Friday morning headlines

Stocks wavering: Trading in a tight range - Dow is down about 15 points in early trading.

Big job losses in state: As posted below, California payrolls fell by 63,500 jobs in September compared with the previous month. The unemployment rate was unchanged at 12.4 percent.

Peter Chernin running Tribune?: The former News Corp. executive doesn't want the CEO spot, reports the WSJ, citing sources, but he might be interested in running the board. Tribune is expected to file a bankruptcy-exit plan sometime today.

MGM opposes Lionsgate plan: Studio will question the cost savings of merging the two movie companies, a proposal that is supported by activist shareholder Carl Icahn. (NY Post)

Weider pulling out of Woodland Hills?: American Media might want to move the publisher of financially ailing Muscle & Fitness to NY, the NY Post's Keith Kelly reports.

Over the past two years, budgets and staff have been cut after Weider's biggest advertiser, Hydroxycut, under pressure from the FDA, issued a voluntary recall of its product in 2009 and halted advertising for a year. Some 500 ad pages disappeared from Muscle & Fitness. Staffers complained that no raises have been handed out for at least the past two years.

How KCET's good fortune turned sour: Grant money totaling $50 million put L.A.'s public station in a squeeze because its PBS dues were drastically jacked up. From the LAT:

The irony of the windfall is that even though it left the station flush with money, KCET could use none of it to settle its account with PBS. The grants came with the stipulation they could not be used for such administrative costs. And around the time the higher payments came due, KCET's major funding streams began drying up amid the tumbling national economy.

Another bump in gas prices: An average gallon of regular in the L.A. area is $3.138, which is 3.7 cents more than last week, according to the Auto Club.

$99 air fares are back: American is offering that special price for flights between L.A. and NY as part of a tourism promotion involving the two cities. Fares are in effect most of January and February. (Daily Breeze)