Mediagazer: New York Times Won't Be Sold or Split, Chairman Says (Greg Bensinger/Bloomberg)

Greg Bensinger / Bloomberg:

New York Times Won't Be Sold or Split, Chairman Says — New York Times Co. won't be sold or split apart and the company is “delighted” to have billionaire Carlos Slim as an investor, Chairman Arthur Sulzberger Jr. said. — Slim “is a quality investor,” Sulzberger said today at the Bloomberg BusinessWeek Media Summit in New York.

Discussion: The Wire, MediaMemo and Silicon Alley Insider

Discussion: Romenesko, Crain's New York Business, Fitz & Jen and Guardian

Media Buyer Planner:

‘BusinessWeek’ Axes 25 Staffers — About 25 editorial staffers of Bloomberg BusinessWeek are being axed today. — The move follows a 22.4% drop in ad pages this year through its March 1 issue, according to the Mediaweek Monitor. — As the publication becomes more integrated with its new owner …

Discussion: WWD Media Headlines, paidContent, Adweek, The Business Insider and FishBowlNY

Discussion: NY Post, Gawker, Media Decoder, New York Observer and FishBowlNY

Staci D. Kramer / paidContent:

Video: Murdoch: Newspaper Ad Model Isn't Dead — News Corp.. (NYSE: NWS) Chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch celebrates his 79th birthday with a cameo on his own Fox Business Network. Among the topics ... the newspaper ad model not dead yet (if we were Gawker we'd have to follow that with …

Discussion: GigaOM

Elizabeth Woyke / Forbes:

Behind The Scenes Of Apple's iPad Launch — New details about the books and apps that will run on the tablet computer. — In the run-up to the April 3 launch of Apple's iPad tablet computer, all appears calm. But behind the veil that obscures all Apple product debuts …

Discussion: blog.appslice.com, AppleInsider, eBookNewser, GalleyCat, ResourceShelf and Gizmodo

Ben Fenton / Financial Times:

RTL seeks relaxation of advertising rules — RTL, the pan-European broadcaster, is seeking a relaxation of advertising rules in its markets to allow innovations such as sponsors' logos to be shown in the top right-hand corner of television screens, its chief executive said yesterday.

John Cook / Gawker:

Will Slate Let Mickey Kaus Blog During His Gag Senate Run? — Slate blogger and pathological counterintuitionist Mickey Kaus is actually serious about challenging Barbara Boxer in the California Democratic primary. The deadline to file nomination papers is tomorrow, and he's been gathering signatures.

Discussion: LA Weekly

Sam Stein / The Huffington Post:

NYT's Adam Nagourney Leaves DC To Become LA Bureau Chief — One of the nation's top political reporters is switching coasts, leaving his current post at the New York Times for another position at the paper. — Adam Nagourney — who for years has been a leading chronicler of political machinations …

Discussion: FishBowlDC and LA Observed

/Film:

The Latest Gimmick: Last Call, an Interactive Horror Movie, Will Phone You During the Film — So much for those ‘please turn off your cell phone’ messages before movies. A new German horror film called Last Call is pushing a new ‘interactivity’ gimmick that will have one member …

Discussion: Gizmodo

Robert Andrews / paidContent:

Scorecard '09: UK's Top Regional Papers Have Lost Half A Billion In Sales — We said 2009 would be an annus horribilis for newspapers - and that's exactly what happened. — Total annual revenue at just five of the UK's leading regional newspaper groups fell from £2.05 billion …

Discussion: Editor's Blog and Jon Slattery

Mark Milian / L.A. Times Tech Blog:

With scaling issues out of the way, Blogger focuses on features, starting with powerful design tool — Users of Blogger can give their pages major makeovers starting Thursday morning thanks to a new tool called Template Designer. — After a few quiet years, Google's pioneering blog platform plans …

Discussion: The Official Google Blog and louisgray.com

Stuart Elliott / Media Decoder:

A Pair of Cable Upfront Pitches Suggests a Better Mood on Madison Avenue — Are the stars out tonight? They were on Wednesday night and Thursday morning, at a pair of cable upfront presentations that seemed to indicate an improvement in the long-gloomy mood on Madison Avenue.

Discussion: Broadcasting & Cable

Kevin Roderick / LA Observed:

Bonuses in the Register newsroom — Last year the staff at the Orange County Register took a pay cut I've heard was 5%. They have apparently been getting some of it back in recent quarters, but now comes a nice-sized boost for fulltimers. The editor's memo says the hard time aren't over, but that things are looking up:

Discussion: Editor and Publisher and Romenesko

Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:

Good News for Netflix Web Users: Disney Re-Ups With Starz — Premium TV network Starz Entertainment has re-upped with Disney on its distribution deal, assuring access to the studio's movies through 2015. — Why are you reading about this on a site that pays attention to digital media?

Discussion: Company Town, Multichannel and TVWeek.com

Rory Carroll / Guardian:

‘Jail journalists who call him a dictator’ — Actor accuses US media of smearing Venezuelan president — Sean Penn has defended Hugo Chávez as a model democrat and said those who call him a dictator should be jailed. — The Oscar-winning actor and political activist accused …

Alex Alvarez / FishBowlNY:

Condé Nast Says No To Pay Walls — While many publications are either erecting or planning to build pay walls for their online content, Condé Nast says the company has no current plans to follow suit. — Speaking at the Bloomberg BusinessWeek 2010 Media Summit, Julie Michalowski …

Discussion: au.biz.yahoo.com, MediaPost and The Business Insider

Nieman Foundation News:

Chicago Tribune wins Taylor Family Award for Fairness in Newspapers for “Clout Goes to College” — CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - The Chicago Tribune has won the Taylor Family Award for Fairness in Newspapers for “Clout Goes to College,” its evenhanded and thorough investigation of improper influence peddling …

Discussion: Romenesko

Will Harper / The Snitch:

‘SF Weekly Is Not Going Out of Business’ — That's word from our bosses. Sorry, Brugmann — it's still too early to declare “mission accomplished” on your plan to use an obscure state antitrust law to snuff out the competition. (Oh, the irony!) — Earlier this week …

Discussion: SFist and sfbg.com

Newsosaur / Reflections of a Newsosaur:

Andreessen's not-so-hot idea for publishers — Marc Andreessen had a really good idea when he invented the first popular browser for the web, but his latest notion - that newspapers should walk away from a business grossing more than $30 billion a year - is just plain nutty.

Discussion: The Atlantic Online and Silicon Valley Watcher

Mallary Jean Tenore / poynter.org:

CoPress Co-Founder Explains Why Student Startup Shut Down — CoPress touted itself as a “safety net” for college publications, enabling news organizations to safely experiment with their Web sites. The startup moved college news sites off proprietary publishing systems like College Publisher …

John Cook / Gawker:

Variety Thinks ‘No One Takes [Its] Reviews Seriously,’ Which Is Probably Why It Fired Its Critics — According to director Joshua Newton's lawsuit against Variety for breach of contract—he's mad that Variety trashed his movie after selling him on a $400,000 Oscar campaign—the paper doesn't think its own reviews matter.

Discussion: Media Decoder