TALKING BIZ NEWS EXCLUSIVE

In Monday’s New York Times, business reporter Brian Stelter wrote a nicely detailed story about CNBC affiliates overseas and how their content is often more subdued than their American counterpart.

The story included analysis that the Times is known for, and it’s a story about a major media property that has gone ignored.

One important fact was missing from the story, however. Since January 2008, the Times and CNBC have had a content-sharing agreement mostly involve posting Times articles and other written material on CNBC’s site, and CNBC video on the Times site. That relationship was not mentioned in the story.

Such a disclosure has become more important in business journalism in recent years. The Times, for example, recently increased its disclosures related to technology columnist David Pogue’s content to reflect his business relationships with some of the companies he writes about after criticism was raised.

Business editor Larry Ingrassia told Talking Biz News that such disclosures are decided on a case-by-case basis. He said that the paper didn’t feel as if such a disclosure was needed in Stelter’s story because the article was about a small piece of CNBC’s business.

“Is this something a reasonable reader needs to know in evaluating a story?” said Ingrassia on Wednesday afternoon. “In this case, probably not. In other cases, it might be.”

Ingrassia added that the Times would be more likely to disclose the relationship with CNBC if it wrote about the competition between CNBC and Fox Business Network.

“Clearly, that has much more relevance,” said Ingrassia. “We try to mention it when we think it’s an impact to the story.”

A search through the paper’s online archives shows that the lack of a disclosure related to the CNBC agreement is not unusual. Since the content sharing agreement with CNBC was announced on Jan. 7, 2008, the Times has run 389 articles mentioning CNBC.

Of those, there were 42 that were either about or significantly mentioned CNBC. Of those, 35 stories did not disclose the paper’s relationship with CNBC.

The Times has run seven stories that mentioned the content-sharing agreement — including the story about the content-sharing agreement — and appended a correction to one story that disclosed the relationship.

An Oct. 2, 2008 story, written by Stelter and Jacques Steinberg, received this correction eight days later: An article last Friday about an increase in television ratings for Fox Business Network and CNBC during the financial crisis omitted CNBC’s relationship to The New York Times. CNBC, which is owned by NBC Universal, has a content-sharing agreement with The Times.

Tom Lowry of BusinessWeek reports that New York Daily News owner Mort Zuckerman, who also owns U.S. News & World Report, is bidding to acquire the business weekly.

Lowry reports, “In a telephone interview with BusinessWeek, the real estate billionaire would only confirm that he bid for the magazine. He declined to elaborate on the terms of his offer and on his plans for how he might integrate BusinessWeek with his other media holdings, which also include U.S. News & World Report.

“Zuckerman is no stranger to the magazine business. In addition to U.S. News, where he serves as editor-in-chief, Zuckerman has previously owned The Atlantic Monthly and Fast Company. The chairman and co-founder of Boston Properties purchased The Daily News in 1993 and recently said he would invest $150 million in new color presses for the tabloid newspaper. (Full disclosure: I worked for Zuckerman as a business reporter at The News from 1993 to 1996). Zuckerman is also regular commentator on MSNBC and The McLaughlin Group.

“Zuckerman is competing for BusinessWeek with at least three other bidders, including Bloomberg LP, private equity firm Open Gate Capital and investment firm ZelnickMedia LLC. Revised bids were submitted Sept. 29.”

Read more here.

It’s been a year since Sequoia Capital’s “R.I.P. Good Times” presentation to the firm’s portfolio companies. One of Sequoia’s more high-profile startups at the time was imeem, a site which claimed to be the first to allow free, legal music sharing and listening.

The rumor on TechCrunch this morning is true, I’ve confirmed: imeem burned through its cash — royalties on the music were expensive — and has borrowed another $6 million to recapitalize the company, giving stock options that had wilted a shot of Instant-Gro.

Sequoia isn’t in on the deal this time. Morganthaler Ventures, which had invested in Series A, will lead this round. Warner Music lent cash to the company, too, but sources agree it’s to cover royalty fees that imeem can’t afford.

In order to make the recapitalization work, imeem has also made two other changes that sources say made it attractive to Morgenthaler. First, imeem convinced the major labels to take less in royalties. Second, imeem chose to build its own content delivery system, rather than buy or rent one.  The result has been, contrary to most Web pundits’ expectations, lower costs.

A new bill introduced to the US Senate would establish national heath standards for formaldehyde in Chinese composite wood products used in housing construction. The bill arrives amid ongoing concerns from homeowners seeking abatement from lenders as their assets are burdened by potentially dangerous products like Chinese drywall. The imports of the dangerous materials have increased [...]

Foreclosure starts fell 21% to 224,000 in August, and workout plans jumped 28% from July, according to the most recent data from Hope Now, the private sector alliance of mortgage servicers, investors, insurers and non-profit counselors. Foreclosure sales fell 16% to 75,000 in August, and repayment plans increased by 38%. Loan modifications also gained 7% from [...]

The number of homes sales in Portland, Ore. was at its lowest August level in 15 years, according to MDA DataQuick. There were 3,063 new and resale houses and condominiums sold in the Portland-Vancouver-Beaverton metro area in August. That’s down 9.2% from July and the lowest level of August sales in the area since MDA DataQuick [...]

We caught up with Sony’s John Knoller, director of hardware marketing, at Sony’s recent PSPgo preview party in San Francisco. The PSPgo is now going on sale tonight at midnight in stores across the country. More than 200 games will be available for digital download into the device. Knoller says that Sony’s own surveys showed that the desire to purchase games online through digital downloading has skyrocketed in recent years. The device is small, feels light in your hand, and it plays cool high-definition games and movies with vibrant colors. Knoller walks us through the different types of games — from full games to mini games and older titles — with different pricing strata. Sony will also keep its original PSP-3000 in the market, at a lower price than the PSPgo. Will Sony’s answer to the Apple iPhone/iPod Touch win back the loyalty of hardcore gamers?[EMBED1]

Facebook is simplifying how outside companies can integrate its Connect service today, in an effort to boost the company’s impact far beyond the borders of its social networking site.

It’s launching a Facebook Connect Wizard that compresses the process to three steps. Facebook Connect is a crucial prong of the company’s strategy to spread a social layer across the web. It lets users sign-up and interact with outside Web sites with their Facebook ID and share their activities within the social network.

Ideally, it creates a feedback loop that drives more traffic to the partner and tightens a user’s relationship with Facebook. They’ve brought in 15,000 partners since Connect launched last year.

For example, Huffington Post’s integration with  Connect lets visitors see what their friends are reading on the site and share links back to their friends within Facebook. A Hulu project with Facebook Connect let users post shows to their profiles and comment on them in real-time with friends.

The handling of securities fraud complaints by Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) staff leaves room for improvement, according to a report by the Office of the Inspector General (OIG). The report (available to download here) involves a recent review of the SEC’s enforcement department, which investigates and prosecutes violations of federal securities laws. Violations under the [...]

Capstead Mortgage Corporation (CMO: 14.00 -0.64%) implemented the financial accounting software suite of TPG Software, the two companies announced. Capstead is a Dallas-based real estate investment trust (REIT) that manages a portfolio of adjustable-rate and agency-guaranteed residential mortgage pass-through securitizations. TPG is a Houston-based financial accounting software developer. “We are very pleased to add Capstead to our [...]