Blaming down global markets, London-based Reed Elsevier says it has dropped discussions with potential bidders for Reed Business Information, its b-to-b publishing arm that publishes Variety, Publishers Weekly and other trade magazines. Reed announced plans to divest RBI in February, citing a desire to exit the print industry. But the auction has faced repeated credit-crisis hurdles. The problems eventually caused one of the banks to back out of a consortium put together by Reed to lend the buyer more than $1 billion in staple financing. Earlier this week, private-equity group Bain Capital moved up to be the …

Daily newspapers in financial straits are inventing new ways to cope, since buyours and layoffs have reduced arts writers and editors. For instance, the Dallas and Fort Worth daily newspapers will no longer have separate reviews of many cultural events. The two city papers, the Dallas Morning News and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, have begun running the same reviews by the same writers. In effect, there is a single daily newspaper arts staff unevenly divided between the two newsrooms. The Star-Telegram, for example, doesn't have a classical music critic on staff, but the Morning News does, so …

When Time Warner splits from its cable division next year, the company won't be spending any of the $9.5 billion in proceeds on acquisitions. Instead, the company "will buy a company we know very well, which is Time Warner," in the form of dividends and share buybacks, says CEO Jeff Bewkes. Time Warner is in the process of transitioning into a pure "branded-content company." Along with all the usual economic problems, one of the factors putting pressure on the company's revenue in the fourth quarter is the bankruptcy of Tribune Co., a major buyer of shows from Warner …

Facing increased postage costs, Newsweek is quietly considering slashing up to 1.6 million copies from its current rate base of 2.6 million. The magazine would like to transition from a large newsmagazine to a smaller "thought leader," something more akin to the Economist. Insiders say Newsweek editors are infatuated with the Economist and realize that to get the thought leader position, circulation of a million is the "sweet spot." The Economist's rate base in North America is 714,000. Newsstand sales, which are usually considered a good barometer of reader demand, have fallen for Newsweek to 83,000 from …

Fox Business Network has landed carriage on Cox Communications nationwide, increasing its total distribution to about 45 million subscribers. Beginning Jan. 1, the start-up business network will be available to most of Cox's digital subscribers in key markets including Phoenix, San Diego, Las Vegas and New Orleans. The deal means that Fox Business is picking up around 2 million new subs, or about 60% of Cox's digital customers. The Cox pact is the latest boost in distribution for Fox Business, which launched in Oct. 2007 to more than 30 million subscribers. Among the operators that still haven't …

Cablevision laid off 100 employees at Newsday last week and Tom Rutledge, Cablevision cCOO, has a new strategy to reinvent the paper's coverage and distribution model. The focus is to "abandon trying to be everything to everyone," he says. The new goal is to provide solid news coverage to local communities in a "professional way." Rutledge notes the Cablevision-owned newspaper, cable, phone and Internet service currently serve 80% of Long Island residents, so there is potential for Newsday to do something across the entire Cablevision footprint. In particular, he suggests that the paper could combine print and cable TV …

Flying in the face of conventional wisdom, Alloy Marketing & Media generates more revenue from the cash it spends on salaries and general expenses than the large agency holding companies, according to a Q3 earnings comparison. For years, agency chiefs have pursued greater efficiencies through consolidation and the creation of ever-larger agency networks. But Alloy is a small ad agency network with only $54 million in quarterly revenue. Alloy is also a media provider, operating Channel One and various websites. The admittedly non-scientific agency comparison was made by taking the revenues generated by each network and dividing them …

NBC's decision to give Jay Leno a 10 p.m. show is a sign that the time has come to fire Ben Silverman, co-chairman of NBC Entertainment. The Leno maneuver isn't about creating new programming; it is about playing defense, and NBC didn't hire Silverman to play defense. Silverman was picked because he was a hit-maker. But a year and a half after his arrival, Silverman has failed to produce any fresh triumphs for NBC -- "failing so utterly that now the network can only see the downside of the time slot where megahits like "ER" and "CS" are …