Mediagazer: BBC Top Executives Grilled, Criticized About Severance Payments (Georg Szalai/Hollywood Reporter)

12:45 PM ET, July 10, 2013

Top News:

Robert Channick / Chicago Tribune:

Tribune Co. to spin off newspapers — Chicago Tribune and other papers to become part of Tribune Publishing Co., separate from WGN radio and TV … One week after boosting its broadcasting holdings with the announcement of a deal to purchase 19 television stations, Tribune Co …

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Reuters:

Judge says Apple conspired to raise prices on e-books — In a decision that could reshape how electronic books are sold on the Internet, a federal judge ruled that Apple Inc conspired to raise the retail prices of e-books, and ordered a trial on damages. The decision by U.S. District Judge Denise Cote …

Ian Simpson / Reuters:

Pentagon saw WikiLeaks as journalistic site: trial witness — (Reuters) - The U.S. military viewed anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks as a news gathering operation before Private First Class Bradley Manning leaked a trove of classified files to it, a Harvard professor testified at Manning's court-martial on Wednesday.

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York:

Justine Rosenthal, long-time deputy of Tina Brown, is out at ‘Newsweek’ — Another high-level NewsBeast editor is headed for the exit. — Tina Brown, the editor-in-chief of the now all-digital Newsweek and its sister website, The Daily Beast, announced today that one of her main deputies, Justine Rosenthal, is leaving the company.

Brian Stelter / New York Times:

Conservative Voice Goes From ‘View’ to Fox News — Fox News announced a sudden shake-up of its morning show “Fox & Friends” on Tuesday night, hiring Elisabeth Hasselbeck from ABC's “The View” to replace Gretchen Carlson, who has been a co-host of the morning show for seven years.

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Georg Szalai / Hollywood Reporter:

BBC Top Executives Grilled, Criticized About Severance Payments — Former BBC director general Mark Thompson, now CEO of the New York Times Co., was also criticized from afar in a hearing in the U.K. parliament. — LONDON — Top executives of the BBC and its governing body, the BBC Trust …

Discussion: The Independent, Guardian, Metro.co.uk, Telegraph, Fox News, BBC, Telegraph, liverpoolecho, BBC and Sky News

Edmund Lee / Bloomberg:

Maxim Magazine Said to Fetch Bids of About $20 Million — Maxim magazine, the bawdy men's title that went up for sale in March, is seeing some bids of about $20 million, less than a 10th of the price its owners paid six years ago, according to people familiar with the situation.

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Laura Bennett / New Republic:

CNN Is Bad at Tabloid Journalism — Defense testimony for the Zimmerman trial, perhaps concluding Wednesday, has so far been something of a sideshow. A trainer from Zimmerman's gym swaggered to the stand on Monday, described Zimmerman as “soft-bodied,” disdainfully rated his fitness a 0.5 out of 10 …

Discussion: Gawker, Los Angeles Times, Piers Morgan and Pressthink

Emma Bazilian / Adweek:

Magazine Ad Pages Continue to Decline, Despite Increase in Digital — MPA — The Association of Magazine Media has released its consumer magazine ad page data for the second quarter of 2013, and again, print advertising continues to decline. Advertising for the quarter fell 4.5 percent versus …

Discussion: FishbowlNY and Talking Biz News

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York:

‘Times’ cuts one of its three New York City editions — The New York Times has scrapped one of its New York editions, bringing down the number of editions it publishes every weekday from five to four, Capital has learned. — The change went into effect with yesterday's paper, according to an internal memo.

Dawn C. Chmielewski / Los Angeles Times:

Vanity Fair launches video channel — Vanity Fair's digital video channel initially will feature four original series, some inspired by popular features in the magazine and others offered in the same spirit and tone of the publication. Above, Kate Upton attends the 2012 Vanity Fair Oscar Party in West Hollywood.

Discussion: Adweek, FishbowlNY, Variety and Vanity Fair

Sam Thielman / Adweek:

Zucker's Changes at CNN Are Already Bearing Fruit — The good ship CNN is riding a little higher on the waves. After months of plummeting ratings and a high-profile game of C-suite musical chairs, the original cable news network is catching up to its competitors in the core demo and showing significant year-over-year gains.

Discussion: Mediaite

Greg Sandoval / The Verge:

Pandora's PR problem: how the web radio titan became music's big villain — The company has made few friends with its pitch for higher royalties — When Tim Westergren says something about music, it's easy to believe him. He not only possesses rock-star good looks and a background as a pianist …

Todd Spangler / Variety:

Guggenheim Exit Leaves Hulu a Pay-TV Pawn — Three bidders remain: DirecTV, AT&T, Time Warner Cable — The pay-TV biz is going to get its hands on Hulu. — With Guggenheim Digital Media and KKR opting out of the hunt for Hulu, as CNBC reported Tuesday, that leaves three bidders …

Discussion: CNBC