Baldwin Public Library Names Kamen Community Room

Published on Thursday, August 21, 2008


The Baldwin Public Library is proud to announce that its community room will be named The Kevin B. Kamen Community Room to honor its outgoing president, who has retired from the board of trustees after 30 years of service.

The board voted unanimously to dedicate the community room in honor of Mr. Kamen at its June 11, 2008 meeting, as he was the person most instrumental in making possible the beautiful, full-service center of community activities that the library has become today. Naming this space for him is a fitting recognition of his more than three decades of unwavering commitment and dedicated service to both the library and the Baldwin community.

Mr. Kamen is president/CEO of Kamen & Co. Group Services, a print and digital media appraisal and brokerage firm in New York (www.KAMENGROUP.com). The library is located at 2385 Grand Avenue in Baldwin.

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TWN - The Washington Newspaper
August 2008 - Volume 93 No.8, Page 5
www.wnpa.com
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Kamen talks about media challenges
Firm's report calls for more flexibility, diversity on Web, listening to readers

Baldwin, New York - Kamen & Co. Group Services, a leading provider of print and digital media financial valuations to the publishing, listing, direct and interactive industry released a report today on major challenges and opportunities facing the media industry and is recommending that in order to beat competition and to grow revenues to new heights media executives will need to be innovative, diversified and willing to adapt more effectively to the changing dynamics of online publishing. "To meet the new and challenging economic needs of today and tomorrow media organizations must push e-business, maximize production from both sales and editorial, do a better job negotiating more equitable salary agreements with staff, cross-channel vertical marketing efforts, listen more carefully to readers and get deeply involved in reader generated blogs and universal input," said Kevin B. Kamen, president and chief executive officer of the New York based media valuation and brokerage firm.

Kamen continued, "Many publishing organizations are indeed pro-active and innovative but often they are isolated and unwilling to share their success stories and this must change. Being prudent and sensible is smart business but we all must share our experiences and learn from one another. The media industry is changing daily and it is a defining moment for the trade. Publishers need to discover new alternatives, better concepts and become stronger business agents or the end result will naturally become weaker profit margins for all."

Besides highlighting these approaches, the report aims to provide a broad range of media leaders and stakeholders with a better understanding of operational strategies that can help to address the effects of both technological streamlining and better developing meaningful ways of generating an exchange of ideas that would extend across institutions and borders as research continues to flow across executive chambers.

The report focuses on fundamental challenges faced by the media trade on a worldwide basis and provides critical responses to those challenges. The report also outlines steps that some media institutions are taking to respond to new demands:

The strategic use of technology and the basic components of achieving success at various types of media institutions.
The use of communication and community building tools to improve industry engagement
The development and advancement of e-systems to better monitor and improve financial institutional assessment and accountability for all media operators and their agents.

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Suffolk Life to shut down

By Michael H. Samuels

Thursday, June 19, 2008 09:16 AM EDT

Suffolk Life Newspapers is closing down as early as next week, according to numerous industry sources. The Riverhead-based media company, which delivers weekly newspapers through the mail to most Suffolk County communities, is shuttering its offices after being in business more than 47 years.

Company managers were told of the decision Tuesday. The rest of the staff was told Wednesday morning.

Details about the company's future plans or employee severance packages are still unknown.

Suffolk Life is the latest media company to fall victim to the struggling economy and lagging advertising revenues plaguing the newspaper business.

Kevin Kamen, president and chief executive of Kamen and Co. Group Services, a print and digital media appraisal firm, said he was saddened by the news.

“It’s a difficult situation,” Kamen said. “A lot of people are going to be losing their jobs. It’s a bad message. It’s bad news for the economy on Long Island.”

He said he’s seen similar media companies fold throughout the country, but didn’t expect it to happen on Long Island so soon.

He said more media companies on Long Island will either close or become consolidated once Cablevision wraps ups its acquisition of Newsday. He added that Cablevision's reach in print, television and the Internet will lead to increased competition for limited advertising opportunities.

“I am surprised because they had a pretty decent reputation,” said Kamen. “It is a difficult market right now for all of these publications. They’re all struggling. Nine out of 10 newspapers we appraise throughout the country are losing money.”

Suffolk Life Newspapers was founded in 1961 by David J. Willmott as a shopper-style paper with just more than 9,600 in circulation, according to the paper’s Web site. Published each Wednesday, its site boasts printing 35 editions and being the largest weekly paper east of the Mississippi with total circulation of more than 545,000 copies throughout Suffolk County.

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Bloggers


Noel Rubinton
Blogroll

Suffolk Life's death and the connection to Cablevision and Newsday
There's likely been plenty of RIP Suffolk Life talk around water coolers and computers on Long Island today. The quirky institution, so tightly connected with founder Dave Willmott Sr., will close down next week after 46 years.

The demise of Suffolk Life is widely seen as part of a wider media story on Long Island and it's being summarized in one word: consolidation. Or maybe monopoly. In the the LI Biz Blog of Long Island Business News today, Henry E. Powderly II talks to media appraiser Kevin Kamen. Kamen says, "The publishing community on Long Island has just felt the first of what will unfortunately become many more blows to follow as Suffolk Life Newspapers will soon be closing its doors. This is a sad commentary on the entire publishing community on Long Island and is indicative of what could soon follow with the recent Newsday sale to Cablevision."

Later on, Kamen adds, "Once the Newsday sale on Long Island (owned by Tribune Co of Chicago) is finalized with Cablevision you should see a big push to market the entire Nassau-Suffolk region by Cablevision in a way that few have seen advertising cross-sold before in the NY metro region."

But it's not all about Newsday and Cablevision, says Kamen: "It is much deeper. It is about how the publishing community has to streamline and become better marketing agents for its properties...Publishers need to unite in better promoting their print products and must use more discretion in spending money. Clearly, publishers must become better business operators yet should never forget that their business is covering the news and that they have to do that exceptionally well by keeping their focus on local content that is relevant to each consumer."

--Noel Rubinton, Newsday

Posted by Noel Rubinton on June 19, 2008 5:06 PM

 

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News in Brief -- Vol. 22, NO. 5 - June 2008, Print Edition - the INLANDER

Kamen & Co. will appraise online media, advise on online mergers

Baldwin, N.Y. -- Kamen & Co. Group Services, a print and digital media financial valuation firm and brokerage, will begin valuing all types of online media and technology business enterprises starting June 6. This includes online video ad networks, search engines, mobile and interactive platforms and related business entities. The firm will also act as a financial advisor for potential merger and acquisition purposes as it presently does to the print and digital trade.

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Media Appraiser Kevin Kamen: Microsoft Could Soon Acquire Yahoo For $50 Billion
May 21, 2008 - Wikio In The News Report

Baldwin, NY - New York-based Media Appraiser Kevin Kamen predicts that Internet search and advertising giant Yahoo will soon be sold to Microsoft for $50 billion. Kamen stated, " Clearly, as of Monday morning, all signals from Redmond point to a Microsoft offer of around $35 per share coming soon as it remains active in its pursuit of Yahoo. With Yahoo shareholders seeking a revolution to overtake the present board of directors and investor Carl Icahn leading the brigade by threatening to replace the Yahoo board before July 3, a sudden change of ownership looks less and less bizarre and indeed quite likely to unfold. This is no longer just a threat for Yahoo's Jerry Lang; it is a case of survival and the lines have been drawn. With so much unrest directed at Jerry Lang as of this juncture, Steve Ballmer has identified a clear opening for Microsoft and we suspect he will shortly increase his recent offer of $47.5 billion, up the ante to $50 billion and close the deal within weeks." Kamen concluded, " Lang needs to save face and would do so by bringing in another $2.5 billion for Yahoo investors and, with Microsoft desperately in need of increasing its internet search and advertising model, a long-term alliance seems viable whereas it did not a month ago. Too much unrest at Yahoo and the genuine need for Microsoft to not be a secondary force in the online services search arena has changed the landscape of this potential deal. Without question, Yahoo is the key component that could provide an immediate impact for Microsoft and Ballmer knows this."

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U.S. publishers peering northward
BALDWIN, N.Y.— Kevin Kamen says U.S.-based print media executives have expressed so much interest in Canada that he is expanding his service northward.

Kevin Kamen

Media appraiser and brokerage firm Kamen & Co. Group Services is also expanding overseas in the U.K. and Ireland for the same reason. It currently has an office here and in Tampa. The company offers labour negotiation services, business planning, appraisals, feasibility and market analysis, circulation building and executive/staff training. 

In a recent interview, Kamen said that in the past six months between 15 and 20 American publishers have expressed an interest in partnering with or partially acquiring Canadian media companies. Current ownership rules limit foreign companies to a 49% stake in existing domestic media operations although foreign investors can finance and own 100% of a Canadian start-up. “They are interested in making inroads into Canada,” says Kamen of his U.S. clients. “They wouldn’t make a major investment without doing due diligence.” That’s where Kamen & Co. would come in; Canadian publishers interested in partnering or selling a stake in their business would open their books to Kamen & Co. as part of the due diligence and valuation process. Kamen says he will not be opening a physical office in Canada. 

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One Man Band

By Ambrose Clancy

Friday, May 16, 2008 

Cablevision’s James Dolan is about to become the king of Long Island media, and advertisers are planning on paying more to the monarch as a result.

The Bethpage-based cable operator’s deal to acquire Newsday for $650 million gives Dolan new toys to add to his platform of television, entertainment and Internet advertising opportunities. After the deal, print classifieds, newspaper display ads and special magazines will all fall under Dolan control, so everywhere a business turns to advertise, it will run into Cablevision.

“There’s no question ad rates in both Newsday and on Cablevision will rise substantially,” said Kevin Kamen, owner of Baldwin’s Kamen & Co. Group Services, a media appraiser and broker that specializes in print & digital media sales. The lack of competition could lead Cablevision to up its rates as early as 12 months from now. Currently, for display ads, an average full-page Sunday ad in Newsday running in Nassau, Suffolk and Queens costs about $30,000. During the week, the same ad costs about $27,000.

A three-line classified auto ad costs $158 and runs for two weeks in the paper and online. A real estate ad with the same package comes to $828.

Cablevision also could raise rates to pay off debt from the deal.

Bob Papper, chair of the Department of Journalism, Media Studies and Public Relations at Hofstra University in Hempstead, said when one newspaper acquires another it cuts expenses by consolidating operations such as circulation and printing.

“Cablevision can’t do that,” Papper said, since the telecommunications company doesn’t have its own circulation and printing arm.

While raising prices during a down economy is considered a losing proposition, Cablevision could get away with doing so because of all its extra services.

For example, Cablevision offers advertisers a chance to cut out ad agencies.

Both Newsday and Cablevision have in-house advertising agencies that compete against independent agencies, said Ed Brennan, a partner at Rockville Centre-based advertising agency Harrison Leifer DiMarco.

“They offer, particularly to retailers, advertising and creative services so the client doesn’t need an agency,” Brennan said.

One consolidated advertising agency handling both Newsday and Cablevision could hurt local agencies, which are already struggling due to a soft local economy, Brennan said. He added that one of the key advantages of going with an independent agency is that it can negotiate favorable rates for the client.

Cablevision also offers extensive online classified advertising possibilities, such as selling cars on Optimum Auto and homes on its Optimum Homes platform. All of that could be a boon to Newsday’s Pennysaver if Cablevision leverages its classified platform to put Pennysaver ads online.

That could be bad news for Pennysaver competitor Stan Henry, who runs The Neighbor Newspapers.

“Online is here,” Henry said. “The world is going to change.”

As for Cablevision’s newfound editorial empire, Papper is cautious. He said it might not be a good idea to converge Newsday and News 12 Long Island, its television network.

Papper cited a deal in Florida, in which Media General, a communications company based in Richmond, Va., merged The Tampa Tribune with the local NBC affiliate, WFLA-TV. The parent company put everyone in the same building.

“There were visions of super-journalists going out to write a story, then do a TV story and then file it online,” Papper said. “But the parties are not playing well together.”

Asking people to change core cultures and acquire new skill sets overnight hasn’t worked in Tampa. Eight years later, the grand vision is “still very much a work in progress,” Papper said.

Ambrose Clancy can be reached at ambrose.clancy@libn.com.

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‘Newsday’ Sale Gives Tribune Co. Breathing Space

Tribune Co.’s sale of Newsday to Cablevision allows Tribune and its new chairman, Sam Zell, to put $600 million in expected cash proceeds toward its roughly $13 billion debt. This buys Tribune Co. more time to implement plans to turn around the business.

Tribune is also working on the sale of its Chicago Cubs baseball team, writes the Wall Street Journal.

Having snared Newsday from Tribune Co., Cablevision broadly outlined plans to make the paper more profitable by boosting circulation and giving advertisers more effective ways to reach audiences.

The company plans to better market the newspaper to households in the areas it serves, and offer advertisers a selection among media outlets.

Cablevision’s chief, James Dolan, acknowledged yesterday that he is not a “newspaper man,” but says his company’s purchase of the newspaper will help bolster its long-term outlook. “We weren’t looking to purchase it and then cut costs,” he is quoted as saying in Newsday. “We were looking to build a business.”

Cablevision beat out a $580 million offer from both New York Post owner News Corp. and New York Daily News owner Mort Zuckerman. Both companies had hoped to cut costs by combining operations.

The company faces an uphill battle proving to investors that a purchase of a newspaper is not a losing venture, says Jessica Reif Cohen, an analyst at Merrill Lynch, in a note to investors.

Other observers, like Kevin Kamen, chief executive of media appraisal firm Kamen & Co., predicts Cablevision will be able to boost circulation by about 100,000, because it serves so many more households in Long Island and New York City than Newsday. Increased circ would lead to increased advertising rates.

Cablevision is also close to an agreement to buy the Sundance Channel in a cash and stock deal valued at nearly $500 million, according to people close to the situation.

Related topics: Newspapers, Signs of What's to Come, TV Cable, Acquisitions/Biz Buzz, Interactive,  

Cablevision Unveils Deal
For Tribune's Newsday

By MATTHEW KARNITSCHNIG, SHIRA OVIDE and VISHESH KUMAR
May 12, 2008 9:27 a.m.

The Wall Street Journal

Tribune Co. announced a deal to sell its Long Island newspaper Newsday to Cablevision Systems Corp. for $650 million, in a move that will help relieve Tribune's debt.

The bid from the Long Island-based cable operator bested matching $580 million offers from News Corp., which owns the New York Post and The Wall Street Journal, and New York Daily News owner Mortimer Zuckerman. News Corp. had had an informal agreement for Newsday, but was unwilling to match Cablevision's offer and revoked its bid on Saturday.

"It is both an honor and privilege to return Newsday back to Long Island-based ownership after nearly 40 years," Cablevision Chairman Charles F. Dolan said in a prepared statement. "We are committed to maintaining Newsday's journalistic integrity and important position in the market place."

Under the agreement, Cablevision will have about 97% and Tribune about 3% of the equity in a partnership that owns Newsday. The deal was expected to be structured as a joint venture for tax reasons.

Tribune Chairman and CEO Sam Zell said: "This agreement enables us to maximize the value of Newsday and still retain an interest in this valuable asset."

Cablevision will contribute newly issued bonds with a $650 million fair market value on the contribution date, with Bank of America Corp. providing that amount of senior debt financing. Chicago-based Tribune will receive $612 million in cash, and an equity stake in the partnership valued at $20 million. It will also get $18 million as prepaid rent on certain facilities used in the business.

 The Newsday businesses will report to Cablevision Chief Operating Officer Thomas Rutledge.

Clinching the deal puts Cablevision in control of Newsday and related assets, including the free New York City newspaper amNew York.

Newsday's sale reflects the troubles of the newspaper industry. Mr. Zell, who led an $8.2 billion buyout of Tribune in December, had said he hadn't wanted to sell any of the major papers. But conditions worsened. However, the deal also shows how certain local buyers see strategic value in individual newspapers.

The transaction will help Tribune dent nearly $13 billion of debt largely stemming from a December deal to go private. Tribune owes about $650 million in debt repayment before the end of this year. The company also faces rising interest expenses -- $263 million in the first quarter alone.

With advertising declining quickly at Tribune's newspapers, the company may face pressure to unload other properties to meet debt and interest payments next year. It owns papers including the Los Angeles Times and the Chicago Tribune, and television stations. It is selling its Chicago Cubs baseball team.

While a Newsday deal will ease Tribune's debt load, the company will lose an important asset. The daily and its related businesses had nearly $500 million in revenue last year, about 10% of Tribune's revenue, according to the company's annual report filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

For Cablevision, the Newsday acquisition provides an outlet to cross-sell advertising and promote its own services and properties in the New York area. As the company's cable, telephone and Internet offerings face competition from Verizon Communications Inc., Cablevision seems to be to doubling down on its local focus in an effort to retain customers. Last week, the company announced it would spend more than $300 million to build out a local wireless service.

Still, Cablevision has faced skepticism about its pursuit of Newsday. Some analysts have argued it would be better for shareholders if Cablevision were to return the cash it generates in the form of stock buybacks.

Cablevision could use its footprint in Long Island and adjacent areas of New York City to increase the newspaper's circulation by about 100,000, predicts Kevin Kamen, chief executive of media appraisal firm Kamen & Co. Kamen & Co values newspapers and magazines internationally. Newsday currently has a weekday circulation of about 380,000.

The Newsday deal could mean changes in the New York media world. With the inclusion of Newsday, News Corp. could have improved the financial performance of the New York Post, which was expected to combine advertising, printing and other functions with Newsday. Now the Post is expected to be more aggressive in cutting costs and finding new revenue streams. News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch has said the company plans to double the cover price of the paper to 50 cents. He also said the paper had taken steps that would save more than $20 million in costs this year.

A Newsday takeover by either News Corp. or Mr. Zuckerman also was expected to face more regulatory hurdles than a Cablevision deal. Both rivals could have faced tougher antitrust scrutiny, given their existing New York newspaper holdings. Because of News Corp.'s ownership of two New York TV stations, a Newsday deal might have made it more difficult for the company to receive waivers from regulations that typically bar ownership of local newspapers and TV stations in the same market.

For his part, Mr. Zuckerman seemed unfazed by the outcome. Reached at his home Sunday, Mr. Zuckerman said he was taking a piano lesson, adding that his daughter had just expressed admiration for his rendition of Andrew Lloyd Webber's "Memory."

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Mixed Media
by Jeff Bercovici

May 11 2008 4:26PM EDT

Much Relief as Murdoch Gives Up on 'Newsday'

Mort Zuckerman is one lucky man.

What could've been a doomsday scenario for Zuckerman's New York Daily News receded over the horizon on Friday as Rupert Murdoch withdrew from the bidding for Newsday, saying it had "become uneconomical."

Now, with no prospect of a Newsday-New York Post joint venture cornering the local ad market, Zuckerman, who's always seemed ambivalent about the newspaper business, is free to drop his own pursuit of Newsday. While Zuckerman hasn't formally backed out, according to The New York Times, he's made it clear that "he would not lose sleep" if Tribune accepts Cablevision's $650 million offer.

As the kids once said: No duh. If anything, owning another paper is probably what would've given him bad dreams.

And while the Daily News is hardly in the catbird seat -- Zuckerman has said it's on the cusp of unprofitability -- it could soon be in a stronger position if Murdoch follows through on his plan to raise the Post's cover price.

Cablevision's wisdom in chasing Newsday has been widely questioned, but one analyst, media appraiser Kevin Kamen, predicts the acquisition "will mean more profits for Cablevision shareholders in three to five years....The valuation of Newsday and its subsidiaries will climb in due course and the impact of Cablevision being able to offer its cable clients a cost effective subscription to Newsday will increase circulation." The only losers, he says, will be consumers and advertisers on Long Island, where a single conglomerate will now have a near-monopoly on local media.

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Cablevision move on Newsday under fire

BY MARK HARRINGTON | mark.harrington@newsday.com

3:33 PM EDT, May 5, 2008

Wall Street's disenchantment with Cablevision Systems Corp.'s effort to buy Newsday, the paper in its Long Island backyard, has roots in the concern that owning a property in a "failing" industry could hurt the cable giant's free cash flow, one analyst said Monday.

In a report to investors Monday morning, Craig Moffett, who tracks Bethpage-based Cablevision at securities firm, Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. in Manhattan, expressed pessimism about the newspaper industry and Cablevision's possible participation in it.

"Our recommendation of Cablevision shares rests on the prodigious free cash flow generation prospects of the Cablevision business, and -- explicitly -- on the return of that cash to shareholders," wrote Moffett, who rates Cablevision shares "outperform" with a $45 per share price target. "It does not presume diversification into a failing industry." Cablevision shares are up 14 cents Monday afternoon to $23.28.

The "failing" industry, Moffett wrote in a separate report released Monday, is the victim of free news on the Internet.

•  "Put simply, the economic model of news gathering – of maintaining costly overseas correspondents and news bureaus, of investigative journalists – is being eviscerated," Moffett wrote. "And it is being eviscerated by the Internet."
  
  A Cablevision spokesman wasn't immediately available for comment.
  
  According to sources, Cablevision last week made a $650-million bid to buy Newsday in a deal that includes the newspaper's Melville headquarters. Rival bids by News Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch and Daily News owner Mortimer Zuckerman, at $580 million each, do not include real estate, sources have said.
  
  In an e-mail, Moffet suggested a Newsday-Cablevision combination presented strategic challenges.
  
  "I have no idea how they [Cablevision] would integrate Newsday," he wrote. "Beyond the synergies of overlapping local ad sales forces, there's not much 'there' there."
  
  He also addressed an assertion in his report that the Cablevision board "was presumably asked in advance to authorize the action . . . and it acquiesced" to management's pursuit of Newsday.
  
  "In general," he explained, "a transaction of this size requires board approval in advance."
  
  In addition to cash-flow worries, Moffett predicted that a Newsday-Cablevision combination isn't going to be the regulatory cakewalk some expect.
  
  "While the FCC's media-ownership rules do not spell out cable company ownership prohibitions in the same way they do cross ownership of newspapers and broadcasters, a Cablevision-Newsday combination would nevertheless raise some important public policy concerns that would likely garner scrutiny from the FCC and Congress," Moffett wrote.
  
  "As the primary distributor of television content on Long Island via its dominant position as a cable operator, and as the sole 'publisher' of TV news on Long Island through its ownership of News Channel 12, a Cablevision bid would be just as problematic as a News Corp deal," he said.
  
  Another media market watcher explained Cablevision's interest in Newsday as primarily a matter of control.
  
  "This acquisition does three things for Cablevision," wrote Kevin Kamen, president of media appraisal firm Kamen & Co. Group Services in Baldwin.
  
  "It provides the Dolan family with full control over the editorial debate-news media agenda on Long Island since it already owns the dominant television station, cable's News12.
  
  "Secondly, it gives them leverage to directly monopolize the advertising agenda on Long Island, whether via digital or print, by offering one-stop shopping and pricing.
  
  "Lastly, by acquiring the other properties that are part of the Newsday family . . . it corners the market and helps them to better market and promote their entire entertainment and sports portfolio in a structured cross brand technique."