The G-20 concluded its meetings in Seoul over the weekend, actually concluding very little especially over trade imbalances; the Fed launched QE2; the SEC and US Attorney were investigating whether Harbinger Capital misled investors; GM reported that it earned $2 billion in the third quarter as the car giant prepared to become a public company again (amid reports of high demand from China and other sovereign funds for shares); and the Dow was down more than 2 percent for the week (still up about 7 percent for the year) to end Friday at 11192.
Old and New Media Merge
On the media front, last week was dominated by news that Newsweek was merging with The Daily Beast (or as Tunku Varadarajan tweeted, Newsweek + The Daily Beast = The Daily Week), which raises the question on intent of two money-losing concerns. DB co-founder Tina Brown will become the editor-in-chief of the combo (what a resume, right? New Yorker, VF, Talk, to name a few) but “top draw,” according to The New York Times on Saturday, was the good old-fashioned printing press. Barry Diller, who owns DB, insisted, the story reports, “that with or without Newsweek, The Daily Beast was going to exist someday in print form.” Why, ad $$, of course, so it’s rear-view-mirror progress as we look as Diller becoming the Gutenberg of the Internet. No doubt, much more to come, especially the future and future look of Newsweek. Smacks a bit of BloombergBusinessweek, no?
E-Besties
Another print/virtual marriage of sorts again last week when The New York Times announced that it would publish e-book bestseller lists in both fiction and nonfiction next year, thanks to the success of iPads and Kindles. (E-book sales climbed 190 percent in the first nine months of 2010 from same period last year, according to Association of American Publishers.) The Times already publishes 14 lists in its “Sunday Book Review.” What’s another list so eventually ever one has some sort of shot for the top? (How about a list of not best sold but most read, quite a difference for sure?)
