Let’s Make a Deal…

At the nadir of the bankrupt Frank McCourt era, FishbowlLA offered up what we felt was a more fitting version of baseball’s seventh inning anthem. We’re sure glad we don’t have to sing that song anymore.

Thanks to this week’s $2.15 billion Dodgers deal, it’s time for a different Chavez Ravine shower refrain. So all together now, follow the bouncing billions and learn the words to “Take Me Out to the Bid Game:”

Take me out to the bid game,
Take me out with the zeros.

Buy me some land and broadcast rights,
I don’t care if it was a sneak attack,

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There’s some interesting grist for the Variety mill to be found in an article on TheWrap by Sharon Waxman and her media critic Lucas Shaw. The pair note that today, the Reed Elsevier property will release financials, perhaps in hopes of spurring buyer interest.

So just how profitable is the second oldest Hollywood trade? Waxman and Lucas guesstimate that on annual revenues of $45 million, the publication clears between six and seven million. As far as who makes sense as a buyer, there’s this observation in the article from Quantum Media principal Ava Seave:

Seave said the key is finding a buyer, like a Bloomberg or a Dow Jones, that could leverage existing infrastructure. “Bloomberg is super smart, and they do care about media,” Seave said. “They can, in a really intelligent way, use the content and are really great with data.”

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Do you believe in Magic?

Magic Johnson‘s bidding group reached a deal to purchase the Los Angeles Dodgers and Dodger Stadium from Frank McCourt for a whopping $2 billion — the highest amount ever paid for a sports franchise. Bankruptcy judge Kevin Gross is expected to approve of the deal on April 13, a little over two weeks before McCourt must pay his ex-wife Jamie $131 million as part of their divorce settlement.

Guggenheim Baseball Management LLC are the official owners, which include Johnson, Mark R. Walter, Peter Guber, Stan Kasten, Bobby Patton and Todd Boehly. The controlling owner is Walter, chief executive officer of the financial services company. Kasten, the former president of the Washington Nationals and Atlanta Braves, is expected to run the day-to-day operations.

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Reed Business Information announced today that it is putting Variety up for sale again. Parent company Reed Elsevier tried to sell Variety and all its other RBI b-to-b’s back in 2008, but was unable to get their asking price due to the global financial collapse.

Says RBI CEO Mark Kelsey: “Variety is an iconic title serving the film and entertainment industry for more than 100 years. With RBI’s increasing focus on data services, and the sale of our other US print magazines, it now makes sense for us to sell the business. Variety has an incredibly talented team who have successfully innovated and expanded the franchise in industry news and analysis. I have no doubt the business will continue to thrive under new ownership.”

Nikki Finke, meanwhile, is taking credit for the impending sale. She also admits to wondering just how big Variety president Neil Stiles’ office is. Can’t see Deadline taking that plunge, satisfying as it would undoubtedly be for Finke.

Great sidebar article in Forbes today by Tom Van Riper to go along with the magazine’s latest MLB baseball team valuation rankings.

From the headline (“The New Moneyball”) to the lede (“Frank McCourt shares a name with the beloved author of Angela’s Ashes and a story that’s just as pitiful…”) to the core premise, it’s required reading for anyone interested in the fortunes of the transitioning team. According to Van Riper, the Dodgers are actually worth close to what some group is about to pay for them. All because of the power of sports over the DVR:

In an age when fewer people watch television, and fewer still actually sit through the commercials, sports programming is the last bastion of appointment TV: It demands to be watched live. Some 42% of U.S. households now have a DVR, up from 29% three years ago — not coincidentally, Nielsen reports that ad spending on sports jumped 33% over that same period, to almost $11 billion annually.

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Jon Weisman, Variety‘s most prominent baseball fan, shares a fun post today about the evolving MLB team sweepstakes. Although Magic Johnson and another bidder appear to be firmly in the lead, he notes that a Hollywood actress could also wind up in the owners box.

That would be Jami Gertz, wife of bidder Tony Ressler. Weisman dredges up the requisite Square Pegs and Seinfeld clips from YouTube, and also notes what could amount to a unique 6-4-3 ownership double play:

Gertz is already connected to baseball, thanks to Ressler’s position as a minority owner of the Milwaukee Brewers (partnered with another Hollywood connection, Mark Attanasio, brother of Homicide: Life on the Street creator Paul Attanasio).

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Reality TV show kingpin Mark Burnett has been involved with cable TV network Youtoo from the fall 2011 get-go, with his company Video In My BackYard (VIMBY) providing content.

Now, per an exclusive report in the Hollywood Reporter, Burnett has upped the ante with the purchase of an ownership share. From Tim Appelo‘s article:

”While I am not able to discuss the specifics of any investor agreements, the assets of the company are valued well in excess of $100 million,” says Youtoo CEO Chris Wyatt. Burnett released a statement, “I’m excited to find opportunities to deepen our audiences’ connection with our shows through Youtoo’s amazing technology.”

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Argentina’s La Nación S.A., owners of various magazines, websites and the prestigious newspaper La Nación, have added the largest U.S. Hispanic daily to their holdings.

Through their American subsidiary U.S. Hispanic Media Inc., S.A. has become the controlling shareholder of impreMedia, parent company of LA Opinión. From the press release:

This agreement will enable impreMedia to accelerate its transformation into a robust multimedia company by combining impreMedia’s knowledge of and access to the U.S. Hispanic market with USHM and La Nación’s know-how and successful track record across print and online media platforms in Latin America.

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No, really. Not trying to be clever in the least. Commie Girl columnist and OC Weekly and LA CityBeat alumn Rebecca Schoenkopf is the new owner and editrix of Wonkette.

“Got an email in the middle of my Time Machine birthday party last Saturday night,” she tells FishbowlLA. “Signed the papers this morning. [Ken] Layne and I are Americans. We don’t have a lot of patience.”

The move is a bit of a shocker, in that it seemed to come together so suddenly. But Layne and Schoenkopf go back. Wonkette had a content sharing agreement with the LA CityBeat back when Schoenkopf was in charge of the paper. Layne and Schoenkopf also apparently went on a horrendous date once in the mid-90′s.

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Looks like TheWrap-Reuters is getting some additional competition.

Per a press release issued today by AP, the venerable wire service has pacted with Prometheus Global Media for a similar entertainment industry news feed, launching later this month. In this case, Associated Press will be parsing items from the Hollywood Reporter and Billboard. Per the release:

“Being part of AP’s massive distribution network will open THR to huge new audiences from around the world,” said The Hollywood Reporter editorial director Janice Min…

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