After a tumultuous year for News Corporation which has seen the company rocked by an ethics scandal, Rupert Murdoch has named longtime lieutenant Robert Thomson head of global publishing as his company prepares to separate its entertainment and news/book publishing assets into Fox Group and News Corporation, respectively.

As part of the move, News Corp. is folding its digital magazine app that was its Greg Clayman-headed iPadazine, The Daily, which will cease publishing on Dec. 15. While it will no longer exist as an iPad app, The Daily brand will survive as a news channel on properties such as NYPost.com. Now Clayman will oversee digital for News Corp. as part of the executive shuffle involved with separating the company.

First announced on June 28th, the pending company split will group News International's UK titles, the Wall Street Journal, New York Post, the Australian and other News Ltd papers and its HarperCollins book publishing entity under the News Corporation umbrella, while the entertainment properties will fall under the Fox Group. Thomson will run News Corporation while Chase Carey will serve as President and COO of Fox Group with James Murdoch as Deputy COO.

“This is an incredibly exciting time, for me personally, and for our companies’ ambitious futures,” stated Murdoch. “The challenges we face in the publishing and media industries are great, but the opportunities are greater.”Continue reading...

Vows review after captain goes berserk in mid-air (and a New York Post punning cover).

Los Angeles Dodgers sell for record $2 billion to group including Magic Johnson.

Foxconn banks on Apple future with Sharp investment. And in other news:

Airbus faces more woes as A380s abandon flights.

BATS chairman plans to give up post.

Bank of America turns focus to overseas markets.

Budweiser snags naming rights at Texas Rangers' center field.

EBay targets growth in India.

Fox pulls trailer for Ben Stiller movie Neighborhood Watch in wake of Trayvon Martin death.

GM consolidates global Chevrolet ad account with Omnicom and Interpublic.Continue reading...

The ridiculously awesome trailer for Rubber, the bizarre grindhouse horror story about a tire able to kill with brain waves, is either the missed product placement of the 2011 or a movie that might have been ruined by exactly that kind of placement. The flick even includes a joke about the brainlessness of the killer radial.

After the jump, a round up of interesting product placement news including Tupperware in Bollywood, James Bond goes Emirates, Levi's does Sundance, and The New York Post at open mic comedy night. Continue reading...

Liberals and conservatives agree: the Obama Administration's recent campaign to delegitimize Fox News Channel as a news source is a huge boost to the Fox News Channel brand.

Fox's success shows the rewards for cable news networks of building engagement among a dedicated base of diehards, following the vaunted "80-20 rule" that says that 80% of a channel's ratings come from 20% of its audience. Keeping the core audience tuned in for repetitive programming that confirms their beliefs turns out to be the recipe for success. That it has transformed US politics is a mere side-effect. (The 80-20 rule probably caused Bill Clinton's impeachment in 1998, when FNC rode the Lewinsky scandal to ratings glory.)

The latest controversy began in early October, when White House media advisor Anita Dunn rounded the talk shows to argue that Fox -- which has been attacking Obama all year -- "often operates almost as either the research arm or the communications arm of the Republican Party."Continue reading...