BizJournals Portfolio
Dec 11 2008 8:32am EDT

Idle Chatter: Reed Reconsiders, SAG Flags, more

-Reed Elsevier is canceling a planned sale of its magazine unit, which contains Variety and Publishers Weekly after cutting the price from $2 billion to $1 billion failed to entice buyers. [NYP]

-The Screen Actors Guild is having serious trouble corralling its members to vote for authorization of a strike. The economy has them feeling like it's not the right time for a voluntary work stoppage. [NYT]

-NPR is reducing its workforce by 7 percent and canceling two low-rated shows, Day to Day and News & Notes. [Reuters]

-The pharmaceutical industry, hoping to avoid the imposition of new government regulations, has volunteered to put some curbs on its advertising. They include pledges not to pass off actors as doctors in commercials and not to feature celebrity endorsers who don't actually use the drug in question. [WSJ]

-Rodale has hired a new editor in chief for Women's Health, poaching Cosmopolitan's executive editor. [NYP]. □


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