day.

For Google, its profit has allowed it to lay the groundwork for that growth. Its financial performance is hugely impressive today, but almost all of its revenue has been based on desktop/laptop paid search. As many have said, it’s a one-trick pony, but with the best trick found in the 21st century digital business. It knows that business is maturing, so we can see the theme in its a company-a-month buying spree: mobile, social, video. That combo, what I call the new trifecta for this digital decade, anticipates where digital use — and ad spending — is going. Google is not only providing us pictures of our topography through StreetView, it is laying new roads for its own highly profitable future.

When revenue is still seriously down, but profits are up, is that good news? The U.S newspaper companies that have reported fourth quarter 2009 results so far would have you believe it is. But based on their reports, it’s clear the industry as a whole is still in deep trouble, with no strong indication that [...]

Get ready for something else to hit the fan: underfunded pension plans at newspaper companies.  In general, this won’t have an immediate impact on cash flow, but it’s another looming liability for publishers, meaning their bankers won’t be buying them lunch, or writing loans for them, anytime soon.
Pension plan funding hasn’t been an issue for [...]