BARCELONA, Spain, Nov 16 (Reuters) – French
advertising agency Publicis will return cash to
shareholders by other means if its largest shareholder, Japan’s
Dentsu, does not sell its 11 percent stake back to
Publicis, its chief executive said on Wednesday.

Publicis has said it will cancel the shares currently held
by Dentsu, worth about $1 billion at current market value, if
the Japanese advertising group decides to exercise its option to
sell the stake in a window that runs until July 2012.

Nov 16 (Reuters) – Anglo-Dutch publishing and events
group Reed Elsevier Plc/NV posted a 1 percent
rise in underlying sales for the first nine months of the year
and said macroeconomic uncertainty had had only a marginal
effect on its results.

Each of its five business areas showed underlying growth,
excluding the effect of trade shows that happen every two years,
with its LexisNexis legal products holding up well as demand
from law firms remained subdued but stable, Reed said.

Nov 16 (Reuters) – Anglo-Dutch publishing and events
group Reed Elsevier Plc/NV posted a 1 percent
rise in underlying sales for the first nine months of the year
and said macroeconomic uncertainty had had only a marginal
effect on its results.

Each of its five business areas showed underlying growth,
excluding the effect of trade shows that happen every two years,
with its LexisNexis legal products holding up well as demand
from law firms remained subdued but stable, Reed said.

LONDON (Reuters) – Other tabloids besides Rupert Murdoch’s News of the World may have hacked phones, a London court heard on Monday as it began an investigation into newspaper practices that could lead to tougher regulation of the entire UK press.

The Leveson inquiry, expected to take about a year, was set up by Prime Minister David Cameron after it was revealed in July that the News of the World ordered hacking of the voicemail of missing schoolgirl Milly Dowler, who was later found murdered.

LONDON (Reuters) – James Murdoch, fighting for his career, held his line that he was innocent of covering up phone-hacking at the News of the World tabloid and blamed other former executives in a UK parliamentary hearing on Thursday.

But the 38-year-old News Corp executive and son of media mogul Rupert had no answer during his two-and-a-half-hour grilling to accusations he should have asked more questions, particularly when approving a huge payoff to a hacking victim.

LONDON, Nov 10 (Reuters) – James Murdoch turned on his
former News of the World colleagues on Thursday as he fought to
survive a second grilling over phone-hacking by British
lawmakers and keep his place in his father’s media empire.

Murdoch blamed Colin Myler, the last editor of the
now-defunct Sunday tabloid, for giving him incomplete
information, and accused the newspaper’s ex-legal chief, Tom
Crone, of misleading the committee of MPs investigating the
hacking.

LONDON, Nov 10 (Reuters) – James Murdoch blamed other senior News Corp executives on Thursday for not telling him more about potential evidence of widespread phone-hacking at the now-defunct News of the World tabloid that he oversaw.

In a second questioning by British parliamentarians, Murdoch, who is fighting to keep his place in his father Rupert’s media empire, said he was ill-informed by then-editor Colin Myler and should have been told more when he approved a large payoff to a hacking victim.

LONDON, Nov 10 (Reuters) – Euromoney , the financial
information arm of Daily Mail & General Trust ,
increased sales by 10 percent in the year to end-September and
said first-quarter trading was in line with its expectations.

But the publisher of Euromoney magazine and hundreds of
specialist titles like Air Finance Journal said on Thursday the
outlook was uncertain, as the big banks that form an important
part of its client base face turbulence and lower profits.

LONDON (Reuters) – British newspaper publisher Trinity Mirror (TNI.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) expects to perform slightly better than the market anticipated this year thanks to higher Sunday circulations following the closure of the News of the World.

The publisher of the popular Daily Mirror and Sunday Mirror tabloids said on Thursday its revenue in the 17 weeks to end-October was in line with the same period in 2010, and it had seen an improvement in the rate of decline of ad sales.

LONDON (Reuters) – James Murdoch faces a second grilling by UK parliamentarians on Thursday over his role in a phone-hacking scandal at the News of the World tabloid that could make or break his credibility as the next head of his father Rupert’s media empire.

A committee of MPs will have a second chance to cross-examine the 38-year-old News Corp executive about exactly when he found out about the illegal practice, and whether he took proper steps to investigate and stop it.