Click here to receive mediabistro.com's Daily Newsfeed via email.

Reader's Digest Sold For $2.4 Billion (The Street)
Publishing firm Reader's Digest agreed to be acquired by a Ripplewood Holdings-led investor group in a $2.4 billion transaction. The buyout group is paying $17 a share for Reader's Digest, whose stock closed Wednesday at $15.51. FishbowlNY: How much of that $2.4 billion was earmarked for Everyday With Rachael Ray?

TV Guide Lays Off 24 (AdAge)
Gemstar-TV Guide today laid off 38 people from across departments and offices, including 24 TV Guide staffers and 14 people from the Gemstar data-services group, in a bid to cut costs before the new year begins. TV Guide still employs several hundred people, meaning its 24 layoffs affect less than 10% of the staff.

WSJ Reporters Boycott CNBC (AP)
A union representing reporters at the Wall Street Journal said its members would stop making unpaid appearances on CNBC to protest the position of parent company, Dow Jones & Co., in contract talks. The sudden escalation of tensions occurred after only the second meeting between Dow Jones and the Independent Association of Publishers' Employees.

Fake Biotech Firm Is Marketing Ploy for Crichton Novel (WSJ)
A marketing campaign for Michael Crichton's new novel includes Web videos promoting a fake biotech firm that will be posted on YouTube and other popular sites. "Marketers have to tread carefully in the land of artifice," says Mark Kingdon, chief executive of Omnicom Group Inc.'s Organic, an agency that specializes in digital marketing.

More Newsfeed here...