Monday morning headlines

Stocks try to rebound: Dow is up about 70 points, perhaps helped along by the latest numbers on the nation's service industry.

Disney film chief named: CEO Robert Iger went outside the movie executive ranks to name TV executive Rich Ross as Dick Cook's replacement at Walt Disney Studios. From the LAT:

Ross may be borrowing liberally from the playbook he followed to turn around Disney Channel, which has eclipsed the movie studio in recent years as a hothouse for talent and ideas that could be packaged and resold across the company's various platforms. Ross has proved himself adept at turning entertainment into a "brand" strategy -- high-profile examples are " Hannah Montana," which launched pop star Miley Cyrus' career, and "High School Musical," which was created for television but quickly found life -- and revenue -- in recorded music, a big-screen blockbuster and a stage show.

Gourmet closing: The monthly food magazine is among the Condé Nast titles that will shut down, Peter Kafka is posting at All Things Digital. L.A.-based Bon Appetit becomes the flagship food magazine. Other titles being chopped: Modern Bride, Elegant Bride and Cookie. From an internal memo:

Gourmet magazine will cease monthly publication, but we will remain committed to the brand, retaining Gourmet's book publishing and television programming, and Gourmet recipes on Epicurious.com. We will concentrate our publishing activities in the epicurean category on Bon Appétit.

Murdoch sees pickup: The News Corp. CEO tells a conference in Tokyo that traditional newspaper and television ads are looking better. Some analysts say that's only against year-ago comparisons. (WSJ)

Those Tribune bonuses: NYT media columnist David Carr wonders why 700 managers from the now-bankrupt company should be entitled to collect $66 million for work that presumably led to the bankruptcy.

Chandler Bigelow III, the chief financial officer, said the bonuses would help "incentivize our key managers to battle all of the intense challenges that unfortunately our local media businesses are facing," according to The Associated Press. The unsecured creditors of the Tribune Company filed a letter in support of the incentives, and its senior lenders support the plan as well. But both the company's union and the trustee appointed to oversee the bankruptcy raised objections, arguing that the bonuses would be the highest ever paid -- even as the company has its lowest cash flow in 10 years.

Freedom throws up roadblocks: The parent of the OC Register is designating more than 1 million documents in its bankruptcy filing as confidential, including a Dodgers baseball game schedule. The unsecured creditors are not pleased. From the Register:

"The gamesmanship has to stop if these Chapter 11 cases are to proceed in an orderly fashion for the benefits of all constituents," the creditors said in their motion, noting Freedom even designated blank sheets of paper as confidential.

More bickering on tanker deal: The Air Force's latest plan to evaluate bids on the $35-billion contract for aerial refueling tankers is causing unhappiness among interest groups, politicians and the contenders themselves - Boeing and Northrop. (LAT)

Another California bond sale: This time it's $4.5 billion of general obligation bonds, but investors be warned: yields are not likely to be high. On 10-year bonds, they're running about 3.5 percent, well under the 5.25 percent that investors could have gotten in late June. (Money & Co.)

Ticketmaster sued: A NY ticket broker alleges that the West Hollywood-based company paid him to sell tickets at more than their normal face values. From the WSJ:

A planned merger by Ticketmaster and concert promoter Live Nation Inc. is based in large part on giving them greater control over ticket prices, allowing the companies to compete more effectively against ticket brokers. Executives at the companies have said they see no benefit from scalping, as ticket reselling is commonly known. But the arrangement described in the lawsuit, if true, would be one of several recent examples of ways the companies have found to do just that.