And the envelope, please: How many people does it take to run an online-only metro news site? The answer appears to be 22, a number some occultists are said to believe holds psychic powers. Hearst, psychic, who'd a thunk it? That's the number I've heard from outsiders and that's the approximation we...

And now, putting shivers into executives and managers everywhere, the words, "let's do a reassessment." It's as predictable as Claude Rains' Captain Renault in Casablanca. Instead of rounding up the usual suspects , thought, new Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz will be rounding up the usual assessments. You kn...

Newspaper people like to think of themselves as good storytellers. But, lately, newspaper execs find themselves with fewer good storylines to share. In fact, Gannett -- the world's largest newspaper company -- is going to tell its official stories less often. Of course, we'll see interim announcemen...

It's time for second-quarter newspaper earnings reports, with Gannett leading off Wednesday, with the long tale of woe to follow. Given the many newspaper staff cutbacks, which I thought might include the investor relations people, I've put together a few boilerplate remarks that I hope are helpful....

As Yahoo burns, the newspaper industry watches, hoping it won't get singed. The Google/Yahoo search ad agreement has drawn lots of comments over the past couple of weeks, but its impact on newspaper consortium members has gotten little attention. The deal itself, if implemented, won't have much imme...

Summertime and the livin' is far from easy. Now that we're past Memorial Day, let's speculate on the summer that will be. It's a long time til Labor Day for the news industry. We've seen Rupert Murdoch, ironically drawing stark attention to his own advanced age -- and the question of what will becom...

Summertime and the livin' is far from easy. Now that we're past Memorial Day, let's speculate on the summer that will be. It's a long time til Labor Day for the news industry. We've seen Rupert Murdoch, ironically drawing stark attention to his own advanced age -- and the question of what will becom...

Okay, I've pulled myself away from the larger American drama of Barack and Hillary, and her coming "Alamo Firewall." Which brings me to another reality show. Maybe we could call it "Rupert and Jerry's Our Space." (You know "Our Space is a very, very, very nice, place, with.....

Okay, we get it. $44 billion is a small price to pay for share and time, and that's what Microsoft thinks it's getting out of this would-be deal. Four times more search share than it currently pulls in (Yahoo gets 12.8% while Microsoft is down to a puny 2.9%), and lots of audience (587 million uniqu...