Who knew the search world had it in them and could be so entertaining? According Reuters, talks of selling Time Warner’s AOL to either Microsoft or Yahoo! are heating up. The share prices of all three properties have benefited from the light press of the potential sale.

Sources close to the talks provided Reuters their input on the potential modeling: if a deal with Yahoo were to be struck, it would probably involve merging AOL with Yahoo, with Time Warner taking a minority stake in the combined company. If a deal were to be struck with Microsoft however, it would likely result in the complete sale of AOL. Based on the two options, I see Time Warner going with option A – a Yahoo! merger, but we’ll have to wait and see.  Yahoo’s next shareholder meeting is scheduled for August 1st and if an AOL merger is to come anywhere close to fruition, I speculate news of “next steps” will come closely after that meeting.

written by Beverly Crandon

Gannett is now the sole owner of Shop Local, a venture they had previously possessed with the Tribune Co. and McClatchy Co.

The Tribune sold their stake in ShopLocal to Gannett for a little over 22 million and McClatchy sold theirs for almost 8 million. It seems as though Gannett’s partners in the ShopLocal venture felt that it was no longer a part of their long-term strategy, but who does The Tribune think they are kidding. A month has not gone by of late where you have not heard about them selling something or contemplating selling something. And yes, some of the Tribune transactions have been about strategy, but many of the underlying issues have had to do with their financials.

Nonetheless, with all that has happened and continues to happen, with online shopping, especially given gas prices, Gannett has the ability to very much so use ShopLocal as a part of their long-term strategy. In a recent report issued by Harris Institute, we learned that 33 per cent of online US adults claimed that they would be more likely to shop online, rather than at a store because of high gas prices.

ShopLocal, today, attracts over 7.3 million unique monthly visitors and their average stay per visitor is more than double that of Shopzilla, another shopping site that garners almost 13 million unique monthly visitors.

written by Beverly Crandon

Rupert Murdoch’s British newspaper group, News International, announced that it will be closing its magazine division. A company spokesperson in the UK said ”We will disengage from the magazine business. It will allow us to focus on our core business as the U.K.’s largest national news publisher.”

The magazines in question under the News International umbrella are, Love It, the Sunday Times Travel and Skymag. Love It we know will be sold and there are talks of what will become of the others.

The closing of the consumer magazine division seems to be a decision long in the making, as revenue numbers for this group have lagged for quite some time. Earlier this week, London magazine Media Week reported that News Internationals magazine division had made a loss of 9.7 million pounds, or $18.9 million, in the year to June 2007.

It is uncertain what will happen to the divisions 80 employees, of which 35 of them are editorial staff. However, this story goes to show that the structural, staffing and circulation changes are not unique to any geo.

written by Beverly Crandon

Close to four weeks ago we blogged about the Tribune’s sale of Newsday to Cablevision and at the time we didn’t allude to, at least not to a great extent, the publishing companies financial situation. In more recent news however, we see that the Tribune is looking to off load more of its media properties. According to a Tribune spokesperson, the publisher is looking to sell its Tribune Media Services (TMS) unity – a segment of the organization that aggregates and distributes news and entertainment to consumers via print, online and on-screen access. It is estimated that the TMS unit could go for as much as $200 million.

It seems to be a logical move for the Tribune Company to look to sell TMS as all indications of its mid-year 2007 activity led us to believe that the division could be costing the Tribune more than it bargained for.

written by Beverly Crandon \\ tags: TMS, Tribune Company, Tribune Media Services

Rupert Murdoch dropped his bid for Newsday on Saturday, making Cablevision the winner.

Cablevision and the Tribune reached an agreement where Newsday would be sold for $650 million dollars. “The possibilities are unlimited as these two Long Island media properties join forces to create new ways of delivering exceptional editorial content, with deep knowledge of and commitment to Long Island and New York,” said Newsday publisher Tim Knight.

The sale and relationship with Cablevision and Tribune is a unique one, but hopefully the strength of the two will enable Newsday’s share, both online and offline, and their revenues to improve,.

written by Beverly Crandon \\ tags: Cablevision, Newsday, Rupert Murdoch, Tribune