Category Archives: Media

Tyler Cowen, in conversation with Wil Wilkinson, says that most people massively overestimate the probability that their beliefs are true. Robin Hanson provides a transcript: Take whatever your political beliefs happen to be. Obviously the view you hold you think … Continue reading →

How could Greg Ip leave the WSJ for the Economist? I mean, he’s a brand – and the Economist doesn’t do brands, except its own. (And that it does exceedingly well.) What did he mean when he told Reuters that … Continue reading →

This could get ugly. Dane Hamilton has found a speech yesterday by Jim Chanos, short-seller extraordinaire: Chanos cited recent travails at a well-known New York investment bank that’s still around (yes, that one) that was the subject of repeated unsourced … Continue reading →

The XM-Sirius merger took another step towards actually happening today, when FCC Chairman Kevin Martin said he’d support it. The AP reports: The deal affects millions of subscribers who pay to hear music, news, sports and talk programming, largely free … Continue reading →

Here’s what I don’t understand about the crazy-desperate moves that Sam Zell is making at the LA Times, like judging journalists by the number of column-inches they generate, or removing all the editorial employees at the the magazine and moving … Continue reading →

MasterCard’s Centers of Commerce Index has been getting a lot of press today (it’s London 1, New York 2, just like last year). So I wanted to check it out, and to see just what MasterCard’s Michael Goldberg meant, in … Continue reading →

Is Sam Zell taking a page out of Nick Denton’s book? Denton, overseeing bloggers, judges them on the number of pageviews they generate; Zell, overseeing newspaper journalists, is judging them on the number of column inches they generate: The struggling … Continue reading →

Do you read the FT’s "popular and influential Lex column"? The phraseology comes from a Guardian story today, but it’s something of a journalistic cliché: the FT definitely considers Lex to be a flagship franchise. But in fact there’s a … Continue reading →

Lehman Brothers bought back its own shares yesterday, in a move which shocks Yves Smith and worries Barry Ritholtz. But how do they know that Lehman bought back its own shares? The bank made no public announcement to that effect. … Continue reading →

MarketWatch has a good summary of the rather complex deal by which Time Warner plans to spin off Time Warner Cable. But something here doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. Time Warner currently own 84% of Time Warner … Continue reading →

Dear NYT, What the fuck are you doing? The Gray Lady devotes 1,200 words and four reporters today to covering in mind-numbing detail the fact that a television anchor inadvertently said the word "fuck" live on air. (Of course, being … Continue reading →

Barry Diller, Condé Nast Portfolio cover star, has decisively prevailed in his fight with John Malone, the largest shareholder of the company Diller runs. Malone’s Liberty Media won’t appeal the court decision which went in Diller’s favor in March, has … Continue reading →

Duff McDonald has a piece on Barry Diller in the June issue of Portfolio. I asked him what he thought of the mogul, after following him through a long and painful trial with John Malone. It seems there might yet … Continue reading →

A quick plug for Specator Business, a brand-new magazine that’s just launched in the UK. Its blog, Trading Floor, features the very smart Tim Worstall, and the magazine proper is full of smart columns from the like of my old … Continue reading →

When Some Assembly Required first appeared on my radar screen a couple of weeks ago, I assumed that I was just late to the game and everybody knew about it. The wonderful daily linkfest would have a title like "SAR … Continue reading →

Yesterday, we learned that Grand Theft Auto IV sold a record 609,000 copies, generating more $48.4 million, in one day – and that was just in the UK. Today, it’s Viacom’s turn: Entertainment company Viacom Inc. reported a 33 percent … Continue reading →