May 26, 2010 at 1:02 p.m.
Filed under:
Media,
Retail
By Sandra M. Jones | Oprah Winfrey makes no secret about loving to shop. Now, she is headed to the mall, literally.
The talk show star plans to open a mini Oprah Store at Water Tower Place in Chicago on Thursday.
The 138-square-foot shop — an upscale kiosk Harpo Retail calls a microsalon – marks the second retail outpost for Winfrey and could signal broader retail ambitions.
The window at Winfrey’s first store, 37 N. Carpenter St., across from her West Side studio (Harpo Productions, Inc./George Burns) >>
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By Michael Oneal
| Tribune Co. plans to pay 35 of its top executives $14.9 million in additional 2009 bonuses, a court filing revealed late Monday, despite pointed opposition to the proposal from several key constituents in its 17-month-old Chapter 11 bankruptcy case.
The company describes the bonuses, devised as two plans, as rewards for steering the company through bankruptcy court while generating total operating cash flow of $494 million in 2009.
The payments would supplement $42.1 million in management incentive bonuses the court allowed Tribune Co. to pay in February to approximately 670 managers, including most of the executives included in the most senior group.
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May 24, 2010 at 11:28 a.m.
Filed under:
Retail,
Video
Redbox DVD machines have forced Blockbuster to come out with its own vending machines
to compete. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
Associated Press
| Blockbuster Inc. on Monday urged shareholders to reject a bid by an
activist investor to garner a seat on the company’s board.
Gregory S. Meyer, who founded a DVD rental kiosk company in 2001 called
DVDXpress, is looking to take the seat held by insurance executive James
W. Crystal.
Meyer, 38, has also played a small role in the erosion of Blockbuster’s
traditional rental store business. He sold DVDXpress in 2007 to Coinstar
Inc., which later merged the company with its own Redbox business. The
spread of Redbox vending machines, which offer new
releases for $1 per
night, has forced Blockbuster to come out with its own vending machines
to compete.
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Associated Press | Federal regulators have approved Google
Inc.’s $750 million acquisition of the mobile ad service AdMob despite
worries that the deal will enable Google to extend its dominance of
Internet marketing into the nascent field of wireless devices.
The Federal Trade Commission said Friday that its antitrust concerns
were overshadowed by Apple Inc.’s push into the $600 million mobile
advertising market in the U.S.
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Associated Press | The owners of AMC Theatres say a $20 adult ticket price for an IMAX showing of “Shrek Forever After” at some of its Manhattan theaters was posted online in error. AMC spokesman Justin Scott said Friday that a limited number of its theaters “posted incorrect pricing.” He says customers who bought a $20 ticket would be eligible for a refund.
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May 21, 2010 at 8:19 a.m.
Filed under:
Media,
Retail
Associated Press | Borders Group says financier Bennett LeBow is
investing $25 million in the company and will become chairman. The
nation’s No. 2 traditional book seller says LeBow, chairman of holding
company Vector Group Ltd., is buying 11.1 million shares at $2.25
apiece, which will be used to help strengthen its balance sheet and
grow its online efforts.
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May 20, 2010 at 4:35 p.m.
Filed under:
Bankruptcy,
Media
By Michael Oneal
| A Delaware bankruptcy judge on Thursday refused a request by
dissident
creditors in Tribune Co.’s bankruptcy case to delay voting on a proposed
reorganization plan until an independent examiner in the case can
submit his report in mid-July.
But U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Kevin Carey also postponed until May 28
approval of a voluminous document called a “disclosure statement” that
must precede that vote, ordering Tribune Co. to address creditor
concerns that the statement doesn’t include enough salient information
to evaluate the risks associated with the settlement.
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May 19, 2010 at 8:25 a.m.
Filed under:
Media
From the Observer | Joe Ricketts, a TD Ameritrade founder and part of the family that owns the Chicago Cubs owner, is helping fund a hyper-local news effort in New York City called DNAinfo.com, which stands for Digital Network Associates, to reflect the organization’s multimedia ambitions. It has 25 employees covering select neighborhoods, but only about 35,000 page views per month, so far.
Get the full story: observer.com
May 19, 2010 at 7:54 a.m.
Filed under:
Media
Dow Jones Newswires-Wall Street Journal | Oprah Winfrey has made a fortune in television, magazines and movies. Now she has hired someone to manage it.
Winfrey, one of the most powerful brands in media, has begun setting
up a so-called family office to handle her personal investments,
according to people familiar with the situation. Her first hire: Peter
Adamson, a well-regarded investor who currently serves as chief
investment officer for Eli Broad, the Los Angeles billionaire and
philanthropist.
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May 14, 2010 at 1:17 p.m.
Filed under:
Litigation,
Media
Associated Press | A federal appeals court Friday granted Dish
Network Corp. a full-court review of a ruling that threatened to force
the satellite TV company to disable millions of its customers’ digital
video recorders because of a patent dispute with TiVo Inc.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington gave
Dish a surprise chance for a better outcome in patent litigation that
Dish has consistently lost to TiVo. Dish had asked for an “en banc”
review of the case while CEO Charlie Ergen resisted paying TiVo damages
that have mounted to about $400 million. Ergen had even said the
appeals court was unlikely to grant the review.
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May 14, 2010 at 8:57 a.m.
Filed under:
Advertising/Marketing,
Media
A Kohl’s store in Massachusetts. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)
By Sandra M. Jones | Kohl’s Department Stores is going Hollywood.
The discount department store chain signed a deal with the Oprah Winfrey Network to sponsor the talk show diva’s new reality series. “Your Own Show: Oprah’s Search for the Next TV Star” and plans to hold auditions in its stores in June.
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May 13, 2010 at 8:28 a.m.
Filed under:
Media,
Taxes
By Mary Ellen Podmolik | The
good news is CEOs don’t think any any less of Illinois’ business
climate than they did a year ago. The bad news is there are only five
states considered to be worse places to do business in than Illinois.
For the second year in a row, Illinois nabbed spot No. 46 on Chief
Executive magazine’s annual ranking of the best and worst states. The
results, derived from a survey of 641 CEOs across the country, looked
at issues like proximity to markets and resources, regulation, tax
policies, workforce quality, educational resources, quality of living
and infrastructure.
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May 12, 2010 at 11:50 a.m.
Filed under:
Advertising/Marketing,
Media
From Casino Gambling Web | Bookies are starting to set odds on what, if anything, Oprah Winfrey will give away on her last broadcast of “The Oprah Winfrey Show.” Odds are running 2-to-1 on a charitable donation while expensive jewelry is considered a long shot at 30-to-1. Winfrey, who gave everyone in the audience a car to kick off her 22nd season, wraps up the show at the end of the 2011 season.
Get the full story: casinogamblingweb.com.
May 11, 2010 at 12:35 p.m.
Filed under:
Media
Associated Press | A TV communications satellite is drifting out
of control miles above the Earth, threatening to wander into another
satellite’s orbit and interfere with cable programming across the
United States, the satellites’ owners said Tuesday.
Communications company Intelsat said it lost control of the Galaxy 15
satellite on April 8, possibly because the satellite’s systems were
knocked out by a solar storm. Intelsat cannot remotely steer the
satellite to remain in its orbit, so Galaxy 15 is creeping toward the
adjacent path of another TV communications satellite that serves U.S.
cable companies.
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May 11, 2010 at 5:36 a.m.
Filed under:
Media
Associated Press | Playboy “readers” who can only imagine what
it would look like if a centerfold jumped right off the page are
getting new specs to help them see into Hef’s world.
The June Playboy, hitting stands Friday, is the first magazine to use a 3-D picture. (AP photo) >>
The magazine’s June edition hits newsstands Friday equipped with 3-D
glasses. Now the toy that has kids dodging dragons, meatballs and tall
blue aliens at the movies will help adults focus on what is, at first
glance, a very blurry Playmate of the Year.
“What would people most like to see in 3-D?” asked Playboy founder Hugh Hefner. “Probably a naked lady.”
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