Dreams, Inc., a leader in licensed sports products, has reported a web syndication deal with the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, one of the nation’s highest circulation newspapers. The new agreement will provide Dreams another outlet for licensed sports products and provide their new media partner with an additional stream of income. Dreams has previously obtained other major media/newspaper clients including USA Today, the Baltimore Sun and the Boston Globe.

In the new agreement Dreams will provide the design, development, marketing, customer service and fulfillment of an online Fan Shop for their new media partner. The merchandise offered includes a selection of more than 120,000 team products in a variety of categories including apparel, novelties, collectibles, home and office. Dreams will also provide the media outlet with sophisticated Search Engine Optimization (SEO), targeted database marketing, customer service and same day turnaround for shipping products.

Kevin Bates, Dreams’ Retail President and FansEdge Founder, commented on the

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The New York Times Company (NYT) shed its plan to sell the Boston Globe after effective cost-cutting measures and an increase in price led to an improved financial position.

The company's series of steps included labor contract concessions expected to cut $20 million yearly in operating costs, consolidation of printing facilities projected to save $18 million a year, reduction in compensation for managers, and a rise in prices for both newsstand and home delivery of the paper. The company is also viewing options to price its online contents on its website, Boston.com.

The newspaper industry has long been grappling with the slump in advertising demand amid the global meltdown, as advertisers are migrating to the Internet due to increasing online readership and lower ad prices.

Earlier in August 2009, The New York Times Company hired Goldman Sachs to explore strategic alternatives for its New England Media Group, which includes Boston Globe,

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Man of the people Barney Frank is proving how difficult it is for elected officials to learn the lessons of history. In a move that goes beyond dumb, Frank has written a letter to government-backed mortgage lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac asking them to relax recently tightened mortgage standards for condominiums.

What part of “subprime crisis” doesn’t blustering Barney get? In March, Fannie Mae said it would no longer guarantee mortgages on condos in buildings where fewer than 70% of the units have been sold, up from 51%. And Freddie Mac is due to implement similar policies next month.

But according to Frank this “may be too onerous” and could lead condo buyers to shun new developments, according to the paper.

Frank’s fingerprints are all over the subprime mess and the ensuing credit crunch. Yet he continues to pin the recent collapse on the private market.

The Wall

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Institutional Investors Shifting To Index Funds

In an article titled: "Active Managers Get Cold Shoulder," Craig Karmin writes in Monday's Wall Street Journal that big institutional managers are increasingly shifting to index funds.

It quotes a director of the $9 billion Illinois State Board of Investment as saying that "active managers have not given us the added performance in a down market that we hoped for."

You can read the story here.

SEC Investigating Dark Pools

In an interesting story from the Financial Times, the Securities and Exchange Commission is reportedly looking into so-called "dark pools." In an interview with Mary Schapiro, the SEC's chairwoman, the paper is reporting that the trading systems set up for large investors to block trade with little outside transparency is a source of real concern for U.S. regulators.

You can read the story here.

Hedge Funds Redux?

In a look at the growth in exchange-traded funds using hedging strategies, MarketWatch's

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The New York Times Co. (NYT) seems sickened with troubles at its Boston Globe unit. A day after its largest union filed with regulators to contest a 23% pay cut, the parent body reportedly initiated efforts to sell the 137-year-old newspaper.

The Boston Globe reported in its Wednesday edition that the Times Co. has hired investment bank Goldman Sachs Group Inc. to approach potential buyers for the struggling broadsheet and will seek bids through the next few weeks.

A representative of the Times Co. said, "Because we have achieved the $20 million in savings we needed, we do not foresee closure at this time and are focused on executing The Globe's turnaround plan."

The largest labor union Boston Newspaper Guild rejected $10 million in concessions aimed at cutting costs at the newspaper earlier this week. The Times Co. has however been able to get major

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Advertising mogul Ed Eskandarian is selling his minority stake in the Boston Red Sox to Seth Klarman, a well known Boston hedge fund manager, according to two people briefed on the transaction.

via Boston Red Sox - Minority owner selling stake in Red Sox - The Boston Globe.  

Seth Klarman, the man who wrote the most famous (or infamous) value investing book of the last ten years, Margin of Saftey (read my review), seems to have made a distinctly non-value purchase. While the details of the transaction haven’t been released, we do know that public consensus on the Red Sox’ value is probably in the $1 billion range or at least 40% above the price paid for the franchise in 2002 by John Henry and Co. 

The Red Sox seem to be reaching a crescendo in their illustrious history with regular rookie of the year contenders, an MVP, two world series

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The UpTurn Inc. is a company focused on operating a website where professionals in the realty industry, along with homeowners, buyers and sellers, can be matched with their real estate needs. The company recently launched its Reality on Realty blog, a place where people exchange ideas and information on real estate, with topics ranging from home financing to property tips.

The key to the Reality on Realty current and future success rests upon the award-winning, experienced bloggers who contribute to the blog. The team at Reality on Realty consists of: Sarah Pappalardo, Katrina Munsell and Pamela Reynolds.

Sarah Pappalardo is finishing her M.A. in English at DePaul University. Sarah wrote for a FSBO real estate marketing firm in Chicago. Sarah also has written for many other media sites including Redfin and BuyOwner.

Katrina Munsell says she is obsessed with real estate, having transacted several major

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After a week of heated discussions, the New York Times Co. (NYT) finally negotiated a deal with Boston Globe's largest union on Wednesday that could avert closing of the 137-year old newspaper.

While exact terms of the agreement were not disclosed, news sources said it involved large pay cuts, unpaid layoffs and changes to the system of lifetime job guarantees that protect about 300 people in the Boston Newspaper Guild. This was the last of the seven unions involved in negotiations with the Times management and responsible for $10 million in concessions.

Like other newspapers, the Globe has also been hurt in recent times due to slumping advertising revenue and circulation figures as an increasing number of readers prefer the Internet over printed publications. With an expected loss of $85 million this year, the Times Co. threatened to shut down the paper within a month if

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The New York Times Co. (NYT) temporarily rested threats to close its Boston Globe publication after reaching cost-cutting agreements with six of the seven employees' unions for a targeted $20 million in concessions.

However, talks with the Boston Newspaper Guild, which is the largest union at the Globe, are yet to be resolved. Negotiations were cut short on Monday morning after the union's leaders walked out of a meeting.

The Guild had detailed $10 million in concessions, which were rejected before the Sunday deadline. It now seems that lifetime job guarantees for some veteran staffers that the paper wants to remove but the Guild considers non-negotiable, is the bone of contention. The talks are expected to resume later this week.

The 137-year old publication has negotiated with unions representing mailers, drivers, pressmen and machinists to avert shutdown of the mainstay of New England consumers. The

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A reader left a link to a long article from the Boston Globe about what a modern depression would look like. My first observation was that it reads a lot like Michael Panzner's book that I was probably the last person to read two years ago. Amusingly it seemed less bleak than when I read most of the same stuff in Panzner's book two years ago because things have deteriorated so much since then. Foreclosures and unemployment are way up and the stock market and GDP are way down. Given that we are much closer to a depression in terms of what is actually happening on the ground it's like there is less ground between here and the scenario spelled out in the article and because of that it seemed less scary. I'm sure there is some ...