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Tribune staff report | Playboy Enterprises Inc. said its fourth-quarter net loss narrowed to $27.8 million or $0.83 per share from $146.8 million, or $4.40 per share in the same period a year ago.
Revenues for the quarter declined to $60.6 million from $69.8 million in the comparable period.
A demonstration of the robot system being tried by Crate & Barrel. (YouTube)
From Triple Pundit | Chicago-based Crate and Barrel is experimenting with a new automated warehouse system in an effort to cut costs and reduce its carbon footprint.
The company recently purchased a Kiva system for its Tracy, Calif. distribution complex.
Read the full story: triplepundit.com
 From Variety | A judge has refused to dismiss actor Warren Beatty’s lawsuit against Tribune Co., which operates Chicago Breaking Business, in a long-running dispute over the rights to the Dick Tracy comic book character.
Read the full story: variety.com |
See also • Independent examiner urged in Tribune bankruptcy dispute |
DVDs being returned at the Red Box movie rental vending machines outside Tony’s Finer Foods on Belmont. (Phil Velasquez/Chicago Tribune)
Associated Press | DVD rental kiosk chain Redbox has agreed to wait 28 days after Warner Bros. releases new movies for sale before offering to rent them for $1 a night.
The agreement announced Tuesday ends a lawsuit Oakbrook Terrace-based Redbox filed against Warner Bros.’ home video unit last August.
By Phil Rosenthal | Barbara Walters’ Oscar special, an annual ABC tradition she began in 1981, is coming to end after this year, Walters announced on Monday’s edition of “The View.”
Barabra Walters and Oprah Winfrey arrive at a 2006 gala in New York City. (AP Photo/Dima Gavrysh) >>
“I think I’m sick of them,” said Walters, who turned 80 in September. “I feel I’ve been there, done that. I mean, 29 years is enough.
Don’t be surprised if the void is filled on ABC beginning next year by some kind of special hosted by Oprah Winfrey, one of Walters’ previous Oscar-night interviewees. Winfrey’s Chicago-based syndicated daytime talk show, which continues through September 2011, airs on many ABC afilliates and Disney-owned ABC always welcomes her when it can get a special from her Harpo Productions.
Read the full article: Tower Ticker
By Julie Johnsson | Director Kevin Smith’s Twitter-fit during the weekend highlights one uncomfortable reality of U.S. airline flying: airlines have less leeway to accommodate obese passengers at a time when Americans are getting fatter.
Kevin Smith at the Chicago Film Festival
in 2008. (Nuccio DiNuzzo) >>
In a barrage of profane tweets and a podcast, Smith expressed outrage that he was bumped from a Southwest Airlines flight from Oakland to Burbank, Calif., after the crew determined he was too large to fit in a single seat.
From Bloomberg News | Retired NBA star Magic Johnson is in talks to buy Chicago-based Johnson Publishing Co., publisher of Jet and Ebony magazines. No definitive agreement has been reached at this point, a Magic Johnson Enterprises spokesman said.
Read the full story: bloomberg.com
By Phil Rosenthal | WLS-AM 890 today dropped Erich “Mancow” Muller, whose 16-month-old mid-morning show was always louder than anything else on the Citadel Broadcasting talker.
Replacing Muller in the 9 a.m.-to-11 a.m. slot bridging Don and Roma Wade’s morning show and Rush Limbaugh’s syndicated midday juggernaut will be Cisco Cotto, who is expected to be a more cohesive fit. Cotto joined WLS-AM earlier this year as Roe Conn’s afternoon co-host earlier this year.
Read the full story: Tower Ticker
By Kristin Samuelson | Guess it wasn’t so Comcastic after all.
Comcast, the nation’s largest cable service, is rebranding itself as XFinity,
in an effort the company suggests is designed to produce a full image
overhaul.
The brand change starts rolling out Friday in Chicago and 10 other markets,
including Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington.
Read the full story: chicagotribune.com/business
By Mary Ellen Podmolik | Tribune Media Services and Blockbuster Inc. announced a partnership to simplify the delivery of Blockbuster movies to Web-connected consumer electronic devices.
Tribune Media will map its movie metadata to the Blockbuster catalog, enabling consumers to easily search through titles on their broadband-connected products. TiVo Inc., is the first joint customer of the partnership to use Blockbuster’s On Demand service.
From Business Week | Playboy Enterprises Inc. is facing a shareholder lawsuit accusing Founder Hugh Hefner of nixing two possible buyout deals to maintain a lavish lifestyle.
A company spokeswoman declined to comment on the class action suit, filed in California state court, saying it hasn’t been served.
The Playboy mansion in Beverly Hills. (Getty) >>
Read the full story: businessweek.com
By Phil Rosenthal | WLS-Ch. 7 anchor Ron Magers, whose appearances on Roe Conn’s WLS-AM 890 program were a reliable daily highlight for a dozen years until dropped in an unfortunate budget move in December, is being reinstated on the afternoon show.
Read more: Tower Ticker
Associated Press | The Super Bowl was watched by more than 106 million people, surpassing
the 1983 finale of “M-A-S-H” to become the most-watched program in
television history.
By Bob Goldsborough | WLS-Ch. 7 morning news anchor Judy Hsu has sold her three-bedroom, farmhouse-style house in Hinsdale for $590,000.
As Elite Street reported in August, Hsu, who joined Channel 7 in 2001, decided last spring to sell the seven-room, 1,888-square-foot house because of her growing family. Since then, Hsu famously gave birth to her fourth child, son Alexander, along the Eisenhower Expressway in October en route to the hospital.
Associated Press | House Democrats challenged executives from Comcast Corp. and NBC Universal on Thursday to show that the cable TV operator’s plan to take control of the NBC media empire won’t hurt consumers and rivals.
Members of a House subcommittee on communications and technology worried that the transaction could lead to a range of competitive harms. Those include higher cable TV rates, fewer video programming choices and possibly even an end to over-the-air broadcasts of NBC’s flagship television network.
