Los Angeles - Tribune Co.'s L.A. Times will cut 300 jobs, according to an internal memo sent out of Friday. Newspaper publisher A.H. Belo Corp. also announced on Friday it will lay off 500 workers, or about 14 percent of its work force at The Dallas Morning News, The Providence Journal in Rhode Island, The Press-Enterprise in Riverside, Calif., and The Denton Record-Chronicle in Texas.

Davos, Switzerland - Activision Blizzard (NASD: ATVI) CEO Bobby Kotick confirmed on Friday that a new music-centered video game called "DJ Hero" is in development and due out in 2009:
"We have this product called DJ Hero coming out later this year, which is a turntable that you actually can play competitively and spin discs and mix songs," he said during a CNBC interview.

Seattle - Microsoft is apparently looking at opportunities to expand the Halo franchise including "additional ways to tell the story that may not be game-related at all." Speaking to Eurogamer, Halo Wars' lead producer Jason Pace hinted at the launch of non-gaming properties such as movies or TV series alongside the expansion of the Halo gaming franchise this year with Halo Wars and Halo 3 ODST for Xbox 360.

New York  - MTV's former President Christina Norman is named CEO of Discovery Communications' (NASD: DISCA) forthcoming Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN). Ms. Norman will work alongside OWN Television President Robin Schwartz to greenlight programming for the network's late 2009 or early 2010 launch, on what is currently the Discovery Health Channel, available in 70 million homes, reports AdAge.

Round Rock, TX - Computer maker Dell is looking to enter the smartphone market with phones based on Google’s Android and Microsoft’s Windows Mobile operating systems, reports the Wall Street Journal.

Washington D. C. - The U.S. Senate unanimously passed a bill on Thursday to delay the national transition to digital television to June 12 from February 17. The main concerns behind the decision are that an estimated 20 million mostly poor, elderly and rural households are not technically ready for the congressionally mandated switch.

Los Angeles - More layoffs in the media space were announced on Thursday as Disney said that it will cut 5% of the staff in the Disney-ABC TV Group. Disney Interactive Studios also confirmed for GameSpot that around 50 employees in total will be affected by cuts in the company's Propaganda Games, Avalance Software and Fall Line Studios locations.