Filed under: Media

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March 14 at 2:31 p.m.
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Filed under: Bankruptcy, Media, Newspapers, Radio, TV

Exec says Tribune Co. needs quick Chaper 11 exit

By Associated Press

Eddy Hartenstein in 2008. (Anne Cusack/Los Angeles Times)

The publisher and CEO of the Los Angeles Times says it’s important that the Tribune Co. emerge from bankruptcy protection as soon as possible.

Eddy Hartenstein, also a co-president of Tribune Co., testified Monday that the cloud of bankruptcy is hurting Tribune’s ability to keep and attract employees and to forge partnerships to help it compete in the rapidly-changing media industry.

Hartenstein was the final Tribune witness in a hearing to determine whether a Delaware judge will approve the company’s reorganization plan. Noteholders who have submitted their own plan will present their case later. Get the full story »

March 14 at 12:44 p.m.
21 comments
Filed under: Housing, Real estate, TV

‘Apprentice’ Rancic sells Hinsdale home for $4.6M

Bill and Giuliana Rancic in their Hinsdale home. (Photo for the Tribune by Nathan Kirkman)

Elite Street | By Bob Goldsborough | Reality TV star Bill Rancic, the Chicago entrepreneur, motivational speaker and real-estate developer who won the first season of Donald Trump’s reality show “The Apprentice,” has sold his five-bedroom, 12,000-square-foot mansion in Hinsdale in a private transaction for $4.6 million.

The sale easily is the most expensive one this year in Hinsdale. Get the full story »

March 14 at 11:13 a.m.
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Filed under: Internet, Media, Newspapers

Online readership and ads overtake newspapers

By Reuters

(Charles Osgood/Chicago Tribune)

For the first time, online readership and advertising revenue has surpassed that of print newspapers.

Online advertising revenue in the United States is projected to overtake print newspaper ad revenue in 2010, according to the latest report, the State of the News Media, from the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism.

The study also found that more people — 46 percent of Americans surveyed — said they get news online at least three times a week, versus 40 percent who said they get their news from newspapers and their companion websites. Get the full story »

March 11 at 5:58 p.m.
5 comments
Filed under: Bankruptcy, Media

Advisers value Tribune Co.’s newspapers below $1B

By Michael Oneal

Two Tribune Co. financial advisers provided stark evidence of the newspaper industry’s decline Friday when they testified in bankruptcy court that the company’s flagship publishing division may have dropped below an estimated $1 billion in value. Get the full story »

March 11 at 7:44 a.m.
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Filed under: Bankruptcy, Media, Movies, Video

Judge clears way for Blockbuster sale

By Dow Jones Newswires-Wall Street Journal

A judge Thursday cleared the way for movie-rental company Blockbuster Inc. to sell itself to a group of hedge funds, after lawyers spent all day in courthouse hallways brokering a deal with movie studios that had objected to the sale terms. The ruling gives the movie studios a better deal and staves off immediate liquidation of Blockbuster’s assets. Get the full story »

March 11 at 5:42 a.m.
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Filed under: Advertising/Marketing, Bankruptcy, Media, Newspapers, TV

Tribune likely bidder for Freedom Communications

By Los Angeles Times

Freedom Communications Inc. was expected to receive bids for its 100 newspapers and eight TV stations from a number of suitors before a Thursday deadline set by the company. Among firms considered likely to make bids for parts of Freedom were Tribune Co. and MediaNews Group Inc., as well as two Los Angeles-based private equity firms. Get the full story>>

March 10 at 1:21 p.m.
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Filed under: Media, Radio

Cumulus strikes deal for WLS-AM, Citadel

By Phil Rosenthal

Everyone, it seems, has a price and Cumulus Media finally found Citadel Broadcasting’s.

Cumulus said Thursday it has agreed to acquire Citadel, parent of Chicago’s WLS-AM and FM, in a cash-and-stock transaction that values Citadel at between $2.4 billion and $2.5 billion.

March 10 at 11:02 a.m.
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Filed under: Health care, Magazines, Media, Personnel moves

Boston pediatrics prof named new JAMA editor

By Bruce Japsen

Dr. Howard Bauchner

A noted Boston professor of pediatrics and public health will be the next editor-in-chief of the Journal of the American Medical Association, one of the nation’s best known medical journals.

Dr. Howard Bauchner will become JAMA’s top editor July 1, replacing Dr.  Catherine DeAngelis, who had announced plans to leave the job after 11 years and return to Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore, JAMA’s publisher, the Chicago-based American Medical Association said Thursday morning.

Bauchner, a professor at the Boston University School of Medicine, becomes the 16th editor in JAMA’s 127-year history. The journal is well known to consumers and medical professionals, given that its studies often make headlines, be they articles touting medical breakthroughs or editorials criticizing the health-care system. Get the full story »

March 10 at 10:53 a.m.
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Filed under: Entertainment, Media, Radio

Jack’s out, Eddie and Jobo in on WJMK

By Phil Rosenthal

Tower Ticker | Eddie and Jobo are back with CBS Radio in Chicago, and Jack’s been jilted. If it’s not quite like old times at WJMK-FM 104.3, it will be closer than it has been.

Beginning at 1:04 p.m. Monday, the one-time oldies station will switch from the Jack FM variety format it’s embraced for almost six years to a mix of hits from the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s. Gone will be the disembodied recorded voice of Jack (Howard Cogan), replaced by actual live and local on-air personalities.

Rebranded as K-Hits, though the call letters won’t change, WJMK will also bring the long-time team of Ed Volkman and Joe “Jobo” Bohannon (nee Colborn) back not only to morning radio as 5:30 a.m. to 10 a.m. weekday hosts but also to CBS Radio, which cut them loose from WBBM-FM 96.3 in late 2008 with many months left on their multimillion-dollar contracts.

March 9 at 5:44 p.m.
1 comment
Filed under: Bankruptcy, Media, Newspapers

JPMorgan e-mails show concerns about Tribune

By Associated Press

JPMorgan Chase executives discussed downgrading their internal credit rating for Tribune Co. just hours after the media company completed a leveraged buyout the bank helped finance.

E-mails presented in federal court in Wilmington, Del., Wednesday show an executive for the bank thought a downgrade was required after the buyout. Get the full story »

March 8 at 7:05 p.m.
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Filed under: Bankruptcy, Media

Testimony: Tribune Co. settlement talks ‘painful’

By Michael Oneal

WILMINGTON, Del. — Confirmation hearings in Tribune Co.’s bankruptcy case got under way Tuesday with a full day of testimony about the company’s tortured on-again-off-again effort to forge a settlement among its warring creditors.

Investment banker David Kurtz of Lazard Ltd., who spearheaded negotiations on behalf of Chicago-based Tribune Co. for two years, described a “painful and difficult” process paralyzed by the obstructionist behavior among the creditors.

He said efforts to broker a deal among creditors sparring over legal claims related to Tribune Co.’s 2007 leverage buyout were repeatedly undone by the aggressive tactics of hedge funds on all sides of the case who bought the company’s distressed debt hoping to profit from a restructuring. Get the full story »

March 8 at 2:53 p.m.
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Filed under: Chicago executives, Media, Updated

Tyree hospitalized with pneumonia

By Becky Yerak

Mesirow Financial Chief Executive James Tyree, who has been battling cancer, was recently hospitalized with pneumonia.

“They are treating his infection and he’s feeling stronger every day,” Mesirow President Richard Price said in an e-mail to workers Tuesday. “Doctors generally expect some side-effects and complications during an aggressive chemotherapy regimen.”

Tyree, who also heads Sun Times Media, had suffered from diabetes for years and had a transplant operation a few years ago. Get the full story »

March 7 at 6:31 p.m.
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Filed under: Bankruptcy, Media, Newspapers, Radio, TV

Resolution hearing opens in Tribune Co. bankruptcy

By Michael Oneal

WILMINGTON, Del. – The warring creditors in Tribune Co.’s bankruptcy case provided few surprises Monday as they fired their opening shots in litigation aimed at resolving a case that one lawyer said had come to resemble “water torture.” Get the full story »

March 7 at 7:17 a.m.
1 comment
Filed under: Advertising/Marketing, Media, TV

Personalized TV ads coming to your living room

By Dow Jones Newswires-Wall Street Journal

Data-gathering firms and technology companies are aggressively matching people’s TV-viewing behavior with other personal data — in some cases, prescription-drug records obtained from insurers — and using it to help advertisers buy ads targeted to shows watched by certain kinds of people.

At the same time, cable and satellite companies are testing and deploying new systems designed to show households highly targeted ads. The goal: Emulate the sophisticated tracking widely used on people’s personal computers with new technology that reaches the living room. Get the full story »

March 7 at 6:21 a.m.
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Filed under: Bankruptcy, Litigation, Media, Movies, Newspapers, TV

Tribune bankruptcy nears finish line

By Michael Oneal

After 27 months of legal wrangling, Tribune Co. and its creditors are finally headed into what could be the deciding chapter of the company’s tangled bankruptcy saga.

The case will enter what bankruptcy law practitioners call confirmation hearings Monday, and for the next two weeks U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Kevin Carey in Delaware will hear evidence from an army of lawyers arguing for and against two competing visions of how to restructure the Chicago-based media conglomerate.

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