News Corp

We are saddened to learn that Bob Nylen, a co-founder of Beliefnet.com and the first board member of online health company Waterfront Media, died Dec. 24 of cancer at the age of 64.  Nylen may best be known in publishing circles for cofounding the award-winning New England Monthly with Dan Okrent but he also played a major role in the two online content companies over the past decade.

With a $400 million revolving credit line expiring in May, the New York Times Company (NYSE: NYT) continues to put its fund-raising ducks in a row. The latest: an SEC filing setting the stage to secure debt or raise equity.

About those plans YouTube has to show the music labels who has the upper hand, think of it like a poker game: when you're not the only game in town, it makes it easier for players to walk away from the table. Conversely, when you think your game is the only game in town that matters, you're not going to fold just keep them playing. That's why when a YouTube user tries to watch My Chemical Romance's Teenagers today, the legit versions won't be available.

Velocity Interactive Group's Jon Miller is not trying to acquire Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO), nor is he candidate to replace Jerry Yang as CEO of the internet company, Bloomberg reports, citing unidentified sources.

With Nasdaq trading higher than the NYSE on Tuesday, News Corp picked a good day to tell its shareholders the stock would begin trading on the tech heavy exchange. News Corp (NYSE: NWS). which has traded on the NYSE for over 20 years, said that Nasdaq will give its shareholders more up-to-date trading technology. On Nasdaq, News Corp's Class A common stock will trade under the symbol "NWSA" and its Class B common stock will trade as "NWS." The transfer will take place on Dec. 29.

Is content still king? A panel of industry heavyweights agreed to disagree at the UBS Global Media and Communications Conference on Wednesday. "It absolutely starts with good content," said Jason Kilar, CEO Hulu, the joint video venture between NBC Universal and News Corp. Sling Media Entertainment Group president Jason Hirschhorn, however, said the upper hand is now with content aggregation and syndication technology and platforms.

Arun Sarin, the former CEO of telecom Vodafone (NYSE: VOD), has emerged as the latest name being considered to replace Jerry Yang as Yahoo's chief, WSJ reports, citing unidentified sources.  Sarin's name as a contender feels like a trial balloon. The big test will be how investors greet the news on Tuesday morning when the market opens.

From Tribune's Chapter 11 filing, some of the media-related creditors Tribune owns money to, besides the big banks:

The mouse is extending his control of kids channel Jetix Europe, buying more shares, taking its share from 74 percent to 96 percent. It is then expected to control 100 percent through a compulsory takeover.

As I have been playing around with Sling.com, the new video portal from Echostar-owned Sling Media, this thought came to mind: if Sling can make a deal with Hulu to essentially create a competitor to Hulu, then why can't Google (NSDQ: GOOG) make a deal with the News Corp-NBCU JV?