Business Desk

This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

The New York Sun
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NEW YORK SUN CONTRIBUTOR

PUBLISHING


VILLAGE VOICE DENIES RUMORS OF MERGER WITH NEW TIMES


Village Voice Media denied rumors published on a popular gossip Web site that the alternative weekly newspaper chain is merging with its rival New Times Media.


“As far as I know, it’s complete fiction,” said Jessica Bellucci, a spokeswoman for Village Voice Media, which owns the Village Voice newspaper in New York City, and other such weeklies as LA Weekly, Seattle Weekly, and the Nashville Scene. Ms. Bellucci was reacting to an item published on Gawker.com yesterday that said a deal was in the offing.


“They could be printing rumors,” Ms. Bellucci said. “That’s their prerogative.”


Village Voice staffers have been speculating about a merger between the two alt-weekly titans for months. The speculation increased after Village Voice Media, which is controlled by Weiss, Peck, and Greer, a division of Robeco Investment Management, said freelance rates would be slashed.


The Justice Department investigated the two companies in 2002 when the chains made a deal to close competing papers in Cleveland and Los Angeles. The investigation ended in a settlement in which the companies signed a consent degree that required the companies to pay fines and sell their assets of the shuttered papers.


– Staff Reporter of the Sun


BROADCASTING


NEWS CORP. PUTS AILES IN CHARGE OF FOX TV STATIONS


News Corporation, the fourth-largest American broadcasting and publishing company, gave Fox News Channel Chairman Roger Ailes control of its 35 television stations, filling a job that will be vacated by Lachlan Murdoch when he leaves at the end of the month.


Mr. Ailes, 65, will report to both News Corporation Chairman Rupert Murdoch and Chief Operating Officer Peter Chernin, the New York-based company said yesterday in a statement. Jack Abernathy, head of the station group, will report to Mr. Ailes, News Corporation said. As head of Fox News since it was created nine years ago, Mr. Ailes took the startup to become the top-rated news network on cable, surpassing Time Warner’s Cable News Network. Fox News Channel reported operating income growth of 30% in the most recent quarter. By contrast, profit at the broadcast TV unit fell 2% as programming costs rose and the stations sold less advertising.


– Bloomberg News


FINANCIAL SERVICES


MERRILL TO PAY $10M FINE, NYSE REGULATORS SAY


Merrill Lynch Pierce Fenner & Smith Incorporated will pay a $10 million fine as part of a consent agreement to settle disciplinary actions taken for failure to deliver prospectuses to customers in mutual-fund transactions, as well as other supervisory and operational lapses, New York Stock Exchange Regulation said yesterday. In a press release, Big Board regulators said the broker-dealer failed to deliver prospectuses from October 2002 to March 2004 in respect to 64,000 transactions in connection with sales of registered, open-ended mutual fund securities. The firm also failed to deliver prospectuses with respect to about 900 transactions in about 275 accounts in auction-rate preferred stocks between January 2004 and July 2004, they said. Merrill Lynch Pierce Fenner & Smith is a unit of Merrill Lynch & Company.


– Dow Jones Newswires


AIRLINES


IN EFFORT TO AVOID BANKRUPTCY, DELTA WILL SELL A FEEDER UNIT


ATLANTA – Delta Air Lines, which is struggling to avoid a bankruptcy filing amid persistently high fuel costs, said yesterday it is selling feeder carrier Atlantic Southeast Airlines to SkyWest Inc. for $425 million in cash. Delta, the nation’s third-largest carrier, said the proceeds will be used for general corporate purposes and to pay down $100 million of debt under its loan agreement with GE Commercial Finance and other lenders. The sale, subject to regulatory review, is expected to close in September.


– Associated Press

NY Sun
NEW YORK SUN CONTRIBUTOR

This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.


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