp’s UK newspapers, is reported to have received a 7 mln stg “payoff”. Unspecified sums for legal fees may well reduce any personal payments. Only the hope that News Corp is reforming itself could dampen shareholder objections.

FT sale would defy today’s financial times

4 Oct 2012

With the exit of the CEO of Pearson, the pink newspaper’s parent company, chances rise that the FT will change hands. But valuing it on standard industry metrics won’t reveal its worth to billionaires and media giants. The paper’s trophy status could make it a 1 bln pound asset.

Scardino exit reignites FT sale speculation

3 Oct 2012

Pearson’s departing CEO famously said she would sell the Financial Times “over my dead body”. The chairman is also fond of the pink paper, and her successor has been at the group for 15 years. Still, post Scardino, Pearson will be less attached to the barely profitable paper.

Center of gravitas shifts at the New York Times

1 Oct 2012

One of the 20th century’s most influential publishers, Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, died over the weekend. He built the New York Times into a media empire that his son has had to dismantle. His gravitas will be missed as Arthur Jr. struggles to keep the paper a family affair.

Who will run Murdoch’s grand newspaper spinoff?

25 Sep 2012

With a key UK regulatory judgment on BSkyB out of the way, News Corp can focus on cleaving its newspaper empire. Critically for investors, that means picking a CEO. Wall Street Journal boss Robert Thomson appears in pole position. His appointment would spark a chain reaction.

Review: Pragmatic management wisdom from the East

21 Sep 2012

Can businessmen learn from Confucius? Academics Ikujiro Nonaka and Zhichang Zhu argue that a flexible Eastern approach to decision-making provides a good framework for managers everywhere. The philosophy is a little hazy, but cultural fusion makes sense in a globalised world.

Review: "Bond Girl" goes for broke, ends up short

14 Sep 2012

“Bond Girl” moves from the modest heights of corporate expense accounts to the imagined depths of the financial crisis. With an eye drawn more toward the decadent than the daily deal, let’s hope this is more soft-core fantasy than Wall Street reality.

Murdoch’s reformation stops with governance

5 Sep 2012

The media mogul has sensibly deployed capital as part of a big turnaround at News Corp since the phone-hacking scandal rocked his empire. But two new board nominees look like the old Murdoch at work. Investors shouldn’t so soon forget the havoc an unchecked emperor can wreak.

New NY Times boss should keep tight rein on cash

27 Aug 2012

The $300 mln sale price for About.com means Mark Thompson joins a Grey Lady which finally has net cash. But he should resist the temptation to splash out. Free cash flow is hardly stellar, the company still has a pension hole and it has yet to get a handle on its future.

Review: Not another BRIC in the wall

10 Aug 2012

Ruchir Sharma wants to identify the next great emerging economies by throwing out well-worn labels. “Breakout Nations” reexamines markets one by one, case by case. Sharma draws original conclusions, though a whirlwind tour of the developing world leaves some lingering questions.

New York Times looks blind in land of one-eyed

26 Jul 2012

Fellow embattled companies like Yahoo and Avon found respectable CEOs in relatively short order. After eight months, however, the newspaper publisher is still searching. Circulation growth helped lift an otherwise dim Q2. But the long quest for a boss is a bad sign of the Times.

Review: Financial whodunit clues into bankers

6 Jul 2012

Imagine Goldman had merged with Lehman, stuffed it with surprise amounts of dreck as Merrill did to BofA and then Dick Fuld confessed to killing Lloyd Blankfein. A story like that underpins journalist John Gapper’s debut novel. The mystery is fun but also not entirely frivolous.

Murdoch all but erases discount he inflicted

26 Jun 2012

When the phone-hacking scandal struck News Corp and its shares last year, a Breakingviews calculator found the company trading in the market at about 30 pct less than its sum-of-the-parts value. Plans to spin off the publishing arm may complete an improbable run to close the gap.

Houghton Mifflin is a textbook case of bad timing

21 May 2012

Investors including John Paulson thought the Curious George publisher was still a good bet in 2010. The hedge fund manager didn’t reckon the subprime crisis he predicted so accurately would deal such a blow to the underlying economy. Houghton’s bankruptcy is a teachable moment.

Buffett’s investing gets sappy – read all about it

17 May 2012

The Oracle is doubling down on newspapers, buying 63 local rags. The cost is negligible for Berkshire, but Buffett’s thesis is behind online trends. Revenue may fall faster than he thinks, as other buyers have learned the hard way. The bet seems more about sentiment than value.