Does this mean that Rupert Murdoch was right not to make the website free? No, it doesn't. And in fact I'm still convinced that the site will end up going completely free, if not sooner then later.

The news is out: Newspaper companies can no longer afford reporters and editors. Yesterday's L.A. Times announcement is the latest to catch a news cycle of public attention. As well it should. A 17% cut -- 150 newsroom jobs -- is an unnatural disaster. It's the kind of news that shocks, if briefly. Because it is the L.A. Times, it's more shocking nationally than last week's cut at the Hartford Courant (25% or 58 newsroom jobs) and at the Baltimore Sun (about 20% or 55-60 jobs). All are Tribune-owned papers.

These cuts, and more at other Tribune papers, are a part of strategy, the new Tribune management tells us. It's "rightsizing" its papers to meet the economic realities of the day.

The good news about the pervasive corporate and consumer economic angst is that it can't get much worse. The bad news is that it will be a while before it gets better.

Premier Exhibitions (PRXI) is the company that does the "Bodies" exhibition as well as other exhibitions including "Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition," "The Universe Within;" "Sports Immortals and The Traveling Exhibition;" and "Dialog in the Dark." It has operations in the United States, Canada, Germany, Norway, France, Greece, Japan, Switzerland, Chile, Argentina, China, Mexico, Hungary, South Korea, and England.

Dish Network (DISH) late Tuesday disclosed that AT&T (T) has exercised an option to terminate the relationship under which Ma Bell sells Dish access to its customers. The termination is effective December 31.

Just two weeks ago, AT&T exercised its right to put back to DISH a $500 million convertible note due July 21, 2010.

Craig Moffett, an analyst with Bernstein Research, says that AT&T describes the termination as “procedural.” But he notes that it likely means AT&T will now open negotiations with both Dish and its rival DirecTV (DTV).

After six months of nothing happening on the Kindle front, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos issued a press release calling the Kindle a "huge success" and a "revolutionary" device. Now, we're not new to such hype, but the clincher here is he had no numbers, no sales figures and no revenue amounts to support his claim. And immediately, pandering analysts raised the price target on Amazon, yet again making life difficult for shorts.

I didn’t have an answer for him.

The analyst cautions the short term on weak OEM and subscriber numbers, but feels that these issues carry only a minor impact on long term values. Also noted by the analyst was the fact that the guidance issued by Sirius is more bullish than their own, but that the issue seems to center on timing of synergies.

Monday night, just hours before SAG's contract expired, while everyone thought negotiations would drag on for another week, the AMPTP (the producers association) gets bold, and announces it's making its "Last Best Offer." (Doesn't that sound like some sort of Bruce Willis action movie?). It's throwing down the gauntlet and calling SAG on its bluff. But is AMPTP really saying it won't take no for an answer? We'll see if it's the one actually bluffing.

It's bundling these fast-growing cable properties with the corresponding websites as well as Shopzilla and uSwitch, which enable comparison shopping. And this company will replace the previous E.W. Scripps Co. in the S&P 500.

To try to answer this question, I looked at the patterns around three big Hollywood films that were released in May – two of which I haven’t seen - Iron Man, Speed Racer, and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

Here's Michelle Leder:

Some of my critics assert that my opinions on satellite radio should be taken seriously since I stated, “I stopped following the industry several years ago.” As you will see shortly, your conclusions have been misdirected because I am about to provide you with a more detailed dissection of this industry, demonstrating I know well what I speak of. Typically, when a person has few investment ideas or capital they tend to focus on the noise surrounding one or two investments they hope will make them rich, wasting several years of their lives to no avail, while better opportunities pass them by. When I see a ship with the engine running at full speed while barely moving, it’s a waste of time to follow the day-to-day soap opera. I can spend my time more efficiently. As it turns out, the big picture has not changed much since 2005. The major change is that the economy is in much worse shape. In addition, this doesn’t stand to benefit SIRI, XMSR or the possible merged entity.

The initial blog and news coverage have focused on the "DRM is dead" and "free preview" angles, but is this really that interesting? It's just marketing expenses, really. Where's the business sense behind this deal? Real's stock price has been in the toilet for years, and this will do nothing to help it out. It has loss leader written all over it.

This is extremely premature and assumes that traditional media (CBS) and big, new media (CNET) don’t drop the ball, make synergies happen, integrate wisely, blah-blah-blah. But again, at 25% of its potential, I do not see how TV.com cannot become something worth talking about. Just look at all of this, from the official press release:

There are many reasons why this move will have little or no effect on iTunes. Let us analyze the $15-a-month subscription service. Music subscriptions are a really bad idea, because no one wants to be locked into a monthly fee or a contract.

Expects 2009 Total Net Synergies of $400 Million

Under the proposal, holders of NDS Series A ordinary shares and American Depositary Shares would receive $60 a share. About 68% of the Series B shares held by News Corp. would also be redeemed at $60 a share, but in this case paid for with a mix of $1.5 billion in cash and a $200 million vendor note. News Corp. currently holders a 72% stake and 96% voting control of NDS through ownership of 100% of the Series B shares. News Corp. will maintain its 32% stake in the Series B shares.

Essentially, the systems envisioned in the research note exist today. But  what is this new area? Basically, these systems take content from their source (a digital file) and push the file across the internet to a player (computer) in a store, a taxi (American Gladiator, here we come) or an airport waiting room.