At Entertainment Weekly, a change in leadership
There will be a change coming at Entertainment Weekly, just not the one that was rumored shortly before the new year. The Time Inc. publication is getting new leadership, according to the New York Post’s Keith J. Kelly, with People executive editor Jess Cagle replacing current managing editor Rick Tetzeli, who will move to a corporate special projects job. Cagle, a member of the magazine’s launch team nearly two decades ago, takes over a publication that has seen its editorial staff shrink by roughly a quarter during the recent round of Time Inc. layoffs. Late last year, rumors floated that EW would soon become a web-only publication, after years of dwindling profits and declining ad pages. Time Inc. has denied that, saying that it believes in the magazine’s future as a print publication.

Forbes chops 19 edit jobs as it merges print and online
As the ad recession deepens, publishers are chopping where they vowed they wouldn't, and yesterday Forbes announced what many had expected: That it was finally merging its print and web editorial operations, which will mean the loss of 19 jobs in the process. A statement from the company reads: “Today Forbes completed the integration of the editorial staffs of Forbes magazine and Forbes.com. We believe this restructuring and pooling of talent will maximize and benefit the editorial content for Forbes’ 40 million worldwide audience. The current economic situation for media in general has caused Forbes Media to trim budgets on both the editorial and business sides of the company. Today 19 people from editorial were laid off." This follows layoffs of some three dozen from the business side several months ago in what was the first phase of the merging of the two operations. Under the new structure, William Baldwin and Paul Maidment will serve as co-editors reporting directly to Steve Forbes, editor in chief and chairman. Baldwin was editor of print edition and Maidment was editor of the web site. Forbes' print ad pages were off 16.6 percent through the first nine months of 2008, reflecting the years-long slide in ad dollars going into print business titles, but Forbes.com continues to see traffic and ad revenue gains, thanks to heavy investment in the site in the seven years since the last ad recession.

Study: Nightly newscasts led with presidential campaign
It wasn’t your imagination – this really was the most-hyped presidential election ever, at least in terms of nightly news coverage. A new analysis by The Tyndall Report, Andrew Tyndall’s nightly news monitor, finds that the Big Three devoted 3,677 minutes to the election in 2008, the largest chunk since at least 1988. That was well up from 2004, when 2,433 minutes were given to the election. It also outpaced the previous biggest year for presidential coverage, 1988, when 3,117 minutes were devoted to the topic. In total, Barack Obama’s historic campaign received more coverage than John McCain’s, with 745 minutes to 531 minutes, but McCain still got more coverage than any other nominee since 1988. The financial industry federal bailout and crude oil and gas prices also made the top five stories of 2008, as did Hillary Clinton’s failed presidential campaign.

Programming notes: ‘Week’ steps aside for ‘Rules’
CBS’s “Rules of Engagement” will be back soon, retaining the cushiest of timeslots. As had been speculated for months, the network will return the David Spade comedy on March 3, replacing “Worst Week” in the Monday 9:30 p.m. timeslot following top-rated comedy “Two and a Half Men.” “Week,” which has averaged a 3.0 Nielsen rating among viewers 18-49 so far this season, will end its run on Feb. 9, with reruns airing until “Rules” returns. Though “Week” is the season’s top-rated new sitcom, from a small bunch, it had been losing much of “Men’s” lead-in, prompting media people to speculate that “Rules” would take its place during the March sweeps. Meanwhile, in other programming, Ion has picked up the rights to the Canadian drama “Durham County,” the first time it has aired a first-run series. The hour-long crime procedural will premiere on the network later this year. And A&E is working on a new series called “Paranormal Cops,” about a group of Chicago police officers who search for ghosts at night. No premiere date has been set, but the series is expected to kick off this year.

Study: Traditional media ads still speak to Brits
A new study of British media habits brings good news to the traditional media industry. Consumers still consider ads in traditional media to be more impactful than ads on the internet, according to a new study from Deloitte, the consultancy. Some 84 percent of people surveyed said TV advertising was the most likely to influence their buying decisions. Magazines ads influence 54 percent of consumers while 45 percent are influenced by newspaper and online ads. Furthermore, some 64 percent of those surveyed said they found internet ads more intrusive than print ads in newspapers. Just over a quarter said they would happily pay for internet content so that they didn’t have to see ads. The research also found that Brits spend 69.7 hours a week on average consuming media. Some 72 percent of those polled said watching TV comes out tops. Books were cited by 42 percent, listening to music by 36 percent, and the internet by 35 percent. People spend 16.3 hours on average watching TV, compared to 8.7 hours on average online, and they listen to five hours of radio.

Apple takes a bite out of prices on iTunes songs
Songs bought at Apple’s iTunes online store will soon be a little cheaper … or a little more expensive … or exactly the same as before. In a somewhat underwhelming Macworld appearance, Apple’s top marketer, Philip Schiller, told attendees that record companies will soon have the power to set their own prices for iTunes downloads, either 69 cents, 99 cents or $1.29. Up till now, songs have been a uniform 99 cents. That comes as the tech giant negotiated the right to sell every song sans copy protection, meaning buyers will be able to copy them or move them between several computers, actions that were previously restricted. That will be put in effect by the end of first quarter. Still, observers did not seem overly impressed with Apple’s big revelation, after past years in which innovations like the iPhone were introduced at Macworld. This will be the company’s last appearance at the San Francisco trade show, it had announced previously, and usual keynote speaker Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO, had already pulled out.