Along with the news this morning that The Nielsen Co. had sold off a number of brands including The Hollywood Reporter came the very sad news that the company was shuttering newspaper trade publication Editor & Publisher, as well as book review journal Kirkus Reviews.

We’re not sure what will happen to the staffs of these pubs, although Silicon Alley Insider has an internal memo. Our calls to Nielsen have not yet been returned. (See below for an update.)

Have any information? Send us an email or leave a tip in the box at right.

Update: A Nielsen spokesman confirms that the two pubs will be closing at the end of the year. Fewer than 20 people should be affected by the closures.

Nielsen Sells 8 Brands, Including Mediaweek, to e5 Global Media –Mediaweek

Nielsen Finally Sells Adweek And THR, Shutters Editor & Publisher –Silicon Alley Insider

Previously: Investor Group Buys Eight Nielsen Brands

After weeks of speculation over the deal, an investor group formed by media private equity partnership Pluribus Capital Management and financial services company Guggenheim Partners just announced that it has purchased eight brands from The Nielsen Co., including the pubs The Hollywood Reporter, Billboard, Mediaweek, Adweek and Brandweek.

The new company, called e5 Global Media LLC, is said to have paid $70 million for the publications and events, which include the ShoWest and other trade shows. Pluribus was founded by James A. Finkelstein, whose family owns the “Who’s Who” series of books; George Green, the former president of Hearst Magazines International; and Matthew Doull. The New York Post‘s Keith Kelly reported today that another rumored partner in the deal, Rupert’s son Lachlan Murdoch, was replaced by former Bear Stearns chief Alan Schwartz, who runs Guggenheim. Finkelstein will serve as chairman of e5, the company said.

Meanwhile, Nielsen maintains that it will remain committed to its remaining brands. “Divesting these titles allows Nielsen to focus its investment on its core businesses and those parts of our portfolio that have the greatest potential for growth, including our leading trade show group,” Nielsen Business Media president Greg Farrar said.

Full release, after the jump

Billboard buying group changes –New York Post

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PRNewser: The new FTC guidelines go into effect tomorrow, but don’t expect social media campaigns to subside, especially during the holiday season.

TVNewser: The Nieman Foundation has set up a new fellowship for business journalists, thanks to a nearly $1 million grant from the Donald W. Reynolds foundation.

Financial Times: Rupert Murdoch‘s son Lachlan is among the group of bidders looking to buy a group of Nielsen Business Media titles including Billboard and The Hollywood Reporter.

Associated Press: Elizabeth Kennedy, the chief of the Associated Press‘ East Africa bureau, has been named chief of the Beirut bureau.

The Wrap: Nielsen‘s sale of various publications, including The Hollywood Reporter and Billboard to James Finkelstein, whose family’s company News Communications Inc. owns the “Who’s Who” series, may be completed by Friday.

The Awl: A graph of magazine revenue over the last 10 years.

Gawker: David Letterman makes fun of NY1 reporters Roger Clark and Pat Kiernan.

Journal-isms: Newsday was picketed by people protesting the publication of a comic that mocked the idea of hate crimes.

Huffington Post: The Huffington Post‘s <a href="top game changers including top media game changer Sue Gardner of the Wikimedia Foundation.

Sharon Waxman reports on The Wrap that Nielsen is set to sell a number of its magazines, including Mediaweek, The Hollywood Reporter, Billboard, Adweek and Brandweek.

The reported buyer of this slew of trade pubs is James Finkelstein‘s News Communications Inc., which owns the Who’s Who books and Washington, D.C. pub The Hill.

As all media companies have struggled recently, it’s been a particularly difficult year for business-to-business trade publishers, with many, including Nielsen, folding publications and some even filing for bankruptcy. And as Waxman reports about Nielsen’s pubs:

“Individuals knowledgeable about the state of the trades said that all of Nielsen’s entertainment titles were suffering. ‘Billboard is doing so-so, Adweek is not doing well at all, and THR is not great,’ said this former senior Nielsen executive. ‘The B-to-B market has just collapsed.’”

But will this sale mark the end of these publications lives? Or will it give them a hope at survival?

Hollywood Reporter Set to be Sold to ‘Who’s Who’s’ Finkelstein –The Wrap

Related: Nielsen Folds Radio & Records

TVNewser: CNN correspondent Christiane Amanpour celebrated the launch of her new show “Amanpour” at Michael’s yesterday, and chatted with Kevin Allocca. Says Kevin: “After the interview, Amanpour remarked, ‘That’s the tiniest lens I’ve every looked into.’”

FishbowlLA/Folio: Nikki Finke reports that The Hollywood Reporter will be going online only next year, while another entertainment trade Variety will be erecting pay walls. But Folio reports that THR owner Nielsen Business Media says it has no plans to shut down the trade pub’s print edition.

GalleyCat: Back in August, GalleyCat senior editor Ron Hogan correctly predicted that Oprah Winfrey‘s next book club selection would be Say You’re One of Them by Uwem Akpan. The Washington Post made it official this afternoon, citing unintentionally leaked info. Winfrey is set to announce her book club choice during her show tomorrow.

Ad Age: The Wall Street Journal has announced plans to start charging for its mobile app available on iPhones and Blackberrys, and the cost is surprisingly high. Readers that don’t subscribe to the WSJ either in print or online will have to pay $2 per week for the app — or $104 a year. Subscribers to either medium will only be charged $1 a year and those who subscribe to both will get mobile access for free.

Bloomberg: IAC CEO Barry Diller says he will use his cash to repurchase stock, not invest in other companies like NBC Universal.

Today, The Hollywood Reporter has more information about Tuesday’s layoffs at MTV Networks.

First, THR said the number of axed employees was only “50-something” and not the 75 of previous reports. And, in an interview with MTV’s president of programming Tony DiSanto, THR learned that a majority of the layoffs were part of a broader reorganization of MTV.

“It was not done for financial reasons, it was purely creative — an overhaul of the organization to better meet the creative needs of MTV,” DiSanto told the industry trade.

DiSanto said that seven executives under him and his number two, Liz Gateley — about half of MTV’s development team — were let go, including senior VPs Maira Suro and Aaron Meyerson, who worked on the scripted and unscripted sides, respectively.

DiSanto is now putting together a new creative structure for the network which will involve a New York-based comedy team led senior VP Brent Haynes and a bicoastal series development team led by Gateley, THR said.

FishbowlLA/TheWrap: The Hollywood Reporter cut about 10 staffers including Rose Einstein who joined THR in June 2007 as Vice President, Associate Publisher.

TVNewser: Glenn Beck makes it on Forbes‘ Celebrity 100 list, raking in an estimated $23 million in the last year.

Folio: Summit Business Media has folded monthly financial pub Mortgage Originator Magazine.

New York Times: Big oops: After being tipped off by a reader, The New York Times issued a correction revealing that it had misspelled Proter & Gamble more than 100 times.

Silicon Alley Insider: Speaking of the Times, the paper is reportedly having some trouble integrating Twitter into its newsroom. An internal memo reveals the TweetDeck program slows down newsroom computers.

Nielsen Co. has shuttered weekly radio and recording industry newspaper Radio & Records, a company spokesperson confirmed this morning.

A report about the pub’s closure written by R&R Washington bureau chief Jeffrey Yorke was picked up by a few publications, including The Hollywood Reporter, which is also owned by Nielsen.

According to Yorke’s account, publisher Howard Appelbaum called a “Town Hall Meeting” for R&R staff across the country, where he “told employees that it was a ‘tough decision’ but that the magazine’s ‘macro did not work’ in this economic climate.” Yorke reported that all jobs had been eliminated and that some of R&R‘s coverage would be moved over to Nielsen-owned Billboard. (Update: Billboard will run the radio airplay charts that R&R used to publish, but none of the editorial that the pub would have covered.)

Nielsen spokesperson Gary Holmes told FishbowlNY that less than 30 jobs had been eliminated. Those positions are “scattered around the country” with a majority in Los Angeles. R&R‘s current issue is the pub’s last, Holmes said.

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