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Breaking news on Philadelphia local TV - Philadelphia "Inquirer" and "Daily News" are filing for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy - company says papers will continue to publish, filing is to retire debt primarily -

Three Calkins Media newspapers in suburban Philadelphia will stop publishing Saturday print editions next week. The Bucks County Courier Times, The Intelligencer of Doylestown and the Burlington County Times in Willingboro, N.J., will continue to publish Saturday editions online. The newspapers announced the change Saturday. It goes into effect Feb. 7. Publisher Michael Scobey says the move is being made to control costs and provide expanded local and national news and sports coverage. Scobey says the change is a return to the traditional publishing schedule. The Saturday print editions were introduced about five years ago. He says the market no...

A photograph of Cuban leader Fidel Castro has appeared for the first time in more than two months. The office of Argentine President Cristina Fernandez released the photo on Friday, two days after they met in Havana. [Snip] The long spell without a photo of Mr. Castro had contributed to rumors he was gravely ill.

El País newspaper in Spain reported Wednesday that there were apparent movements at the Armed Forces and Interior Ministries Friday after Castro suffered a "possible'' heart attack. Another Spain-based web site, Cubaecuentro.com, reported that his condition was ‘‘irreversible."

Virtually all the predictions about the death of old media have assumed a comfortingly long time frame for the end of print—the moment when, amid a panoply of flashing lights, press conferences, and elegiac reminiscences, the newspaper presses stop rolling and news goes entirely digital. Most of these scenarios assume a gradual crossing-over, almost like the migration of dunes, as behaviors change, paradigms shift, and the digital future heaves fully into view. The thinking goes that the existing brands—The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal—will be the ones making that transition, challenged but still dominant as...

Get ready for a Star Tribune bankruptcy filing. The newsroom's Newspaper Guild announced today they had ended negotiations with management over concessions. The Strib's owners have said that unless all Strib's unions agree to a specific list of cutbacks, they will file for bankruptcy. Says Guild co-chair Graydon Royce, "We tried to work this out and this didn't happen. All we can do is go by what they have said, and that [bankruptcy] is what they said will happen. So we'll find out." Strib publisher Chris Harte has backed away from previous, more subtle bankruptcy threats, but few expect that...

There is no Hollywood ending in sight in 2009 for the entertainment industry, which along with the rest of the nation is experiencing its worst economic slump in decades. The fallout from declining local TV ad revenue, weakening DVD sales and diminishing sources of film financing will continue to pound Los Angeles' signature industry, which employs more than 200,000 people and pumps an estimated $20 billion to $30 billion into the local economy. Many expect that will trigger further layoffs at the studios, networks, independent production outfits and other media companies on top of the thousands of job losses that...

NBC Universal is in serious negotiations to give its 10 p.m. weeknight time slot to Jay Leno, a move that would secure the popular "Tonight Show" host's place at the network after he vacates his late night perch this spring, according to three sources close to the network. An announcement could come as early as Tuesday. The move would address several major problems for the network, which is bleeding ratings and has failed to develop any new hit shows this fall, at a time when advertising revenue is plummeting. Under the proposal, NBC would only develop programming for two hours...

NEW YORK – The New York Times is reporting that NBC has signed its late-night star Jay Leno to a contract that will keep him at the network and move him to prime time. Under the new deal, Leno, whose "Tonight" show hosting job will go to Conan O'Brien, would have a new show airing 10 p.m. Eastern every weeknight. The deal reportedly will be announced Tuesday.

Fifteen years ago, I had a stupid idea. I was the co-executive producer on ..."Cheers." NBC...was faltering: Ratings were sliding, money was tight, management was nervous ...Johnny Carson...was retiring... I was 28 then, and like all 28-year-olds, I had no idea exactly how stupid I was. So when I found myself standing next to the president of NBC ...I offered my solution to his network's crisis. "You know what you should do?" ... "You should move the 'Tonight Show' with Jay Leno to 10 p.m. Think of all the money you'd save." "That's a pretty stupid suggestion," he said to...

SANTIAGO DE CUBA, Cuba (Reuters) – Cuba celebrated on Thursday the 50th anniversary of a 1959 revolution whose leader Fidel Castro transformed the island into a communist state that has survived despite decades of opposition from the United States and the collapse of its Cold War benefactors. The revolution's landmark anniversary comes at a time when the era of Fidel Castro, now 82 and in poor health, is winding down and uncertainty hangs over the future of the Cuba he built into an improbable world player admired for its social gains but criticized for its human rights record. Celebrations have...

Cuban Stalinism at 50--and the Media Lies Continue By Humberto Fontova "Cuban mothers let me assure you that I will solve all Cuba's problems without spilling a drop of blood." Upon entering Havana on January 7, 1959, Cuba's new leader Fidel Castro broadcast that promise into a phalanx of microphones. As the jubilant crowd erupted with joy, Castro continued. “Cuban mothers let me assure you that because of me you will never have to cry." The following day, just below San Juan Hill in eastern Cuba, a bulldozer rumbled to a start, clanked into position, and started pushing dirt into...

In our favorite continuing series on the Decline and Fall of The Fourth Estate, see here, here, here, and here, there is more good news. The New York Times Co's (NYT.N) November advertising revenue fell 20 percent, the company said on Wednesday, illustrating how the financial crisis is aggravating dizzying revenue declines at U.S. newspapers. Ad revenue at the publisher's New York Times Media Group, which includes the Times newspaper, fell 21.2 percent from a year earlier because of a drop in real estate and jobs classified advertising. . . . Total company revenue fell 13.9 percent. More . ....

The king is dead. Long live the king. Victory is ours. The internet, which emerged this year as a leading source for campaign news, has now surpassed all other media except television as a main source for national and international news. Currently, 40% say they get most of their news about national and international issues from the internet, up from just 24% in September 2007. For the first time in a Pew survey, more people say they rely mostly on the internet for news than cite newspapers (35%). . . More . . .

As Cuba prepares to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Fidel Castro's revolution on 1 January, most of those in power are the same people who fought alongside him half a century ago. ...But there is a new generation of communists waiting in the wings. ...The youngest, Liaena Hernandez, is just 18 years old. A petite young woman with long black hair and an engaging smile, she has been a political activist since her early teens... "Having young Cubans in parliament shows that the revolution continues. It isn't just something from our history..." Her father is in the army and she...

HAVANA – In the palace of a fallen dictator, the grade-school kids in their red Communist Pioneer bandanas are getting their mandatory introduction to the glories of the revolution. Clattering from one display case to the next, they gaze wide-eyed at an antique gun, a fighter's bloodied shirt, the engine of a downed U.S. spy plane. Moving on, they stare at the yacht named Granma that carried Fidel Castro back from exile to launch his guerrilla war, and the combat boots his brother-successor wore as a ponytailed 27-year-old rebel.

The march of technology and the shrinking economy are beginning to take a toll on the traditional means of television news-gathering: the TV news crew. Under a new agreement reached this week with its labor unions, WUSA, Channel 9, will become the first station in Washington to replace its crews with one-person "multimedia journalists" who will shoot and edit news stories single-handedly.

HAVANA – Cuba on Wednesday presented a new book by Fidel Castro, who has not appeared in public since undergoing emergency intestinal surgery in July 2006 but who authorities claim spent more than 400 hours working on the manuscript. "La Paz en Colombia," or "Peace in Colombia," explores Cuba's role in attempts to end Colombia's civil war, which has raged for more than four decades. The 265-page book was presented during a Havana ceremony that Castro did not attend, though one of his sons was there, as was Ricardo Alarcon, head of the country's rubber-stamp parliament. Several rounds of peace...

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Evening Post Publishing Company announced today it was freezing benefits in its defined benefit retirement plan, which is funded entirely by the company. Current employee pensions will be computed on their years of service through Dec. 31, 2008. The move was taken because of soaring costs of maintaining both the pension plan and the employee 401(k) program. The latter is not affected by the decision.