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Playboy CEO Scott Flanders in his Chicago office. (Tribune file photo)
Playboy Enterprises said it is cutting staff in an effort to save more than $3 million annually as it transitions from a media company into one that primarily licenses the Playboy brand.
The company declined to say Tuesday how many employees are affected by the move.
At the end of March, Playboy employed 573 people in its Los Angeles and Chicago offices, down from 651 a year ago. Get the full story »
Popular online video service Hulu on Tuesday will announce the launch a preview of an ad-supported subscription service that will offer top broadcast shows in high definition to be viewed from a plethora of devices, including Internet-connected TVs, set-top boxes and game consoles, as well as portable devices such as Apple’s iPad and iPhone.
The publisher of the Philadelphia Inquirer won court approval Monday for its bankruptcy reorganization plan, clearing the way for lenders to buy its newspaper assets for about $139 million.
U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Stephen Raslavich rejected objections by some union pension funds before approving the plan proposed by Philadelphia Newspapers LLC, which runs the Inquirer and the smaller Philadelphia Daily News. Get the full story »
From Billboard.biz | Playboy Enterprises is suing rapper Drake, alleging that the beginning of his song “Best I Ever Had” was taken from “Fallin’ In Love,” by Hamilton, Joe Frank and Dennison/Reynolds, which it owns.
Alison True, who started in the mailroom of the Chicago Reader in 1984, is out as its editor. True had been the Reader’s editor for 15 1/2 years and guided the free weekly through traumatic budget squeezes, trying to retain its essence despite ownership changes and diminished resources that required her to cut loose many of the paper’s best writers.
Steve Cochran, who was hanging by a thread as midday host of WGN-AM 720, finally was cut loose by management at Chicago Tribune parent Tribune Co.’s radio station after he finished his program on Friday.
Looking to wring money from funny, the Chicago Tribune Media Group will take over ad sales, printing and distribution of The Onion in the Chicago market through a new partnership announced Thursday.
A federal judge sided with Google Inc. on Wednesday in a $1 billion copyright lawsuit filed by media company Viacom Inc. over YouTube videos, saying the service promptly removed illegal materials as required under federal law. The ruling in the closely watched case further affirmed the protections offered to online service providers under the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
Viacom Inc. had alleged that YouTube, which Google bought for $1.76 billion in 2006, built itself into the world’s largest video-sharing site by promoting the unlicensed use of video taken from Viacom cable channels such as MTV, Comedy Central and Nickelodeon.
The Chicago Tribune Media Group, the Tribune Co. division that includes the Chicago Tribune, on Wednesday announced the promotion of newsroom executives Joycelyn Winnecke and Jane Hirt.
Chicago Tribune Editor Gerould Kern, a senior vice president, said in a memo to staff that Associate Editor Winnecke and Managing Editor Hirt each are adding the title of vice president after 22 months in their current posts in recognition of “their exceptional accomplishments and growing responsibility for the company.” Get the full story »
The independent examiner charged with investigating claims of “fraudulent conveyance” in the Tribune Co. bankruptcy case asked Wednesday for a 15-day extension for filing his report.
That would likely delay a set of confirmation hearings in the case scheduled for Aug. 16 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware.
“The examiner’s request…is not unexpected,” Tribune Co. said in a statement. “Although it may delay our confirmation hearing for a short period of time, we are supportive of the request in the interest of enabling the examiner to do a thorough and complete review.”
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(Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times/MCT)
From The New York Times | The explosive Rolling Stone article on Gen. Stanley McChrystal was not published on the magazine’s website, rollingstone.com, until 11 a.m. on Tuesday — and by that point, Politico and the Web site of Time magazine had posted PDF files of the article on their own websites before Rolling Stone could get its own article up. Rolling Stone then asked them to remove the PDFs. Will Dana, the magazine’s managing editor, said that the magazine did not always post articles online because it could make more money at the newsstand and that when it did, the articles were typically not posted until Wednesday. But other news organizations made that decision for him.
Iconix Brand Group Inc is no longer looking at a potential licensing deal with Playboy Enterprises Incand does not expect to revisit any deal in the near future, Iconix said. Get the full story »
Free video website Hulu is in talks with CBS Corp, Viacom Inc and Time Warner Inc to add their television shows to its planned paid subscription service, Bloomberg reported, citing people with direct knowledge of the discussions. Get the full story »
