Vibe, the urban music magazine, is clawing its way back to life. New owners and editors are trying to make the magazine a success reality again, and they are making the web a priority ... which shouldn't be news but is for an ailing print industry.

The new editor-in-chief, Jermaine Hall, told AdAge that "Vibe.com is really the hub," and that everything needs to point back to the online presence. The print publication will be just one part of the Vibe Lifestyle Network, a move we're also seeing with the likes of Rolling Stone, where the website is being brought back into the fold (and may actually get some resources).

The mayhem in the media industry continues. The Wall Street Journal, a News Corp (NASDAQ: NWS) property, is closing its Boston bureau and sending nine employees into the wind. The newswire and MarketWatch operations are going to stay open in Boston, however, with no headcount impact.

The Journal doesn't have any plans to close other offices, according to a memo by managing editor Robert Thomson: "there are no plans, nascent or otherwise, to close any other U.S. or international bureau." The WSJ will still support an "investigative function" in Boston, but the New York-based Money and Investing team will cover Boston's mutual fund industry, which boasts such heavy hitters as Fidelity.

At the same time, magazine company Time Inc., owned by Time Warner (NYSE: TWX) is looking to cut $100 million in expenses, and layoffs will undoubtedly figure into the equation. The company that owns Time, Fortune, People and Sports Illustrated – and falls under the same umbrella as AOL, which owns BloggingStocks – is feeling the squeeze of a media recession that's even worse than the regular recession we've all been battling for what feels like decades.

With circulation declining in large part due to the huge amount of free content available on the internet, some magazine publishers are adopting what seems like a counter-intuitive approach to competing: raising prices.

Magazines like Time, Newsweek, Business Week and even the upmarket New Yorker have long relied on low subscription prices to attract large numbers of subscribers, which in turn attracts advertisers. But the New York Times reports that The Economist has raised its price substantially of late and is still continuing to buck the trend of declining circulation. That has other publishers taking notice, and many are planning to increase their subscription and newsstand rates, after years of falling prices.

Time Inc. is planning the launch of an experimental customizable magazine called "mine."

The Associated Press reports that "The magazine is free, but the print edition is limited to the first 31,000 respondents, while an online version is available for another 200,000." Here's how it works: You pick five titles from a list of Time, Sports Illustrated, Food & Wine, Real Simple, Money, In Style, Golf, and Travel + Leisure. Then "mine" editors decide which stories from each will make it into your customized magazine.

A standoff between two of the nation's largest periodical wholesalers and magazine publishers over a seven-cent surcharge could keep popular celebrity and news magazines out of most Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT) outlets this week. Some Walgreen and CVS stores would also be affected. The two wholesalers, Anderson News and Source Interlink Cos, deliver to 3,000 of Wal-Mart's 4,200 stores, and they are charging a seven-cent surcharge per magazine, which publishers like Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: TWX), Bauer Publications, and American Media refuse to pay.

A Wal-Mart spokesperson said that some stores would be without magazines this week, but wouldn't give specifics about titles or the number of stores. However, it was clear that the majority of stores would be affected; and the titles owned by the objecting companies include People, Time, National Enquirer, Star, and Life & Style. Popular celeb titles Us Weekly and OK! were not subject to the standoff.

When embattled Time Warner (NYSE: TWX) CEO Jeff Bewkes gets on the company's fourth quarter earnings call next week, February 4, he will certainly be asked one thing. With the advertising market facing one of its worst periods in years, how does he intend to keep profit margins high? Several of the company's businesses, particularly magazine group Time, Inc., AOL (parent company of BloggingStocks), and the firm's cable networks, rely on advertising for a large portion of their revenue.

Late last year, Time, Inc. cut 600 jobs. AOL just said it would let another 700 people go. No plans have been announced for cable operations like CNN, but those may come.

US News admitted that the advertising climate and competition from Time and Newsweek was too tough, so after decades as a weekly, it said a while back that it would publish 26 times in 2009. That is a lot of savings in printing and postage. The publication probably let a few people go.

But the magazine never made it to its new publishing frequency. Things are so bad in print advertising that now it says it will go monthly. According to The New York Times "Just five months after saying it would drop its frequency to every other week, U.S. News & World Report has decided instead to become a monthly magazine."

The magazine, which was founded in 1948, might as well fold. Putting out a news publication once a month when the internet allows people to get news minute-by-minute is not a smart idea. There is a good chance the magazine will not be around at the end of next year.

Over the last week, large magazine publishers like Rodale, Time, Inc., and Conde Nast have put a total of over 1,000 people out of work. The magazine industry is beginning to look like the newspaper sector. That means it is trapped without a way out.

As magazine publishers focus more on the internet, they confront competition like Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) News and CNN. Even on the web, publishing is too crowded for everyone to make it.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247WallSt.com.

Gannett (NYSE:GCI) announced it May revenue results. Nothing in them was surprising.

According to the country's largest newspaper company, "Publishing advertising revenues in May were 14.3 percent lower." Classified ad revenue fell even more, almost 20%. Auto, real estate, and jobs marketing have begun to leave newspapers and financial trouble within those industries has cut their ad budgets to the bone.

The most disturbing piece of new is the report was that at USA Today, advertising revenue was 18.4 percent lower on paid ad pages of 260 versus 324 last year.

USA Today is part newspaper, part daily magazine. It uses color and graphics in a way that is closer to Time, Newsweek, or BusinessWeek than to a typical daily paper. It is also a national product, not local like other papers.

If the country's largest paper, and one of only two papers distributed widely in the USA is in such trouble, it may be a sign that the print ad downturn is moving quickly from newspapers to magazines. Some weekly publications like BusinessWeek are seeing double digit ad drops.

Newspapers may not be the last part of the print publication industry to fall apart.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

Fortune, which shares a parent, Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: TWX), with BloggingStocks, struck out this week. What I mean is that it published three articles -- each of which I think completely missed the boat. I really like when Fortune gets an in-depth interview with interesting business leaders. But sometimes, it goes too far praising its subjects.

That may have been what happened in the three stories where I think Fortune whiffed:

• Providence Equity Partners. Fortune had a cover story praising Providence Equity Partners for closing the biggest private equity deal ever. Unfortunately, as I posted, that $52 billion deal fell apart this week. To be fair, Fortune updated its online version of the article with this information. Strike One.
• Bernanke saves the day. Fortune posted an article praising Bernanke for stopping the slide in the stock market with his fast interest rate cuts and emergency lending. This week that illusion was burst as the Dow lost 507 points. Strike Two.

Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: TWX ) has been selected as the "undervalued stock of the month" by Paul Tracy, in his StreetAuthority Market Advisor.

The advisor explains, "We think the company's days as an industry laggard are over and we think the company is well-positioned to leverage its valuable assets and unlock shareholder value in the years ahead."

For those unfamiliar with the company's operations, he explains that Time Warner is the largest media conglomerate on the planet. First, he notes, there is AOL, which has built a powerful network of highly-trafficked web sites. He explains, "Its ubiquitous instant messenger service is used to send 1.8 billion messages every day."

Then, he adds, there is Time Warner Cable Inc. (NYSE: TWC), which has grown to become the nation's number two cable provider with a massive base of 15 million customers -- roughly half of whom have signed up for premium services such as digital video or high-speed internet.

The film business, he points out, includes Warner Brothers and New Line Cinema, and has "raked in billions" in global box office revenues from blockbuster hits like Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings.

In fact, he says, Warner Brothers is planning to bring the Harry Potter world to life, unveiling plans to collaborate on a new theme park based on the "wildly popular" series.

Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: TWX) may yet take Carl Icahn's advice, according to Wall Street analysts.

Spencer Wang of Bear Stearns suggested yesterday that Time Warner was contemplating a "strategic event" for AOL, according to The New York Times's DealBook blog. UBS analyst Aryeh Burkhoff said that chances of an AOL sale are "high," the blog reported. Another possibility raised by analysts is a disposal of the Time Inc. magazine publishing business, Dealbook said.

Chief Executive Richard Parsons has called AOL a strategic asset. Companies, though, often say nice things about assets they plan to sell.

If AOL gets sold -- and it wouldn't shock me if it happened -- the usual suspects, Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG), Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT), Yahoo Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) and Barry Diller's IAC/InterActiveCorp (NASDAQ:IACI) would take a look at it. The Time business would probably fall into the hands of a private equity outfit.

All of this should have a familiar ring to it. Icahn made many of these same points during his recent crusade against Time Warner management.

One interesting question: What to call the company if Time is sold? I hope Parsons chooses a historic name highlighting the company's connection to Warner Bros. The world doesn't need yet another quasi-Latin sounding corporate name that no one understands.

Time magazine is debuting on shelves across the nation with its new look and its new streamlined layout. The magazine will not only have larger headlines and more photos, but more bullet points and visual aides too with the goal of showing a different aspect of stories than its traditional longer articles. Time Warner Inc. (NYSE:TWX), the magazine's parent, has already cut jobs in the Time unit and is planning more cuts in an effort to improve the magazine operations. Time magazine is one of the magazines Time Warner is keeping, even after its recent magazine sales.

Time is also going to have more cross promotional activities in print to online and vice versa, or so the previews have indicated. The overall comparisons can't be made yet because, well, the future hasn't happened. Old Media has definitely been making attempts to be hipper and more aggressive compared to years past.

Web 2.0 is something that Old Media companies have had to embrace whether they liked it or not. If you don't agree, go ask Tribune Co. (NYSE:TRB) and other newspaper and broadcast companies about their focus over the last 18 months. All of them will say it has been on capitalizing off the internet while trying to maintain traditional media operations with each company having a different focus such as user-generated content (blogs or video), online ad sales, print exclusives, online exclusives and the like.

This is not the first change in media by a long shot, but it does mark a strategic change that you can bet every other media company is watching closely.

Jon Ogg is a partner in 24/7 Wall St., LLC; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.

Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: TWX) is seeing another strong trading day after the company has made a couple investments in old media and new media.

Time Warner's Warner Bros. Entertainment unit is taking a 10.3% stake in SCi Entertainment Group plc in the United Kingdom. SCi is a leading publisher and developer of video games, and parent of Eidos, which is known for its Tomb Raider gaming franchise. Terms were not disclosed, but the Warner-SCi agreement also contemplates licensing and distribution of games based on select Warner Bros. Entertainment properties.

Turner Broadcasting paid $235 million to Claxson Interactive to buy seven pay TV networks in Latin America with what is said to be a 51 million member audience. It is buying Fashion TV, HTV, Infinito, I.Sat, MuchMusic, Retro and Space. Turner will also get sales representation rights for third party-owned networks in Latin America.

Neither one of these deals will be easy to calculate as making a significant difference on their own as far as how they impact earnings. But they are yet another demonstration that the company is still making deals when it sees a fit. TWX shares are up another .1% at $21.74 as of 3:20 p.m. today.

Time Inc's sale of 18 non-core magazine titles has stalled. According to a report in Advertising Age, potential bidders did not get enough information to make the November deadline. Hopes for a sale before year-end have been dashed. The next round of bids are said to be in early January.

Another issue of concern: The delay gives employees at these titles, understandably worried about their futures, more time to look for other jobs. Thus, the staff of any given magazine could be significantly different on execution of any deal.

The Street doesn't seem to care, however. Shares of Time Warner Inc. (NYSE:TWX) are up 0.5% as of 3:20 p.m. today to $20.58.