Tribune turnover: LA Times publisher Hiller gets boot
These days it’s not really news when Tribune Co. boots an employee, except when the person in question is the publisher of the Los Angeles Times, David Hiller, who lasted a mere two years on the job. The announcement of his departure, which Tribune Co. termed voluntary but Hiller did not, came just hours after Chicago Tribune editor Ann Marie Lipinski said she was leaving after seven years. Both the Times and the Tribune recently announced deep staff cuts, something that’s been seen across Tribune’s papers for the past few years but deepened when Sam Zell assumed ownership of the company late last year. In fact, two LA Times editors have been booted after balking at the cuts, and Hiller was brought in to replace Jeffrey Johnson after he, too, refused the Chicago-based company’s mandate to reduce staff. In a memo yesterday, Hiller made it clear that it was not his idea to leave, telling staffers, “Sam's the boss and he gets to pick his own quarterback.” But it wasn’t clear what that person will do that Hiller hasn’t or who it will be. No replacement for Hiller has been named. Lipinski’s departure apparently was of her own volition, though she implied the recent changes at Tribune and upcoming layoffs played a part in her decision. She’ll be succeeded by Tribune vice president of editorial Gerould Kern.
Fierce bidding for rights to Brangelina baby pictures
In the high-priced world of celebrity baby pictures, it appears a new record is about to be set. An unnamed U.S. magazine has reportedly offered $11 million for the first pictures of the newborn twins born Saturday night in Nice, France, to actors Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, according to the Nice Matin newspaper. Speculation around the industry is that the price tag could reach $20 million based on previous baby photo deals. The finalists for the pictures appear to be OK!, which recently published the first shots of Jamie Lynn Spears’ baby, and People. Back in 2006, after Jolie gave birth to daughter Shiloh Nouvel, rights to her first public photos were auctioned off to People in the U.S. and Hello! in the UK in a deal worth a reported $10 million, then a record-breaking amount. Pitt and Jolie donated all of that money to charity, and the couple is expected to do the same this time around.
SQAD: Democratic ads still reflecting Dukakis effect
Twenty years after Willie Horton, the Democratic candidates are still learning from the failed presidential campaign of Michael Dukakis. A study released today by SQAD, the advertising cost reporter and forecaster, finds that in the recent Democratic primary season, contenders Hilary Clinton and Barack Obama built their media plans around the so-called Dukakis effect, rushing out responses to the others’ attack ads almost immediately via spot TV. The Dukakis effect refers to the 1988 presidential election, when Republican nominee George H.W. Bush released a slew of negative attack ads, including the infamous Horton commercial. Dukakis’ campaign was slow to respond in paid ads, which many believe contributed to his landslide defeat. Not Clinton and Obama. The two rushed responses onto the air quickly during the primary battle, as when Clinton’s “Who do you think has what it takes?” ad in Pennsylvania was followed hours later by Obama’s “Who in times of challenge will unite us — not use fear and calculation to divide us?” SQAD also finds that in the six weeks prior to the Texas, Ohio, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania primaries, spending to reach the 18-34 and over-50 age brackets increased more than 11 percent and 10 percent, respectively, compared to 2007, while the average cost of spots targeting all TV households remained stagnant.
Programming notes: Fox splits development season
Fox wasn’t just doing a post-strike song and dance when it said it planned to begin year-round development. During yesterday’s Television Critics Association presentation, Fox Entertainment president Kevin Reilly echoed his pledge last spring to overhaul the traditional development season, saying the network will split it in half, with pilot screenings in May and December. Reilly described it as another step toward year-round programming, saying that shows are in the process of filming right now for December, when the network will greenlight a few of the eight total pilots. Meanwhile, in other programming, Lifetime has renewed “Army Wives,” cable’s top drama among women 18-49 and 25-54 this quarter, for a third season. And while the broadcast networks have not yet set their plans for the upcoming Democratic and Republican national conventions, PBS said yesterday it will be broadcasting three hours per night, in contrast to the Big Three’s traditional one hour.
Bye-bye, 'Big Brother?' Aussies axe reality grandpa.
It was the program that really brought the reality show concept to the world, but has the often-controversial “Big Brother” reality series finally lost its appeal? Certainly it looks like the end of the line for “Brother” in Australia. Network 10, where “Brother” aired for seven years, has said that the current edition will be its last. This is despite attempts to spice up the series by jetting in former “Baywatch” babe Pamela Anderson to appear on the show. There is, however, a chance that another Australian network will pick up the Endemol program. The cancellation has prompted British bookmakers Ladbrokes to change its odds on whether “Brother” will air in Britain next year. Formerly the odds of the show being axed were 16 to 1. Now they are 8 to 1. “There is no direct correlation with the Australian series being axed, but it does suggest the whole format is getting tired,” says a spokesperson for Ladbrokes. The show is now in its 10th U.S. incarnation, premiering to unspectacular ratings Sunday night on CBS.
