At TV Guide, freelancers land more than just a byline. Because editors already have the inside scoop on the top shows, freelancers are assigned to a beat and cover a particular show for the magazine.

So, if your writing can woo the editors, you could be landing regular assignments in no time – especially if you’re able to cover a show that the mag doesn’t have a writer for. An example of this is an L.A. writer who offered to travel to Albuquerque for an on-set feature of Breaking Bad. The editors gladly accepted, since they didn’t have a regular stringer for the show.

“We watch everything and make editorial choices in terms of what we’re going to feature in order to guide people to what they should be watching — what the best stuff is, what they need to be aware of, what’s becoming culturally relevant,” explained articles editor Bruce Fretts.

For more info, read How To Pitch: TV Guide. [Mediabistro AvantGuild subscription required]

Judith Crist had a rich career as a film critic. Older readers may recall Crist from her days as a Today Show contributor from 1964 to 1973. Others know Crist for her many years dishing out the best and worst at the movies for TV Guide.

Crist died today after a long illness. She was 90.

Crist’s work was featured in numerous publications throughout the decades. The Bronx native attended Morris High School, and began to carve out her career at Hunter College. Subsequently, she was named to the school’s Hall of Fame. Columbia University’s School of Journalism followed, where she got her Master’s degree and had been an adjunct professor since 1958.

Immediately after school, Crist worked for the New York Herald-Tribune. During her 22-year-run, Crist was the “point person” for all things arts and entertainment, including her first job as a film critic.

That led to another 22-year stint, this time at TV Guide.

Crist was the founding film critic for New York magazine, and served as film critic for the New York Post. She also worked on many weekly and monthly publications. She even returned to TV, providing film reviews on WOR/Channel 9.

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The last person we remember reading TV Guide was Frank Costanza, and he’s a fictional character, so FishbowlNY was surprised to read today that the magazine is doing quite well.

According to min, TV Guide leads all weekly/biweekly publications in ad page growth during the first half (January through July) of this year, compared to 2010. It posted a 31 percent gain, from 285 pages in 2010 to 375 pages this year.

Other winners for the first half include Us Weekly and The Week. Check out the rest of them at min.

While giant publishers with seemingly limitless budgets were forced to reassess their finances and even shutter publications over the last two years, a small, 8-year-old music magazine has been quietly expanding through innovative solutions to its cost problem.

Paste magazine, run by Tim Regan-Porter, Nick Purdy and Josh Jackson, offered its readers several options to help combat dwindling finances, including several different subscription package combos, fundraising and getting recording artists to release a special song for their magazine that wasn’t available elsewhere. They also started turning out a smaller product to save on costs.

Not only did it work, but Paste is on the road to being out of the red, according to publisher Purdy. And with if the magazine can find more help from an “angel,” it would “put us on sound financial footing and let us invest in things like circulation again,” he told Audience Development.

Now Paste has bulked up its content by entering into a licensing agreement with Featurewell.com, which allows Paste articles, columns, and reviews to be reprinted in other publications. Meanwhile, Paste is able to reprint content from any of Featurewell’s other clients, including TV Guide magazine, New York Observer and Reason magazine. While we’ve seen this sort of content-sharing happen with more and more frequency with Web publications (like Gawker and The Business Insider), it’s been slow to catch on with print journalism. Here’s hoping that 2010 sees other small publishers being as creative with their funding options and content as Paste.

Press release after the jump.

Read More: Back in Black –Audience Development

Previously: Paste Asks Readers, Musicians To Help Save Mag

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Anthea Disney, News Corp.’s EVP for content, will retire at the end of this month, the company said today.

After leaving Rupert Murdoch‘s company, Disney plans on schooling young women to become entrepreneurs with the Women’s Enterprise Initiative that she founded. Murdoch, saying one of the nicest things we’ve heard from him this year, gushed, “[Disney] has impeccable judgment and taste and I have relied on her counsel across just about all of our content businesses. I will miss her immensely but understand her desire to shift gears at this point in her life.”

Disney joined News Corp. after years of working in journalism, in London and the U.S. She worked in the company’s magazine division and was the original head of content for Murdoch’s first digital venture. She then became president and CEO of HarperCollins Publishers, followed by chairman and CEO of News America Publishing Group. She then served as chair of Gemstar-TV Guide International until News Corp. sold it in 2008.

Said Disney:

“I have had an amazing two decades at News Corporation and loved every minute of it. There is no more exciting or vibrant company in the media industry and there is simply no one like Rupert Murdoch.”

After the jump, a video of Disney from a 90′s infomercial about TV Guide, where Disney was editor-in-chief at the time.

Press release: Anthea Disney, News Corporation Executive Vice President for Content, to Retire at Year’s End

Anthea Disney Exits News Corp. –The Wrap

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TV Guide cut a handful of staffers yesterday, including publisher Pete Haeffner, according to reports by MIN and The Wrap.

Other members of the TV Guide team who were let go include associate publishers Gary Kleinman and Mindy Nathanson.

TV Guide has been in flux since private equity firm OpenGate Capital — one of the bidders for BusinessWeek — bought the magazine last year. President Scott Crystal was ousted in May and former Hachette Filipacchi president and CEO Jack Kliger was named acting CEO in July.

Cuts at TV Guide Include Publisher Haeffner –MIN online

Publisher, Others Axed at TV Guide –The Wrap

Related: Report: National Geographic Loses Publisher Giannetti

New York Times: Thomas Moran, a Star-Ledger politics columnist who left journalism to become policy director at PSE&G, has returned to his old gig.

New York Post: TV Guide is planning to cut its rate base from 2.9 million to 2 million.

WWD: Vogue Paris editor Carine Roitfeld says that were she to leave the magazine, she would like to do “a well-made film about fashion.”

CelebStoner: The Wall Street Journal clinched the New York Media Softball League title yesterday, defeating BusinessWeek.

Slate: The truth behind Good Housekeeping‘s Green Seal.

BusinessWeek media columnist Jon Fine has some excellent insight into the progress of the sale of his employer.

According to Fine, OpenGate Capital, the private equity firm that bought TV Guide magazine last year, and Bruce Wasserstein, who picked up New York magazine in 2003, have both shown interest in BusinessWeek, which is currently owned by McGraw-Hill.

Although some financial information was already sent out to interested parties six weeks ago, the magazine’s management is going to be making full presentations soon, starting as early as the end of next week or early August, Fine said. Other companies will most likely attend the presentations besides OpenGate and Wasserstein, but McGraw-Hill is remaining mum.

However, some companies have already passed on the business magazine including Thomson Reuters, Bloomberg and private equity firm Investcorp, which owns American Banker.

Fine also uncovered some of BusinessWeek‘s financial data, after the jump

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WebNewser: The Printed Blog, which acquired content from bloggers and printed it in newspapers, is ceasing operations due to lack of outside investment capital.

FishbowlDC: Gannett is focusing more attention on “Content One,” a new initiative to “drive for more united coverage and transparent content across all of Gannett’s properties,” naming Robin Pence to the VP of Communications slot and allowing Tara Connell, the former Communications head, to focus all of her energy on Content One.

MediaJobsDaily: These newspaper ads are not helping.

Folio: Former Hachette Filipacchi president and CEO Jack Kliger has been named acting CEO of the print edition of TV Guide.

Daily Finance: Jeff Bercovici‘s take on new Web site Mediaite.com reveals publisher Dan Abrams offered him a job earlier this year: “Discussions were short-lived.”

Magazine publisher Meredith Corp. today promoted Chief Revenue Officer Tom Harty to president overseeing the house’s consumer magazines. He will retain his CRO title as well as the position of executive vice president of Meredith Publishing Group, the company said.

But, in addition to overseeing company-wide sales efforts and various media networks — including the Parents Network, Ladies’ Home Journal, Fitness, Traditional Home, Midwest Living and Hispanic Ventures, which includes four Spanish-language magazines — Harty will also be assuming control over editorial and creative functions for the company’s New York-based titles.

According to Meredith Publishing Group President Jack Griffin, Harty was integral to Meredith’s recent success.

“Under his direction, Meredith Magazines has grown its advertising market share considerably during this period, especially for the first half of 2009, when our share of magazine advertising in our competitive set is up four percentage points over 2008,” Griffin said.

One of Harty’s innovations was Meredith 360°, a “cross-media integration business unit,” that helped grow and expand Meredith’s Corporate Sales and Marketing efforts.

Harty, who joined Meredith in 2004, previously worked as senior vice president and general manager for the Golf Digest Companies, which are owned by Advance Magazines, a division of Conde Nast. He has also held positions at TV Guide, Reader’s Digest, McCall’s, Forbes and publisher Gruner & Jahr USA.

Full release after the jump

Related: Move Aside Alpha Males, Gamma Women Are The Latest Marketing Tool For Meredith

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