No sale yet for Nielsen Business Media (NBM) but most of it is about two weeks away from being acquired by a consortium led by James Finkelstein’s News Communications, paidContent has learned from multiple sources. We have also learned that Lachlan Murdoch—yes, that Lachlan Murdoch— is considering joining the consortium. The parts being sold are the print and online, while events will be retained by Nielsen. Also, the sale doesn’t include all international territories. Magazines in the stable include some storied ones like Billboard, Hollywood Reporter, Adweek, Mediaweek, Brandweek, Editor & Publisher; the full list of brands here. Out of the media/entertainment properties, THR and the A/M/B combine are hemorrhaging money, but surprisingly, considering the shape of the music industry, Billboard’s revenues have held up, our sources says, primarily as a result of its diversification beyond the main print brand and licensing revenues. The bank representing Nielsen is Quayle Munro, led by John Wickersham—the former president and CEO of NBM.
News Communications owns The Hill and Who’s Who, and is controlled by chairman Jerry Finkelstein and his son, James, who is president and CEO. (The pending sale to News Communications was first reported by TheWrap.com, but some of the other information has not stood up—including the insistence that a deal was coming today.)
MySpace Music has now finalized a global licensing deal with the labels represented by Merlin, according to details tipped Friday to Digital Music News. Both companies confirmed the relationship, thanks to resolution on a major sticking point related to equity. MySpace noted that Merlin - and other indies - are now structured to “benefit from the financial growth of MySpace Music” as part of a “growth participation plan,” the exact terms were not shared.
For Merlin, the deal includes participation in MySpace Music Board of Directors meetings, though specifics on Merlin’s equity stakes were also withheld. The companies are planning an official announcement on Tuesday, and more details on the financial terms and stakes are likely to emerge next week.
Sony keeps flip-flopping over adding music downloads to the PlayStation Network (PSN). After scrapping plans to add a music store to the gaming network—complete with the ability for gamers to port tracks to the handheld PSP—comes news that the company will indeed expand the PSN into a full digital download store, with music, books, as well as mobile apps available. It has been tentatively (and blandly) named the “Sony Online Service.”
—O2 cuts: Telefonica-owned O2 aims to cut its marketing team of 220 by 10 percent by the end of the month, according to Marketing Week.
—Publicis: Olivier Altmann has been appointed the ad group’s global creative director. He was previously the company’s Paris agency Publicis Conseil. Via Campaign.
—Independent News & Media: The Indy publisher has appointed Declan Carlyle deputy MD of its Irish newspaper business following the promotion of Joe Webb to division CEO. Former Irish MD Vincent Crowley was promoted to INM’s group COO earlier this week, prompting the corporate re-shuffle. Release.
The UK government’s Digital Economy Bil was submitted in draft on Friday, containing graduated-response anti-piracy measures, the 2Mbps universal broadband commitment; the key points from June’s Digital Britain white paper. KPMG’s director of intellectual property Mark Harding writes...
Overall, there appears to be too much focus on policing the net rather than promoting digital enterprise and access. Ultimately, piracy measures alone will not solve the underlying issue of revenue models for content owners.
By Sarah Hartley: A third of the UK population - around 20 million people - have a direct relationship with News International thanks to the publishers’ customer database, a senior executive revealed today.
Katie Vanneck-Smith, the managing director of News International’s Customer Direct division, told The Media Festival in Manchester that the company had been compiling the database for the past three years.
By Roy Greenslade: James Murdoch’s speech to investors in Barcelona (via Reuters) yesterday revealed the direction that News Corporation (NYSE: NWS) plans to take in the coming years. His key quote:
“In the business of ideas, which is the business that we are in, we do think journalism plays a role, and we do think there are business models there that will make a lot of sense, albeit perhaps not at the scale of some of our broadcasting businesses and other entertainment businesses.
“Is it going to be as big a role? No. Structurally, television is vastly more profitable and a big opportunity.”
News International’s Sun Online is beefing up its social network MySun with the kind of interaction features you would find on a genuine, big league social site.
—“We need to look at charging,” content director Kevin Lygo told The Media Festival (via Guardian.co.uk). “If you have a successful show like Skins or Peep Show, why shouldn’t we put the first episode out and then, through iPhones or whatever, say if you want to see the next episodes you can pay?” C4 launched the pioneering 4oD catchup service with charges (£0.99-1.99 per show) but has now sensibly abandoned them. Still, this might make sense away from the desktop.
Google (NSDQ: GOOG) narrowed the scope of its US-only digital books project to just include English language titles after sustained pressure from European publishers and national governments to take their books out of the scheme. But the French still aren’t happy and accuse Google of pirating non-English works…
With ad buyer Aegis Media’s earnings release on Thursday, the big European ad groups’ Q3 financials are now in.
So what do they show? On this evidence, in 2010 they will be smaller businesses with fewer staff and a renewed emphasis on digital and emerging markets…
BBC Worldwide is losing the president of its fast-growing U.S. operation, Garth Ancier. No news on his next role, but he’s staying on as a non-exec director.
Deadline Hollywood has Ancier’s exit memo to staff, in which he says: “Next year, our digital story will get even stronger with the launch of a U.S. facing edition of BBC.com.
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