Mediagazer: Tribune Closes Acquisition of Local TV Holdings (Tribune Company)

1:50 PM ET, December 27, 2013

Top News:

Robert Channick / Chicago Tribune:

Tribune closes $2.7B Local TV acquisition … Tribune Co. has closed on its $2.73 billion acquisition of Local TV, making it one of the country's largest television station owners, the company announced Friday. — The deal, which was approved by the Federal Communications Commission last week …

Discussion: Wall Street Journal

Tribune Company:

Tribune Closes Acquisition of Local TV Holdings — Company Completes Final Steps of Transaction Announced in July Tribune Company announced today that it has completed the final steps necessary to close its acquisition of Local TV Holdings, LLC. The transaction creates …

Discussion: St. Louis Post-Dispatch and FOX6Now.com

Steve Eder / New York Times:

ESPN received $260M in tax breaks and credits over 12 years to remain in Connecticut — For ESPN, Millions to Remain in Connecticut — BRISTOL, Conn. — The governor of Connecticut arrived at ESPN's expansive campus here to celebrate the groundbreaking of the sports media giant's 19th building …

Discussion: @noamscheiber, @africanacarr, @phil_rosenthal, @baseballguys, Los Angeles Times, @xmasape, @turfshowtimes, @maaccommish, Deadspin, @morningmoneyben, @justrvb, @tomandersen, @pkafka, @pkafka, @davidfolkenflik, @dangillmor, @richsandomir and @romenesko

Ernesto / TorrentFreak:

Game of Thrones tops 2013 BitTorrent downloads as piracy debate continues within TV networks — ‘Game of Thrones’ Most Pirated TV-Show of 2013 — Game of Thrones has the honor of becoming the most downloaded TV-show for the second year in a row. — With 5.9 million downloads via BitTorrent …

Discussion: Business Insider, NYT Bits, Comicbook.com, Quartz, @sims, Softpedia News, Hollywood Reporter, Variety, BGR, BetaNews, UPROXX, Rolling Stone, The Wrap, The Verge, PopWatch, TIME and ArtsBeat

Ryan Lawler / TechCrunch:

Rdio Shuts Down Video Streaming Site Vdio, Offers Amazon Credits As Reimbursement For Purchases — It's only been six months since Rdio launched its video streaming platform Vdio to the world, but it appears that the company has already decided to give up on that experiment.

Discussion: The Verge and The Next Web

Andy / TorrentFreak:

Major Recording Labels Prepare to Sue Russia's Facebook — For several years, vKontakte, Russia's social networking giant, has been marked as a piracy enabler by rightsholders and even the U.S. Government. — In several Special 301 Reports published by the United States Trade Representative …

Discussion: TechCrunch and Softpedia News

The Stream:

New report exposes digital front of Syria's civil war … Washington D.C. — Adults and children alike flock to the U.S. Botanical Garden in Washington, DC to see the model train display — A growing number of Americans don't identify with a religion. Some see Christmas as a cultural, not religious, holiday.

Discussion: @headhntr and @azmatzahra

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York:

Upcoming DJX news offering and integration with WSJ newsroom make 2014 critical for Dow Jones — Dow Jones' ‘make or break’ 2014 — Dow Jones is gearing up for a potentially pivotal 2014. — The 131-year-old financial information and media company, which publishes The Wall Street Journal …

Jeremy Barr / Poynter:

As fewer people read newspapers, more share their front pages — Newspapers are dying. But their front pages aren't. — At a time when print advertising revenue continues to decline and publications are laying off staff in droves, newspaper covers are increasingly being shared digitally …

Discussion: Kirk LaPointe's …

Paul Carr / PandoDaily:

Look Who's Gawking: Inside Nick Denton's phony, hypocritical class war against tech workers … Last Friday morning, a shuttle bus transporting Google workers from Oakland to Mountain View was surrounded by a mob. A banner was unfurled - “F**k off Google” — and several of the protesters began hurling rocks …

Discussion: @mattbuchanan, @daveg, @daveg, @codybrown, @weareyourfek, Business Insider, @mathewi, @paulcarr, Capital New York, @esten, @tolles, @susie_c, @daweiner, @tomcoates, @glennf, @jonsteinberg31, @jason_pontin, @chuckglp, @realmattforney, @ansciath and @joshsternberg

Aleksandar Vasovic / Reuters:

Bomb targets Montenegrin newspaper critical of government — (Reuters) - A bomb blast overnight shook the offices of Montenegro's leading daily Vijesti in the latest attack on a newspaper known for its criticism of the authorities under the country's long-term leader Milo Djukanovic.

Ethan Smith / Wall Street Journal:

Dollar-and-Cents Secrets of Music Streaming — Staying Power Is More Important Than Bursting on the Scene — In the good old days of the CD boom, the music industry was all about the first week. Prime the pump with endless airplay on pop radio and MTV, blanket major markets with billboard ads …

Discussion: @charlesubaghs, @billboardglenn and @alisternburg