Who is the boss of Bloomberg News?

During my career there, there was no question that Matthew Winkler was in charge. My colleagues laughed hysterically when I told them I asked Winkler about his bow ties during my interview with him before I was hired. Bloomberg's editor-in-chief is not known for his sense of humor. Good thing I didn't bring up bow ties -- which he wears every day -- again.

That's why I found the appointment of former Wall Street Journal top editor Norman Pearlstine as Bloomberg's chief content officer so curious. Does this mean that Pearlstine, who was Winkler's boss at the Journal, will supervise him again? What exactly does a chief content officer do that's different than an editor-in-chief? I am not sure of the answers to those questions and neither is the New York Times.

As the Times opines, "the move suggests that Bloomberg, whose fortunes have been buoyed by the selling of its hugely profitable data terminals to brokerage firms and investment banks, plans to expand the journalism side of its business."

There's a great article over at The New York Times. It's about all the changes happening at the broadcast networks concerning the traditional upfront model -- the practice of presenting to advertisers around the month of May a new portfolio of programming to be commenced in the fall season and the subsequent booking of ad dollars for said programming. That's how the process has worked -- CBS (NYSE: CBS), General Electric's (NYSE: GE) NBC, Disney's (NYSE: DIS) ABC, News Corp.'s (NYSE: NWS) Fox, and Time Warner's (NYSE: TWX) and Viacom's (NYSE: VIA) CW show their wares now so that they can sell commercial inventory well ahead of the season premieres.

Well, according to the article, you can thank -- or blame -- the writer's strike for the dismantling of this quaint mechanism. I chose to thank the strike, because I think change is good in this case. You see, the broadcasters want to move to a 52-week season -- i.e., they want to debut new shows on a year-round basis instead of all at once, thus neutralizing the need for big upfront promotions. Actually, I should point out that there were probably other factors that helped this decision along -- most of them centering around costs and expenses. The expensive pilot-development process just isn't where it's at anymore. In fact, I wrote about this new paradigm back in April when NBC's co-chairman Ben Silverman was embracing it -- he's actually going for a 65-week season!

Shareholders of Cablevision Systems Corp. (NYSE: CVC) must be scratching their heads over the company's $650 million purchase of Newsday from Tribune Co., the latest in a long series of baffling moves by the Dolan family, which controls the New York-based cable company.

The theory -- if you want to call it that -- is that Cablevision would be able to market the newspaper to its customers and that the company would be able to add additional content to its cable news channel. This makes no sense. People have stopped reading newspapers in droves. The only way that they would even consider subscribing is if Cablevision practically gave the newspaper away. Newsday could have struck an alliance with the cable channel to share content without the paper changing hands; these sort of deals happen all of the time.

Maybe advertisers will be more interested in Newsday now that Cablevision will be able to bundle ad space in the paper and its website along with cable commercial time. The problem, though, is that residents in Long Island have a plethora of media choices including the New York Times, New York Daily News and The New York Post. Like the readers, the only way that advertisers that aren't in the newspaper now would consider doing business with Newsday would be with steep discounts.

Privately held EMI Group reported to Billboard this week that the free track offered by Coldplay last week, "Violet Hill," was downloaded more than 2 million times. The song was made available from the updated Coldplay website on April 29 for one week before being released "commercially" in digital stores Tuesday, and it remains at Coldplay.com as a stream.

EMI had previously reported that the song was downloaded more than 600,000 times in the first 24 hours it was available. More impressively, EMI also told Billboard that the 2 million mark "is four times that of the combined sales of the Official U.K. Charts Co.'s entire Top 40 chart last week." "Violet Hill" will only be released as a physical single, a 45-rpm vinyl record, via this week's copy of British music newspaper NME. Coldplay's new album, Vida la Vida or Death and All His Friends, is released in the UK on June 12 and in the United States on June 17.

If the free availability and massive download of this one track is any indication, EMI is fully embracing digital downloads. More importantly, and coincidentally, EMI has also picked up on the platform former artist Radiohead used last October to market and distribute their seventh album, In Rainbows. Although the new Coldplay album will not be released in a similar manner, this method of distribution indicates how promising free music is to marketing new albums. At the end of the day, I can only hope that more free music will be this exciting.

This weeks Barron's (subscription required) talks about The Next Warren Buffett. Of course nobody believes that's going to happen. The headline is cast to grab attention and sell papers, just like mine, but it's not happening: no way, no how!

Barron's discusses in it's story the strong possibilty that David Sokol, 51, the curent chairman of MidAmerican Energy Holdings Company is the most likely to succeed Buffett. MidAmerican has $39 billion in assets and is a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK.A). The headline should really have read "succeed" not be the "next".

When it comes to big merger news, investors let the media get away with making sleazy deals with sources in exchange for access. The case of the aborted Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) -- Yahoo Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) deal is no different.

Investors would be nauseated by the amount of butts that get kissed behind the scenes during these drawn-out sagas. Reporters suck up to companies, public relations people and investment bankers and vice versa. I saw some of this first hand when I worked for Bloomberg and would write about deals from time to time.

Since the number of people who actually know anything about an acquisition is fairly small, members of the media contort themselves into rhetorical knots to protect the identities of the people who are spilling the beans. That's why these types of stories are filled with phrases that no one would ever utter in daily conversation such as a "person familiar with the situation" or a "person familiar with (insert executive's or company's name) thinking"or my personal favorite "a person close to the company."

The special committee set up by Rupert Murdoch to ensure the editorial independence of the Wall Street Journal is about as useful as a referee at a professional wrestling bout. The sad thing is that News Corp. (NYSE: NWS) is paying members of this committee $100,000 a year to let Chief Executive Rupert Murdoch do whatever he wants to do anyway.

A case in point is the abrupt resignation of Managing Editor Marcus Brauchli. The lackeys -- oh, I mean the special committee set up following the Dow Jones acquisition -- felt compelled Monday to issue a press release to show publicly that they were on the case. At least, that's what it tried to do.

"Although our charter does not directly envision a process for dealing with a resignation, Committee members expressed the view that learning of the Brauchli matter after the fact failed to meet the letter and the spirit of the agreement," the committee said in a statement. The committee met with Brauchli alone and was told that "his action was not the result of any problem with editorial interference or attempts to impose an ideological viewpoint. He insisted that News Corp. has been `scrupulous' about the integrity of the paper."

Yeah, right.

Murdoch has meddled in his media properties for decades. No special committee is going to stop his lust for power. Anyone who expected otherwise is either naive or deluded. Murdoch will have no inhibitions of messing with Newsday if he succeeds in buying Newsday from Sam Zell's Tribune Co. because beggars can't be choosers.

What is harder to get than good Lakers play-off tickets? An invite to the pre-release cast and crew screening of the new Iron Man movie!!

Last night I had the privilege of being one of the first to see Iron Man, the first film produced by Marvel Entertainment Inc. (NYSE: MVL), not one of the major studios. Although it wears the Paramount Pictures label and Paramount will be distributing the film, this one is Marvel all the way.

My colleague Steven Mallas reported last month about Marvel's super earnings report and come this Monday when the weekend box office tallies are in, I expect Iron Man to be at the top of the charts. In other words, IRON MAN WILL BE HUGE!

Although the cost of production and promotion reportedly shot past $200 million, I can tell you that they got it all on the screen. So much so that I write with excitement for movie enthusiasts (me), baby-boomer fans of Marvel comics (me again) and my two sons who accompanied me last night (me, them), and I want to add an exclamation point to every sentence!

The New York Times has it all -- a story that mixes wrestling, Fox Business News (FBN), a hawker of sex potions, and bank analyst extraordinaire -- Meredith Whitney. This could well be the best business story of 2008.

John C. Layfield is the FBN commentator, former wrestler and hawker of a sex potion. Layfield sells Mamajuana Energy, a berry-flavored liquid that he developed and sells for $4.99 or less. He bills the two-ounce shots as an all-natural "sexual endurance drink" for men. Mamajuana - typically made from soaking tree bark and herbs in rum - has long been part of Dominican culture. And Layfield now bills it as liquid Viagra.

Is his wife, Meredith Whitney, a beneficiary of this potion? It's not clear how much profit it generates for Layfield's company but the Times reports that she is an investor in the company. And health supplement retailer, The Vitamin Shoppe, decided to stock Mamajuana Energy in its 340 stores. No doubt Layfield is relishing the chance to join his wife in the media spotlight with the publicity over Mamajuana. I only wonder whether the Times will regret the help it's giving to arch-rival, News Corp. (NYSE: NWS).

Peter Cohan is President of Peter S. Cohan & Associates. He also teaches management at Babson College and edits The Cohan Letter. He has no financial interest in News Corp.

On May 1st, financial journalism will be losing one of its best voices.

In a post on his blog this morning, Herb Greenberg wrote that "I'm leaving MarketWatch, Dow Jones and traditional journalism to start an independent research firm with my friend, Debbie Meritz, an analyst/accountant who has been a very good source of ideas in the past."

In addition to being an all-around great guy, Herb is one of the best scambusters in the business, calling shenanigans at companies like Krispy Kreme (NYSE: KKD) and Novastar Financial long before analysts or the SEC had caught a whiff of anything.

He's also demonstrated tremendous bravery, continuing to write about Overstock.com (NASDAQ: OSTK), even after libelous comments by its CEO/village idiot Patrick Byrne referring to him as a "crooked reporter."

Herb will be leaving MarketWatch May 1st, and there may be some downtime before his research firm begins alerting investors to hype and exaggeration. So if you're a crooked CEO looking to dupe investors, you might have a narrow window of opportunity before Greenberg is back on the case.

Reports that Britney Spears was in a minor accident over the weekend with her Mercedes is another in a long line of mishaps for the pop star. Why this qualifies as news is beyond me, and it's my feeling that Britney should just be left alone. The media have succeeded in driving her into a virtual nervous breakdown, for what? To sell a few more papers, or attract a few more viewers. Should the media be in the business of ruining people?

According to the AP report: "Spears was in stop-and-go traffic when her car struck a 2006 Nissan in front of her that had stopped. The Nissan then pushed forward into another vehicle. No damage was noted to any of the vehicles."

The one winner in this latest Spears' episode may be Daimler AG (NYSE:DAI), maker of the famed Mercedes. As with most automakers the company has been struggling, and sales have been sagging. There is no question that they could use the free PR. After all, Britney drives the car, and it escaped the crash without a dent.

Despite recent troubles, investors looking for a contrarian play may want to take a look at Daimler. Their new strategy of trying to gain market share in Russia and in China to help offset US weakness, seems to be a smart move. With a growing upper middle class in both of these countries, the need to own a Mercedes will be strong, as it will be perceived as a status symbol.

Maybe the media can start focusing on global wealth creation, and leave Britney alone.

Aaron Katsman is the lead Portfolio Manager and Managing Director of America Israel Investment Associates, LLC. and Senior Editor of IsraelNewsletter.com. DISCLOSURE: Writer's fund has no position in any stock mentioned, as of 4/14/08.

Broadcasting and Cable reports that Katie Couric, the anchor of CBS Corp.'s (NYSE: CBS) Evening News, may leave well before her $15 million a year contract expires in 2011. It suggests Couric could leave as early as next year, following the presidential inauguration in January.

Why would she leave? It looks like low ratings are forcing her out. Despite the media blitz surrounding her 2006 move from NBC's Today show, Couric did little to help the ratings, as CBS Evening News has struggled to find ratings ground behind NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams and ABC World News with Charles Gibson.

While I rarely watch her show, the few times I have she seems to be drained of life -- it is as if she is being forced to play a role that she finds excruciatingly difficult to perform. I think there is a place for her on TV but that is not it. I will be interested to see who comes in after her.

Update: The Wall Street Journal [subscription required] reports that Couric might replace Larry King when his contract expires in 2009. It notes: "One possible new job for the Ms. Couric: succeeding Larry King at Time Warner Inc.'s (NYSE: TWX) CNN [which shares a parent with BloggingStocks]. Mr. King, who is 74 years old, has a contract with the network into 2009. CNN President Jon Klein, a CBS veteran with close ties to some at the network, has expressed admiration for Ms. Couric's work, and the two are friends."

Peter Cohan is President of Peter S. Cohan & Associates. He also teaches management at Babson College and edits The Cohan Letter. He has no financial interest in the securities mentioned.

Schawk, Inc. (NYSE: SGK) provides brand management services to clients in a variety of businesses. While the company just posted record operating income in FY 2007, it must also restate 2006 income, and faced flat or declining sales in numerous business segments. Income from continuing operations in 4Q 2007 was $0.24, the same as 4Q 2006. 4Q 2007 sales rose less than 1%. The company was particularly hard hit by the writers' strike in Hollywood. Its entertainment accounts unit posted an 18% drop in sales due to fewer ad pages produced.

The company kept a very tight rein on administrative expenses. The company has taken a defensive position, choosing to decrease capital expenditures and reduce interest expense while trying to develop more rigorous internal controls for recognizing revenue. CEO David Schawk remains optimistic the company will have all financial accounting weaknesses under control by the end of 2008. He remains optimistic that the company will show gains in income, sales, and profitability in 2008. The majority of Schawk's clients are in the consumer product packaging unit. Regardless of unfavorable or unstable economic conditions, those accounts will continue to require services.

The stock is currently trading under $15, and may be one patient value investors want to take a look at.

With everything from call centers to web site design being outsourced, the clear trend in the business world is to outsource almost any task that can be done cheaper and quicker somewhere else. Reports that CBS (NYSE: CBS) and cable news pioneer CNN, owned by Time Warner (NYSE: TWX) are in talks about outsourcing the news, should come as no surprise.

According to a story in The New York Times, "Broadly speaking, the executives described conversations about reducing CBS's news-gathering capacity while keeping its frontline personalities, like Katie Couric, the CBS Evening News anchor, and paying a fee to CNN to buy the cable network's news feeds. "

With CBS stuck in third place among major networks for years, and general viewership of the evening news falling due to alternative news outlets such as cable news, blogs and internet sites, this tie-up would make economic sense. CBS would be able to keep its brand name and substantially cut costs, as they would be able to take CNN news feeds from around the country.

Is Viacom (NYSE: VIA) green with envy over Disney's (NYSE: DIS) High School Musical? Probably; and who could blame the powers that be over at Viacom for exhibiting such a sin?

The Hollywood Reporter recently discussed plans made by Viacom's Nickelodeon cable channel for a project dubbed Spectacular! Here's all you need to know about it: it's a musical movie that takes place in -- are you ready for this, you'll never guess in a million years -- a high school. Talk about a coincidence; I'm sure this has absolutely nothing to do with the success of High School Musical.

In case you can't tell, I'm being sarcastic. It has everything to do with Disney's Musical franchise -- Disney has made millions upon millions off the concept.

Here's the problem for Viacom: shouldn't the media conglomerate be zagging while Disney zigs? In other words, Viacom may be putting too much faith into the belief that a hard formula has been established -- that formula being kids-cable-channel-movie + high-school-setting + catchy-musical-tunes = profitable-long-term-franchise.