tag:weblogs.newsday.com,2008:/business/blog//161 2008-05-12T15:20:23Z People on the move Movable Type 3.36 tag:weblogs.newsday.com,2008:/business/blog//161.100716 2008-05-12T15:17:15Z 2008-05-12T15:20:23Z

....well, you don't really need to imagine it anymore. Cablevision has bought Newsday and Long Island Business News is having some visual fun with it. Take a look. --Noel Rubinton...

Noel Rubinton Take a look. --Noel Rubinton ]]> tag:weblogs.newsday.com,2008:/business/blog//161.100642 2008-05-12T02:37:03Z 2008-05-12T02:47:27Z

For quite some time, the Dolans have seemed to make a living off upending the conventional wisdom about what Cablevision would and should do. Buying Madison Square Garden, professional teams, a string of movie theaters--all were met with consternation. Now...

Noel Rubinton So Tim Arango and Richard Perez-Pena, reporting for the New York Times, have combed through the record and the community of financial analysts. They come up with plenty of wondering: "Not for the first time, and probably not for the last, Wall Street is wondering just what the Dolans are thinking. Like many actions taken by the Dolans, the family that controls Cablevision Systems, based on Long Island, and a host of New York properties like Madison Square Garden, the Knicks and the Rangers, their recent bid to buy Newsday from the Tribune Company for $650 million has resulted in a collective head scratch." The reporters add: "Most analysts question the rationale for buying Newsday and had hoped Cablevision’s quest failed. But when it comes to the Dolans, the only thing that is predictable about them is that they are unpredictable." Cablevision remains a public company despite the Dolans' efforts to take it private in recent years. Still, note many analysts, the Dolans continue to act as if it were their private domain. --Noel Rubinton ]]> tag:weblogs.newsday.com,2008:/business/blog//161.100472 2008-05-10T00:03:07Z 2008-05-10T00:07:45Z

It’s now safe to say that no aspect of worklife is beyond a survey in this country. Proof of that is a new poll from the staffing company Spherion Corp. “American Idol” continues to be the most talked about TV...

Carrie Mason-Draffen http://spherion.mediaroom.com/pressroom ]]> tag:weblogs.newsday.com,2008:/business/blog//161.100394 2008-05-09T18:12:05Z 2008-05-09T18:25:20Z

Nearly everyone in Medialand seems certain Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. will soon be the new owner of Newsday. The only one now showing a little bit of doubt might be Murdoch himself. At a company conference call on Wednesday, Murdoch...

Noel Rubinton According to The New York Observer, Murdoch "tempered his bravado", referring to his comments from a day earlier."Yeah, I might have gone a little too far saying it was a certainty," he told The Observer. "I was telling the truth, but you don't know until ..." without finishing the sentence. According to the Observer, Murdoch later said "[Mr. Zell] has a great reputation with the banks and the financial circles everywhere." Zuckerman, also at the Time affair, had a "no comment" when asked if he might increase his $580 million bid for Newsday. The Observer originally wanted to team up with Cablevision in a joint bid for Newsday but has bowed out for now. Although Marangi thinks Murdoch will likely prevail, his analysis of Cablevision's finances shows that the company's roughly $650 million in estimated free cash flow available this year matches the amount of money bid by Dolan thus far. Without adding significnatly to its long-term debt, Marangi said, Cablevision could probably up its bid even more if necessary. "If he [Dolan] wanted to, he could go further, but he has a board [of directors] too and he doesn't have carte blanche," Marangi said. In a battle of media billionaires for Newsday's future, Marangi said, "Murdoch's pockets are a lot deeper." --Thomas Maier ]]> tag:weblogs.newsday.com,2008:/business/blog//161.100184 2008-05-08T20:02:24Z 2008-05-08T20:50:50Z

They weren't exactly side by side, by News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch and Cablevision chief James Dolan had the chance, separated by less than 12 hours, to talk to the financial press about their companies' bids for Newsday. What a...

Noel Rubinton according to Devin Leonard of Fortune. Murdoch was bold, speaking freely of his interest in Newsday, how it could help his company and why the suburban daily would be his within a week. Meanwhile, Dolan was nearly tongue-tied when the subject that he must have expected--Cablevision's interest in Newsday--came up. He didn't even decline comment crisply and sounded a bit put out that people kept asking about it. Victory doesn't always go to the bold, but Leonard didn't have anything positive to say about Dolan and the Cablevision did--even though it's reported to be $70 more than Murdoch's. --Noel Rubinton ]]> tag:weblogs.newsday.com,2008:/business/blog//161.100079 2008-05-08T15:44:06Z 2008-05-08T16:03:29Z

We’ve heard of people receiving money "no questions asked." But apparently people have plenty of questions about the one-time economic stimulus payments being sent out by the federal government, assuming they are eligible. There have been so many questions that...

Noel Rubinton at this IRS site. --Patricia Kitchen ]]> tag:weblogs.newsday.com,2008:/business/blog//161.99884 2008-05-07T19:26:32Z 2008-05-07T19:35:41Z

Last week customers of KeySpan began receiving bills with National Grid imprinted on them. National Grid completed its purchase of KeySpan in August and on Monday announced that it had begun the logo changeover, which will affect customers on Long...

Carrie Mason-Draffen Last week customers of KeySpan began receiving bills with National Grid imprinted on them. National Grid completed its purchase of KeySpan in August and on Monday announced that it had begun the logo changeover, which will affect customers on Long Island and other New York metro areas and parts of New England. The company expects to complete the logo changoever, which also includes company cars and office locations, by year’s end. The U.K.-based company is also launching a new “power of action” conservation and environmental friendly campaign that -not surprisingly- will tout the virtues of converting to natural gas. tag:weblogs.newsday.com,2008:/business/blog//161.99755 2008-05-07T13:15:01Z 2008-05-07T13:46:11Z

Analysts in the blogosphere and elsewhere continue to talk about what a good pair Sam Zell and Rupert Murdoch would make in a deal to sell Zell's (and Tribune's) Newsday. But they also can't ignore the fact that Cablevision seems...

Noel Rubinton In his blog today, Ken Doctor (a former Knight Ridder now consulting on media issues) paints a picture of how Cablevision could profit by taking on Newsday. "Is it a "TV-centric" time, as someone close to the Dolan family, who control Cablevision, said?," Doctor asks. "TV-centric misses the point. It's more video-forward than TV-centric. News video is now here to stay." "There's no doubt that web newsies want the best coverage in one place -- words and pictures," says Doctor. "There's no doubt that if some bright-eyed market entrant were to start a news-gathering and ad-selling operation, she'd do it as a single operation, not as separate "TV" and "newspaper" businesses. He adds: "That of course is the challenge of synergy. Combining existing staffs and hierarchies, with their skills and skills deficits, is in reality much harder than a white-board exercise. But someone is going to make it work, and Cablevision may be the next to try." --Noel Rubinton ]]> tag:weblogs.newsday.com,2008:/business/blog//161.99604 2008-05-06T21:57:11Z 2008-05-06T22:14:53Z

As a workplace advice columnist I never run out of questions from readers about labor laws. And that’s a good thing. My only regret is that I don’t have time to answer all the queries. Here’s some new help for...

Carrie Mason-Draffen http://www.dol.gov/elaws/firststep For more on the department’s other elaws, covering such topics as miminum wage, overtime, child labor and veterans’ workplace rights go to: http://www.dol.gov/ela --Carrie Mason-Draffen]]> tag:weblogs.newsday.com,2008:/business/blog//161.99542 2008-05-06T18:44:29Z 2008-05-06T18:51:18Z

On and on has gone the speculation over the possible sale of Newsday by Sam Zell's Tribune. Now the hottest property, speculation-wise, seems to be Cablevision. Fortune's Devin Leonard weighs in with the latest, writing about "Seeking method in Cablevision's...

Noel Rubinton Fortune's Devin Leonard weighs in with the latest, writing about "Seeking method in Cablevision's madness." After reasoning through, and seriously discounting, Cablevision's reasons and potential benefits in taking over Newsday, Leonard makes a sharp (or sly) turn and says: "Given this history, Cablevision's bid for Newsday makes sense in a perverse way. The cable operator will almost surely make the same sort of tenuous arguments that it has made in the past. This is the same company that tried to justify the purchase of the now-shuttered Wiz chain by saying it could use to the retail outlet to push its premium television shows and sell tickets to events at Madison Square Garden." --Noel Rubinton ]]> tag:weblogs.newsday.com,2008:/business/blog//161.99341 2008-05-05T21:15:50Z 2008-05-05T21:56:15Z

Here’s a different take on beating the competition. The Long Island Fight for Charity, now in its sixth year, is seeking pin-striped pugilists for its annual Big Event. The group will train the boxers, who can raise money for charity...

Carrie Mason-Draffen www.lifightforcharity.com --Carrie Mason-Draffen.]]> tag:weblogs.newsday.com,2008:/business/blog//161.98909 2008-05-02T19:57:38Z 2008-05-02T20:02:03Z

The Carle Place retailer 1-800-Flowers.com is partnering with an Islandia company to encourage Long Islanders to recycle old computers. 1-800-Flowers.com and e-Scrap Destruction will hold the recycling drive on June 4 at the 1-800-Flowers store at One Old Country Rd....

Carrie Mason-Draffen The Carle Place retailer 1-800-Flowers.com is partnering with an Islandia company to encourage Long Islanders to recycle old computers. 1-800-Flowers.com and e-Scrap Destruction will hold the recycling drive on June 4 at the 1-800-Flowers store at One Old Country Rd. in Carle Place between 8:30 a.m and 4 p.m. Electronic-waste experts from e-Scape will collect the discarded equipment. Not wanting to miss a promotional opportunity, 1-800-Flowers will hand out 15 percent-off coupons to people who drop off discarded electronic equipment. --Carrie Mason-Draffen tag:weblogs.newsday.com,2008:/business/blog//161.98633 2008-05-01T19:40:55Z 2008-05-01T19:55:50Z

Three Long Island companies have made a national list of the 100 best adoption-friendly workplaces the second year in a row. They are United Business Media in Manhasset, formerly CMP Technology; Kozy Shack in Hicksville and OSI Pharmaceuticals in...

Carrie Mason-Draffen http://www.davethomasfoundation.org/Our-Work/Adoption-Friendly-Workplace/Best-Adoption-Friendly-Workplaces-List --Carrie Mason-Draffen ]]> tag:weblogs.newsday.com,2008:/business/blog//161.98503 2008-05-01T14:26:46Z 2008-05-01T14:53:50Z

The proposed sale of Newsday by Sam Zell's Tribune continues to draw a lot of attention. The number of potential purchasers, currently at least three seemingly serious bidders, has also magnified the amount of attention the deal has gotten. Plus,...

Noel Rubinton Newsday's own coverage, today the New York Times says that Cablevision is preparing a $650 million bid, while the New York Observer reportedly has dropped out. The story says the appeal of the Long Island daily still seems strongest for Rupert Murdoch and Mort Zuckerman because of potential production economies with their Post and News properties. And the Wall Street Journal also says the Cablevision offer is coming. The appeal to Cablevision? The story says: "The company sees potential in the geographic overlap of Newsday and Cablevision's subscriber base, as well as its News12 news service. That could mean Cablevision could include Newsday subscription offers as part of a bundle with its other services." --Noel Rubinton ]]> tag:weblogs.newsday.com,2008:/business/blog//161.98267 2008-04-30T17:04:45Z 2008-04-30T17:14:47Z

Many college graduates will begin new jobs soon. And for some the first day at work could be as unsettling as the first day of kindergarten. And there’s good reason, according to a new survey. The biggest challenge facing new...

Carrie Mason-Draffen http://www.creativegroup.com and click on "Press Room." --Carrie Mason-Draffen ]]>