January 26th, 2010
“The McGraw-Hill Companies reported a 43.2% increase in fourth quarter EPS,” says today’s press release.(Log-in may be required). The big gains were in McGraw-Hill Education at 2.6% and in Financial Services at 10.6%. “Information & Media” declined by 11.4%; you’ll have to dig deeper than I have to figure that one out. The major message…
January 16th, 2010
The Publishers Information Bureau has released its tally for 2009 (based on 250 members) and U.S. magazine ad sales were off by 18.1% last year while the total number of advertising pages dropped 25.6% compared to 2008. BusinessWeek points out that the revenue decrease is “more than twice as steep as a year earlier…The drop…
November 25th, 2009
As reported in MediaDailyNews, according to figures released by MediaFinder.com, part of Oxbridge Communications (the “publication of record” on all data related to North American magazine publishing companies and their titles), 383 magazines closed in the first nine months of 2009, compared with 259 new titles launching (emphasis mine). However “the number of closures in…
November 13th, 2009
This gem from this week’s The Economist: “In the eyes of media executives, the internet is a malevolent vacuum-cleaner, sucking in one business after another.”
November 11th, 2009
Since its launch in 1995 I’ve been a fan of Salon.com, even though it was still in the early days of the Web. Salon’s history has been oft-recorded. One account, from the improbable Scripophily.com (which is selling an early share certifiate as memorabilia for $70 bucks) notes that “journalism veterans David Talbot, Andrew Ross, and David…