»  Steve McPherson has resigned as president of ABC (NYSE: DIS) Entertainment Group to concentrate on his wine business and a “new media venture”; he’s being replaced by Paul Lee, who is promoted from ABC Family. [Deadline Hollywood] »  Just as the ink dries on Disney’s Playdom acquisition, Google (NSDQ:…

The Audit Bureau of Circulations has modified its guidelines for counting sales of bundled and “hybrid” print and digital newspaper sales in the U.S. and Canada. In some ways, the changes reflect the the increasing adoption of e-paper editions on PCs and on mobile phones. But some observers feel that…

Newsday, the local Long Island daily owned by Cablevision (NYSE: CVC), has made some changes on the publishing side. The newspaper is promoting publisher Terry Jimenez to the role of president of Newsday Media Group and tapped sales head Fred Groser to succeed him in his current post.

AH Belo (NYSE: AHC) came pretty close to reversing its net loss as revenue declines continued to abate in Q2. But the improving ad market only went so far for the Dallas Morning News publisher. The same was largely true for its newspaper peers last week. Digital revenue for the…

		EPS*	Rev. vs Q209	Net Inc. vs Q209
AH Belo	Release	N/A	4.7%	97.1%

* vs. Analysts' Estimates: Beat Met Missed

The NYTimes.com metered paywall is currently entering its second phase, said New York Times Co. (NYSE: NYT) CEO Janet Robinson as she began the earnings call. “We have transitioned from the requirements phase into active development mode, building the systems and infrastructure to support the commerce, customer service and production…

While the New York Times Co. (NYSE: NYT) had fairly small revenue growth and net income declined by double digits, it was still better than what Wall Street had been anticipating. On the digital side, things are looking much better these days, as online revenues rose 21 percent.

		EPS*	Rev. vs Q209	Net Inc. vs Q209
NYTCo	Release		1.2%	18.7%

* vs. Analysts' Estimates: Beat Met Missed

Although Media General (NYSE: MEG) posted a net loss in Q2 due to higher interest rates on its debt and other expense-related items, the newspaper publisher and broadcast owner did have positive results that will likely bode well for the rest of the industry. In particular, online classifieds were up…

		EPS*	Rev. vs Q209	Net Inc. vs Q209
Media General	Release		2%	116.%

* vs. Analysts' Estimates: Beat Met Missed

Global free commuter newspaper publisher Metro International came back to quarterly EBIT profitability, after more than a year away, in Q2. Its income, which comes from advertising, recovered in all its markets except France, where it has most readers, and in Netherlands and Hungary, while new Russian and Brazilian editions…

With advertiser interest in Gannett’s USA Today iPad app still running high, CEO Craig Dubow said that the app will remain free and ad supported at least through Q3. USAT has a set of free news and travel apps available across Apple’s portable devices, including the iPhone and iPod touch…

As it has for the last four quarters, Gannett’s profits rose thanks mostly to revenues from its local TV stations and continued cost cutting at its newspapers. Meanwhile, slight improvement at CareerBuilder, which had been a drag on digital revenues for over a year, pushed Gannett’s interactive segment up 8.3…

		EPS*	Rev. vs Q209	Net Inc. vs Q209
Gannett	Release		1.6%	35.8%

* vs. Analysts' Estimates: Beat Met Missed

The Washington Post Co. (NYSE: WPO) has made a small acquisition, buying up personalized news site iCurrent, we have confirmed. iCurrent provides its users with a single page of aggregated news based primarily on topics they specify they are interested in; users can update the page to add or remove…

Some eight months after announcing a partnership for a co-branded online business page, the Washington Post (NYSE: WPO) and Bloomberg have finally delivered. The result is a pretty standard, informative business page that seems to make good use of both partners. Some readers will probably skip right by the branding;…

Pennsylvania’s LancasterOnline went live this morning with the first newspaper use of Journalism Online’s Press+—metered out-of-town access to obits. The meter kicks in after an out-of-market user reads seven obits in one month; viewing more will cost $1.99 a month or $19.99 a year. [Slideshow.] The plans were outlined earlier…

Publishers across the world will be keenly scrutinizing the response to The Times’ freshly erected paywall. Tired of giving its expensively acquired content away for free online, News Corp (NSDQ: NWS). has decided that users must now pay for it. Are paywalls the answer? They may be an answer —…

After a nearly four-month search to replace Chris Saridakis as chief digital officer, sources tell paidContent Gannett (NYSE: GCI) is close to promoting Josh Resnik to the post. A Gannett rep said that the company had no comment. If Gannett does move Resnik up as expected, it would be passing…

»  CBS (NYSE: CBS) has teamed up with MediaMind (formerly Eyeblaster) to create a new ad tool called the Video Extender, which is intended to give users more control of how large the want their video ads to be in an attempt to be less intrusive, but more engaging. [Mediaweek]…

With ad dollars for magazines and newspapers continuing to shrink, publishers like Meredith (NYSE: MDP) and Gannett (NYSE: GCI) have expanded the purview of their digital ad sales teams to include digital marketing services offerings outside of the content they produce. Tribune Company is the latest entrant into the interactive…

On the day The Times and Sunday Times start requiring payments for their new websites, The Guardian has devoted its top above-the-fold promo strap, usually taken by teasing its own features inside, to wryly differentiating itself from News International’s papers…

Gannett (NYSE: GCI) is joining some of the other big newspaper chains in testing paywalls at several of its papers, possibly in preparation for a wider rollout. Poynter‘s Bill Mitchell has the rundown, saying that Gannett is now charging $9.95 per month for full online access to The Tallahassee Democrat,…