Happy Thanksgiving From Fitz & Jen

The 2009 Proclamation of Thanksgiving

What began as a harvest celebration between European settlers and indigenous communities nearly four centuries ago has become our cherished tradition of Thanksgiving. This day's roots are intertwined with those of our nation, and its history traces the American narrative.

Today, we recall President George Washington, who proclaimed our first national day of public thanksgiving to be observed "by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God," and President Abraham Lincoln, who established our annual Thanksgiving Day to help mend a fractured nation in the midst of civil war.

We also recognize the contributions of Native Americans, who helped the early colonists survive their first harsh winter and continue to strengthen our nation. From our earliest days of independence, and in times of tragedy and triumph, Americans have come together to celebrate Thanksgiving.

As Americans, we hail from every part of the world. While we observe traditions from every culture, Thanksgiving Day is a unique national tradition we all share. Its spirit binds us together as one people, each of us thankful for our common blessings.

As we gather once again among loved ones, let us also reach out to our neighbors and fellow citizens in need of a helping hand. This is a time for us to renew our bonds with one another, and we can fulfill that commitment by serving our communities and our nation throughout the year. In doing so, we pay tribute to our country's men and women in uniform who set an example of service that inspires us all. Let us be guided by the legacy of those who have fought for the freedoms for which we give thanks, and be worthy heirs to the noble tradition of goodwill shown on this day.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim Thursday, November 26, 2009, as a National Day of Thanksgiving.

I encourage all the people of the United States to come together, whether in our homes, places of worship, community centers, or any place where family, friends and neighbors may gather, with gratitude for all we have received in the past year; to express appreciation to those whose lives enrich our own; and to share our bounty with others.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twentieth day of November, in the year of our Lord two thousand nine, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-fourth.

/s/ BARACK OBAMA

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving Day and weekend. We'll see you back here Monday.

After The Bell Wednesday: Tryptophan Kicks In A Day Early

Fitz: It’s a good bet that more investors in the newspaper sector were standing in the security line at LaGuardia than trading shares Wednesday.

While newspaper stocks mostly ended the session slightly down, trading volumes were low across the board.

Trading in Gannett Co. (NYSE: GCI), for instance, was just one-third of its normal volume. GCI ended modestly up on the day, gaining 17 cents, or 1.6%, to $10.62. Similarly, widely held New York Times Co. (NYSE: NYT) advanced slightly to $8.99, a rise of 11 cents, or 1.2% on volume that was just half normal.

Media General (NYSE: MEG), though, took home the award for lowest handle. Just 34,700 shares of MEG changed hands, compared to the three-month daily average of about 191,000. The few, the proud, the MEG holders who hung in there Wednesday showed no particular passion: They traded shares down 2 cents, or a negligible 0.2%, to $9.20.

A.H. Belo Corp. (NYSE: AHC) was the highest percentage gainer, ticking up 3.4% on a 16-cent share rise to $4.92.

Could A Microsoft/Google War Be Good For The Internet? Maybe, ‘The Economist’ Says

Fitz: The all-knowing anonymous voice of The Economist weighs in on the consequences of Search Wars, and concludes that Microsoft’s attempts to gain on Google by striking exclusive content deals with newspaper publishers and other media might not be so bad in the end. And not just for publishers pocketing the fees for exclusivity.

“A handful of well-funded and robust platforms locked in heated competition could be better for consumers and generate more innovation than (Web 2.0 guru Tim)  O’Reilly’s vision of an internet made of many ‘small pieces loosely joined,’” The Economist declares. Adam Smith (left) couldn’t have put it better.

Fitz & Jen Aloud, With Special Guest 'The Earl'

In the newest installment of E&P's "Fitz & Jen Give You the Business" podcast, Fitz and Jen welcome back the sharp and insightful INMA Executive Director Earl Wilkinson.

Always on top of the trends, Wilkinson just released a report on paid content -- more to the point, how publishers can create value in the age of news content abundance. Among the bewildering array of possible paid content models, is there one that's optimal for newspapers? Wilkinson says yes.

Newspapers are just on the cusp of grasping that delivery of content however the reader wants it, is value itself. News Corp.'s dance with Bing and Google could be one way to carve out scarcity.

Listen in!

Wednesday Morning Links

Are things so bad at The Washington Post they can't afford to keep six national correspondents and a handful of admins? Executive Editor Marcus Brauchli explains that the paper can cover NY, LA and Chicago just as well from D.C. (Wash Post via Romenesko)

Dave Eggers decides to print his quarterly McSweeney's as a broadsheet and everyone goes nuts. (NYT)

The Tennessean boasts that the Thanksgiving edition will be the biggest one yet this year, stuffed with advertising.

Internet advertising nudged up a little more than 1% in Q3 compared to the Q2 -- a new favorite way of making comparisons. When looking at year-over-year, it's down. (All Things D)

Hamilton Nolan brilliantly illustrates a life without News Corp. content on Google. Hint: You would hardly notice. (Gawker)

On the other hand, what does News Corp. really have to lose? (MediaFile)

Something In Common(wealth): Canada, Australia Regulators OK Yahoo-Microsoft Search and Ad Pact

Fitz: Antitrust authorities in Canada and Australia have cleared the proposed search and advertising partnership between Yahoo and Microsoft, the two companies said late Tuesday.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) said in a statement on its Web site that after a 40-day review it had concluded that “that the proposed agreement was unlikely to result in a substantial lessening of competition in the relevant markets.”

It’s unclear what kind of impact the Australian decision might have on the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division’s thinking as it reviews the proposed combination. The ACCC, for instance, noted that Microsoft and Yahoo already had a relationship in Australia, with Microsoft using Yahoo’s paid search platform. Compared to Google, too, the two companies had a “limited” portion of the nation’s search advertising, the ACCC said.

On the other hand, that’s the point Microsoft and Yahoo are trying to make with U.S. antitrust, too. Combined Yahoo and Microsoft make up not quite 30% of the market for search in the U.S. Google commands a 65% share.

Under the deal, Microsoft’s newly released Bing search engine would power Yahoo search, and Yahoo would get the lion’s share, nearly 90%, of the ad revenue it generates.

With the case still before U.S. antitrust, Microsoft and Yahoo had only a muted comment on the Canadian and Australian actions. “We continue to believe that this deal will create a true, competitive alternative in the marketplace that will benefit consumers, advertisers and publishers,” their joint statement said. “We remain hopeful that the agreement will close in early 2010.”

Bye-Bye Copy Desk: ‘Toronto Star’ Outsourcing One-Fifth Of Newsroom

Fitz: That great sucking sound you heard was coming from Canada, where the nation’s biggest newspaper, The Toronto Star, is offloading its copy editing to Pagemasters North America, a unit of Canadian Press. In a memo to the troops first reported by Bloomberg’s Joe Schneider, Editor in Chief Michael Cooke says the outsourcing will eliminate 78 editing jobs and cut annual expenses by C$4 million (US$3.8 million).

News of the outsourcing comes as the Star is offering buyouts and early retirement packages to all employees. In the memo, Cooke said the paper will have a better idea of staffing levels, and the need for layoffs, when the so-called voluntary separation plan is complete. Nobody will be canned until January at the earliest, added Cooke.

(For those laugh-lest-I-cry types among us, check out the very clever, very catchy "Copy Editor's Lament (The Layoff Song)" over at The E&P Pub blog.)

After The Bell Tuesday: The Street Likes AHC’s Paid Content Noise

Fitz: On a generally down and lackluster day for the newspaper sector and the wider stock indexes, A.H. Belo (NYSE: AHC) shone brightly Tuesday.

You can never really tell what moves a stock, especially in a low-volume session like Tuesday’s, but the betting here is that those hardy newspaper investors like hearing from Bloomberg that Jim Moroney (left), A.H. Belo executive vice president and publisher of the flagship The Dallas Morning News, is  seriously considering blocking Google when it erects a paywall at one of its dailies in the coming months.

AHC closed up 8.2% on a 36-cent gain to $4.76. Trading volume on AHC was just one-third of its normal handle.

Lee Enterprises (NYSE: LEE) was the only other Big Board gainer, ticking up 21 cents, or 5.6%, to $3.95.

The Washington Post Co. (NYSE: WPO) was not the biggest percentage decliner -- that was Journal Communications (NYSE: JRN), which fell 4.9% on a 19-cent dip to $3.66 -- but its drop is notable nevertheless.

With its loss of $5.90 a share, or 1.4%, WPO closed at $410.01, or about where it was trading a week into the newspaper rally that started July 15. With its recent repeated declines, WPO is now nearly as close to its 52-week low of  300.00, set on March 9, as it is to its 52-week high of $495.60 of Aug. 12.

About those E-Editions... Kicking Newspapers When They're Down

Jen: I generally tend to bristle when publishers boo-hoo about all the negative news about the industry. This time I'm in their corner.

The Associated Press came out with a story yesterday that really piles it on at time when the industry is at low point. When newspapers reported one of the worst circulation plunges since WWII, the AP comes out and sort of proclaims that it could have been much much worse save for the Audit Bureau of Circulations new rule for e-editions. How much worse? AP never really tells us.

Instead AP points to 59 newspapers that count at least 5,000 weekday e-editions towards it circulation. Those papers represents 15% of all dailies that ABC counted in its total daily circ tally.  The Las Vegas Journal-Review and the York (Pa.) Daily Record both of which posted daily increases thanks to a surge in e-editions, are used to illustrate that newspapers have run amok, abusing this new rule. The readers are counted twice because the bar for e-edition pricing had been lowered. Before April 1, a newspaper could count the e-edition if only the customer paid 25% of the basic subscription price for the electronic copy. With discounted circ thrown out the window, publishers more or less now have more leeway to count e-editions.

For the six months ending September 2009, e-editions represented roughly 0.5% of total daily circ, according to ABC. E-editions are growing, yes, but that is a tiny, tiny fraction of overall circulation, wouldn't you say?

Plus, newspapers keep getting thwacked on the wrists for not winding down legacy costs. An e-edition is one way to do that. With publishers cutting circulation in outlying areas, it's a nice way to offer a version of the paper to a former print subscriber, for example. AND, what do you think all those nifty Kindle and e-reader editions are? That's right, they are counted as electronic copies.

And one last point: Why shouldn't readers be counted twice? I read the Sunday NYT in print. I never read the print edition during the weekday, but I do read it online and on my iPhone. Sometimes I read all three versions on Sunday -- shouldn't an advertiser know they can reach me three different ways?

It's not like those numbers are buried deep in some obscure footnote on Publisher's Statement. It's clearly broken out, high up in the report.

I'm not saying that some newspapers won't abuse this new twist somewhere down the line. It just didn't happen in the aggregate this past September.

Tuesday Morning Links

Digital readers like the Kindle can help the newspaper industry writes Alexandra Zendrian but it probably won't *really* help until the readers can take advertising. (Forbes)

The Detroit News on its latest competition. The Motor City, one of the hardest hit in this country, now has three -- three! -- dailies.

For Rupert Murdoch's plan to work with Google, he must get other publishers to come along, contends Jeff Bercovici. Will others follow the "pied piper" whose remarks against aggregators are getting louder and more cranky? (Daily Finance)

... Maybe so! MediaNews Group and A.H. Belo may join News Corp. and yank its content off Google. (Bloomberg)

The problem with all this, says Alan Mutter who douses the News Corp./Microsoft talks with cold water, is that newspapers need Google more than Google needs newspapers. (Reflections of a Newsosaur)

People, start thinking mobile and learn how to do it. (Recovering Journalist)

Some designer is making shoes, ballet flats to be precise, out of recycled newspapers. But how do they hold up in the rain? (Daily Camera)

Congrats Ken Doctor! Now go out and pre-order his book "Newsonomics:Twelve Trends that Will Shape the News You Get." (Content Bridges)

After The Bell Monday: Slow Start

Fitz: The Dow jumped 132 points on news that existing home sales hit a rate not seen since February 2007, a “good sign for the sustainability of the housing recovery," Barclays Capital economist Michelle Meyer told Reuters. But the data did little to stir the newspaper sector, which was broadly up but modestly. Much.

The biggest percentage gainer was E.W. Scripps (NYSE: SSP), which managed a 3.9% rise, adding 25 cents to close at $6.66. The New York Times Co. (NYSE: NYT) ticked up 3% on a gain of 26 cents to $8.91.

Most newspaper stocks, however, were more like Gannnett Co. (NYSE: GCI), which rose a near undetectable 9 cents, or 0.5%, to $10.47.

Lee Enterprises Inc. (NYSE: LEE) was the only Big Board decliner. LEE dipped 7 cents, or 1.8%, to $3.47.

Tierney Keeps Hand On The Wheel In Philadelphia Newspapers Bankruptcy

Fitz: A federal bankruptcy judge has given Philadelphia Newspapers LLC more time as the only party that can propose a reorganization plan for the bankrupt publisher of The Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News.

Philadelphia Newspapers and the senior lenders holding $318 million of its debt haven’t agreed on much in the tumultuous workout since the papers filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last February, but they did agree in advance to this latest extension of the company’s “exclusivity period.”

The lenders are waiting to see how a federal appeals court will rule in its attempt at “credit-bidding” in an auction for the newspapers and its Philly.com Web site.

Senior lenders, including Citizens Bank, CIT Group and Angelo, Gordon & Co., want to use that $318 million of debt to bid on the newspapers. But earlier this month, a U.S. District Court judge ruled that could not use “credit bidding” in any auction -- a development seen as a major boost to Philadelphia Newspapers CEO Brian Tierney's (left) plans for the papers.

This summer, Tierney filed a reorganization plan that would sell the company to a group of three investors -- Toll Brothers executive Bruce Toll, the Carpenters' Union Pension Fund and Penn Matrix Investments -- who would pay $35 million in cash plus the funding of a $17 million letter of credit.

Senior lenders would get the newspapers’ office building in a prime Center City location -- with a little catch: They would have to agree to let the papers squat there rent-free for two years.

Did ‘Greed’ Really Kill Gay Chain Window Media?

Fitz: Bay Windows, the venerable Boston-based weekly for New England’s LGBT community, the other day volunteered its own autopsy on Window Media, the gay newspaper chain that shut down and filed for Chapter 7 liquidation last week.

Turns out it was “corporate greed” that did in the publisher of the Washington Blade, Southern Voice and several other well-known gay titles.

“They placed corporate greed before community,” Bay Windows’ co-publishers, Jeff Coakley and Sue O'Connell, wrote of the unrelated Window Media. “A quick history lesson would have told them that gay media was established in order to provide a voice to a minority and to forward the fight for equal rights. When our community is viewed as a marketing demographic rather than a movement, the result should not be surprising. The death of Window Media was self-inflicted.”

That’s a quick history lesson, all right. But is it an accurate one?

Monday Morning Links

Rick Edmonds is on to something. The FT reports that News Corp. is in discussions with Microsoft to "de-index" its content from Google.

Since Journalism Online's beginning last spring, the message has undergone some adjustments including the founders dropping the word "paywall" and pushing the metered model. (Nieman J Lab)

 Ex-Chicago Tribune staffer James Warren describes his former paper as "lightweight."  The rise of independent news sites like the Chicago News Cooperative are giving seasoned journalists hope -- and jobs. (NYT)

Corporate media executives drop ancient Chinese proverbs in favor of a WWII British slogan. (NYT)

California GOP gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman slags newspapers. (SFGate)

The Los Angeles Times updates its rules on social media. (LA Observed)

Robert MacMillan on the layoffs at The Washington Post and how the company gave roughly 10 or so dotcom staffers the boot before the end of the year before the dotcom side moves under union coverage. (MediaFile)

After the Bell: Investors Chip Away

Jen: Newspaper stocks, like the general sector, were pushed down today but thankfully not by much. The worry is that investors will keep chipping away at the newspaper sector where suddenly what seems like small change starts amounting to big losses over time. No one appeared to be overtly concerned that the newspaper industry once again posted huge ad revenue declines.

A curiosity: Journal Communications (NYSE: JRN) was the only stock to trade up. Shares in the company rose 1.3% to $3.74.

The biggest percentage declines were at Gannett (NYSE: GCI), down 4.6% to $10.38 and McClatchy. The market said big whoop to news The Miami Herald publisher is making five of its papers available on the Kindle. Shares of McClatchy (NYSE: MNI) fell 4.1% to $2.98.

Recruiters Shun Newspapers

 Jen: Borrell Associates has a new report out focusing on recruitment advertising and a "jobless" recovery. As Fitz reported earlier, the NAA posted its Q3 industry ad revenue numbers and newspapers have been taking it in the chin in the category of classified help-wanted (among all categories actually). Classified ad revenue plunged 64.6% in Q3 year-over-year to $175 million.

Borrell reports that online zoomed past newspapers in recruitment spending -- five years ago. Online recruitment spending "is headed toward spending levels that newspapers enjoyed back in the 1990s." 

Borrell charts the stomach churning ups and downs -- and mostly downs -- of recruitment spending in newspapers. It peaked in 2001 at $9 billion, falling naturally, after the dot com bust. Spending climbed 15.6% to $5.9 billion in 2005 compared to 2004 before hitting the skids. This year, Borrell expects newspaper recruitment spending to come in at $1.8 billion, while online it's expected to rise to $5.3 billion.

By 2014 Borrell anticipates that recruitment spending online will reach $7.6 billion while in newspapers it will stall at $1.7 billion.