Eddy W Hartenstein

Tribune Corp., owner of the Los Angeles Times, is putting new leadership at the top as it prepares to emerge from its prolonged bankruptcy. Times Publisher Eddy W. Hartenstein on Friday was named chief executive of the Chicago-based corporation, which also owns KTLA-TV Channel 5, the Chicago Tribune and other media properties. Hartenstein will remain publisher of Los Angeles Times Media Group. With his new responsibilities, he named Kathy Thomson as president and chief operating officer of Times Media.

Tribune Corp., owner of the Los Angeles Times, is putting new leadership at the top as it prepares to emerge from its prolonged bankruptcy. Times Publisher Eddy W. Hartenstein on Friday was named chief executive of the Chicago-based corporation, which also owns KTLA-TV Channel 5, the Chicago Tribune and other media properties. Hartenstein will remain publisher of Los Angeles Times Media Group. With his new responsibilities, he named Kathy Thomson as president and chief operating officer of Times Media.

LA will bring you a unique perspective, stunning original photography and evocative writing. It all starts Sunday with the inaugural Fall Fashion & Style issue. -- Eddy W. Hartenstein publisher and ceo los angeles times

The Los Angeles Times posted an increase in Sunday circulation for the six months that ended March 31, while daily circulation continued to decline. Times Publisher Eddy W. Hartenstein said the figures were the best Sunday results in eight years. They also marked the smallest daily decline in six years. In an email to staffers, Hartenstein credited improved promotion of local stories, implementation of new digital delivery platforms and enhanced programs to maintain and recruit readers.

The Los Angeles Times posted an increase in Sunday circulation for the six months that ended March 31, while daily circulation continued to decline. Times Publisher Eddy W. Hartenstein said the figures were the best Sunday results in eight years. They also marked the smallest daily decline in six years. In an email to staffers, Hartenstein credited improved promotion of local stories, implementation of new digital delivery platforms and enhanced programs to maintain and recruit readers.

EchoStar Communications Corp. should be forced to offer uniform prices, new services and all local TV channels to buy the parent of rival satellite broadcaster DirecTV, U.S. senators said. Regulators reviewing the proposed $33.6-billion merger of EchoStar and Hughes Electronics Corp. should make the conditions legally binding or name a special overseer of a combined firm, Sen. Herbert Kohl (D-Wis.) said at a Senate judiciary subcommittee hearing.

Two familiar names from the converging entertainment-technology world have been named to head Gov. Pete Wilson's Information Technology Council--International Creative Management Chairman Jeffrey Berg and Oracle Chief Executive Larry Ellison. The council will work to ensure that California takes advantage of opportunities arising from the information revolution in areas ranging from education to the economy, Wilson said in a statement.

Facing falling revenue in a stalling economy, the Los Angeles Times on Monday laid off 75 editorial employees, part of a 200-person reduction that began last week. "The Times is no less immune to the twists and turns of the current economic situation than virtually all other businesses and institutions," Publisher Eddy W. Hartenstein said in a prepared statement. "As such, we continue to evaluate and realign our organization and operations."

The Justice Department's crackdown on stock-option backdating took a thunderous hit this month when U.S. District Judge Cormac J. Carney dismissed charges against three former Broadcom executives -- only one of whom was on trial at the time. The judge was so upset with the prosecutors' behavior, he even dismissed the Securities and Exchange Commission's lawsuit against the company. Carney's accusations of witness intimidation and tampering are serious enough to warrant an internal investigation by the Justice Department, and one is underway.

Accounting firm Ernst & Young must face a class action suit over option backdating at Broadcom Corp., a federal appeals court has ruled, saying the auditors knew or should have known about the resulting misrepresentations in the Irvine tech company's financial statements. A three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco reinstated Ernst & Young as a defendant in the investor lawsuit, overturning a 2009 decision by U.S. District Judge Manuel L. Real.

LA will bring you a unique perspective, stunning original photography and evocative writing. It all starts Sunday with the inaugural Fall Fashion & Style issue. -- Eddy W. Hartenstein publisher and ceo los angeles times

In the latest in a series of acquisitions aimed at expanding its satellite communications business, Hughes Aircraft Co. said Friday that it will buy the satellite leasing subsidiary of International Business Machines Corp. Hughes Aircraft's El Segundo-based Hughes Communications Inc. unit will buy all of IBM's Satellite Transponder Leasing Corp., which has two satellites in orbit and is readying a third for launch next June, Hughes said.

Eddy W. Hartenstein, widely regarded as the father of modern-day satellite television, will retire as vice chairman of News Corp.'s DirecTV Group Inc. at the end of the year, the company said Thursday. Sources said that Hartenstein, a Caltech graduate and aerospace engineer, had grown frustrated with his diminishing role at the company he launched in 1990 and built into the nation's leading satellite TV provider. Since News Corp.