For the newspaper industry as a whole, but most especially for Chicago-based Tribune Company, the inability of The Los Angeles Times to right itself has been a very big problem indeed.  Almost from the moment Tribune purchased the Times, the paper has faltered, losing readers, advertisers, and, to some extent, the support of its own employees. "They've been throwing anything they can think of at that paper and nothing seems to work," says Edward J. Atorino, a media analyst with Benchmark & Co. "If results don't start improving... it's going to be merciless."  The paper, which represents 20 percent …

A couple of magazines that generally fly beneath the radar are beginning to score points with a male teen demo, according to Mediaweek. SchoolSports and Stack, both aimed at high-school boys interested in the performance of school-age athletes, are finding a loyal following among readers who realize that Sports Illustrated and ESPN The Magazine do not track their favorite jocks. SchoolSports, which recently underwent a redesign, is a controlled-circ magazine that goes directly to high schools; it has 25 editions. Stack, launched only a year ago, is sent to high schools as well, although only about half as many …

E! Online's Joal Ryan offers a midseason post mortem on the brief, unfortunate history of "Commander in Chief." The ABC series, which opened as an unqualified hit, rapidly ran into some troubles which the network attempted to resolve by a quickie switch of executive producers. It has now gone into hiatus amid questions as to its future. Rarely has an hour-long drama experienced the rollercoaster ride of "Commander," which stars Geena Davis. Almost by the week, as E! Online chronicles, the show lost ground with its audience. It was vulnerable, and it took a big hit when Fox came back …

A new service called MovieBeam lets viewers watch movies on demand for only $3.99 for current titles and $1.99 for old ones.  The price sounds good, and it lets movie fans avoid an annoying trip to the local Blockbuster outlet, but there’s a catch.  In order to get the movies, consumers must buy a $230 box from an electronics store and hook it up to their TV sets. The New York Times reports that MovieBeam is built around a technology that broadcasts movies slowly over unused portions of the television signals to set-top boxes that store them on a …

Michael Eisner just can’t let go.  According to a story in today’s New York Post, the former Disney boss tried to foil Disney’s recent acquisition of Pixar Animation Studios by lobbying board members to vote against the $7.4 billion deal. His efforts failed and the deal went through, but not for lack of effort by Eisner, the Post said. Eisner remains one of Disney's largest individual shareholders: he owns about 14.6 million shares in the company, a stake worth close to $400 million. The Pixar acquisition was the first big deal for Eisner’s handpicked successor, Bob Iger, who Eisner …

The White House has spent $1.6 billion on advertising and public relations contracts over the past two and a half years, a fact now riling Democrats. "The extent of the Bush administration's propaganda effort is unprecedented and disturbing," said U.S. Rep. George Miller, D-Calif. "The fact is that after all the spin, the American people are stuck with high prescription-drug prices, high gas prices and high college costs. This report raises serious questions about this administration's priorities for the country..." Democrats said six ad agencies reaped the benefits of the White House spending: Leo Burnett USA, $536 million; Campbell-Ewald, $194 …

Hollywood Reporter Contributing Editor Diane Mermigas opines on the sudden increase of new streams of revenue-generating content making a la carte pricing of cable channels look less threatening than originally expected. What does this mean? The big boys are making sure they're not left in the dust by making changes, launching new products to keep THEIR revenue stream flowing. Mermigas notes that Comcast has recently revealed plans to add "fresh" commercials to its video-on-demand product. "Already in its early dealings with new digital distributors and platforms, the broadcast networks are creating their own competitive options. Clearly, content providers prefer …

It used to be so easy: Every year you'd buy a copy of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue when it reached your local newsstand, you'd pore over it for a couple of days, maybe actually read a story, then pass it around among a few buddies. End of story. Well, not anymore. Speaking of the swimsuit annual, which is to hit retail shelves tomorrow, SI president and publisher Mark Ford says, "It is the mother ship of what we do. We want to leverage the power of that franchise." How so? The magazine "is a multimedia brand. It's a magazine, …

Despite all the talk about the inevitability of convergence, a panel of media and technology experts largely agreed the other day that, when it comes to content and technology, the two will remain distinct. "These industries are independent but very separate. It's very tough for technology companies to become media companies, even though they aspire to become so," Michael Wolf, president and CEO of MTV Networks, told an audience of execs from both industries. "They are at two ends of the spectrum -- they are coming together on one side, but are still very separate." Geoffrey Dodge, publisher of Business …

Richard Branson's Virgin Mobile is working with Microsoft and BT Group in the United Kingdom to launch what is expected to be Europe's first nationwide television broadcast service designed exclusively for mobile phones. According to a story at FT.com, the service will likely go live around midyear, offering, at the start, access to at least five TV stations and "a large number of radio channels." The technology, developed jointly by Microsoft and BT, is said to be a derivative of commercial digital broadcasting technology that was deployed in South Korea in 2005. Korea is widely seen as a worldwide leader …