Search results matching tag 'New York Yankees'

Mass layoffs begin at Time Inc/Murdoch hires (plans newspaper war)

255762 — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 09:23:00 GMT

We've already seen big cuts this year at Conde Nast now it is the turn of IPC Media parent Time Inc, which is set to announce as many as 500 job cuts today.

The New York Times reports that the layoffs begun yesterday at Time Inc when 15 to 20 sales and marketing staff were first to hear the bad news largely from Sports Illustrated.

The cuts are part of a plan to save $100m and the NY Times quotes an executive saying that the total number of layoffs as being between 400 and 500 people, which are expected to come from the news division, which includes Time, Fortune and Sports Illustrated.

Details of these job cuts are due today at 10am (3pm UK). Other magazines likely to be hit include People and InStyle and Real Simple and Cooking Light. They come after this morning's announcement of a 38% drop in third-quarter profits and a 6% fall in revenues to $7.1bn at parent company Time Warner. Revenues at AOL fell 23% ahead of a planned spin-off that is still on the cards.

No word on how this might affect the UK business IPC Media and whether it will be asked to contribute to this cost saving target.

A note of light in this job loss darkness is that few job losses will come from the digital business, according to PaidContent.

While jobs are going at Time Inc, Rupert Murdoch is cooking up a fresh newspaper war. You just can't keep a good media mogul down. After battling in London and axing TheLondonPaper, Murdoch has decided that New York deserves his attention.

He is planning to hire around a dozen reporters in New York to cover local and state news for the Wall Street Journal in its battle to take on the New York Times and transform itself from a business centric title to one that has more general news.

This sucks if you are former Boston Bureau staffer for the WSJ. That bureau was closed. One the plus side if you are one of the 100 New York Times staffers due to be axed it might suck less presenting a fresh employment opportunity. One question that strikes me is that in its drive to be more like the New York Times, you know but to the right, will this hit its money making online subscription base. The WSJ has grown because it is errrm not a general newspaper. Could someone explain that one to me? Thanks

Elsewhere another barometer for the health of US newspapers has taken a dip. Former New York Times journalist and baseball writer, not to mention pioneer in sports blogging, Murray Chass has noticed a mass fall in US newspaper coverage of this year's World Series between the best team in baseball, the New York Yankees, who lead the Philadelphia Phillies 3-2.

On his blog he notes that 29 of the 60 newspapers that cover major league teams during the season on the road as well as at home are not at this year's World Series. That is a huge drop. Last year these papers were all there, but no more.

He quotes Bud Selig, the baseball commissioner, saying: "It’s a manifestation of what’s happening in America. I’m saddened by it. I think newspaper coverage over the years has enabled us to succeed much more than a lot of people understand so for me this is a very, very unhappy development."

These are big metropolitan newspapers including the likes of the Dallas Morning News, the Houston Chronicle, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, the Detroit Free Press, the Seattle Times and the San Francisco Chronicle, who have made cuts and are no longer covering one of the biggest sporting weeks in the US suggesting more pain to come.

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Hello ESPN America and baseball

255762 — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 13:27:00 GMT

Earlier this year something quite terrible happened. You probably heard. Due to budget constraints Five ended its long running coverage of baseball, but it turns out there was an upside to all of this.

If you ever watched Five's coverage it was quirky. It was hosted by TV presenter Jonny Gould and former GB baseball player Josh Chetwynd and aired around one in the morning.

Five aired it tucked away in its schedule with only chatlines for advertising company for a decade. And then suddenly it went.

All that left British baseball fans with was ESPN America (formerly the North American Sports Network or NASN, which was bought by Disney and rebranded earlier this year), but to get that you had to buy a bunch of channels from Setanta, which made for a slightly pricy option if all you wanted was baseball.

Then something else happened. Sad as it is Setanta went bust and up to the plate stepped Disney's ESPN, which last week acquired its first live English Premier League (EPL) TV rights in the UK and a presence on Freeview.

Better still ESPN America is now free on Sky with certain channel packs. Although confusingly it took a little while to realise this and Sky Customer support is officially Grade A stupid.

I saw on some website at the weekend that following Setanta's demise you could now add for very little ESPN America to you package. Awesome, I mean great, so I emailed Sky and here is what they told me:

Hi Gordon, Customer Account Number: xxxxx

Thanks for your e-mail about adding ESPN America to your entertainment package.

I'd like to advise that, ESPN America is a third party subscription and for the cost and subscription you need to directly contact them on their website www.setanta.com.

If you wish to remove Sky Sports Pack from your viewing subscription, please reply back to the same e-mail or you can contact our Customer Services.

I hope the information I have provided about ESPN America subscription and removing Sports Pack from your viewing subscription has helped with your enquiry. If you require any further assistance, you can respond to my email. You can also contact our Customer Services on 08442 41 41 41, where one of my colleague will be happy to help.

Thanks, Ahsan, Sky Help Centre

Hmm. Sorry Ahsan, but that was far from helpful. I mean don't they tell you anything at the Sky Help Centre, you know, so you can help customers? Apparently not.

Anyway, joke was on me. I then read somewhere else that ESPN America was now part of the News and Events package…which I already had. Errrm, bingo, there it was waiting for me to add it to my favourites. I realised this on Monday just in time to catch the third game of the Subway Series as the New York Yankees went on to beat the New York Mets 4-2 in what was a tightly fought close game with an emotional finish as closer Mariano Rivera went on to make his 500th career save. Awesome.

I'm looking forward to a summer of baseball and I have informed the guys at the Sky Help Centre where they too can find ESPN America: channel 417 on your Sky box. Whoever knew it went up that high?

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How can you bring storytelling and authenticity to your brand?

209478 — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 10:54:00 GMT

Be like Stadium Associates who’ve gone beyond the usual team-licensed caps, T-shirts and watches.

Working on the assumption that there are enthusiasts out there wishing for bigger and better ways to express their passion, Stadium Associates is now giving fans of the New York Yankees a chance to bring nothing less than a piece of the stadium into their own back yard.

Indeed, Yankees fans can now buy grass seed and sod drawn from the very same farm and crops that have supplied Yankee Stadium for the past four decades.

The proprietary sports turf – specially grown for the Yankees by DeLea Sod Farms on an 80-acre farm in Southern New Jersey – features the same 100% Kentucky Bluegrass used in Yankee Stadium.

It ‘grooms easy and stands tough’, and in the words of Stadium Associates. ‘you’ll never feel a stronger connection with the team or the game than with this Authentic MLB product.’

Yankees Grass Seed is priced from $14.99 for a 3oz. bag, and is available online and through Yankee Stadium, Yankee Clubhouse Stores, and select Home Depot stores in the New York metro area.

Yankees Sod is available through New York Home Depot stores as well as DeLea Sod Farms.

Is there any underestimating consumers' enthusiasm for the teams, artists and performers they love?

We think not – nor their fondness for a good story.

Via springwise.com/homes_housing/yankeesgrass/