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News Corporation: Live Updates from The Guardian

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Updated: 43 min 26 sec ago

How New York's tabloid journalists learned their fate

Fri, 05/10/2013 - 12:46

Further to my posting on the cuts at the New York Daily News and New York Post, here are edited versions of the memos sent to their respective staffs.

The one to journalists at the News was signed by its editor-in-chief, Colin Myler, and the paper's president, Bill Holiber

Dear Colleagues,

In the last couple of days we have started a process of restructuring our business. It is a process that has been difficult and painful. But it is an inevitable consequence of the challenges we continue to face...

The newspaper industry is going through an unprecedented revolution. Print advertising and circulation revenue streams continue to fall but our business transformation as a whole is strong and growing.

But if we are going to become more successful, the harsh reality is that we have to change how we work. This restructuring is at the heart of our strategy to better secure our future as we navigate the difficult journey as a print/digital/media business.

Our digital growth under Ted Young [former Daily Mail staffer] and his team has been nothing short of phenomenal – with 34m unique visitors in April, up 48% year–on-year.

But we still have much to do and in an effort to achieve our goals we have to seriously look at how we further integrate our print and web teams...

Moving forward we have to be in a position to be more flexible and bold. The news cycle has never been more competitive and we would be failing in our duty if we did not acknowledge the realities of how we have to adapt…

Change is often difficult to embrace. We are sure you will have lots of questions and we will be happy to try to answer them. But we want to reassure you that these changes, which we believe are necessary and inevitable, have been made to strengthen our business and to put us in a better position to meet the many challenges we face in the future.

The memo sent to the Post's staff was written by editor-in-chief, Col Allan:

Today we are offering voluntary buyouts to a limited number of newsroom employees. We plan to meet with eligible employees today and discuss with them their options and the package being offered to them…

As we budgeted for the coming fiscal year, we took a careful look at our editorial spending and staffing levels, which have grown slowly over the last decade. It is our intention now to reduce our staffing levels by 10% through this initiative, and other measures if necessary.

We have always strived to be an efficient and resourceful news organisation, and being so now is all the more important.

The New York Post is one of the best brands in the business, and I want to assure you our future, both in print and digital, is very bright indeed.

We are taking these steps to make our business stronger and we will continue with targeted investment in the future as we continually strive to offer the best possible product to our loyal readers across all our platforms.

Sources: Capital New York here and here

Roy Greenslade
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New York tabloids cut staff in 'grimmest day' for city's newspapers

Fri, 05/10/2013 - 12:26

It had to happen - but the fact of jobs being cut at New York's two struggling tabloids, the Daily News and the Post, has still shocked the city's journalists.

News broke today of at least 20 editorial staff being made redundant at the News as the Post offered voluntary buyouts to journalists in an attempt to achieve a 10% reduction in newsroom staffing.

Daily News staffers were informed about the "difficult and painful" process of cutbacks in a memo sent by the paper's editor-in-chief, Colin Myler, and its senior executive, Bill Holiber.

Their note said the cuts were "an inevitable consequence of the challenges we continue to face", a reference to fast-falling newsprint advertising revenue.

The cuts are being dressed up as part of a restructure that will see extra resources devoted to online news.

Over at the Post, its editor, Col Allan, issued a memo offering staff the chance to volunteer for pay-off packages in order to reduce the paper's headcount by 10%. But Allan did indicate that if there were not enough volunteers, mandatory redundancies might occur.

The redundancies are also linked to the fact that the Post's owner, Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, is preparing to create a separate publishing division.

After the split due this summer, the newspapers will no longer be cushioned by the company's more profitable entertainment entities. And the Post is said to lose as much as $110m (£65.2m) a year.

In a third development at another New York paper, The Village Voice, there was turmoil after its editor-in-chief, Will Bourne, and deputy editor, Jessica Lustig, quit after refusing to lay off staff.

They had been told to eliminate, or drastically reduce, five of the 20 positions at the paper.

An experienced New York media observer said: "It is one of the grimmest days in New York newspaper history."

Could the rival tabloids be on the verge of a merger?

Down the years, the battle between the Daily News and Post has never been less than fierce and sometimes very bitter indeed.

But close observers of the tabloids have noted of late what some believe is a truce between the rivals. They have stopped being so critical of each other.

One commentator told me: "The Post used to be absolutely relentless in its criticism of any mistake made by the the News. Now, there's not a word, particularly in the Post's media diary."

He argues that there appears to be some kind of understanding between the News's owner, Mort Zuckerman, and Murdoch. Many observers believe there is either a truce to preserve the industry or perhaps future plans to form some kind of joint operating agreement and, even more amazingly, a merger.

The Daily News, owned since 1993 by Zuckerman, a real estate tycoon, is the fifth most widely read newspaper in the United States. But its combined print and digital average weekday circulation slipped 11% year-on-year to 516,165 during the six-month period between October and March, according to data released last week by the Alliance for Audited Media (AAM).

The Post, owned by News Corp since Rupert Murdoch reacquired it in 1993, is the sixth most widely read paper in the US. Like the Daily News, its latest AAM-audited combined print and digital average weekday circulation fell 9.9% year-on-year to 500,521. Print copies totalled 299,950.

Big names are among the leavers at the News

Among the people selected to receive "pink slips" at the News were two high-profile veteran columnists, Albor Ruiz and Joanna Molloy.

Molloy's termination was said to be "particularly shocking" by media writer Joe Pompeo, because she is regarded as the most famous writer at the paper.

He reports that just last month she was on TV extolling the virtues of the Daily News's gun control crusade under Myler's editorship.

And a former Daily Mirror colleague of mine, Steve Lynas, stepped down a couple of weeks ago. As senior vice president of digital, he helped to create the paper's website and increased traffic by a factor of 10.

Sources: Capital New York (1) (2) (3) (4) /New York Observer The Memos: here

Roy Greenslade
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Petition aims to stop right-wingers from acquiring US newspapers

Thu, 05/09/2013 - 08:31

Fears that the billionaire industrialists, Charles and David Koch, might acquire the Tribune Company have prompted a large-scale petition opposing their potential takeover.

A diverse coalition of groups - including public bodies, politicians, trade union groups and more than 250,000 individuals - have signed the petition in protest about the possibility of either a Koch takeover or one by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation.

It has been organised by the liberal website Daily Kos and the online human rights organisation, the Courage Campaign.

The signatories call on Tribune's board, shareholders and bankers not to sell the company's eight large regional daily titles to the Koch brothers, Murdoch "or other potential buyers who cannot be trusted to accurately provide information to the public."

The right-wing Koch brothers have been "exploring a bid" to buy the Tribune stable, which includes the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune and Baltimore Sun. Murdoch has shown interest only in the LA Times.

A coalition statement emailed to me says: "Ownership by two of the most influential and radical right wing ideologues in the country will skew trusted news sources to further their interests and debase our democracy.

"Any news outlet owned by such intensely partisan activists could not be trusted to provide an honest account of a wide variety of issues that are of vital importance to the public."

The statement goes on to say:

"We already know what happens to news coverage when the ideology of an owner is placed over informing the public. This sale would create another Rupert Murdoch, and make papers like the LA Times and Chicago Tribune look more like Fox News and the New York Post."

Critics have also written to Bruce Karsh, chairman of the Tribune board and president of Oaktree Capital Management, the company's major shareholder that holds union pension fund investments.

The letter says a sale to the Koch brothers would;d give them "a powerful and influential platform by which to promote.. [the] enactment of their anti-public pension fund policies."

On Wednesday, demonstrators protested outside the headquarters of the Chicago Tribune about the possibility of a Koch takeover. And a rally is planned in Los Angeles next Tuesday with posters saying: "No Koch hate in LA: Stop the Koch takeover of the LA Times".

Sources: New York Times/Hollywood Reporter

Roy Greenslade
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Rupert Murdoch must step down as News Corporation chair – shareholders

Wed, 05/08/2013 - 18:05

Christian Brothers Investment Services demands action to 'dramatically revise corporate governance practices'

Dissident shareholders are pressing once more for the media mogul Rupert Murdoch to step down as chairman of News Corporation.

Shareholders from the US, UK and Canada filed a resolution on Tuesday, calling for News Corp to appoint an independent chairman. A similar resolution attracted strong support at the media company's annual shareholder meeting last year.

The proposal was introduced by Christian Brothers Investment Services (CBIS), which manages $4.6bn for Catholic institutions worldwide. It is backed by the UK's Local Authority Pension Fund Forum, with assets of £115bn ($178.9bn), and British Columbia Investment Management Corporation, one of Canada's largest institutional investors.

In a separate resolution, Nathan Cummings Foundation, an ethical investment group, has called on News Corp to end the dual-class share structure that allows the Murdoch family to control its media empire despite owning a minority of shares.

A CBIS statement said: "A resolution introduced at last year's meeting which called for an independent chairman was approved by two-thirds of the independent shareholders, while another calling for the elimination of the company's dual-class share structure was approved by 62% of the public shareholders.

"The shareholders believe that by responding positively to these corporate governance issues, News Corporation can improve oversight of management, reduce business risk and better represent the interests of all shareholders. These two resolutions are the latest salvos in an ongoing campaign by concerned institutional investors to dramatically revise the corporate governance practices at News Corporation."

Pressure for change from shareholders has been mounting since the phone-hacking scandal at News Corp's UK newspapers triggered investigations on both sides of the Atlantic. Given the Murdoch family's control of News Corp's shares, the measures are unlikely to succeed.

The company announced last year that it is intending to split its publishing assets, including the Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones and Times newspapers, from its faster-growing TV and film assets. Murdoch plans to be chairman of both companies.

News Corp released its latest quarterly results in New York later on Wednesday. The company's revenues rose 14% from a year earlier to $9.5bn in the quarter ended 31 March, ahead of analysts' expectations. Net income increased to $2.85bn as a 17% rise in its cable business offset a dip in its publishing earnings.

The company announced that the hacking scandal had cost it $42m over the quarter – the company has now incurred more than $380m in costs related to the scandal.

Chase Carey, News Corp's chief operating officer, said the new publishing company, News Corp, would update investors about future plans at the end of May. The TV and film business, to be called 21st Century Fox, will hold an investor conference in August.

Carey said he was "disappointed" with ratings at Fox, where viewership of the declining hit American Idol has slipped dramatically in the show's 12th season. The decline of Idol has helped CBS take the top slot among key advertising demographics, ending an eight-year run at the top for Fox. Fox will be unveiling new shows to advertisers and the press at the "upfronts" – the major media firms' seasonal showcases – next week.

Dominic Rushe
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News Corp shareholders renew call for Rupert Murdoch to step down

Wed, 05/08/2013 - 13:54

Dissident shareholders file resolution calling for appointment of independent chairman

Dissident shareholders are pressing once more for media mogul Rupert Murdoch to step down as chairman of News Corporation.

Shareholders from the US, UK and Canada filed a resolution on Tuesday calling for News Corp to appoint an independent chairman. A similar resolution attracted strong support at the media company's annual shareholder meeting last year.

In a separate resolution Nathan Cummings Foundation, an ethical investment group, has called on News Corp to end the dual class share structure that allows the Murdoch family to control its media empire despite owning a minority of shares.

"A resolution introduced at last year's meeting which called for an independent chairman was approved by two-thirds of the independent shareholders, while another calling for the elimination of the company's dual-class share structure was approved by 62% of the public shareholders," CBIS said in a statement.

Pressure for change from shareholders has been mounting since the phone-hacking scandal at News Corp's UK newspapers triggered investigations on both sides of the Atlantic. The company announced last year that it is intending to split its publishing assets, including the Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones and Times newspapers, from its faster growing TV and film assets. Murdoch plans to be chairman of both companies.

News Corp is expected to give an update on that split when it releases its latest quarterly results in New York later on Wednesday.

Dominic Rushe
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Rupert Murdoch papers in talks on 'Baby Shard' move

Wed, 05/08/2013 - 10:51

Times, Sunday Times and Sun could move from long-term Wapping base to London Bridge when lease expires in 2015

Rupert Murdoch is in negotiations to move his UK newspaper operations to the "Baby Shard" building in London Bridge, severing entirely his links with Wapping, the headquarters of his press empire for the past 27 years.

Both Estates Gazette and Property Week reported that Murdoch's News International is in talks to take over the entire building, which stands to the east of the main Shard skyscraper next to London Bridge station on the south bank of the Thames.

If the deal is clinched the Times, Sunday Times and Sun will move to the 428,000 sq ft office block in 2015 from Thomas More Square on St Katharine's Dock in Wapping.

A spokesman for News International said: "Our lease is due for renewal next year and as a responsible employer we will be exploring all options to ensure our accommodation continues to meet the needs of our staff and the business as it develops in thefuture."

News International moved to three blocks in the dock two years ago after selling the former printing plant and vast complex of old warehouses and offices across the road on Pennington Street.

The publisher currently occupies 11 floors in the main block in Thomas More Square, with operations and commercial divisions housed in two adjacent buildings.

Controversially, News Corporation's management standards committee and staff from Scotland Yard investigating alleged phone hacking and alleged payments to public officials for stories by News International journalists were also in one of the Thomas More Square buildings.

Murdoch moved his printing operations and offices for four newspapers including the now defunct News of the World to Wapping from Fleet Street in 1986 in a bid to smash the unions. The transfer led to a year-long strike and riots between unionised workers and so called "scabs".

The violence prompted the installation of barbed wire and high fences around the site, leading to the complex being dubbed "Fortress Wapping".

However the need for such a vast tract of land in a valuable part of east London was diminished when the printing operation moved to new sites outside the capital in 2008.

The Baby Shard has so far attracted interest from corporate giants including Ernst & Young, Ogilvy & Mather and Omnicom but has yet to secure a tenant, according to Estates Gazette.

The site is currently being redeveloped into flats by housebuilder Berkley.

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Lisa O'Carroll
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Oops - Murdoch TV blurb shows him with one paper he doesn't own

Mon, 04/29/2013 - 07:45

I think the producers of a forthcoming TV documentary about Rupert Murdoch - yes, another one - ought to reconsider the promotional photograph shown above.

The media tycoon who owns something like 175 newspapers across the world is pictured reading one of the few he doesn't own and has never owned - the New York Daily News.

Doubtless, the UK-based Brook Lapping and their Australian co-producers, the Australian outfit Electric Pictures, got the News confused with the New York Post.

The so-called definitive story of Murdoch is split into two one-hour parts. The first episode will be screened in Australia on 5 May, and it is due to be shown in Britain on ITV at some stage. (No screening date is set, said an ITV spokesman).

BBC2 got in first last night with Steve Hewlett's hour-long Murdoch documentary, but that concentrated solely on Britain. The Brook Lapping films cross the oceans and, as the YouTube clip below shows, there was considerable Australian input.

I understand that there was plenty of US filming too, along with a lot of UK material. Note the rapid descriptions from Kelvin MacKenzie ("warrior prince"), Ian Hislop ("b-----d") and Tony Blair ("innovator"). Alan Sugar's comment is fun too.

But the clip that really catches the eye is from a British TV interview Murdoch gave way back, probably in the 1970s. He is asked: "Do you like the feeling of power you have as a newspaper proprietor?"

Murdoch replies: "Well, there's only one answer to that, of course, and that's 'yes'."

Roy Greenslade
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Rupert Murdoch's pay to reach almost $30m after News Corp split

Fri, 04/26/2013 - 15:47

Media mogul's pay could be 15% higher if he hits targets after spin-off of entertainment arm as 21st Century Fox

Rupert Murdoch will receive almost $30m (£19.4m) for running the two companies that will emerge later this year from the separation of News Corporation's publishing and entertainment businesses.

For the year ending June 2014 he will receive up to $28.3m in remuneration from the two businesses, with a base salary of $8.1m, a target bonus of $12.5m and long-term incentives of $7.7m. This is 15% more than the $24.6m total remuneration he is eligible to collect at the end of June this year as News Corp's chairman and chief executive.

News Corp, which will be split in two in the summer, revealed in a filing with US financial regulators on Friday that the billionaire's pay is "competitive and appropriate given Mr Murdoch's responsibilities associated with two separate public companies".

Most of Murdoch's pay will come from running 21st Century Fox, by some distance the bigger and more profitable of the two News Corp businesses that are to be floated separately in New York later this year.

But the pay rise did not go down well with News Corp's dissident shareholders, who have lobbied for Murdoch to be replaced as chairman and for greater independent oversight at the company.

"Mr Murdoch the chairman gave Mr Murdoch the CEO a substantial bump to what was already an excessive pay package while the board looked the other way. The fact that the board approved it demonstrates a lack of effective oversight and disregard for the best interest of all News Corp shareholders," said Julie Tanner, assistant director of socially responsible investing at Christian Brothers Investment Services.

Murdoch is to be chairman and chief executive of 21st Century Fox, which encompasses the Fox film and TV studios, the eponymous US TV network, cable channels including FX and Fox News, and News Corp's 39.1.% stake in BSkyB.

Just $5m of his $30m total remuneration package comes from his role as executive chairman of the newspaper and book publishing business, which is retaining the News Corp name and includes assets such as the Times, Sunday Times, Sun, Wall Street Journal, the Australian and HarperCollins.

Murdoch will receive a base salary of $1m, a $2m target bonus and a $2m target long-term incentive opportunity for his News Corp work.

The company said that Murdoch's pay regime has been overhauled to introduce a much larger element of bonuses dependent on performance-based targets, with his overall base salary staying at the current level of $8.1m.

"A significant portion of [Murdoch's] target total direct compensation [will be] at-risk and linked to performance ... which will further align Mr Murdoch's compensation with the interests of stockholders," News Corp said.

Murdoch's total compensation is likely to be higher than the target amounts outlined on Friday when factors such as pension contributions and other benefits are included. In the year to the end of June 2012 he was paid almost $30m.

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Mark Sweney
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News Corp reaches settlement with shareholders

Mon, 04/22/2013 - 13:20

Rupert Murdoch was accused of running News Corporation as 'personal fiefdom' in lawsuit brought against directors

News Corporation has reached a $139m (£91m) settlement with shareholders over a lawsuit claiming that its board of directors put Rupert Murdoch's interests ahead of the company over the phone-hacking scandal and the acquisition of his daughter Elisabeth's TV company Shine.

The suit was brought against News Corp directors including Murdoch, his sons James and Lachlan and the former British Airways boss Rod Eddington. According to the shareholders the board had "disregarded its fiduciary duties" and allowed Rupert Murdoch to run News Corp as his "own personal fiefdom".

The Amalgamated Bank, Central Laborers Pension Fund and City of New Orleans Employees' Retirement System first launched their suit after News Corp's 2011 purchase of Shine. They subsequently amended their complaint to include the hacking scandal.

Shareholders alleged that the board had ignored "clear and unmistakable warnings that News Corp's business practices were not only unethical, but also illegal". The board was also "an outright accomplice to Murdoch's self-interested breaches of duty", according to the suit.

The lawsuit accuses Rupert Murdoch of treating News Corp "like a wholly owned family candy store" and argues that a fair price was not achieved for Shine. News Corp paid $675m for Shine, the maker of Masterchef. Elisabeth Murdoch received $214m in cash from the sale, according to government filings. "Amazingly, at about the same time that the police turned up the heat on son James in early 2011, Rupert told the board that News Corp should buy a business owned by his daughter Elisabeth," the suit claimed, referring to James Murdoch's then central role in dealing with the hacking scandal as executive chairman of News International, News Corp's newspaper arm. "There was no pretence of negotiating the deal's terms," according to the shareholder lawsuit.

As part of the settlement, which is awaiting court approval, News Corp agreed to tighten oversight at the company and to set up an anonymous hotline for whistleblowers to report misconduct. The settlement, which will be covered by insurance, was brought against directors on behalf of shareholders and the money will be paid back to the company by the insurer.

It is the largest ever reached in a so-called derivative lawsuit in Delaware chancery court, said Jay Eisenhofer, partner at Grant & Eisenhofer, who represented Amalgamated Bank. In a statement, the company said: "News Corporation acknowledges the meaningful role the plaintiffs and their counsel played in the company's continuing efforts to enhance the important compliance and governance structures and policies that the board and management of News Corporation have adopted over the last year and are adopting as part of the settlement." The hacking scandal has led to over 100 arrests and is still under investigation by the US authorities. News Corp is planning to split its assets in two, with its newspapers and publishing assets keeping the News Corp name while the TV and Hollywood media assets will be renamed 21st Century Fox.

Dominic Rushe Mark Sweney
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Billionaires consider bid for Los Angeles Times plus seven other titles

Mon, 04/22/2013 - 12:00

Billionaire industrialists Charles and David Koch are reported to be "exploring a bid" to acquire eight regional newspapers in the United States, including the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune and Baltimore Sun.

Through their sprawling company, Koch Industries, they are said by the New York Times to be interested in buying the titles from the Tribune Company.

Having emerged from bankruptcy at the end of last year, Tribune is hoping to sell off all its print assets, which have been valued at about $623m (£409m). That wouldn't be much of a stretch for Koch Industries - the energy and manufacturing conglomerate has annual revenues of about $115bn (£75bn).

The Koch brothers are regarded as ultra-conservative libertarians who believe "the conservative voice" in the States is "not being well represented."

But there are other possible bidders for all or part of Tribune's papers. And several are interested only in the LA Times, including Rupert Murdoch's News Corp and the billionaire Democratic donors, Eli Broad and Ronald W. Burkle.

Source: New York Times

Roy Greenslade
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News Corporation reaches $139m settlement with shareholders

Mon, 04/22/2013 - 11:37

Lawsuit lodged in 2011 claimed company's board failed in its fiduciary duty to prevent phone-hacking scandal

News Corporation has reached a $139m (£91m) settlement with shareholders over a lawsuit claiming that its board of directors put Rupert Murdoch's interests ahead of the company over the phone-hacking scandal, and the acquisiton of his daughter Elisabeth's TV company Shine.

The settlement of the class action, with News Corporation shareholders including Amalgamated Bank of New York and the Central Laborers Pension Fund, is claimed to be the largest cash settlement ever in a derivative lawsuit.

The lawsuit lodged in 2011 claimedt News Corporation's board failed in its fiduciary duty to prevent the phone-hacking scandal that has engulfed News International, Murdoch's UK newspaper division that included the now defunct News of the World.

It also challenged the media conglomerate's directors for giving Murdoch the greenlight to purchase of TV production company Shine, the maker of MasterChef which is run by Rupert's daughter Elisabeth Murdoch, for $675m in 2011.

The Amalgamated Bank of New York and the Central Laborers Pension Fund claimed the deal was a case of "nepotism" and that the board of News Corp failed to question or challenge Rupert Murdoch.

The lawsuit accuses Rupert of treating News Corp "like a wholly owned family candy store" and argues that a fair price was not achieved for Shine.

News Corporation said in a statement the money would come from insurance policies held by members of the board who were the defendants in the suits, who included James and Lachlan Murdoch.

The settlement includes extensive corporate governance reforms at News Corporation, which is soon to be split into separate stockmarket-listed publishing and entertainment businesses.

"We are pleased to have resolved this matter," said News Corporation in a statement. "The agreement reflects the important steps News Corporation has taken over the last year to strengthen our corporate governance and compliance structure and we have committed to building on those efforts going forward."

Securities and corporate governance law firm Grant & Eisenhofer represented co-lead plaintiffs Amalgamated Bank and the Central Laborers Pension Fund. Co-lead counsel was Bernstein Litowitz in its representation of the City of New Orleans Employees' Retirement System.

"We are pleased that the company has committed to additional enhancements to its governance that we hope will continue to protect and enhance shareholder value going forward," said Noel Beasley, chairman of the Amalgamated Bank.

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Mark Sweney
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News Corp settles shareholders' legal action for $139m

Mon, 04/22/2013 - 11:29

News Corporation has agreed to a $139m (£91.2m) settlement of a legal action by the company's shareholders. They claimed in a lawsuit that the board had turned a blind eye to phone hacking at the News of the World.

Insurance covering News Corp's board, including chairman Rupert Murdoch, will fund the settlement that sought to hold directors accountable for the scandal.

A joint statement by the company and the shareholders stated that the money - said to be the largest cash settlement in a derivative lawsuit - will go into the company's funds rather than to individual investors.

The lawsuit also related to News Corp's £415m acquisition of Shine Group, the media company previously owned by Murdoch's daughter, Elisabeth, in 2011.

According to Delaware chancery court filings, News Corp agreed as part of the settlement to tighten up the oversight of the company's operations and to set up an anonymous whistle-blower's hotline for tips about misconduct.

Shareholders who sued had alleged that the board's lax oversight allowed wrongdoing to flourish at the company and harmed its stock price.

In its suit, Amalgamated Bank claimed that some board members knew as early as 2009 that News of the World reporters routinely hacked into phones and bribed British police for stories.

That allegation about a cover-up was hotly disputed by News Corp's lawyers at a hearing last year in Delaware. They denied that board members had participated in a cover-up because they were beholden to Murdoch and his family.

"Rather than ignoring and covering up these matters, the evidence shows the board moved to address the scandal quickly and openly," a News Corp attorney told the court.

Amalgamated Bank greeted the settlement by issuing a statement in which its CEO, Edward Grebow, said: "We are proud of this historic settlement, which continues the 20-year-history of Amalgamated Bank encouraging corporate reform and improved corporate governance."

Based in New York, Amalgamated is the largest union-owned bank in the US, and holds more than 455,000 News Corp shares through its trusteeship of LongView Funds. Its action was supported by the Central Labourers Pension Fund and City of New Orleans Employees' Retirement System,

The settlement, which is still subject to approval by the Delaware court, is part of News Corp's push to put the hacking scandal to one side. As company spokesman Nathaniel Brown said: "We are pleased to have resolved this matter."

Sources: Delaware Court of Chancery/Amalgamated Bank/News Corp/Bloomberg/Business Wire

Roy Greenslade
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Rupert Murdoch: yogi bared | Media Monkey

Mon, 04/22/2013 - 08:12

Mention transcendental meditation and you might think of the Beatles visiting Indian yogis, the Beach Boys' Mike Love, or, more recently, Sting or Madonna. But over the weekend it emerged that the latest devotee of the technique is Rupert Murdoch. On Sunday he tweeted: "Trying to learn transcendental meditation. Everyone recommends, not that easy to get started, but said to improve everything!" But this only seems to be part of the mogul's exploration of his spiritual side, as he tweeted earlier this month: "Having two days off with some colleagues and family in Australian bush. Feels like spiritual home. Peace and rest." Former Telegraph and Evening Standard writer Norman Lebrecht responded: "Rubbish! It's just another Hollywood fad" and later said: "Bosh! It's a cynical, commercial misapplication of ancient teachings. Astonished a canny media owner has got conned." Monkey wonders how long Murdoch's new-found spirituality will be extended to his critics.

Monkey
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Rupert Murdoch gives £10,000 to Thatcher charity

Fri, 04/19/2013 - 05:39

Media mogul makes donation to Chelsea Pensioners Appeal in memory of PM 'who changed Britain and the world for the better'

Rupert Murdoch has made a £10,000 donation to a charity in memory of Margaret Thatcher, whom he described as an "inspiration" following her death.

The media mogul, who was not at her funeral on Wednesday, gave the money to the Chelsea Pensioners Appeal, which was nominated by the Thatcher family for "in memoriam" gifts.

Instead of flowers, the Thatcher family asked for donations to be sent to the charity, with whom she had a close association and so far more than £50,000 has been raised.

Murdoch gave the money via the Just Giving website on Thursday, writing "In memory of Margaret Thatcher, who changed Britain and the world for the better".

He had been invited to the funeral but could not make it because of a longstanding commitment, the company said.

But on Twitter he bid goodbye to the woman who was considered his ideological soulmate and who supported his efforts to smash the print unions in Wapping in 1986.

"Farewell Iron Lady," he wrote. "Great radical achieved huge changes, but still much to do," he tweeted.

Immediately after her death, Murdoch paid tribute to Thatcher, saying that she was responsible for many of his "defining moments as a businessman" in Britain.

"I found her attitude an inspiration to my business life – and never more so than when faced with the recalcitrance of the print unions in the 1980s," he wrote in the Times.

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Lisa O'Carroll
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Media Talk podcast: where BBC Panorama went wrong

Fri, 04/19/2013 - 03:04

Hugh Muir delivers the week's media stories direct to your ears, with guests Maggie Brown and Lisa O'Carroll.

James Harding becomes the top news man at the BBC. What can we expect from the former editor of Rupert Murdoch's Times now he has switched camps?

Then we tackle John Sweeney and the controversial Panorama episode on North Korea. There have been some tough calls for the new director general – did Tony Hall get them right? Roy Greenslade isn't sure.

And in the US, as the public radio stations this week end their annual pledge drives, Helen Zaltzman speaks to the producer behind one of the most successful radio whiprounds of all time.

Plus Nosheen Iqbal drops in to discuss Ben Elton's new sitcom and the slow, agonising death of the panel show. What long-running show should be put out of its misery? Leave your comments below...

Hugh Muir Matt Hill Maggie Brown Lisa O'Carroll Helen Zaltzman Gill Phillips Dan Sabbagh Roy Greenslade Nosheen Iqbal

Rupert Murdoch renames News Corp entertainment arm 21st Century Fox

Wed, 04/17/2013 - 10:56

News Corp will remain name of publishing sector, while entertainment retains connection to well-known film brand

Rupert Murdoch has decided that when he splits News Corporation into two separately listed companies later this year, the entertainment division should be called 21st Century Fox.

It is a neat twist on the name of the Hollywood movie studio that proved to be one of the foundations of Murdoch's global media empire, Twentieth Century Fox.

That iconic name retains a hold on cinema-goers because all its films open with the familiar searchlight logo and its accompanying fanfare.

More prosaically, but sensibly, the publishing division, which includes all of the company's newspaper titles, will retain the News Corp name when the company's separation occurs in July.

Murdoch explained the thinking behind his choice in an email to employees: "After much exploration, and valuable input from our executive team, we've chosen the name 21st Century Fox to take us into the future.

"21st Century Fox is a name that draws upon the rich creative heritage of Twentieth Century Fox, while also speaking to the innovation and dynamism that must define each of our businesses through the 21st century.

"Our new name is inspired by the very first company we acquired nearly 30 years ago as our initial foray into the awe-inspiring world of entertainment."

He acquired the Hollywood studio in 1984 from oil man Marvin Davis. It provided the foundation for Murdoch's US-based empire, which has since grown into the dominant and most profitable part of his company.

The already well-established movie studio brand was extended to the Fox TV network, Fox News cable channel and other assets.

They will all be gathered into the new 21st Century Fox entertainment company, which will have assets including News Corp's 39% stake in BSkyB, the Fox film and TV studios; Fox Broadcasting network; Fox News Channel, FX, Fox Sports and National Geographic channels, and interests in various other TV broadcasters across the world.

Murdoch will be chairman of both companies and chief executive of 21st Century Fox. Chase Carey will become 21st Century Fox's president and chief operating officer.

Carey also issued a statement saying: "We believe that the 21st Century Fox name captures the power of our legacy as well as the vast opportunities for our consumers, businesses and investors as we look forward."

The company had originally plumped for the name Fox Group, but announced its change of mind in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

News Corp's portfolio of newspapers will include the Times, Sunday Times and the Sun, plus the Wall Street Journal, the New York Post and the Australian plus dailies in the cities of Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide. The book publisher HarperCollins will also be included.

The decision to split up News Corp followed the News of the World phone-hacking scandal, which focused the attention of investors on the company's newspaper assets, which are far less profitable than its film and TV businesses.

However, Murdoch has maintained that a separation had been on the cards before the disruption wrought by phone hacking.

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Murdoch opts for 21st Century Fox as name for entertainment company

Wed, 04/17/2013 - 07:33

When Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation is split into two, the entertainment division will be called 21st Century Fox, reports the Los Angeles Times. The newspapers and publishing division will retain the News Corp title.

The paper reports Murdoch as sending an email to employees saying: "After much exploration, and valuable input from our executive team, we've chosen the name 21st Century Fox to take us into the future.

Murdoch will be chairman of both companies and chief executive of 21st Century Fox.

The entertainment company will include BSkyB, the 20th Century Fox film studio, 20th Century Fox Television studio, Fox Broadcasting network, Fox News Channel, FX, Fox Sports, National Geographic channels and interests in various TV broadcasting companies across the world.

NB: Peter Preston forecast the choice of 21st Century Fox in his Observer column two weeks ago.

Source: LA Times

The New York Post: the game is up for Murdoch's plaything | Michael Wolff

Mon, 04/15/2013 - 09:59

Murdoch's once-mighty tabloid toy is out of time: the new News Corp can't carry the spectacularly loss-making vanity project

The power vacuum in New York City that will be left by Michael Bloomberg's departure from public office will likely be compounded by another unfillable hole: the loss of the New York Post.

The Post has been in business since 1801, and owned since 1976 by Rupert Murdoch (other than for a five-year hiatus when regulatory requirements forced him to sell the paper – that is, until he arranged to be exempted from those rules and buy it back). It's been Murdoch's money-losing personal instrument for all manner of trouble-making, political power-brokering, and punishment and reward. When it was not being bent to his personal will, it was to that of his editors, picking the paper's enemies and friends for both personal and institutional benefit.

To say the Post is self-serving would be beside the point. It is the last of the great bully-boy newspapers.

This joie de guerre has cost Murdoch as much as $80m a year in unstoppable losses – perhaps more than $1bn over 35 years.

Murdoch's attachment to the paper has long been more sentimental than strategic. Once, it was the seat of his power in the US, electing Ed Koch mayor and making Murdoch the most feared publisher in the nation. But that was decades ago.

Its truer recent purpose has been as a model for what he thinks newspapers ought to be: a semi-lawless, unrepentant, sometimes quite joyful agent of the carrot-and-stick of publicity. The Post newsroom has been his retreat in New York – a half-fantasy world where, when the burdens of running a big corporation and a fractious family became too much, he could repair.

I urged my daughter to try to work there after she finished college. There would not be an opportunity, I advised, to experience something like the Post much longer. Now, as Murdoch gets ready to separate his newspapers from his richer entertainment holdings in a move that will force the papers to pay their own way, the Post's day of reckoning nears.

The new newspaper company will be backed by a several billion-dollar dowry from the entertainment company, but that dough will be needed for cash flow-positive investments. The present assets, including the Wall Street Journal, more than 70 papers in Australia, and the Sun, the Times, and Sunday Times in London, will all need to become productive and ever-more-profitable members of the company. Many will struggle to get there.

There is, however, no scenario in which the Post will reach that point; there is no scenario in which, even with cuts, it doesn't keep losing more.

Murdoch himself, since has acquisition of the Wall Street Journal, in 2008, has reluctantly distanced himself from the Post, letting it become an increasingly sclerotic and gothic enterprise, full of aging figures. Its editor, Col Allan – an Australian of the Murdoch old school – has alternatively been trying to retire, or fighting efforts to make him retire, for half a decade. Its once-feared gossip columnist, Richard Johnson, long having forsaken a diligent day, is working out his rich contract in Los Angeles. Keith Kelly's column about print media, which, in its heyday held the city's media power brokers in its thrall (always a particular Murdoch goal), now reads more like the shipping news – with Kelly still one of Murdoch's highest paid reporters.

The hacking scandal in London has made the Post's characteristic behavior – its bar-tab relationship with the New York City police; the payoffs the paper has admitted taking (not least of all by Johnson for favorable Page Six coverage); and its standard operating procedure of pressuring its opponents with attacks in the paper – a red flag to the company's lawyers in New York. Indeed, Robert Thomson, the Wall Street Journal editor, who will be the CEO of the new newspaper company, is openly contemptuous of Col Allan and the paper's low-rent, cowboy atmosphere.

The paper's publisher is now Jesse Angelo, a high school friend of Murdoch's son James – and James' personal proxy on the Murdoch family trust. Angelo,whose own father is a significant investor in the Tribune Company, which owns the LA Times that Murdoch would like to buy – was the No 2 editor at the Post and long promised the No 1 job on Allan's retirement. Instead, reportedly eager to get out of the Post, he was moved to run Murdoch's tablet news project, the Daily.

When that failed, Angelo was moved back to the Post, over Allan, where, by all accounts, he is being warehoused for a top job at the new news company. (Angelo was a guest at Murdoch's 82nd birthday party last month – Allan was not.)

"If you have any juice inside of News Corp, you are negotiating yourself out of the Post," said a senior News Corp source last week.

The competition has not been kind, either. Where once the Post had only the less aggressive Daily News to consider in the tabloid world, now it is up against a free-form internet world of gossip, crime, and political coverage, as well as a local start-up, DNAinfo, comprising many former Post reporters, which regularly beats the Post on crime and political stories. And, as well, there is Wall Street Journal itself, with its metro section now competing with the Post for advertising.

Everything about the paper – advertising, circulation, staff, and even its once-outsized influence – has been shrinking. Inside News Corp, the strategy has long been described as "closing the Post without the old man having to admit that it's closed".

Still, it can yet rouse itself. It would be hard to imagine an Anthony Weiner running for mayor without the Post. And, reflecting Murdoch's views, the Post has recently become a loud, if peculiar, proponent of gun control laws.

But the end is surely here. It is just one more jarring adjustment for the 82-year-old Murdoch. The Post will not outlive him.

• Editor's note: the spelling of Col Allan's name was amended at 1.30pm ET on 15 April; and the spelling of Robert Thomson's name was amended at 7.30am ET on 16 April

Rupert Murdoch may not attend Margaret Thatcher funeral

Fri, 04/12/2013 - 07:03

News Corp CEO, who this week praised late PM in an editorial, is scheduled to be at New York board meeting on Wednesday

Rupert Murdoch, who this week told how Margaret Thatcher was an inspiration to him, is currently not planning to attend the former prime minister's funeral.

MediaGuardian understands Murdoch will be unable to pay his last respects to the late Conservative prime minister at St Paul's Cathedral on Wednesday because it clashes with a long-standing News Corporation board meeting in New York.

However, Murdoch, who paid tribute to the contribution Thatcher made to his successful battle with the print unions during the Wapping industrial dispute in the mid 1980s, may yet reschedule his meeting, according to a company insider. "This may change," the source said.

Murdoch's absence from the cathedral could be been seen as a snub to Thatcher, given the role she played in allowing him to grow his business in the UK.

His 1981 acquisition of the Times and Sunday Times was waved through without a referral to competition regulators following a secret meeting with Thatcher, more details of which have only recently emerged.

"I found her attitude an inspiration to my business life – and never more so than when faced with the recalcitrance of the print unions in the 1980s," Murdoch wrote in the Times earlier this week.

All editors of national newspapers, including Alan Rusbridger, the editor of the Guardian, a paper which was a staunch critic of Thatcher during her 11-and-a-half year reign, have been invited to the funeral, Downing Street has confirmed.

All the proprietors of the major UK national newspaper groups have also been invited, setting the stage for one of the most powerful media gatherings at a major public event since Princess Diana's funeral in 1997.

They include Lord Rothermere, owner of the Daily Mail, Telegraph Media Group chairman Aidan Barclay, and Evgeny Lebedev, who runs the Independent titles and London Evening Standard on behalf of his father Alexander.

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Margaret Thatcher was the architect of controversial changes to TV and press

Fri, 04/12/2013 - 02:51

BBC funding row, Murdoch's Wapping dispute, ITV industrial action and the creation of more channels impacted on industry

Margaret Thatcher's reign was marked by massive change in Britain's media: When she came to power in 1979 there were just three channels – ITV1, BBC1 and BBC2 – and when she left in 1990 Rupert Murdoch was laying the foundations of what would become the BSkyB pay-TV empire.

One of the defining media industry events of the Thatcher era came in 1986, with the brutal year-long industrial dispute that dogged Rupert Murdoch's decision to move his newspapers to Wapping.

In a comment piece published on Wednesday Murdoch credited Thatcher's pro-business ethos and tough stance against unions for creating a "vigorous competitive press".

"It was a bloody business," he said in the Times. "It was not only a breakthrough for us, but for the whole newspaper industry. Without it, we would not have the vigorous competitive press that is a feature of modern Britain."

It was this same drive to tackle what she viewed as a bloated, extravagant, anti-Conservative BBC that ultimately resulted in the first-ever sacking of a director general, Alasdair Milne in January 1987.

Thatcher waged a ceaseless campaign against the BBC, over its coverage of politics generally and in particular the Falklands war, Northern Ireland, the reporting of the US bombing of Libya, alleged leftwing bias, and its entitlement to the licence fee.

She wanted to see if the licence fee could be replaced by advertising. The Peacock committee was set up in 1985 to look into the financing of the BBC, but in its July 1986 report rejected advertising as an alternative.

It instead proposed a system of BBC television services paid for direct subscription by viewers, envisaging that this would eventually facilitate a move to a fully competitive UK broadcasting market with the development of a new means of programme delivery, like a national cable grid, to sell programmes direct to the public – anticipating video on demand by 25 years or so.

However, further investigation of the BBC subscription funding proposal suggested that the impact would be that the corporation would lose half its viewers and idea was dropped.

The comfy straitjacket of TV duopoly enjoyed by the BBC and ITV, which dated back to 1955, was already crumbling when Thatcher arrived at No 10.

The ITV network was blacked out by a ten-week strike in the year of Thatcher's election, with the action killing off hopes of an ITV2 to give it parity with the BBC. ITV crews went to Downing Street for current affairs interviews with up to five times the number of technicians and production staff as foreign broadcasters, Thatcher noted.

The Queen's speech in May 1979 outlined new broadcasting legislation, and speedily resolved a protracted debate about the merits of launching what was to become Channel 4, thanks to the home secretary Willie Whitelaw.

The resulting 1980 Broadcasting Act created Channel 4 and Welsh language broadcaster S4C as publisher broadcasters with the majority of programming supplied by independent producers, positioned as plucky small businesses. This kick started profound change: today's independent production sector turns over more than £2bn a year and is a global force. For the BBC and ITV it meant discovering the real cost of individual programmes, which had not previously been an issue.

A dispute with Equity disrupted Channel 4's advertising for two years after its launch in 1982, and hobbled the 1983 launch of TV-am, the first commercial breakfast broadcaster. It was rescued in 1984 by Australian Bruce Gyngell, adding to the sense of domestic broadcasting incompetence.

New eight-year licences for the ITV companies meant Thatcher had to bide her time plotting changes. But these were the last awarded by a cumbersome and cosmetic "beauty parade". As Lord Thomson, the chairman of commercial broadcasting's regulator at the time, the Independent Broadcasting Authority, had observed in 1981, "there must be a better way".

ITV was, throughout the 1980s, subjected to "greater political scrutiny, resulting in change by legislation than at any time in its history", according to its official history: this would eventually result in the 1990 Broadcasting Act, the first and only auction to the highest bidder for the 16 franchises in 1991.

Thatcher eventually watched her handiwork, the 1991 ITV franchise auction from the sidelines after being ousted as prime minister. To her sorrow and incomprehension her favourite broadcaster, Gyngell, lost out – TV-am was outbid for the breakfast licence by GMTV.

Channel 4 only narrowly escaped privatisation in its first decade. Thatcher twice sounded a warning note that "television is the last bastion of restrictive practices", most stridently at a Downing Street seminar on 21 September 1987, shocking broadcasting industry leaders.

Meanwhile policies towards satellite and cable were muddled, amid much hype over a "wired society". In 1983 the Cable Authority licensed the first 11 cable TV franchises, with privatised British Telecom entering the ring, but its slow start was undermined by an abrupt withdrawal of tax relief. There were five years of dithering debate overseen by the IBA about a direct to home satellite service.

The IBA finally licensed a new satellite service, British Satellite Broadcasting, in 1986. But on 5 February, 1989, Sky Television jumped in first, using Luxembourg-based SES telecoms satellites, before BSB, backed by Pearson and ITV company Granada, could launch. Within 18 months the two struggling satellite TV services had merged to form BSkyB, which Murdoch's News Corporation dominated as the largest shareholder with a near 40% stake.

The BSB/BSkyB merger was announced in early November 1990 – three weeks before Thatcher was forced to resign following a rebellion by her own party.

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