Quick Hits
- Yahoo CEO receives $36.6 million in 2012 compensation.
- Final book on Apple bond deal: $52 billion.
- International demand huge: Western Union beats on bottom line.
- DreamWorks surprises with a profit.
- Bloomin' Brands beats expectations, outlook conservative.
The Word on The Street
DreamWorks Close to Buying AwesomenessTV, YouTube's Would-Be Nickelodeon/All Things D: "Lots of big media companies have been investing in YouTube video-makers. Now it looks like one of them is going to buy one. DreamWorks Animation is close to a deal to acquire AwesomenessTV, a YouTube network aimed squarely at teens and tweens, according to people familiar with the proposed transaction. … If the deal goes through, it will be one of several big media bets on YouTube. Late last year Time Warner put money into YouTube network Maker Studios, and in March ; Bertelsmann followed with an investment in StyleHaul in March. And Comcast and the Chernin Group are set to announce an investment in Fullscreen, a combination video network and YouTube tools startup."
Yahoo Scraps Deal for French Video Site/WSJ: "Dailymotion was on track to be the first big acquisition for Yahoo Inc. Chief Executive Marissa Mayer, after her company signed a provisional deal to buy control of the online-video website from France Télécom SA. Then Ms. Mayer's No. 2 executive met with French Industry Minister Arnaud Montebourg. At an April 12 meeting in Mr. Montebourg's Paris office, the minister told Yahoo's chief operating officer, Henrique de Castro, and France Télécom's chief financial officer, Gervais Pellissier, that he didn't want 75% of a rare French Internet success story to be sold to an American Web giant, according to people briefed on the meeting. "I won't let you sell one of France's best startups," Mr. Montebourg told Mr. Pelissier, his voice raised, according to people briefed on the meeting. "You don't know what you're doing." Efforts since then to salvage the sale have failed. Yahoo decided not to pursue a deal after Mr. Montebourg insisted that it not take majority control, the people added. But France Télécom—27 percent owned by the French state—remains open to a deal if Yahoo wants to come back to the table, one of the people added. A spokeswoman for Yahoo and a spokesman for Dailymotion declined to comment. The TechCrunch blog earlier reported the collapse of the talks."
New Technology Allows Professors to Track Whether Students are Reading Their textbooks/Houston Chronicle: "…With the new platform CourseSmart Analytics, professors are able to see the students' level of engagement - how much of digital texts students have read, whether they highlight passages or took notes and how much time they spent on their readings. A beta version of CourseSmart is being tested at several universities during the spring semester serving about 4,000 students, and officials hope to roll it out fully by the fall, said spokeswoman Cindy Clark. The goal is to move away from traditional textbooks and methods and help give faculty an insight into their students' behaviors, she said."
Pay Walls Boost Some Newspaper Circs/Media Daily News: "Once the preserve of a select few major metro dailies, digital paywalls have been implemented aggressively by publishers over the last year, helping boost daily circulation figures at a range of publications. However progress was uneven at best, with many newspapers still suffering substantial declines, especially at the regional level, notes the Alliance for Audited Media (formerly the Audit Bureau of Circulations). While publications of all sizes have benefited from digital subscription strategies, big names continued to lead the way. The Wall Street Journal maintained its lead as the country's biggest daily newspaper, with weekday circulation increasing 12.3% from 2,118,315 in the six-month period ending March 2012 to 2,378,827 in the six-month period ending March 2013. Over the same period, The New York Times saw total weekday circulation jump 17.6% from 1,586,757 to 1,865,318, and the Los Angeles Times, which implemented its own digital paywall last year, increased 6% from 616,575 to 653,868. The Chicago Sun-Times saw weekday circulation grow 11.6% from 421,780 to 470,548."
When It Comes to Who's Reading Newspapers, Whose Count Counts?/SL Tribune: "Television has Nielsen. Radio looks to Arbitron. Twice a year, the Alliance for Audited Media puts out circulation numbers for hundreds of daily newspapers. Now, with nearly four in 10 people getting their news with smartphones, tablets and computers, newspapers find themselves in a quandary. Total readership of printed newspapers is slipping across the U.S, but the mobile audience is growing rapidly, especially among younger readers, according to the Newspaper Association of America. Digital consumption of newspapers has entered the mainstream — but nobody is entirely sure how to measure it."
Jason Collins Piece Brings Record Traffic to Sports Illustrated/Mediabistro: "When you publish a scoop like the Jason Collins story, you're bound to enjoy a traffic boost. However, we do wonder if Sports Illustrated expected record numbers. According to the magazine, SI.com netted almost four million unique visitors yesterday, as a direct result of the Collins article. It was the most traffic ever for the magazine's site. The 3.7 million visitors bested SI.com's previous high of 3.6 million, set on February 9, 2010. That day featured the power-packed combo of the Winter Olympics and the debut of that year's swimsuit issue."
NYC Realtor Offers Employees Pay Raise For Getting Inked With Company Logo/CBS: "If your company offered you a pay raise to tattoo its logo on your body, would you do it? A New York City real estate company made the offer and dozens of employees are getting inked. As CBS 2′s Emily Smith reported Tuesday, a tattoo can be a way to show off your personality. For Rapid Realty employees, it is the fast track to a 15 percent pay raise if you get inked with the company logo. There are no size or location restrictions. Brooke Koropatnick got hers behind the ear. "I had a paycheck coming in what was a substantial amount of money different, so it was nice," she told Smith."
