Mediagazer: Time Warner in Talks to Divest Most Magazines to Meredith Corp. (Wall Street Journal)

7:10 PM ET, February 13, 2013

Top News:

Time Warner in talks to part ways with Time Inc. — FORTUNE — Media giant Time Warner has begun discussions to separate itself from Time Inc., its $3.4 billion (in annual revenue) publishing division, according to three people familiar with the matter. A serious buyer is in talks with the company, one of the sources says.

Jeff Bercovici / Forbes:

Time Warner Shopping Time Inc. Likely Price Tag? Try $2.5 Billion — Time Inc., America's biggest magazine publisher, is for sale — sort of. Fortune reports that parent Time Warner is in talks with a “serious buyer” to sell most of its periodicals — and who better to know than Fortune, being one of those periodicals?

Discussion: AdAge

AdAge:

Time Warner Reportedly in Talks To Sell Most of Time Inc. — Bank Said To Be Involved Has Ties to Warren Buffett — Time Warner is in talks to sell a large portion of its Time Inc. magazine division, including People, InStyle and Real Simple, according to a report Wednesday afternoon by Fortune.

Discussion: @natives

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:

Time Warner Put the “For Sale” Sign on Time Inc. Last Fall — People have been wondering for a long time when Time Warner would sell off Time Inc. And for a long time, whenever anyone asked CEO Jeff Bewkes or senior management about the publishing company, they'd inevitably say something like “we like it, we're keeping it.”

Discussion: @michaelwolffnyc

Wall Street Journal:

Time Warner in Talks to Divest Most Magazines to Meredith Corp. — Time Warner Inc. is in talks to divest most of its magazine group to Meredith Corp., say people familiar with the matter, keeping only Time, Sports Illustrated and Fortune titles. — Meredith, which owns magazines …

Discussion: FishbowlNY and @peterlauria3

Simone Foxman / Quartz:
Why does Time Warner want to get rid of its most profitable magazine?

Discussion: Fortune

Craig Silverman / Poynter:

Jonah Lehrer falls into familiar pattern, fails to face his reckoning — In recent years, though certainly not recently, many conference attendees have heard Jonah Lehrer speak about how our brains and our personal interactions affect our behaviours in interesting and surprising ways.

Discussion: ArtsBeat, BuzzFeed, lamag.com, @stevebuttry, Knight Foundation, The Week, New York Magazine, Columbia Journalism Review and Slate

Jeff Bercovici / Forbes:

It Sure Doesn't Sound Like Jonah Lehrer Is Donating That $20K Speaking Fee To Charity — Jonah Lehrer's appearance at a Knight Foundation event Tuesday was supposed to be the first step in a rehabilitation culminating in his return to the welcoming arms of the journalism profession.

Discussion: Poynter, International Business Times, Boing Boing, Strange Attractor and @jwpiergrossi

Jonah Lehrer:

My Apology — I'd like to begin by thanking the Knight Foundation for the invitation to speak. — I've been asked to give a talk about decision-making. I'm going to focus today on bad decisions, on the causes and repercussions of failure. The failure I'll be talking about is my own.

Discussion: @jonahlehrer

William Turvill / Press Gazette:

The accused: At least 55 UK journalists arrested since April 2011 — At least 55 journalists have now been arrested in the last two years as a result of police investigations stemming from the phone-hacking scandal. On 13 February, a further six former News of the World journalists …

Discussion: Guardian, @iainoverton and Hollywood Reporter

Lisa O'Carroll / Guardian:
Phone-hacking inquiry: Sun's Fabulous and northern features editors arrested

Discussion: Crikey and Softpedia News

Press Gazette:
Six former News of the World journalists arrested in phone-hacking probe are named

Discussion: @bbcbreaking

Sinead O'Carroll / TheJournal.ie:
Six journalists arrested in fresh phone hacking probe

Discussion: CNN, @skymartinbrunt, @kevin_maguire, @dannyshawbbc, The Huffington Post, UK News and Opinion, Sky News and BBC

Jennifer Booton / Fox Business:

Thomson Reuters To Slash 2,500 Jobs, 4% of Workforce — Thomson Reuters (TRI) plans to cut 2,500 jobs this year, or 4% of its global workforce, as it continues to axe costs as part of a larger overhaul. — The company said on Wednesday that it expects to spend about $100 million on severance costs …

Discussion: Reuters, Wall Street Journal, Thomson Reuters, The Dividend Daily, Talking Biz News and Agence France Presse

Jennifer Saba / Reuters:
Thomson Reuters revenue outlook disappoints

Discussion: Big News Network.com

Jeff John Roberts / paidContent:

Hughes' New Republic has 44,000 subscribers, thinks Twitter beats Facebook for news — When multimillionaire and former Facebook executive Chris Hughes bought the struggling New Republic last year, critics were quick to dismiss the purchase as a rich man's folly.

Discussion: AllThingsD

TechCrunch:

AOL Confirms gdgt Acquisition, Quests For tch Domination — AOL (owners of TechCrunch) today is taking one more step to build out its content empire: it has officially confirmed the acquisition of technology reviews site gdgt — first reported by TechCrunch nearly two weeks ago.

Discussion: gdgt blog, Talking Biz News, AllThingsD, VentureBeat, FishbowlNY, The Next Web, Engadget, Mashable!, Forbes, VatorNews, Digital Media Wire and Fast Company

Georg Szalai / Hollywood Reporter:

Comcast CEO 'Bullish About NBCUniversal's Future,' NBC Turnaround — Comcast is “bullish about NBCUniversal's future,” Comcast CEO Brian Roberts said Wednesday in explaining why the cable giant decided to take full control of the entertainment company earlier than originally planned.

Sam Thielman / Adweek:
How Comcast Scared Up All That GE Cash

Discussion: Radio & Television …, Forbes, mediabistro.com, Bloomberg, The Week, DealBook, Associated Press, Prof Chris Daly's Blog, Associated Press, Los Angeles Times, USA Today and Forbes

Alex Sherman / Bloomberg:
Comcast Will Buy Rest of GE's NBC Stake for $16.7 Billion

Discussion: Fast Company, DealBook, @bobbymacreports, Reuters, VentureBeat and paidContent

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York:

‘Times’ names Rick Berke senior editor and director of video content development — The New York Times has made Rick Berke's departure from the masthead and move into video content official. — Berke, previously an assistant managing editor, has been appointed senior editor and director …

Discussion: Politico and NetNewsCheck Latest