By Kevin McCauley
McGraw-Hill Puts TV Stations on Block
McGraw-Hill Cos. has hired Morgan Stanley to sell its $100M broadcast business as the company decides to focus on its information services and educational units.
The stations include ABC affiliates in Denver, San Diego, Bakersfield and Indianapolis and Azteca America aligned properties in Denver, Fort Collins, Colorado Springs, San Diego and Bakersfield.
The broadcast unit reported an 18 percent boost in revenues last year and stands poised to gain from a surge in political advertising tied to next year’s election.
McGraw-Hill is pitching the units as stations in “desirable markets that should be attractive to strategic and financial buyers with a focus on media.”
CEO Terry McGraw II, expects the divestiture will demonstrate that the owner of Standard & Poor’s, J.D. Power & Assocs. and Platts energy information services is “committed to driving superior shareholders value by focusing on high growth global brands and businesses.”
The Forward Revamps Website
The Forward has redesigned and expanded its website to position as a daily “must-read” for those wanted a Jewish perspective on news, cultural events, food and the arts.
The New York-based publisher added online content such as “Forward Thinking,” discussion of top Jewish news; “The Yiddish Scene,” culture and essays, and columns by Eric Alterman (professor at CUNY Graduate of Journalism and The Nation writer), David Hazony (Jerusalem-based contributor to Commentary and The New Republic) and Deborah Lipstadt (professor of modern Jewish and Holocaust studies at Emory University).
Samuel Norich, publisher, says the revamp is the natural progression of the paper that started in “the 19th Century as a daily Yiddish paper, evolved in the 20th Century to a weekly English and Yiddish newspaper and moved to the 21st Century embrace of digital media channels to be more accessible and more immediate news source, appealing to Jews and to a broader community.”
Trylon SMR handles The Forward’s PR.
CBS Teams with National Journal
CBS News has forged a partnership with the National Journal to create a multi-platform geared for coverage of the `12 presidential contest.
The team will report for CBS News, cbs.com, and National Journal.com with editorial, video and social media updates.
Ron Fournier, editor-in-chief of NJ, promised staffers with do “reporting that challenges conventional wisdom, drives the conversation and breaks news on a regular basis.”
Scripps Taps Stautberg for Papers
E.W. Scripps & Co. has given its chief financial officer & treasurer, Timothy Stautberg, responsibility for its newspaper operation. He replaces Mark Contreras, who stepped down in May after a six-year run.
The newspaper group reported a 5.7 percent decline in first-quarter revenues to $106M and a plunge in profit from $16.6M to $5.4M.
Scripps CEO Rich Boehne, says Stautberg understands that “despite changing business conditions, there is an economic benefit to be gained from great journalism that builds stronger communities.
As CFO, Stautberg restructured the newspaper group that includes the Memphis Commercial Appeal, Knoxville News Sentinel, Corpus Christi Caller Times, Naples (Fla.) Daily News and Ventura County (Calif.) Star.
Scripps will look for new CFO. |