This post was archived from createpositivechange.org/. View the original on the Wayback Machine.
Category: Media
-
Another mogul mulls Newsday bid
A fourth suitor may join the bidding war over Newsday, the suburban tabloid put on the auction block by the financially-beleaguered Tribune Company.
Hint: Click in map to explore connectionsStory continues below interactive map
MAP HINTS: Click expands a name. Control+Click centers map on a name. Solid lines are current relations. Dotted lines are former relations. For advanced tools choose Tools > Options from the menu at top. More help. Not seeing the maps? Please go here to check for the latest version of Java.Jared Kushner, boy publisher of the New York Observer, and son of New Jersey real-estate mogul Charles Kushner, is inquiring about the Long Island-based newspaper, according to today’s Wall Street Journal.
Among New York media moguls, the 27-year-old may be considered an upstart, but he has deep pockets. In July, 2006, he spent $10 million to buy the money-losing Observer while still getting his MBA at New York University, telling the New York Times that the opportunity to buy a newspaper doesn’t come along very often.
Kushner joins a field of giants who are eyeing the still-profitable tabloid, including billionaire magnate Rupert Murdoch, publisher of the New York Post, real-estate developer Mortimer Zuckerman, owner of the New York Daily News and James Dolan, whose family owns Cablevision.
The magic number sought for Newsday is upwards of $500 million, as Tribune Chairman Sam Zell struggles to stay afloat after his highly leveraged purchase of the company last year. Besides Newsday, Tribune owns the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune and the Baltimore Sun, among other newspapers, as well as local television stations and the Chicago Cubs baseball team.
Kushner, a grandson of Holocaust survivors, is the scion of a real-estate, banking and insurance empire valued at more than $1 billion built by his father Charles. But the elder Kushner suffered a spectacular fall from grace several years ago. He spent nearly a year in jail after pleading guilty to 18 counts of tax evasion, admitting, among other things, to hiring a prostitute to seduce his brother-in-law and sending a videotape of the encounter to his sister to retaliate for her cooperation with federal investigators.
Jared Kushner is the only one of his parents’ four children to work at the family company, where he is a principal.
Related posts on the Muckety Maps in the news blog- Will the Tribune Company sell Newsday? – March 20, 2008
- Zell takes over Tribune – December 21, 2007
- Newspaper lobbyists may lose a moneymaker – October 20, 2007
- Bill Gates enjoyed biggest payday of 2007 – March 7, 2008
- Bruce Sherman and Hearst-Argyle – August 27, 2007
- Sulzberger dodges bullet – for now – March 18, 2008
- Murdoch’s media machine – June 25, 2007
- Burkle still chasing a newspaper dream – July 9, 2007
- Yucaipa may pay Bill Clinton $20M – January 24, 2008
- Mays family awaits Clear Channel buyout – February 12, 2008
Read related stories: Business · Media
-
Will the Tribune Company sell Newsday?
Tribune Company owner Sam Zell may be entertaining bids for Newsday, the company’s Long Island paper, amid mounting financial pressures.
Hint: Click in map to explore connectionsStory continues below interactive mapMAP HINTS: Click expands a name. Control+Click centers map on a name. Solid lines are current relations. Dotted lines are former relations. For advanced tools choose Tools > Options from the menu at top. More help. Not seeing the maps? Please go here to check for the latest version of Java.Citing an unnamed newspaper industry insider, Crain’s New York Business reported today that News Corp. owner Rupert Murdoch “is believed to have set his sights on Newsday.” Murdoch was reportedly interested in a joint operating agreement between Newsday and his New York Post last year. But the idea went nowhere when Sam Zell took Tribune private in a deal worth $8.2 billion.
Others expressing interest in buying the tabloid are said to include Mortimer B. Zuckerman, the real-estate developer and publisher who owns the New York Daily News, and James Dolan, whose family controls Cablevision, the cable television operator, the New York Times reported.
Talk of the possible sale of Newsday surfaced today as Tribune reported a fourth-quarter loss of $79 million. The company acknowledged it may have to sell assets as it struggles past a highly-leveraged December deal that took the company private.
The dismal results come three months after chairman and CEO Zell, a real estate mogul with no experience in the newspaper business, led a buyout of the struggling company, which owns the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune and the Baltimore Sun, among other newspapers, local television stations and the Chicago Cubs baseball team.
At the time, Zell said he planned to sell the Cubs and related assets, but wanted to keep most of the rest of the company intact. He also said that additional downsizing was not the answer to historic changes in the newspaper industry. But in the three months since, he has cut jobs, citing falling advertising revenue and a tanking economy.
Tribune said today it has “begun a strategic review of certain Tribune assets to determine whether capital can be more effectively redeployed into our core operations or toward reducing our outstanding leverage.”
Related Stories on Muckety- Zell takes over Tribune – December 21, 2007
- Newspaper lobbyists may lose a moneymaker – October 20, 2007
- Murdoch’s media machine – June 25, 2007
- Forget news, is McClatchy a real estate play? – January 5, 2008
- Bruce Sherman and Hearst-Argyle – August 27, 2007
- Mays family awaits Clear Channel buyout – February 12, 2008
- Candidates and baseball owners cover political bases – October 10, 2007
- Patriots’ Kraft wants English club – October 30, 2007
- Surprise! Gore supports Murdoch – July 18, 2007
- Murdoch gets taste of his own medicine – September 8, 2007
This post is tagged with: Baltimore Sun, Business, Chicago Cubs, Chicago Tribune, K. Rupert Murdoch, Los Angeles Times, Media, News Corp., Newsday, Newspapers, Sam Zell, Tribune Company
Read related stories: Business · Media · Newspapers
0 Comments
-
There are no comments yet, be the first by filling in the form below.
Leave a Comment
-
Sulzberger dodges bullet – for now
Sidestepping a potentially nasty proxy fight, the New York Times Company announced yesterday that it would give two seats on its board to a pair of hedge funds seeking to increase investor profits.
Harbinger Capital Partners and Firebrand Partners have spent more than $500 million since December to buy a 19-percent stake in the family-controlled company, becoming the Times’ largest public shareholder. The funds had originally proposed four nominees to the board, saying they wanted to push the Times to unload holdings outside of its core business, such as a stake in the Boston Red Sox, and to invest more aggressively in its Internet operations.
Offering an unexpected compromise, Times Chairman Arthur Sulzberger Jr. agreed yesterday to expand the board from 13 to 15, and to seat two of the hedge funds’ nominees – Firebrand founder Scott Galloway and James Kohlberg, chairman of private equity company Kohlberg & Co. In exchange, the funds agreed to end to their proxy fight.
Story continues below interactive mapMAP HINTS: Click expands a name. Control+Click centers map on a name. Solid lines are current relations. Dotted lines are former relations. For advanced tools choose Tools > Options from the menu at top. More help. Not seeing the maps? Please go here to check for the latest version of Java.The agreement marks the first time since the Times Company was taken public in 1967 that it has accepted directors nominated by outsiders, according to Times Company executives
What, if anything, seating dissident investors means for the Times remained unclear. A two-class stock structure gives the Sulzberger family control of a majority of the board, and the Harbinger-Firebrand group has said that it has no plan to challenge that control.
Galloway, a professor at NYU’s Stern School of Business who owns a Long Island estate complete with outdoor showers and a volleyball court with bleachers, made his fortune in the late 1990s by founding and flipping gift-site RedEnvelope.
A profile in Conde Nast Portfolio, entitled “Boardroom Braveheart,” described how he teams up with capital investors such as Harbinger, who ”provide the financial muscle, while he does the tire-kicking, letter-writing, and shareholder-swaying.” Galloway reportedly gets about 10 percent of the profits from the deal, in addition to the board seat if it’s successful, but assumes little financial risk.
The profile also quoted a graduate student in his class at NYU. describing his brash style. “He’s a jackass,” the student said. ”He’s not afraid to call you out if he thinks you don’t know what you’re talking about. But it works.”
Like most newspaper companies, the Times has been socked by circulation declines and the migration of advertising to the Internet. The company’s assets include About.com, the International Herald Tribune, the Boston Globe, a string of smaller newspapers, majority ownership of a new high-rise headquarters building in Manhattan, and the minority stake in the Boston Red Sox.
The Times has fended off activist investors in the past, including an attempt last year by Morgan Stanley Investment Management to eliminate the dual-tiered share structure, but they owned a smaller percentage of shares.
Related Stories on Muckety- Money men at the media summit – July 12, 2007
- Bruce Sherman and Hearst-Argyle – August 27, 2007
- Surprise! Gore supports Murdoch – July 18, 2007
- Zell takes over Tribune – December 21, 2007
- Giuliani likes roar of Nascar engines – November 19, 2007
- Scott Boras: The Ari Gold of baseball – November 5, 2007
- George Mitchell: connected or conflicted? – December 15, 2007
- Newspaper lobbyists may lose a moneymaker – October 20, 2007
- Plum TV courts the elite – September 7, 2007
- Will Murdoch buy Newsday from Tribune Company? – March 20, 2008
This post is tagged with: about.com, Arthur Sulzberger Jr., Boston Red Sox, Firebrand Partners, Harbinger Capital Partners, International Herald Tribune, James A. Kohlberg, Media, Morgan Stanley Investment Management, New York Times Co., Newspapers, Scott Galloway
Read related stories: Business · Media · Newspapers
0 Comments
-
There are no comments yet, be the first by filling in the form below.
Leave a Comment
1 Comments
#1. Obama 08 04.03.2008
If Kushner was so smart, why did he buy a newspaper when he could have started one from scratch? Why stick yourself with a teetering brand, when now is the time to invent one’s brand anew in this brave new world of new media, particularly if you have a billion bucks to cover early mistakes?
Leave a Comment