MAJOR PAPERS:

• The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) reported that the UAW and representatives of Kirk Kerkorian, which made a $4.5B proposal for DaimlerChrysler AGs (NYSE: DCX) Chrysler unit, met to discuss the potential of an employee stock ownership plan and other alternatives to a takeover of the struggling automaker.
• A $25B deal to take SLM Corporation (NYSE: SLM), known as Sallie Mae, private will most likely remain under the scrutiny of a federal regulator, reported the Wall Street Journal.

OTHER PAPERS:

• The Washington Post reported that the FDA knew years in advance about contamination problems at a Georgia peanut butter plant and on California spinach farms that led to disease outbreaks, documents and interviews show.
• According to an examination by the San Jose Mercury News, a criminal case against Apple Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL) CEO Steve Jobs in the stock-options backdating investigation looks unlikely.
• According to Cinco Dias, Gottschalks Inc (NYSE: GOT) has hired UBS AG (NYSE: UBS) to explore options of a possible sale or a merger.

WEBSITES:

• Digitimes.com reported that Koninklijke Philips Electronics (NYSE: PHG) has decided to withdraw from the Taiwan handset market.

Welcome to Media World, my new weekly column, which will cover the highs and lows of today's media. I am, as they say, platform agnostic, meaning that I expect to offend both the mainstream and new media. I look forward to your feedback.

For my first column, I'd like to direct your attention to Citizen K Street, a 27-part series the Washington Post Co. (NYSE:WPO) is running on the Web site of its flagship paper about the rise of Washington lobbyist Gerald S.J. Cassidy. I'm sure the series, which was a herculean effort, will win all sorts of awards as these sorts of projects usually do.

But it's 27 parts. Who has the time to devote to reading a newspaper series that last that long about any topic? Is anything worth that degree of fuss?

One person who doesn't think so is Cassidy. In his blog, he seemed stunned by attention he's gotten from the Post. "There are so many other issues that face our country that are much more deserving of this attention." he writes.

Don't buy the false modesty.

Lobbying is plenty important, particularly in light of the Jack Abramoff scandal. It's also a huge business in Washington as Post Associate Editor Robert Kasier, who wrote the series, pointed out to me.

But I wonder whether Citizen K Street will only appeal to the most passionate of political junkies, the types of people who watch C-Span instead of "American Idol." Kaiser, who has been at the Post for 43 years, doesn't know either.

"I can't say I am sure we will have a huge audience," he said. "We are asking people to do something that they are not used to doing."

MAJOR PAPERS:

• In today's Wall Street Journal (subscription required):
• Top Banker Woody Young has left Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc (NYSE: LEH), according to people familiar with the matter.
• Google Inc (NASDAQ: GOOG) may have benefited from piracy, according to media companies.
• Tribune Company (NYSE: TRB) is leaning away from accepting offers from outside bidders and may restructure on its own.
• According to Saudi Arabian Oil Minister Ali Naimi, the world oil market is in "much, much better health and balance" now and, if trends hold, there will be no need for further production cuts or increases in supply when members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries meet next month.
• The Financial Times (subscription required) reported that MasterCard Inc (NYSE: MA) is expected to announce a pilot program with the GSM Association that will allow migrant workers to use cellphones for international money transfers.
• The Deutschland edition of the Financial Times reported that Private Equity is looking at Infineon Technologies ADS (NYSE: IFX).

OTHER PAPERS:

• According to the U.K. Times, Sanofi-Aventis ADS (NYSE: SNY) has called off talks with Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (NYSE: BMY) over a potential deal.
• The Washington Post reported that thousands of Army Humvees are lacking the Frag Kit 15 armor upgrade, which is not anticipated to be completed until this summer.
• Investor's Business Daily's "The New America" column highlighted Web conferencing leader WebEx Communications Inc (NASDAQ: WEBX).

MAJOR PAPERS:

• Highlights from today's Wall Street Journal (subscription required):
• Dell Inc (NASDAQ: DELL) has been accused in an investor lawsuit of improper accounting in its partnership with Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC).
• News Corporation's (NYSE: NWS) MySpace is looking to forge partnerships to enter the Chinese market.

OTHER PAPERS:

• The U.K. Times reported that Rio Tinto plc (NYSE: RTP) has warned that the future of its only operation in the U.K. is bleak, with negotiations on its future having failed to deliver a solution.
• The Washington Post said, according to a National Intelligence report, that the situation in Iraq will get worse and the United States has little control over it.
• Investor's Business Daily's "New America" column mentioned Heelys (NASDAQ: HLYS) positively, saying there is plenty of room for growth in the wheeled sneaker market, although cautioning it could be a fad like rollerblades or the Razr scooter before it.
  
• From BusinessWeek's "Inside Wall Street" column:
• Weyerhaeuser Company (NYSE: WY) named Debra Cafaro, a well-regarded REIT executive, to its board, sending a "clear signal that Weyerhaeuser will be looking at moving its huge timberlands into a REIT," says Mark Wilde of Deutsche Bank.
  
• Archer Daniels Midland Company (NYSE: ADM) should rise to $6 a share this year, says Carl Birkelbach, president of Birkelbach Investment Securities
  
• Access Pharmaceuticals' (NASDAQ: ACCP) two cancer drugs -- one of which, MuGard, has already been O.K.'d by the Food & Drug Administration -- are catching the eye of investors.

MAJOR PAPERS:

• The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) touched on the effect of the iPhone on Research in Motion's (NASDAQ: RIMM) business and also warned of more trouble at Ford Motor (NYSE: F) with the United Auto Workers union.
• The "Heard on the Street" column recommended investors not "hang up" on Research in Motion's shares because of Apple Inc's (NASDAQ: AAPL) upcoming iPhone.
  
• A plan by Ford to offer bonuses to a significant portion of its white-collar workers may upset UAW talks.
• The Financial Times (subscription required) featured articles on Corus Group (NYSE: CGA) and Barclays plc ADS (NYSE: BCS).
• A Front Page article said an iron ore dispute involving Companhia Vale do Rio Duce may threaten CSN's bid $11.2B bid for Corus Group.
• Barclays is "poaching" Citigroup (NYSE: C) executives. The latest deserter is Todd Gravino, who will become Barclays CFO of global retail and commercial banking.

OTHER PAPERS:

• The U.K. Times wrote that AstraZeneca ADS (NYSE: AZN) doubled its M&A team to seek out targets to help rebuild its weak pipeline of new drugs.
• The Washington Post wrote that Lockheed-Martin Corporation (NYSE: LMT) was chosen for an identity card contract worth an estimated $70M.

Reuters Group (NASDAQ:RTRSY) may be an old company (founded in the 1840s), but it is still looking for ways to innovate (after all, the company got its start with a new technology called the telegraph).

Well, this week, the company invested $7 million in a start-up company, Pluck. Think of Pluck as a New Age distribution company – using things like RSS to syndicate blogs. The company has deals with biggies like the Washington Post (NYSE:WPO) and Gannett Co. (NYSE:GCI).

True, for a company like Reuters, a $7 million investment is not particularly large. It does, however, validate blogs as a source of good content. Actually, Reuters is already a user of the Pluck technology.

I interviewed Bill Flitter, who is the founder and V.P. of marketing at Pheedo (a top Web-based content distribution company). To him, the deal highlights two key trends:

"First, RSS is being used more and more to distribute pieces of content throughout the web and reassemble it in the most relevant and customized way. It is a simple technology that offers so many ways to move content around the web. It is really a versatile tool, a Swiss army knife of capabilities.

"Second, blogs are increasing in authority, but more importantly, readers of blogs and news stories are now able to participate in the story. This is a huge shift, especially since Reuters, a massive media outlet, is enabling this new social media concept. Readers can influence the news and what people read -- people can tell their version of the story now and not just read it through the lens of a gatekeeper."

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including the Complete M&A Handbook and operates InvestorOffering.com.

There's an interesting piece in the Washington Post about MySpace.com. The title says it all: "In Teens' Web World, MySpace Is So Last Year."

Actually, the author does not provide tangible proof that MySpace.com is going downhill.

No doubt, the site has had a stunning ascent, with over 124 million profiles – and grabbing $900 million from Google Inc. (NASAQ: GOOG). Hey, even if MySpace self-destructs, News Corp. (NYSE: NWS.A) will still have more than covered its initial $580 million purchase price.

However, the author brings-up some good points to consider:

• The history of social networking – especially when focused on teens – is volatile. Some of the prior leaders, such as Friendster and Xanga, are a fraction of their former success.
• There's the creep factor. The author interviewed a variety of teens who are afraid of weirdos who troll MySpace.
• Then there's the authority factor. That is, teachers often go on MySpace to see what their students are doing.
• Also, if key people in a teen's network moves to another site, then many others will follow. For example, a big source of users for MySpace were former users of Friendster.
• Most importantly: Teens bore easily.

Besides, when a site like MySpace gets into mainstream media, can it really be cool any more?

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including the Complete M&A Handbook. He operates InvestorOffering.com.

I can't remember when I last used a human broker.

A recent article in the Washington Post, however, points out certain risks involved in online trading. For example, in the third quarter, E*Trade suffered losses of $18 million because of hackers, mostly from Eastern Europe and Thailand. The company is not alone. TD AmeriTrade also had losses, but the amount was not disclosed.

Interestingly enough, the frauds are a new form of pump-and-dump. That is, a hacker takes over a customer's account and buys certain micro-cap stocks, allowing for a quick payday.

How do these hackers accomplish all this? It looks like they use spyware, which is often secretly installed on computers at libraries, airports and other public places.

The good news is that online brokers are making their customers whole. However, the law does not require them to do so.

I interviewed Scott Mitic, who is the CEO of TrustedID, a company that develops software to combat identity theft. According to him, "The increase in brokerage account fraud just shows that the target is always moving, as identity thieves hone in on the next easy target. It's a game of whack-a-mole; the thieves pop up tomorrow where no one is looking today. The lesson for American consumers is to be vigilant. Double-check URLS when logging into accounts. Use recently updated anti-spyware software. Don't trust any email you get from a bank. Avoid giving personal information to anyone who calls you, even if your caller ID appears to identity the caller as a company you know and trust. We're in an era where the problem isn't going to go away; as consumers we all just need to get smarter."

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including the Complete M&A Handbook and operates InvestorOffering.com.

The headlines all sing a siren song of "Bulls" and "sentimentalists" and "optimism." Yet our readers seem more suspicious, looking at every piece of news with a jaded eye. My favorite comments come from Mr. noitall, who offers up a mix of value-minded cynicism that I particularly love.

With the Dow Jones Industrial Average reaching the new trading high today of 12,125.16 (closing at 12, 116.91), an all-time record yet again, I have to know:

Are you an optimist or a cynic? Logical or sentimental? Bull or Bear? What does the record do for you?

Kaplan University, which is a long-time provider of education, is launching a new MBA program. It's called Kaplan University/Newsweek M.B.A.

That's right. It's not a mistake.

You see, The Washington Post Company (NYSE:WPO) owns both Kaplan and Newsweek. So, why not make an attempt at synergy and combine the two?

OK, the big question is: What does Newsweek have to do with business?

I'm not sure. In fact, MBA students are probably puzzled, too. It's impossible to know how many business professors assign Newsweek as required reading, but it is probably a low number. Also, it's probably safe to say there have been few Nobel prize winners in Economics from Newsweek – much less articles that have changed the landscape of business, even considering the magazine's recent juicy story on the boardroom drama at HP.

In fact, it would probably be embarrassing to say to friends and potential employers that you spent lots of money getting your MBA at Kaplan University/Newsweek.

One of the issues that Time Warner Inc. (NYSE:TWX) faces as it tries to improve margins is the bias against cutting editorial costs at well-known media properties. The Grahams face the same issue at The Washington Post Company (NYSE:WPO) and the Sulzbergers are up against the same wall at The New York Times Company (NYSE:NYT). Fortunately for the Washington Post, most of its revenues now come from its online education businesses, like Kaplan. Lucky for them.

For decades big, widely distributed editorial operations have been viewed as something of a public trust. Even some of the network news operations fell into this category until Bill Paley died. Then Larry Tisch came in and cut with a vengeance. Entire editorial bureaus were closed.

From the time that Henry Luce and his partners started Time Magazine in 1923 until Life Magazine was closed in 1972, Time, Inc. did not shutter any of its major publications. If Luce had not died in 1967, Life may have survived.

At companies where editorial standards are a bit more "flexible," cutting is no big deal. Dean Singleton has made a career of buying large city dailies and cutting their costs, including newsrooms, to the bone. He has purchased newspapers in markets as large as Dallas, Denver, and Oakland. If the papers do not make money, he closes them.

Time Magazine, Newsweek, The New York Times, and The Washington Post are institutions with lives that are measured as much in reputation as they are in economic success. And it is probably less popular with the press when their brethren are let go than it is with, say, auto workers. And there is nothing amiss with looking out for your own.

It is almost inevitable that Parsons & Co. are looking at the number of bureaus that Time has, and the number of senior editors, as well as the number of writers at People and Sports Illustrated. Why? Because these magazines, perhaps with the exception of the gossip found in People, are no longer the primary source of news. They may have been twenty years ago, or even ten. But that rationale has lost its teeth.

While it is hard to say that anything is inevitable, the clash of the dropping margins at Time, Inc. and the large editorial staffs at the magazine is coming. And if shareholder pressure keeps up, it may come soon.

Richard Siklos in this week's Sunday New York Times evaluates the new abilities of old media companies in rapid-fire succession. News Corp: props for their speedy purchase of MySpace. Walt Disney: so smart to be first mover in putting ABC TV on iTunes. Time Warner: a "paradox" with AOL, big property, big challenges. Viacom: good track record, cute little acquisitions like Neopets and iFilm. CNN, MSNBC have done well turning TV into online media.

However. His theory is that online hype is inversely proportional to "near-term revenue" from Internet sources. He points out that the Internet operations aren't listed separately on the income statement at most of the companies he follows. At News Corp, he says, "the Internet was a rounding error" with $1 billion of the $18.5 billion in revenue and a $68 million loss on operating income of $2.85 billion.

His point: a lot more money is made (and spent) offline than online. A LOT more money. And that's certainly worth evaluating when we look at the amounts currently being invested in online media.

Forget about taxi drivers, muggers, Christo installations, and/or Matt Lauer. There's a new reason to avoid New York: Broadway's newest vampire musical.

"Lestat" -- which has been uniformly savaged by the Washington Post, the New York Times and even the mighty Star-Ledger of Newark, New Jersey -- was supposed to be Warner Brothers' challenge to Disney's many successes in the Broadway musicals ("The Lion King," "Tarzan," "Aida" and others). 

Coming in on the heels of two other failed vampire musicals -- "Dance of the Vampires" (2002) and "Dracula, the Musical" (2004) -- "Lestat" is based on Anne Rice's vampire novels, and it boasts otherworldly powers that would make the undead blush: a reported bankroll of up to $12 million and songwriting by Elton John.

Unfortunately, neither deep pockets nor the powerhouse behind "Crocodile Rock" could help. Ben Brantley, in the New York Times, called it a "musical sleeping pill" ... and his review was charitable by comparison. 

"I vant to suck your blood" is a line for old-school vampires. "I vant to suck the life out of this production" is apparently how the new generation of vampires rolls.