Mediaboss Marketing

NEW YORK -- AOL AOL , the Internet media company, reported Wednesday first-quarter net income of $21.1 million, or 22 cents a share, up from year-earlier earnings of $4.7 million, or 4 cents. Revenue fell 4% from a year earlier to $529.4 million. Analysts, on average, were expecting earnings of 7 cents a share on revenue of $526.48 million. Shares of AOL fell 1.09% in premarket trading Wednesday to $25.30. Social media company Demand Media DMD reported Tuesday first-quarter adjusted earnings of $5.9 million, or 7 cents a share, on revenue of $82.9 million, topping analysts' estimates of 5 cents a share on revenue of $79.7 million. Shares of Demand Media rose 22.95% in premarket trading Wednesday to $9.75. Dow component Cisco CSCO will report fiscal third-quarter earnings after the closing bell Wednesday, and analysts expect profit of 47 cents a share on revenue of $11.57 billion. Cisco, the world's largest maker of computer networking equipment, is expected to reveal Wednesday more evidence of its turnaround. Cisco shares ticked down 12 cents, or 0.64%, to $18.59 in premarket trading Wednesday. HP: Undervalued and Preparing for Apple Assault Fellow Dow component Walt Disney DIS posted fiscal second-quarter revenue Tuesday of $9.63 billion, up 6% from last year and ahead of Wall Street's consensus view of $9.56 billion. Earnings excluding items at the media and entertainment giant came in at 58 cents a share, 3 cents ahead of analysts' estimates. "We're incredibly optimistic about our future, given the strength of our core brands, Disney, Pixar, Marvel, ESPN, and ABC, and our extraordinary ability to grow franchises across our businesses, such as The Avengers, which shattered domestic box office records with a $207.1 million opening weekend for a global performance of more than $702 million to date," said Robert Iger, the company's chairman and CEO. Shares of Disney rose 41 cents, or 0.93%, in premarket trading Wednesday to $44.71. 10 Stocks to 'Like' When Facebook Goes Public GlaxoSmithKline GSK is going hostile with its $2.6 billion bid for biopharmaceutical firm Human Genome Sciences HGSI . The offer is equivalent to about $13 a share. Shares of Human Genome Sciences ticked down 3 cents, or 0.21%, to $14.59 in premarket trading Wednesday. Glaxosmithkline shares dropped 2.77% in premarket trading to $45.28. Retailer Macy's M is expected by analysts to post quarterly earnings of 40 cents a share on revenue of $6.15 billion. Macy's shares rose 1.24% in premarket trading Wednesday to $40.00. BlackBerry World Is One of Worry for Retailers Priceline.com PCLN , the online travel company, is expected to earn $3.95 a share in the first quarter on revenue of $1.04 billion, according to analysts. Priceline's report is expected after the markets close Wednesday. Shares of Priceline.com rose $4.30, or 0.6%, in premarket trading Wednesday to $720.50. Green Mountain Coffee Roasters GMCR on Tuesday announced the replacement of its chairman, Robert Stiller, and lead director, William Davis, after the executives were forced to sell roughly 5.5 million Green Mountain shares because of margin calls. The company called the sales "inconsistent" with its internal trading policies. Shares of Green Mountain Coffee Roasters fell 2.65% to $25.68 in premarket trading Wednesday. -- Written by Joseph Woelfel and Alexandra Zendrian >To contact the writer of this article, click here: Joseph Woelfel >To submit a news tip, send an email to: tips@thestreet.com.

Read more here:
Stocks to Watch: AOL, Cisco, Disney (Update 1)

Why pay for something when you can get it for free? Since the dawn of the Internet, there has been so much free information available online that many consumers have come to expect it, much to the chagrin of newspapers and magazines.

Recently, though, there has been movement toward paid subscribership to these online entities. And after some initial resistance, the model seems to be paying off.

Newspapers are especially vulnerableThe onslaught of free news and information online has hit newspapers particularly hard. In an effort to stay prominent, many have posted articles on the Internet for free, which has hurt their print products. Some, however, like The New York Times (NYSE: NYT) , have begun installing paywalls in an effort to recoup some of the revenue lost from the decline of paid paper subscriptions.

According to figures from the Audit Bureau of Circulations, News Corp.'s (Nasdaq: NWSA) Wall Street Journal has stayed in the top position in the industry with the greatest circulation, while The New York Times kept its spot at No. 3. One factor that has helped these papers' staying power is their efforts at bolstering their paid digital subscribership, which is included in circulation numbers.

The Journal has had a content paywall in place for several years, which probably has helped the paper maintain its top spot. The Times instituted the model only last year, but has so far had excellent results, with a 73% rise in weekday readership from a year prior. Interestingly, the increase was directly attributable to paid online subscriptions acquired after the paywall was put up.

Gannett's (NYSE: GCI) flagship paper, USA Today, stayed at No. 2, and Gannett has put paywalls on some but not all of its other papers since the beginning of the year. USA Today, however, remains free online. Its dead-tree version has suffered from reduced sales to hotels, but it is too soon to tell if revenue from paywalls on other publications will make up the difference.

Getting what you pay forThe evidence shows that selling subscriptions, once unheard of with digital formats, can prop up companies that have lost ground due to the plethora of free digital content. I believe that it's only a matter of time until other companies follow suit. Most notably, the Washington Post (NYSE: WPO) has remained stalwart in its refusal to put up paywalls on its online content. Perhaps the addition of Digg's former tech team will help convince the Post that when it comes to making money, times have changed -- and, to survive, companies need to change, too.

Bottom line: Disruptive technologies like the Internet have driven enormous changes in consumer behavior -- and many old media companies have fallen by the wayside as a result. Getting in on the ground floor of a revolutionary disruptive technology doesn't come often for investors, but luckily our analysts at the Fool have discovered an emerging technology that is poised to disrupt in much the same way as the Internet. Our free video report will outline this new technology, one that could very well end the "Made in China" era as we know it.

Continued here:
Paid Subscribers Are Lifting These Stocks

EMERYVILLE, Calif. - May 8, 2012 - ZipRealty, Inc. (http://www.ziprealty.com) (ZIPR), the nationally ranked real estate brokerage powered by proprietary technology and effective online marketing, today announced financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2012.

Conference Call Details A conference call to discuss first quarter financial results will be webcast live on Tuesday, May 8, 2012 at 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time on the investor relations section of ZipRealty`s website, http://www.ziprealty.com. Listeners may also access the call by dialing 866-804-6925, passcode: 51519705. A replay of the call will also be available through May 15, 2012 at 888-286-8010, passcode: 13734404.

About ZipRealty, Inc. ZipRealty is a leading national real estate brokerage and provider of proprietary technology and comprehensive online marketing tools for the residential real estate brokerage industry. For home buyers and sellers who increasingly want control, choice and a seamless, customized service, ZipRealty offers Internet-enabled, state-of-the-art technology and complete access to accurate, timely information via their website and mobile applications, which real estate professionals can combine with their own local knowledge and personal expertise to offer an exceptional start-to-finish client experience. For real estate professionals who seek more productive ways to conduct business, ZipRealty provides technology and online marketing tools to enhance their online sales channel, including lead generation, conversion and service of their clients.

The ZipRealty technology and online marketing products serve its full-service, owned-and-operated residential real estate brokerage business in 20 markets nationwide, as well as its Powered by Zip network of leading third-party local brokerages in eight markets.

Like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, or for more information, visit http://www.ziprealty.comor call 1-800-CALL-ZIP.

Click here to see the 1Q 2012 Earnings Release:

The owner of this announcement warrants that: (i) the releases contained herein are protected by copyright and other applicable laws; and (ii) they are solely responsible for the content, accuracy and originality of the information contained therein.

Source: ZipRealty via Thomson Reuters ONE HUG#1609679

Read more from the original source:
ZipRealty Announces First Quarter 2012 Results

BEIJING--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

SouFun Holdings Limited (NYSE: SFUN, SouFun), the leading real estate and home furnishing Internet portal in China, will report its unaudited first quarter 2012 results before the U.S. markets open on Tuesday, May 15, 2012.

SouFuns management team will host a conference call on May 15, 2012 at 8 a.m. U.S. Eastern Time (8 p.m. Beijing/Hong Kong time).

The dial-in details for the live conference call are:

US: +1 718 354 1231/ 1 866 519 4004 International: +65 6723 9381 Hong Kong: +852 2475 0994 /800 930 346 Mainland China: 800 819 0121 / 400 620 8038 Passcode: SFUN

Please dial in 10 minutes before the call is scheduled to begin and provide the passcode to join the call.

A telephone replay of the call will be available after the conclusion of the conference call at 11:00 a.m. U.S. Eastern Time on May 15 through May 22, 2012. The dial-in details for the telephone replay are:

US Toll Free: 1866 214 5335 US Toll: +1 718 354 1232 Conference ID # 79535282

A live and archived webcast of the conference call will be available on SouFuns website at http://ir.soufun.com.

About SouFun

Read the rest here:
Soufun Holdings Limited to Report First Quarter 2012 Financial Results on May 15, 2012

The best real estate investment in the past decade was found at the opposite end from trophy resorts and office towers, in 5-foot-by-5-foot lockers.

Self-storage companies, which rent units to small businesses and consumers produced the best risk-adjusted return among 10 U.S. real estate investment trust indexes in the past decade, according to the Bloomberg Riskless Return Ranking. They had the highest total return and the third-lowest volatility, for a risk-adjusted gain of 10.6 percent. Owners of offices, hotels and warehouses fared among the worst, hurt by price swings.

Public Storage, CubeSmart, Extra Space Storage and Sovran Self Storage attracted investors with low debt ratios and steady cash-flow growth in a decade that saw commercial-property values soar to records along with sales of mortgage-backed bonds to finance a wave of takeovers. The debt- to-assets ratio for Public Storage, the largest in the group, is 22.5 percent, half the average 45 percent for REITs, said Michael Knott, managing director of real estate research firm Green Street Advisors, making the stock less susceptible to large price swings if the economy worsens.

Public Storage has incredibly low leverage compared to the average REIT, said Knott, whose firm is based in Newport Beach, Calif. Its typically not as volatile.

The Bloomberg REIT Public/Self-Storage Index topped gauges tracking healthcare REITs and regional mall REITs, which returned a risk-adjusted 8.4 percent and 7.5 percent, respectively, in the 10 years through April. Warehouse REITs, which had the highest volatility and the lowest total return during the period, joined hotels at the bottom, with a risk- adjusted gain of 0.8 percent.

Storage REITs release first-quarter earnings this week. Extra Space Storage said April 30 that first-quarter funds from operations rose 41 percent on higher revenue and cost controls. Sovran is scheduled to release earnings after the market closes today, and the other two companies in the group report tomorrow.

The risk-adjusted return, which isnt annualized, is calculated by dividing total return by volatility, or the degree of daily price variation, giving a measure of income per unit of risk. A higher volatility means the price of an asset can swing dramatically in a short period of time, increasing the potential for unexpected losses.

The ranking compares 10 of the 11 property index types within the Bloomberg REIT index. It excludes single-tenant REITs because that index contains just four mostly smaller members whose business of retail leasing is reflected in broader indexes.

Storage REITs had twice the cash-flow growth of REITs in main property types from 2001 to 2011, according to Green Street. Net operating income for storage facilities open at least one year rose an average 3 percent a year during that period, compared with 1.5 percent on average for other REITs.

Companies such as Public Storage of Glendale, Calif.; Salt Lake City-based Extra Space; and CubeSmart, of Wayne, Penn., rent storage space by the month. The facilities can range from basic 5-foot-by-5-foot (1.5-meter-by-1.5-meter) units to climate-controlled rooms of 25 feet by 25 feet where people can stash goods such as furniture, tools and skis, a salesperson can store product samples, or a small business can keep items as in a mini-warehouse. Demand tends to be driven by life changes that entail moving, such as college graduation, job changes, divorce or death.

See the original post:
Best U.S. real estate? Self-storage