FinancialMedia.org

Coming Soon: Fee-Based Access to Wall Street Journal on Mobile Devices

Rupert Murdoch, chief executive of News Corp. which owns the Wall Street Journal, has revealed that the financial publication may start charging as much as $2 a week for users to read its articles on BlackBerrys, iPhones and other mobile devices.   A free reader had been available since last summer.  The Wall Street Journal currently claims to have over one million paid subscribers to its website.

Bizjournals.com Takes Control of Portfolio.com

Condé Nast's Portfolio.com will find a new home by joining forces with American City Business Journal's bizjournals.com in July. Both websites are owned by New York-based Advanced Publications. Portfolio magazine and its website had shut down in April. Bizjournals.com will have editorial oversight over Portfolio.com and will relaunch the website with a stronger industry and business focus.

Forbes.com Starts Downsizing

Elevation Partners' Roger McNamee will be replaced by his colleague Bre Pearlman on the board of Forbes Media, according to a report from the New York Post.  In doing so, the business publication will change its strategy of investing in the web to aggressive cost-cutting.  In 2006, Elevation Partners invested roughly $250 million for a 40% equity stake in Forbes Media.  (Disclaimer: FinancialContent, a sponsor of this blog, provides stock market data to Forbes Media.)

Portfolio Magazine Shuts Down

Condé Nast has folded Portfolio magazine along with its website.  After laying off most of its website staff last October, the publisher informed the remaining 85 employees of the decision to shut down last Friday.  "The pressures and realities of the continuous deep economic slump have lowered Portfolio's revenue projections below what is needed to continue publication," Conde Nast Chief Executive Charles Townsend said in a statement on Monday.  The website itself is still running, but most of the recent posts are essentially farewells.

Worth Magazine and Website to Target High Net Worth Readers

Worth will be relaunched as a bimonthly magazine with an overhauled design and new business model in May.  The magazine will be delivered for free to 110,000 high net worth individuals.  The May issue will be followed by an October/November issue in order to get feedback from readers and the market.  Meanwhile, the launch of a new Worth.com website will feature exclusive content that requires a password.   Privately-held Sandow Media bought Worth from CurtCo. Media last year.

FinancialWeek.com Wins Awards Posthumously

Just weeks after Heath Ledger posthumously won the best-supporting award for best supporting actor in a movie, Financial Week has been selected a winner for multiple Neal Awards from American Business Media.  Updates to the website had stopped earlier this month.  The website was a finalist for the Grand Neal Award and won in several categories, including "Best subject-related series of articles," "Best staff-written editorials or opinion columns" and "Best news coverage."

FinancialWeek.com Suspends Operations

Financial Week has suspended its plans to remain a web-only publication.  It had previously stopped publishing in print at the end of 2008.  Owned and operated by Crain Communications, the website was last updated on March 5, 2009 while its archives remain publicly accessible.

Kiplinger Plans to Offer Personal Finance Tips on Video

Personal finance publisher Kiplinger is planning to develop 25-second video segments that can be scheduled into finance shows or sporting events.  The vignettes will provide advertisers with the opportunity to sponsor personal finance tips.  The vignettes can also be distributed on the Internet.

The Tribune Company Clears the Air about United Airlines Bankruptcy

Somebody should have checked the date.  Apparently, an archived story about the United Airlines bankruptcy in 2002 was one of most viewed stories on the Sun-Sentinel website over the weekend.   Google News treated the original article as a relevant result for a search under "bankruptcy 2008".   The Income Securities Advisors newsletter then published the headline, "United Airlines files for Ch. 11 to cut costs" which went out over Bloomberg's news terminals worldwide.

The Tribune Company has issued the statement below to clarify the confusion caused by the archived Internet story.  

"A Chicago Tribune story written in December 2002 regarding the United Airlines bankruptcy filing that year was apparently picked up by an investment advisory and research firm and republished as though it was current. The story was located in the archive section of the website of the Sun Sentinel in South Florida. The story contains information that would clearly lead a reader to the conclusion that it was related to events in 2002. In addition, the comments posted along with the story are dated 2002."

2002 Headline Triggers 2008 Rumor of United Airlines Bankruptcy

An old Chicago Tribune news story about United Airlines filing for bankruptcy was apparently the source of a rumor that sent shares of United Airlines into a tailspin.  The article, originally written six years ago, appeared on the website of the South Florida Sun Sentinel as if the story had broken today.  Shares of United Airlines tumbled before trading was halted.