The acquisition will boost USA Today Sports Media Group’s web traffic significantly. “The Big Lead sites have done a great job developing unique, independent voices and distinct points of view,” explained Dave Morgan, the USA Today Sports Media Group’s Senior Vice President of Content and Editor-in-Chief. “This acquisition extends our reach and deepens our engagement with core sports audiences, and is a strong complement to our position as a leading national sports property.”

Other sites that are now under the Gannett umbrella as part of the deal include BaseballHQ.com, KFFL.com, TheHuddle.com, Baseball-Reference.com, HoopsWorld.com, HoopsHype.com and more.

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While Gannett is ordering 17,000 employees to take unpaid furloughs, they have also found a way to create a new position for their flagship title.  Yesterday USA Today president and publisher David L. Hunke appointed Tom Beusse president of USA Today Sports Media Group.  A company press release indicates that Beusse will manage the national sports agenda for USA Today as well as Gannett’s 82 newspapers, 23 television stations, and websites including highscoolsports.net and bnqt.com.

Beusse comes with over two decades of industry experience and most recently served as president and CEO of Westwood One radio network.  He also was president of Time4 Media and Rodale’s Sports Group.

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Silicon Alley Insider: Ten years later, former Time Warner CEO Gerald Levin apologized for the AOL merger.

PRNewser: PR maven Kelly Cutrone (of “The Hills” and “The City” fame) has a new book out, set to hit stands at the same time as her new reality show debuts on Bravo.

The Awl: Author and contributing editor for The Morning News, Clay Risen, is joining The New York Times‘ op-ed page.

New York Times: Eunice Johnson, the widow of Ebony magazine founder John Johnson, died Sunday at age 93. She was famous for directing the traveling fashion shows Ebony Fashion Fair since 1961.

Folio: Battered consumer business magazines hope to bounce back in the New Year.

Gannett Blog: Two new newspaper publisher-related blog offerings from Gannett Blogger Jim Hopkins: New York Times Co. Blog and News Corp. Blog

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PaidContent: Layoffs and closures are expected at Reed Business U.S. after the company has failed to sell off a bulk of its magazine portfolio. Read the memo from CEO John Poulin here.

Gannett Blog: Although the company is starting the year with the lowest number of employees since 1997, Gannett‘s employment outlook looks better than last year.

WWD: Some New Year resolutions from magazine editors, including getting more ad pages and booking more celebrities for covers.

Wall Street Journal: Ad spending may have ticked up at the end of 2010, giving some hope for the coming year, but publishers are still cautious.

Daily Beast: Tina Brown says stop blaming the Internet for the death of newspapers. “American newspapers are dying mostly because they were so dull for so long a whole generation gave up on them. They needed to innovate back in the Fax Age of the 1980s but were too self-important and making too much money with their monopolies to acknowledge it.”

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TVNewser: Comcast is coming close to closing its deal with General Electric over NBC Universal. An announcement might come as soon as this week.

FishbowlDC: Rumble in the Washington Post newsroom: Henry Allen punched Manuel Roig-Franzia in the face last night.

PaidContent: Time Inc.‘s Vivek Shah is leaving the company after 15 years.

Editor & Publisher: Gannett has issued a list of priorities to its papers’ editors, asking them to beef up investigative reporting, reposition Web sites for breaking news, and better engage young readers and Sunday readers.

New York Times: David Carr mourns the loss of the business press. Another casualty of the recession.

Broadcasting & Cable: An exclusive Q&A with Jay Leno. He talks about the negative press he’s received recently and what’s it’s like to work at NBC: “I find there’s a lot of anger at NBC. But it’s like I say to the people who write the dramas: If I weren’t doing this, it would be “Dateline” five nights a week or reality shows. We’ve kept work in California, we have 22 WGA writers, but there’s always going to be anger and resentment. The last couple of weeks I’ve seen some articles that are a little more, ‘It’s not Jay’s fault, its NBC’s fault,’ and that’s OK, I get it. But when your name’s on the thing, you take the hit and that’s fine.”

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However, the company did post a 18.4 percent decrease in net operating revenues compared to the same period last year, and earnings per share were down 55.1 percent. Operating expenses also decreased, revealing a more efficient business. (Did all those layoffs over the summer help contribute to that?)

Gannet CEO Craig Dubow, who just came back to work last week after back surgery, emphasized the positives:

“We finished the quarter on a stronger note with better than anticipated results due primarily to better trends in advertising and great efficiencies across all of our business segments. Our results for the quarter exceeded the high end of previously announced estimated ranges for revenue, operating cash flow, and earnings per share…Third quarter year-over-year comparisons of publishing advertising revenue were a few percentage points better than year-over-year comparisons for the second quarter and September was our best comparison month of the year.”

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WebNewser: Meghan McCain fights back against comments about her breasts in a Twitter pic with a column on The Daily Beast.

PRNewser: Interesting poll: Which Tactic Did You Employ the Last Time You Released Big News? 48 percent say “Posted on a wire and pitched the release.”

The New York Times: Craig Dubow has returned to lead Gannett, after taking a four-month break following back surgery.

Boston Globe: New York Times Co. CEO Janet Robinson visited Boston yesterday, thanking employees of The Boston Globe for helping to improve the financial status of the paper, making it possible for the company to maintain ownership of it.

All Things Digital: NBC Universal showed some improvement over previous quarters when owner General Electric reported its third quarter results earlier today. This should make Comcast investors happy.

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Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

TVNewser: Dan Rather‘s $70 million lawsuit against former employer CBS Corp. has been dismissed. And in other CBS news, check out this profile of “60 Minutes” correspondent Byron Pitts, who reveals he was functionally illiterate until he was 12.

Associated Press: Gannett‘s shares jumped 18 percent in premarket trading today after the media company announced that its third quarter earnings were likely to surpass expectations. Gannett will publish its earnings October 19.

Folio: Advanstar Communications announced a restructuring, cutting its debts by $385 million.

More: A profile of Vivian Schiller, president and CEO of National Public Radio. “We have a lot of women in senior leadership,” Schiller said of NPR. “I was the first female CEO. But our head of news is a woman, our general counsel is a woman, our new senior vice president of administration and finance is a woman, our head of communication is a woman. The spirit of Cokie [Roberts] and Linda [Wertheimer] and Nina [Totenberg] and Susan [Stamberg[ very much pervades it.”

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Broadcasting & Cable: As the cable nets report their summer-ending ratings records, USA has emerged as a star. It had the best summer for any cable network since measurements have been kept.

Mediaite: There’s no summer news slump for Fox News. The cable news net had its best ratings of 2009 in August.

The Wrap: Post-election Politico.com has continued to grow and bring on new staffers, and it’s still hiring.

Gannettoid: Gannett has confirmed the consolidation of its advertising production centers in Des Moines and Indianapolis.

Audience Development: OK! has lowered its rate base by 11.1 percent.

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Today, Talking Biz News, a business journalism blog, exclusively reports that the Journal News‘ entire business staff was among the 50 editorial staffers cut in the reorganization.

According to the blog, business editor Mike Bieger and reporters Julie Moran Alterio, Jerry Gleeson and Jay Loomis were among those recently laid off, along with former business editor Frank Brill, who was recently working as data desk editor. After these cuts, there is no one left in the department that once boasted as many as 14 people. (Have more news? Let us know.)

What’s interesting about this decision is what it says about the Journal News‘ commitment to covering business news, especially the news of corporations that are based locally and local small businesses. Is this a decision from on high at Gannett? Will the publisher’s smaller pubs share content from its flagship USA TODAY?

But, here’s some good news. What the Journal News now lacks in business coverage it will make up for in editorial cartoons. The Daily Cartoonist blog reports that the paper has decided to keep Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist Matt Davies on staff, after previously intimating that he was among those set to be laid off.

Westchester biz news staff gone –Talking Biz News

The Journal News Will Keep Matt Davies –The Daily Cartoonist

Earlier: Gannett’s Westchester Paper Wraps Up Restructuring Process

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The paper’s publisher Michael Fisch told Gannetoid.com, a blog that covers all things Gannett, that those employees who chose not to participate in the re-applying process would be meeting with human resources today to get their transition pay packets. According to Fisch, those employees who opted out will either be leaving the company today or Friday.

The restructuring efforts were aimed at cutting the advertising department by 20 positions, while the editorial division lost 50 spots. If you’re going through this, either as someone reapplying or opting out, leave a comment or send us an email.

If you want to read more about this depressing process, after the jump you can see the memo sent by Fisch to the staff today, acquired by Gannetoid.

Earlier: Gannett-Owned Paper’s Restructuring Requires Staffers To Reapply For Jobs

continued…

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The Journal News, a Westchester County-based Gannett-owned paper serving the lower Hudson River Valley in New York, laid off 57 employees — in its production, finance, and information technology divisions — last week, and yesterday told 288 advertising and editorial staffers that it would be restructuring those departments and they would all have to reapply for new, redefined roles.

The advertising department, which currently has 96 employees, is losing 20 positions, while the editorial division, which now employs 192, will be losing 50 spots, Journal News publisher Michael Fisch said in a memo to staffers obtained by Romanesko. Employees will have until tomorrow to apply for the new positions (many of which are posted online) and they will learn their fate by the end of the month.

Although the jobs have been posted on CareerBuilder, it’s unclear whether an external candidates will be considered for the positions. We have put in calls and emails to HR at the Journal News but if you have any information — about the hiring process, the mood at the paper or anything else — let us know.

Related: Gannett’s Second Quarter Results Show Hope, Publishing Division’s Revenues Grim

via Gawker and New York Times

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This morning, Rebecca and Jason discussed news that USA TODAY publisher Gannett might have to declare bankruptcy and the launch of The Huffington Post‘s new New York section — including HuffPo’s announcement that it will be “partnering” with at least a dozen other news outlets to provide content to the site. Rebecca pointed out that it’s possible that HuffPo is not actually paying for the content from its partners, just promising that traffic will be driven to their sites.

“I think there’s a lot of places in New York that are hungry for this traffic and are really hoping that they can get some traffic that will help them survive in this brand new crazy advertising structure that we have,” Jason said. “I imagine there are people lining up to be partners with [HuffPo].”

Stay tuned through the technical difficulties and listen to the end of the chat from some insightful analysis and opinion. Tomorrow, get ready to work up a sweat first thing in the morning as Jason and Rebecca host erotica editor and author Rachel Kramer Bussel.

You can listen to all the past podcasts at BlogTalkRadio.com/mediabistro and call in at 646-929-0321.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

The layoffs come as a surprise since USA TODAY‘s parent company Gannett required staff to take furloughs during the first quarter with more on the horizon for some employees in the second quarter — along with possible salary cuts and freezes on wages and salaries.

Hopefully, those measures will prevent future layoffs at USA TODAY, but we’ll be keeping tabs on them.

If you have any other info, please send us an email, leave a comment or drop an anonymous tip in the box on the left.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

The strategy outlined in the memo — don’t put all print content online for free, create distinct Web sites that will emphasize regional news and build local sites to draw user generated content, younger audiences and targeted advertisers — has been criticized by Jeff Jarvis for lacking innovation and creativity. But paidContent.org, which also pointed out this is a similar strategy sought by companies like Gannett, said MediaNews’ plan “could help maintain newspapers’ fairly strong audience growth.”

We agree that putting all print content online for free undermines the value of journalism and undoubtedly has contributed to the decline in print circulation nationwide. Media companies will not be able to survive this recession until they find a way to make money from their Web properties, but finding the right solution may take some time — time the faltering industry doesn’t really have. Maybe MediaNews’ strategy won’t work, but they do get credit for trying.

How do you feel about paying for content online? WSJ.com is doing it well, and dreaming up new ways to get online revenue every day (micro-payments anyone?) What do you think publishers have to do in order to keep the newspaper industry alive?

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.