Companies

PLEASANTVILLE, N.Y., Nov. 16 (UPI) -- A U.S. investor group led by Ripplewood Holdings LLC will purchase The Reader's Digest Association Inc. for about $2.4 billion. The definitive agreement for the New York state publisher calls for an all-cash deal that marks a 25-percent premium over Reader's Digest Association 's volume-weighted average price over the past 60 trading days. Reader's Digest, the...

The St. Paul Pioneer Press will eliminate the equivalent of 40 full-time jobs after seeing ad revenue drop in key categories, a trend that accelerated in recent months. The jobs will be cut through a combination of attrition, buyouts and layoffs. The newsroom, the paper's single largest department, will cut the equivalent of 20 full-time positions. The other cuts will be spread across the...

Al-Jazeera, the Arab news network the Bush administration says is a tool of al-Qaeda, will launch Wednesday its English version, which will be available in 70 million households worldwide. Al-Jazeera International will broadcast from Doha, Qatar, and from bureaus in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; London; and Washington, D.C. Cable and satellite distribution deals are expected to be announced today...

CHICAGO (AP) -- Sun-Times Media Group Inc. is considering a complete overhaul of the Chicago Sun-Times amid a continuing steep decline in advertising and circulation revenue at the city's second-largest newspaper, its chief executive said Thursday. Gordon Paris' comments on a conference call came a day after the company, which also publishes community newspapers around Chicago, reported a $34.9...

NEW DELHI: Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation is expected to enter the print media scene in India some time around March-April, 2007. The focus will be on entertainment and not news and current affairs, it is learnt. While the group is likely to begin its print foray in India by publishing a magazine on the television industry and programming guide, it may look at launching a bouquet of magazines...

Two of the Southland's wealthiest residents made a bid for one of the nation's largest media companies Wednesday in an attempt to restore local ownership of the Los Angeles Times. Billionaire philanthropist Eli Broad and Ron Burkle, who made his fortune in the supermarket industry, submitted an offer for Chicago-based Tribune Co. In addition to The Times, Tribune owns KTLA Channel 5, three dozen...

Earlier this year a thick volume was published with the descriptive, if uninspiring, title Handbook of Media Management and Economics. The editors of the Journal of Media Economics asked me to use a review of the book to expand on the state of the new field of media economics and management. I have posted the complete review at my Web site. In brief, what I wrote was that it is difficult—maybe...

Rome - Exactly seven months after narrowly losing a general election, Silvio Berlusconi, Italy's media mogul and politico extraordinaire, is suffering a series of setbacks on the business front. On Thursday, his plans to create a European media empire appeared on the verge of collapse after his Mediaset Spa was tipped to have been ruled out of the race for ProSiebenSat.1 AG, Germany's largest...

PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- The editor of Philadelphia's largest newspaper will step down at the end of the year as the company's new owners seek contract concessions, including deep newsroom cuts, in response to falling circulation and advertising revenue. Philadelphia Inquirer editor Amanda Bennett will be replaced by Bill Marimow, a former Baltimore Sun editor and Inquirer city editor who is now...

NEW YORK (AP) -- A dissident investor is escalating a showdown with the New York Times Co., seeking steps that would lessen the Sulzberger family's control over the storied newspaper company. Morgan Stanley Investment Management, which owns 7.6 percent of the company's stock and is unhappy with a long slide in its share price, submitted a proposal Wednesday aimed at giving other shareholders more...