Click here to receive Mediabistro’s Morning Media Newsfeed via email.


Rebekah Brooks Pleads Not Guilty to All Phone-Hacking, Corruption Charges (THR)
Rebekah Brooks, the former CEO of News International, on Wednesday pleaded not guilty to all criminal charges made as the result of investigations into phone hacking and corruption allegations. The pre-trial hearing focused on five charges against her in three areas — alleged phone hacking, conspiracy to make illegal payments to public officials in return for stories and attempts to pervert the course of justice at the height of the phone-hacking scandal. Brooks denied all the charges, which focus on her time at the U.K. publishing arm of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp., in particular her time as editor of the News of the World and editor of the Sun. HuffPost / AP Brooks answered “not guilty” in a firm voice at a court hearing at London’s Southwark Crown Court, where she appeared along with a dozen others, mostly former News International employees, facing similar charges over the scandal that rocked Britain’s establishment. BBC Other News of the World employees who also pleaded not guilty to charges related to phone hacking included former assistant news editor James Weatherup and former managing editor Stuart Kuttner. All the defendants were released on bail and are due to face trial later in the year. Read more

At the risk of beating a dead multi-billion dollar company, let’s talk about that News Corp. split again. The board voted to move the plan forward, and made June 28 the official separation date. The two new companies will be News Corp. (publishing) and 21st Century Fox (movies and TV).

Aside from the official date, the other thing to note is that there’s more information about the boards of each company. Forbes reports that Rupert Murdoch, Lachlan Murdoch and James Murdoch will have seats on both. News Corp.’s board will also feature John Elkann (former Fiat chairman); Ana Paula Pessoa (partner at Brunswick Group, a PR firm); and Masroor Siddiqui (an investor). At 21st Century Fox there’ll be Delphine Arnault (deputy general manager at Christian Dior); Jacques Nasser (former Ford CEO); and Robert Silberman (executive chairman at Strayer Education).

Now, who wants to have a News Corp. Split Party on the 28th? We’re thinking jello shooters and an ice sculpture of Rupert giving a thumbs up. We’re flexible though.

Here’s the logo for 21st Century Fox, which will operate the TV and movie brands of News Corp. once the company splits in two next month.

It’s kind of cool, right? Or should we just hate it automatically? We’re fine with either way.

[h/t: Gawker]

Click here to receive Mediabistro’s Morning Media Newsfeed via email.

Pink Slips For A Dozen-Plus Daily News Staffers (Capital New York)
The New York Daily News is now undergoing what employees of the tabloid have been fearing for weeks: Multiple insiders tell Capital that layoffs hit the newsroom Wednesday. FishbowlNY Two veterans of the paper — Albor Ruiz and Joanna Molloy — were among those let go. Ruiz had been with the Daily News for 19 years; Molloy for 15. Other names in the bunch include Christina Boyle and Robert Gearty, both reporters. NY Observer Rumors have been circulating for some time that a round of pink slips was imminent at the Daily News. Although this is the most significant number of layoffs since editor-in-chief Colin Myler took over in November 2011, there has been a slow trickle of departures over the past months. Features editor John Oswald left in March and features reporter Jacob Osterhout vented his rage in a goodbye email after he was let go earlier this spring. Read more

It seems that News Corporation loves baseball. Or maybe the company buying Cleveland’s SportsTimeOhio — the network owned by the Cleveland Indians — only weeks after purchasing a stake in YES is more about business than pleasure.

Either way, News Corp. is expected to announce the acquisiton of SportsTimeOhio this week. According to Reuters, News Corp. will purchase the TV channel for about $230 million, and the deal would give News Corp. the rights to broadcast the Indians’ games.

Larry Dolan, the owner of the Indians, is rumored to want the deal done soon, so he can avoid potential tax increses being proposed by President Obama.

The phone hacking scandal report from Judge Brian Leveson, who examined an exhaustive amount of evidence, proposes that News Corp. actively covered up information about the incident. According to Bloomberg News, the 2,000 page report explains that when News Corp. was presented with the hacking claims, it didn’t do nearly enough to investigate them.

“Questions were there to be asked and simple denials should not have been considered sufficient,” explained Leveson, in his report. “This suggests a cover-up by somebody and at more than one level.”

If you’ve been following the phone hacking story, this will come as little surprise to you. But despite Leveson’s claims, it’s worth wondering if anything will change, and if anyone actually wants it to; at least the way Leveson suggests.

Read more

Both The Los Angeles Times and Reuters have said that News Corp is currently in talks to acquire the Los Angeles Times and The Chicago Tribune. And both, according to News Corp., are wrong. “Reports that News Corp. is in discussions with Tribune or the L.A. Times are wholly inaccurate,” Julie Henderson, a spokesperson for the company, told Bloomberg News in an email.

The LA Times reported that News Corp. is in talks with the debt holders of Tribune Company (parent of the LA Times and Chicago Tribune). Those holders will become majority holders of the company when it emerges from bankruptcy.

Reuters has updated their report, saying that their source redacted info. The LA Times is sticking by its claim.

As News Corp prepares to split its entertainment and publishing companies into their own entities, it’s looking to trim some fat. IGN Entertainment, which is a videogame/entertainment website, is part of that process. According to The Wall Street Journal, News Corp. is partnering with Allen & Co. — an investment bank — to sell IGN, after its own efforts failed to come up with a buyer.

Unfortunately for News Corp., IGN is only expected to fetch about $100 million, which is slightly less than the $650 million the company paid for the sites when it bought them in 2005.

Aside from IGN, other sites involved in the sale include AskMen.com, GameSpy.com, TeamXBox.com and VaultNetwork.com.

Tom Rothman, the co-chairman and co-CEO of News Corp’s Fox Filmed Entertainment, is stepping down at the end of the year. Rothman has been with Fox for 18 years. Jim Gianopulos, who shares titles with Rothman, is taking over after Rothman departs the company.

Additionally, Twentieth Century Fox Television, a part of Fox Filmed, will be split into its own business unit within News Corp. Fox Filmed will be ranamed Twentieth Century Fox Film after the separation.

The Los Angeles Times is reporting that Rothman was forced out. His contract was originally set to expire in 2014.

The aftermath of the phone hacking scandal will be playing out in courts for years, but the now that News Corp. has announced its compensation packages for its 2012 fiscal year, we’re seeing how that situation financially impacted the company’s top dogs.

Bottom line? Their wallets barely felt the difference. Rupert Murdoch took a 10 percent pay cut, but still made $30 million; Chase Carey, News Corp.’s COO, made $24.8 million; Roger Ailes made $21.1 million; and James Murdoch grabbed a nice $16.8 million package.

Despite all of the execs — aside from Ailes, who saw his pay increase by 30 percent — taking a cut in pay, those are some healthy numbers. Imagine if the phone hacking scandal had never happened? We imagine they’d all be swimming in pools of $100s, not the shoddy $50 bills they must use now.