Online job site Monster Worldwide has agreed to purchase Yahoo's HotJobs operation for $225 million, giving Monster access to 600 online newspaper sites which were part of Yahoo's newspaper consortium (which includes Lee Enterprises and QCTimes.com).
The deal, subject to federal anti-trust review, would create a combined Monster/HotJobs site audience larger the current job site leader CareerBuilder.
Yahoo reported it will maintain its newspaper consortium, which involves search and display advertising and content distribution arrangements.
New iPad may help newspapers
Apple's new iPad announcement may help newspapers if the new gadget can provide a new revenue/distribution platform for the publishing industry.
The New York Times already has developed an application to run on the new (as yet unavailable) Apple tablet, and other news organizations are expected to do likewise.
Unlike rss feeds and readers currently available to distribute newspaper articles, the iPad gives newspapers and magazines the ability to distribute their product in a format (layout) similar to the printed page. It also may lead to a micropayment system, similar to Apple's iTunes store, to enable newspapers to sell individual issues or subscriptions online.
Speaking of Apple
The iPhone, introduce three years ago, now has an estimated 25 percent of the U.S. smartphone market. In the last year alone, Apple sold 13 million of them, up 93 percent from the previous year. The iPhone "app store" has 85,000 applications ranging from a Charmin bathroom tissue app to help users find the nearest public restroom to one from Hardees that provides a virtual burger-eating experience (linked to downloadable coupons).
Google says 'what recession?'
In the fourth quarter of last year, Google had revenues of $6.7 billion, up 17 percent from the same quarter in 2008. For 2009, the search engine/adwords advertising giant had revenues of $23.65 billion, a 9 percent increase from the 12 months ended Dec. 31, 2008.
Google now has 19,835 full-time employees and a cash surplus of $24.5 billion.
