Last Post for The Times?
FRESH from announcing plans to split itself into separate entertainment and news companies, The Insider hears that two of News Corporation’s most prominent newspapers could find themselves on the block.
According to a senior fellow in US media circles, there is a growing sense that News Corp boss Rupert Murdoch may sell or even close both The Times and The New York Post, due to the losses they make.
Analysts estimate that The New York Post loses as much as £70.8 million a year, while the last accounts for Times Newspapers, owner of both the daily and Sunday versions of the paper, show it made a £11.6 million loss for 2010.
How about giving us a clue to your plans in one of your tweets, Mr Murdoch?
Haldane, the Bank of England’s executive director for financial stability, makes an intriguing observation.
A friend points out that in a recent paper on irrational behaviour during bank runs, Haldane unfavourably compared people who follow reality TV star Kim Kardashian on Twitter to the folk who queued up outside Northern Rock branches. “Both made for a highly sub- optimal equilibrium,” he says. By which he means that it is not rational behaviour.
He adds: “Agents form their guess not on an objective evaluation of quality (Stephen Fry) but according to whom they think others might like (Kim Kardashian).”