Reader’s Digest is filing for bankruptcy for the second time in three and a half years.

"Under a restructuring agreement supported by Wells Fargo & Co., $465 million of remaining senior notes will all convert to equity," explained CEO Robert Guth to Bloomberg. "The key message here is that we have a lot of confidence in the future of the business based upon the success of the ongoing operational transformation, but we haven’t had as much success with the balance sheet side of it and we need this process to help accelerate that."

"The Chapter 11 process, which will facilitate a significant debt reduction, will enable us to continue to redefine our business by focusing our resources on our strong North America publishing brands, which have shown a new vitality as a result of our transformation efforts, particularly in the digital arena," Guth stated in the press release announcing the restructuring.Continue reading...

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...

As he battles to restore his media conglomerate's reputation as the British hacking inquiry continues, News Corp. head Rupert Murdoch found himself in more hot water this week.

On the second day of the UK media ethics inquiry chaired by Lord Justice Brian Leveson about the Australian-born mogul’s intertwined political influence and business interests, Murdoch stepped into it by describing British Prime Minister David Cameron's late son Ivan as "retarded." In fact, Ivan Cameron was afflicted with cerebral palsy and epilepsy and died at age six in 2009.Continue reading...

While nowhere near as shocking as News Corp.'s surprise closure of News of the World, across the Atlantic CNN delivered its own shocker this week. Eliot Spitzer is out as CNN replaces his nine-month old In the Arena roundtable program that followed the demise of Parker Spitzer, and faithful Anderson Cooper regains his flagship positioning with Anderson Cooper 360 moving to 8 p.m. ET starting August 8th.

Spitzer's ouster isn't the only news. Additional changes to the CNN schedule include the shifting, in late September, for The Situation Room With Wolf Blitzer from 5-7 p.m. to a late afternoon 4-6 p.m. slot; John King’s show will move to 6 p.m.; while Erin Burnett, recently hired from CNBC, will assume the 7 p.m. slot as the lead-in to Cooper.

The only prime-time show unaffected is Piers Morgan Tonight, the 9 p.m. interview show introduced six months ago to replace Larry King.Continue reading...

In a heartbreaking ploy for publicity turn of events, Hugh Hefner had to announced his upcoming nuptials this weekend had been canceled due to bursitis bad back hemorrhoids cold feet.

No, not Hef's cold feet—which given his advanced age do chill easily—but his fiancee's.

The 25-year-old Playmate told Ryan Seacrest she'd been having second thoughts, and finally plucked up the courage to call off her wedding to the 85-year-old Playboy founder.

Whatever her real reasons, the more important question is how this publicity will impact the Playboy brand.

On one hand, Playboy has recently taken the PR strategy of "all publicity is good publicity." This announcement being publicity, it would seem to fit into the brand's overall strategy.

Then again, will consumers continue to see Playboy founder Hugh Hefner as a virile representation of male sexuality after he was dumped?Continue reading...

From the department of You Get What You Pay For comes the amusing tale of the Utah State Fair's disastrous attempts to brand itself as cool. The moral of the story: if your brand isn't prepared to live on the edge, then don't get into the business of being cool. Oh, and don't appear to be racist.Continue reading...

Hearts are aglow in official Washington, D.C., today because the monied industrialist husband of a congresswoman has rescued one of the iconic brands of the mainstream media: Newsweek magazine.

Many employees of the former owner, the Washington Post Co., will get to keep their jobs – “most” of the current 300, promises Sidney Harman, the magazine’s new owner. He’s also the spouse of Democratic Congresswoman Jane Harman and the highly successful, entrepreneurial founder and owner of Harman International, which makes top-flight audio equipment.
One of the retained won’t be Jon Meacham, Newsweek’s editor, whose rocky tenure has included some frankly schizophrenic approaches to editorial content (ostensibly to compete with the more openly partisan blogosphere), a redesign, and some controversy around their Sarah Palin cover shot.Continue reading...