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Despite efforts by record executives to stanch declining CD sales by releasing a cavalcade of big-name artists during the critical Christmas shopping season, early sales figures show an already struggling industry may now be in even worse shape. In the five weeks since mid-November, when the record labels began their biggest holiday blitz in recent memory, compact disc sales were down 12.9 percent compared to the period in 2001, according to data from Nielsen SoundScan, which tracks music sales. That poor performance comes even as new CDs from artists like Shania Twain, Mariah Carey, Jay-Z and Paul McCartney have sold...

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Tensions between Rosie O'Donnell and her magazine's publishing partner, Gruner & Jahr USA Publishing, have mounted to the point that the publishing company is considering selling its stake to the ex-talk show queen. "I'm sure Gruner & Jahr would make it attractive" for Ms. O'Donnell to take over Rosie, said one person familiar with the situation. "What's unclear is whether she has an interest in doing that." But this person estimated the likelihood of that happening as being roughly equal with "three or four" other possibilities. 'One day at a time' Asked if Ms. O'Donnell might...

Filed at 3:20 p.m. ET NEW YORK (Reuters) - A new batch of compact discs designed to defeat Napster-style piracy is coming soon to record-industry insiders. BMG, one of the world's five major labels, said on Monday it would start issuing promotional CDs -- the free discs distributed to critics, retailers and other insiders weeks before the official release -- with technological countermeasures to prevent copying. The major labels, which include Vivendi Universal, Sony Music, EMI Group, AOL Time Warner's Warner Music and Bertelsmann AG's BMG, hope that copy protection measures will prevent users from ''ripping,'' or copying the music...

Charles Frazier, author of the best-selling novel "Cold Mountain," agreed to sell the Random House Trade Group the rights to publish a new novel for an advance of more than $8 million, people close to the negotiations said Friday. An advance that large is extraordinary for a literary author like Mr. Frazier, and it is even more unusual because he has written only one previous book and presented only a one-page outline of his next work. In addition, the producer Scott Rudin and Paramount Pictures, part of Viacom, have agreed to pay $3 million for the film rights to the...