Summary:
Dialog To Offer Free Services To Investors
Tribune-Review Publishing Company Acquires North Hills News Record And Valley News Dispatch
Advance Publications Inc Newspaper Purchase
United News Considers Selling Regional Papers
Thomson Financial Services' Asian Publishing Business Acquires Philip Jay Publishing
Newspapers Expecting 'Strongest Year In A Decade'
L.A. Daily News Goes To Denver Post
Reuters Reorg Big Payday For Shareholders
Simon & Schuster To Feature New Authors On Authorlink.Com
Ziff-Davis
Reed Elsevier
RECENT NEWS:
DIALOG TO OFFER FREE SERVICES TO INVESTORS
DIALOG CORPORATION, the online information company, is to offer some of its services free to armchair investors through a deal with Institutional Investor International (III), the Website operator. The venture, which was planned before MAID and Knight-Ridder Information merged to become Dialog, will give III's 100,000 Internet users free access to headlines and summaries from 4,000 news sources. The limited service, which will include share prices, will be freely available through III's Internet site, http://www.iii.co.uk. Full articles will be available for a £1 charge, with the proceeds split between the two companies. From February, the Website will offer real-time prices from London, New York and Nasdaq, fuelling a free sector which analysts say could challenge the lower end of the market held by the likes of Bloomberg and Reuters. The enlarged Website should be complete within two weeks, when it will become the first service in the world to combine information about pensions, life insurance and stock market prices. Dialog, which draws its customers almost exclusively from large institutions, hopes the move will give it access to small-time investors who may not be willing to pay the basic £6,000 annual subscription for its full service. MAID's new subscriptions tailed off while it was discussing the merger, leading to a third-quarter pre-tax loss of £592,000 (£2.42 million loss), it said yesterday. Sales were £7.37 million (£5.18 million). The loss for the quarter was 0.33p (2.62p loss) per share. NEW YORK, Dec. 1 /PRNewswire/ -- BY SUSAN EMMETT AND FRASER NELSON
TRIBUNE-REVIEW PUBLISHING COMPANY ACQUIRES NORTH HILLS NEWS RECORD AND VALLEY NEWS DISPATCH
PITTSBURGH, Dec. 1 /PRNewswire/ -- On the heels of the opening of its $43 million NewsWorks production center in Marshall Township last month, the Tribune-Review Publishing Company has announced an agreement to acquire two newspaper properties from Gannett Publishing Co., Inc. The North Hills News Record and the Valley News Dispatch, both of which publish evening and Sunday newspapers, join the growing list of newspapers owned by the Tribune-Review Publishing Company. (Three former Thomson newspapers joined the Company in May of this year.) Effective immediately, the newspapers will become subsidiaries of the Company, and Larry Jock, formerly publisher of the Valley News Dispatch, will serve as general manager of both publications. The purchase includes a long-term agreement under which the regional editions of USA Today and Baseball Weekly will be printed at the Company's NewsWorks production center. The Tribune-Review Publishing Company publishes the Tribune-Review, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Standard Observer, The Daily Courier., The Valley Independent, Leader Times, and The Dispatch (Blairsville). Source: Tribune-Review Publishing Company
ADVANCE PUBLICATIONS INC NEWSPAPER PURCHASE.
Advance Publications Inc. plans to acquire 23 weekly Ohio newspapers from Sun Newspapers for an undisclosed amount, reported the Associated Press. The deal is to close in January. Advance's newspapers include the Star-Ledger in Newark, NJ. The company also publishes consumer magazines including the New Yorker and Vogue, 36 weekly business journals and owns book publisher Random House.
UNITED NEWS CONSIDERS SELLING REGIONAL PAPERS ----
LONDON -- United News & Media PLC may sell its U.K. regional newspapers, fetching an estimated (STG)400 million ($674 million) or more. United News confirmed that prospective buyers have approached it, but said it may also retain the newspapers, which include the Yorkshire Post. "The board confirms that it has received a number of approaches from third parties indicating their interests in acquiring these businesses," United News said. "The board is considering a range of alternatives, including the further development of its regional newspaper businesses." WJEviaNewsEDGE Copyright (c) 1997 Dow Jones and Company, Inc.
THOMSON FINANCIAL SERVICES' ASIAN PUBLISHING BUSINESS ACQUIRES PHILIP JAY PUBLISHING BUSINESS
(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 3, 1997-- Thomson Financial Services today announced the acquisition of Philip Jay Publishing, which will be folded into its Asian Publishing business. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed. "The acquisition of Philip Jay Publishing is part of our strategy to become Asia's leading financial publisher," said Adam Bryan. "Philip's titles can capitalize on the marketing opportunities presented by our regional and international titles. It also provides us with expertise to create a new range of print-based products to serve our growing customer base in Asia's financial sector. Philip has been very successful in developing a strong client list among the local finance houses, thus providing a good complement to our current customer base in the international financial sector." Reporting into Adam Bryan, newly appointed managing director of Thomson's Asian Publishing business based in Hong Kong, the Philip Jay acquisition provides strong growth opportunities and expanded market reach for the Asian publishing group. Run by local Hong Kong entrepreneur, Philip Jay, the company has been successfully publishing directories on the Asian financial sector for more than seven years. Its core products include The Asia Pacific Securities Handbook, The Greater China Banking Directory, The China Securities Handbook and The Asia Pacific Fixed Income and Debt Securities Directory. Thomson's Asian Publishing operations include such prestigious titles as IFR and IFR Asia, Finance Asia and Thomson Bankwatch. Its offices are located in Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia.
NEWSPAPERS EXPECTING 'STRONGEST YEAR IN A DECADE'
Total newspaper ad revenues rose 8.9%, to $29.31 billion, for the first three quarters of 1997 compared to the same period last year, according to an announcement made Tuesday by the Newspaper Association of America. By sector, national ad spending was said to be up for the nine months by 13.48%, to $3.956 billion; retail was up 6.25%, to $13.673 billion; while classified was up 10.72%, to $11.681 billion. "Third quarter growth (7.84%) was slower, as expected, due to the stronger growth in the second half of last year," acknowledged Miles Grove, the NAA's chief economist. "However, when coupled with a longer Christmas season for '97 we can expect the strongest year in a decade," he added. Last year 21.88% of all advertising dollars were spent on newspapers, compared to television's 20.7% share of the market. Mediacentral – Cowles Business Media
L.A. DAILY NEWS GOES TO DENVER POST
The Los Angeles Daily News has been acquired by MediaNews Group, the parent company of the Denver Post. The purchase price was not disclosed. The newspaper had been put up for sale in October by the family of its former owner, the late Jack Kent Cooke, who died in April. The acquisition makes MediaNews the eighth-largest newspaper publisher with 35 dailies and 106 nondailies. The Daily News, which has a circulation of 203,000 weekdays and 218,000 on Sundays, is MediaNews' 12th Californian daily. Observers expected the sale to fetch as much as $200 million to $250 million. At the time the prospective sale was announced, potential buyers were thought to be MediaNews, Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., Orange County Register-parent Freedom Communications and Toronto-based publisher Thomson Corp.
REUTERS REORG BIG PAYDAY FOR SHAREHOLDERS
Reuters announced on Thursday its plans to reorganize the company and return US$2.52 billion in surplus capital to shareholders. In addition the company said it would return up to another $336.2 million in an ongoing stock buyback plan through 1998. The reorg will result in the creation of a new holding company, Reuters Group PLC, which will acquire the existing Reuters Holdings PLC. Separately, in an interview with a Reuters reporter, company CEO Peter Job dismissed industry speculation that he might make an offer for the ailing Dow Jones Markets information services group. "First of all, there is probably a considerable anti-trust problem that would arise ... Secondly ... there is a great overlap in the two businesses," he reportedly said. The shareholder windfall was said to reflect the company's continued success.
ONLINE PUBLISHING NEWS:
FOR ALL YOU BUDDING AUTHORS…..SIMON & SCHUSTER TO FEATURE NEW AUTHORS ON AUTHORLINK.COM
NEW YORK, Dec. 2 /PRNewswire/ -- Simon & Schuster Online has become a key sponsor of Authorlink! (http://www.authorlink.com), the online information service for writers, editors and literary agents. One of the first major book publishers to partner with an online writers' service, Simon & Schuster will create a special section on the Authorlink's site to showcase new book releases, especially those by first-time authors. Authorlink! kicked off the program's first phase in November, with a live link to Simon & Schuster's Consumer Publishing website (http://www.SimonSays.com). Authorlink! is also featuring the newly released, revised edition of JOY OF COOKING through the holidays, to be followed by the special new author section. The 18-month-old Authorlink! has a loyal annual readership of more than 60,000 writers, editors and agents. In addition to featuring major publishing industry news, the site showcases and markets ready-to-publish manuscripts to the publishing industry. The service is currently sponsoring its first International New Author Awards Competition, in which nine New York editors and agents are finalist judges. Simon & Schuster Online, was formed in January 1996, to create a strategy for Simon & Schuster's consumer books and authors on the web. Simon & Schuster Online launched SimonSays.com, (http://www.SimonSays.com), in June 1996. The site, which provides an unparalleled level of reader interaction, is home to Simon & Schuster's Consumer 11,000+ titles and has successfully launched fan areas for many authors and brands including Star Trek Books, Mary Higgins Clark, Clive Cussler, Frank McCourt and most recently Joy of Cooking. SOURCE Simon & Schuster
PEOPLE IN THE NEWS:
Ziff-Davis today announced the promotion of Michael J. Miller to Executive Vice President and Editorial Director of ZD Publishing. Miller, who has been named one of the top computer journalists by Marketing Computers for three years in a row, will also retain his position as the Editor-in-Chief of PC Magazine. At the same time, Ziff-Davis announced the promotion of Kathleen Goodwin to Vice President of Marketing for ZD Publishing, and the expansion of the responsibilities of Tom McGrade, Executive Vice President, Business Operations, to include ZD Publishing's circulation and production departments. Michael Miller Claude Sheer, the President of ZD Publishing, said, "Michael is not only a leader among his peers within Ziff-Davis, he is also a well-respected journalist and industry advocate. PC Magazine has grown to a paid circulation of more than 1,175,000, more than any other computer publication or business magazine. SOURCE Ziff Davis
REED ELSEVIER
Reed Elsevier Inc. named Hans Gieskes president and chief executive of Lexis-Nexis. Reed Elsevier is jointly-owned by Reed International PLC (RUK) and Elsevier NV (ENL). In a press release Monday, Reed said Gieskes has been with the parent company for 19 years, most recently serving as vice chairman of the legal division. Gieskes will continues to lead Lexis Nexis' operations in Europe. DOW JONES NEWS
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