Breaking Macrovision, a California digital content distributer, is buying TVGuide for $2.8 billion. TV Guide is more than a weekly that online cable listings has made irrelevant, it also has web properties. Still, bubble much? [TVNewser]

Point: "A tipster tells us staffers at TV Guide have been told that there will be a mandatory 3pmET meeting today, where it will be announced that the print edition will be discontinued with the final issue being the Fall Preview. The tipster says TV Guide Channel and TV Guide.com will continue." [TVNewser]

Counterpoint: "The director of communications and PR at TV Guide has said that TV Newser's report on the September demise of the magazine was false. 'TV Guide magazine is alive and well,' she wrote. 'There was no mandatory meeting today; like most businesses, our offices closed at 1 pm for the holiday weekend. Everything is business as usual at TV Guide magazine as we are busy preparing for the new fall television season as well as our 5th annual after party celebrating the Emmys on September 16.'" [MBP]

It's called TV Guide, and its parent Gemstar is worth $2.2 billion. Selling it off might make room on the balance sheet for Dow Jones, eh?

Ousted Life & Style EIC and one-time Inside TV exec editor Debra Birnbaum has secured the exec editor spot at TV Guide, we're hearing. She's been consulting with Gemstar-TV Guide since the beginning of the year; now she joins the staff. Perhaps she'll revamp the slumping magazine with a tabloid edge to take on L&S replacement Mark Pasetsky? Only in our imaginary and inventive blog!

After "wooing" Joan and Melissa Rivers away from E!, the TV Guide Channel has up and replaced the red carpet mavens with Lisa Rinna, who you probably know from some daytime soap or, more likely, Dancing With the Stars. (Us? We know her from her SoapNet talk show. Eww, right?)

Rinna's first battle with celebrity publicists will be September's Primetime Emmy Awards, where her lips will face off against E!'s Ryan Seacrest.

There's a new TV Guide out there! Sure, maybe you haven't picked up the Gemstar title in weeks or decades, but they do more than just listings these days. In fact, they barely even doing listings anymore, given their attempt to be half-Us Weekly, half-Entertainment Weekly.

But we're getting ahead of ourselves — and the talking points spit out by the magazine's publicist, who has a BIG ANNOUNCEMENT!

You see, TV Guide "today it launched a breaking news initiative that harnesses the vast editorial resources from across the company’s platforms to break news stories first on its Web site, TVGuide.com (www.TVGuide.com), with additional coverage in TV Guide magazine and at TV Guide Channel."

Don't just stare blankly at the screen. That's a powerful message, and those words mean something.

CONTINUED »

• Don Imus suspended for two weeks after the "nappy-headed hos" comment. Suspension doesn't begin till next Monday, however, letting him suck up the ratings bonanza before going quiet.

• Consumer Reports names a pair of editors, launches a redesign with hopes to attract men, conjures up another lie about deathly car seats.

• In addition to John Edwards, Fox News loses Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama for its televised debate.

• Pinch's "Free Judy, Free Matt, Free Press" buttons didn't go over so well at Time Inc.

CONTINUED »

According to a recent Media Life survey, this supermarket checkout counter just ain't big enough for the half-dozen or so celebrity rags out there. Three quarters of readers agreed there will likely be a shakeout sometime in the celeb titles sometime in the next few years, and nearly half agreed that OK! would be the first to go:

Meanwhile, Life & Style could be next to go (though In Touch is likely "safe") while the revamped TV Guide was essentially "a disaster." People was voted least endangered and the best overall, while Star—though picked as the third-safest title—was also voted as the publication that does "the worst job." And according to media types, Bonnie Fuller won't be at the helm for very much longer:

Asked will Fuller be working for American Media in six month, two thirds said no, agreeing with the statement: "No way. It was an ill fit for a brilliant editor. I believe the rumors that she’s headed for TMZ or Hachette Filipacchi."

That's the thing about media types. Despite the overabundance of celebrity-obsessed rags, they never really seem to get "starstruck." Unfortunately for Star, the same could also be said about Bonnie.

• Larry King has never used the Internet, bothered to wipe off toilet seat.

• Hudson News covers up the prude Ashley Judd.

• Wallpaper editor Jeremy Langmead departs after four years to become editor of British Esquire.

• Miami luxe rag publisher Jerry Powers, who runs Ocean Drive, isn't too pleased that former protege Jason Binn (publisher of Niche Media's Gotham) now owns him.

• TV Guide lays off 40 staffers, blames industry.

• Details' Dan Peres finds his new bitch.

So it turns out that Us Weekly's Sarah Piper was just a .. custodian? Gemstar had brought her on this month to turn around Inside TV, the TV Guide spin-off who's embarrassing entry into celebrity weeklies makes In Touch look successful.

But now the publisher – so busy concentrating on how to fill a magazine that doesn't include grids – has pulled the curtains on the struggling glossy, with Thursday's issue being its last. As if you needed another excuse to read Star instead.

Gemstar to stop publishing Inside TV [Business Week]
Related: Celebrity saturation? We must go on, can't go on, must go on!

Aw, a magazine is struggling to survive? That just breaks our little hearts — sort of the way Tyra Banks will when she walks the catwalk for the last time tonight at Victoria's Secret.

But knowing that it's a celebrity rag that's on its last legs? Well that's just soul shattering. But such is life for Inside TV, the TV Guide spin off from Gemstar that was late to the game and is suffering for it.

They've brought on Sarah Pyper of Us Weekly fame (that's without the fortune) to revamp the title so it can seriously compete with the likes of Star and, well, Us Weekly.

Sources said the new Inside TV likely would incorporate more celebrity-inspired fashion, shopping and relationship editorial and less tabloid-style news and gossip. If so, that would be consistent with a growing consensus among weekly editors that the gossip market is unsustainably overcrowded.

Uh huh, uh huh — and just when was this growing consensus reached? Just because Jann Wenner's a pussy and didn't want to launch a cheaper Us Weekly doesn't mean there's not enough Jessica Simpson to go around.

Switching Channels [Memo Pad]
Related: Media Blitz

• It's for sure: David Lee Roth is taking over for Howard Stern, as has long been rumored. Though he's only picking up the New York market, which leaves open Adam Carolla's chances for his own porta-potty in L.A. [Fox 411]

• New York Times trend scribe Deborah Schoeneman isn't doing much to put ex-flame Rocco DiSpirito in the shadows in her new book 4% Famous. Now that you're aware of his identity, you can avoid pairing him the superlative "hunk," at Schoeneman's request. [Gatecrasher]

• The new TV Guide will start popping up in your mailbox this week with fewer grid listings and, like every other publication, hopes of attracting a younger readership. [St. Louis Post-Dispatch]

• Even with its newsroom cuts and slashed budget, the New York Times is finding the cash to fund OnMovies, its tri-weekly entertainment rag published with partner Loews Cineplex. [AdAge]

• Apparently there are only 60 "hot" blogs that are of any importance. Unfortunately for our ego, we're not among them. [Reuters]

• Dan Rather supposedly doubted the authenticity of the documents behind Memogate, but it took David Blum to get around to mentioning that only in the updated paperback edition of his 60 Minutes tome Tick … Tick … Tick …. [New York]

• The days of Keith Olbermann bullying may be numbered, now that Rick Kaplan may be on his way out as MSNBC president. After getting passed over to head NBC News when Neal Shapiro announced his departure, his tenure there might not last the year.

• Howard Kurtz is joining Geraldo Rivera's cause, calling for the New York Times to issue an apology to the talk show host for claiming he staged a Hurricane Katrina rescue for the camera's benefit.

• While Rodale couldn't make Organic Style work (though it still appears on the website), the publisher is going ahead with a full-scale launch for Women's Health, the Men's Health spin-off. Finally there will be some David Zinczenko-style loving for the ladies.

• TV Guide president John Loughlin is quitting for the greener (and more stable) pastures at Hearst, taking over as vice president of the publisher late next month.

• Viacom and Comcast are working together to launch a new swatch of super-niche cable channels, because the YES Network and The Food Network aren't specific enough.

• Clear Channel is clearing the way to get song from new artists and unsigned bands into the hands of listeners by debuting tracks on their website.

• Is Men's Vogue an oxymoron all by itself? If Anna Wintour falls out of her seat and nobody there's to see it, did she really skip Diane Von Furstenberg's fashion show?

• Avoiding unsolicited lesbian loving isn't what's bothering Judith Miller while she serves her prison term. Rather, it's her being kept away from the Internet. She must really miss her Jossip fix.

• Hearst head Cathy Black killed any plans for Bullet, the weekly lads title with former Maxim editor Keith Blanchard leading the pack.

• For some reason, CBS thinks there aren't enough entertainment magazines around. (Hey, we said there's room for entertainment blogs, not mags!) They're planning a new title called WATCH! set to debut in January.

• Google is pausing its library project, which scans out-of-print and copyrighted books into its searchable database, to take some time and work out its intellectual property kinks.

• Fitness freak Richard Simmons is saddling up next to Howard Stern and Martha Stewart for his own Sirius Satellite Radio show.

• Former People news director Kristen Kelch is returning to the celebrity mag world as the editor of the revamped TV Guide.

• They don't want patrons smoking in restaurants and now New York City health officials don't want you trying to digest any trans fat in restaurants either.

• Mayor Michael Bloomberg got hit with a lawsuit from four staffers at his financial firm who are claiming age discrimination.

As TV Guide readies its reinvention (complete with ginormous rate base slashes), Slate's Bryan Curtis gets into the nitty gritty history of the dilapidated magazine that's now trying to be one-part In Touch and one part Reader's Digest, complete with Robert Thompson name drop!

Who knew it ventured into politics in its 52 year history? From European suspicion to investigation bias on the news networks (there were only a couple back then, and thus no need for TVNewser).

Just as Wired served as the wry watchdog of the Internet Age, TV Guide's early editors gave their new medium a thorough working over in a weekly editorial called "As We See It." They came down in favor of inter-network bloodbaths and against canned laugh tracks. They mocked the religious quacks who called TV the "cancer of the soul." They jeered the British attempts at commercial-free TV and dinged the masses panting after newfangled color sets ("don't hold your breath").

And now there are publications like this one, that scoff at TV Guide's attempt to stay relevant. But we sure will miss all those grids — Time Warner's interactive guide just isn't the same.

Folio weighs in on TV Guide's makeover and, unfortunately, doesn't reveal anything we didn't know about the Gemstar title's upsizing. But like a good magazine, they take a look at all the angles, such as how TV Guide's lessening focus on, uh, TV guides, will fare alongside its recently launched celebrity-obsessed Inside TV.

But how will the new TV Guide format be different than its sister publication? “Inside TV is actually very easily and highly differentiated,” says Crystal. “TV Guide is about family, about the characters—it’s not about celebrity. Inside TV is about celebrities first and foremost, then about the TV-centric nature of that star. It’s a completely different demographic.”

Whew, glad we cleared that up. To recap: TV Guide's lede will mention characters, then get into celebrity, while Inside TV will be just celebrity. Totally different.

You knew it was coming, but so quickly? Even our hopes were exceeded by Gemstar's announcement they're going to supersize its slagging TV Guide and – to the laughter of Richard Spencer, we're sure – focus more on celebrity and lifestyle and less on time slot grids.

The new format launches October 17, swapping the 75 percent grids and 25 percent stories formula. And what would a makeover be without cuts?

Yep, staff will be slashed, as will the title's rate base, which was expected. What comes as a surprise, however, is by how much: Not just one-third, but two-thirds of the guaranteed 9 million readers will be chopped off. (That extra third comes from the now scandalous practice of using third-party sales agents.)

And like a good celebrity weekly, TV Guide will cut its cover price from $2.49 to $1.99, which makes it $1.99 more expensive for you to read than this website that dishes the same celebrity shlock for your pleasure.

As TV Guide prepares to slash its rate base by a third (from 9 million to 6 million), it's also forced to reevaluate its relevance when most homes have on-screen guides and no use for the magazine's weekly reference charts.

The Gemstar title says execs are reevaluating the magazine's strategy (yes, they're finally getting around to it) now that viewers can find out when The O.C. repeats without getting their hands dirty with runny ink on cheap paper.

It's time they come to terms with what the magazine really is: Us Weeekly with black-and-white grids.