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TV Guide names new top editor after sale closes
Tuesday, May 06, 2008

NEW YORK -- TV Guide promoted two executives to top editorial roles today, days after the previous leadership departed amid the acquisition of the magazine's parent company.

Debra Birnbaum was named editor-in-chief, replacing Ian Birch, who was among those who departed last week in a round of layoffs. Birnbaum had overseen the magazine's efforts to combine content from across media platforms.

Craig Tomashoff, who was West coast bureau chief for the magazine, was named executive editor.

Macrovision Corp., a video technology provider, closed its acquisition of the magazine's parent company Gemstar-TV Guide International Inc. last week, and changed the name of the combined company to Macrovision Solutions Corp.

Macrovision has said it intended to sell TV Guide magazine and its TV Guide-branded cable channel but hold on to the popular TV Guide Web site and Gemstar's technologies that drive electronic TV programming guides.

The TV Guide print magazine has struggled in recent years as more people use on-screen TV guides. The magazine went through an overhaul in mid-2005, shedding two-thirds of its guaranteed circulation and repositioning itself as a glossy entertainment magazine.

Its newsstand sales have continued to suffer, however, falling from 287,842 in 2006 to 225,820 last year, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations.

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First published on May 6, 2008 at 1:27 pm
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