Media Roundup: Boston Globe Threatened With Closing, Newspapers CEO Meet Secretly and More
Boston Globe threatened with closing -- The New York Times Co. has threatened to shut down The Boston Globe if the Globe's labor unions do not agree to cut $20 million. Possible concessions include pay cuts and the end of company pension contributions. The union has stated it is willing to make cuts if management and the rest of the company also agree to similar concessions. With its flagship newspaper, The New York Times, also in trouble, The Times Co. said it can no longer subsidize the Globe's losses. Earlier this week, the Globe finished a round of cutting 50 newsroom jobs. [Source: Editor & Publisher]
Newspapers CEO meet secretly -- Several newspaper CEOs are said to have met behind closed doors at the annual meeting of the Newspaper Association of America in San Diego. The group discussed how to save the floundering industry, and the meeting was held with a lawyer present to ensure nothing illegal took place. Those who attended the meeting said some conversation topics included how to recover classified advertising from Craigslist, whether to demand payment from news aggregator services and how to effectively monitze existing content. [Source: Reflections of a Newsosaur]
Glam receives more VC funding -- Glam Media, a blog network mostly catering to women, has received $10 million in venture funding. The group of blogs is the ninth largest publisher of display ads on the Internet, and is among one of the fastest growing Web sites in the country. Last winter, Glam made pay cuts to some of its contributors. The funding is the company's fifth round in five years. Glam said it plans to use the additional cash to grow internationally. [Source: TechCrunch]
Fox News reviewer allegedly fired for reviewing pirated movie -- Fox News writer Roger Friedman has allegedly been fired for posting a review for the upcoming film X-Men Origins: Wolverine. The film was leaked to the Internet last week, and Friedman used the unfinished illegal copy as the basis for his review. The film is from 20th Century Fox Studio, owned by the same parent company as Fox News. Friedman was allegedly told that his column showed support for online piracy. Friedman has denied he was fired, and is said to be meeting with management today. [Source: All Things Digital]
Yahoo Sports passes ESPN in traffic -- After placing second for years, Yahoo Sports has bested ESPN.com in traffic. Propelled by March Madness, Yahoo has surpassed the Worldwide Leader in Sports by two and three million visitors during the tournament's first two weeks. ESPN, however, has a significant edge in total minutes spent on site, and argues that Yahoo's numbers are artificially inflated by casual visitors from Yahoo's front page. CBS Sports, which streams every NCAA tournament game, also saw its highest Web traffic of the year in March. [Source: MediaWeek]