German Magazine Said to Glorify Nazis Will Cease Publication

FRANKFURT â€" The German publisher of InTouch and numerous other magazines said Friday that it would stop publishing a pulp magazine criticized by an American Jewish group for heroic portrayals of German war criminals in World War II.

Bauer Media Group, based in Hamburg, said it would stop publishing Der Landser, which said it was simply offering tales of ordinary soldiers in World War II but was the subject of complaints by the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles, which said it promoted flattering stories about officers and units associated with the Holocaust.

The decision by Bauer was a major victory for the Wiesenthal Center. The magazine had survived numerous challenges since being founded in the 1950s by a veteran of the Luftwaffe, the German air force before and during World War II. Der Landser had long been at the fulcrum of a debate about how to balance free speech with efforts to eradicate the neo-Nazi movement and persistent anti-Semitism.

Nazi propaganda is illegal in Germany, as is denial of the Holocaust. The Wiesenthal Center said Der Landser glorified the actions of units that were associated with war crimes, while ignoring atrocities.

One recent issue was devoted to the exploits in Greece of an S.S. unit that was part of Adolf Hitler’s personal bodyguard corps. As Der Landser portrayed it, Greek villagers were grateful to have been conquered.

Bauer “had no alternative given the overwhelming evidence,” Rabbi Marvin Hier, founder of the Wiesenthal Center, said Friday by telephone from Los Angeles. In a study, the center had documented how officers and units portrayed by the magazine were involved in mass murder of Jews or partisans and other atrocities.

Rabbi Hier said he thought Bauer Media had taken the complaint seriously. “They did the right thing,” he said. “They got out in front of the matter.”

In a statement, Bauer Media said a review by an outside lawyer that it hired found that the magazine did not violate German law. But the company decided to close the publication anyway in line with its “portfolio strategy.”

Der Landser originally drew its readership from unrepentant German war veterans, but as that readership died off the magazine became popular with right-wing extremists, law enforcement authorities said.

In July, the Wiesenthal Center complained about Der Landser to the German Interior Ministry, which had referred the case to prosecutors to see if there were grounds for criminal charges.

Rabbi Hier said he was satisfied with the action taken by Bauer and would not pursue the complaint.

NPR Plans Buyouts to Cut Staff 10%

In an effort to balance its budget, NPR said on Friday that it would try to reduce its staff about 10 percent through voluntary buyouts.

The announcement was depicted as one of the most substantial staff cutbacks in the history of the public radio organization. NPR would not comment on whether it would resort to layoffs if it did not achieve the desired reductions through buyouts.

An e-mail on Friday to NPR employees said the buyout offers were part of a strategy to “eliminate the deficit and lower ongoing expenses” and that the strategy “also includes investments in our digital future and revenue generating initiatives such as branded events.”

The announcement came about two weeks before the end of NPR’s fiscal year. The organization has run a deficit of about $6 million this year; about the same amount, $6.1 million, is expected in the fiscal year that will begin on Oct. 1. The buyouts and other measures are intended to help NPR break even in the fiscal year that begins in October 2014.

The plans were prepared by a team led by NPR’s chief executive, Gary E. Knell, who announced last month that he would be leaving to take over the National Geographic Society. At the time of the announcement, he said he hoped to present a balanced-budget plan to the NPR board before his departure. The board approved the plan on Thursday.

The board also selected an interim chief executive from within its ranks, Paul G. Haaga Jr. Mr. Haaga, a lawyer who has served on the NPR board since 2011, will succeed Mr. Knell on Sept. 30 and remain in charge until a permanent chief executive is named.

“I am thrilled to have the opportunity to lead one of the world’s leading providers of news, music and cultural programming on an interim basis, and I look forward to working with my colleagues on the board and senior leadership team to help this great organization build on its success,” Mr. Haaga said in a statement on Friday.

NPR said it would share more information about the buyouts with staff members next week. The organization says it has about 840 full-time and part-time employees. The last significant cutbacks came in late 2008, when about 8 percent of the staff was laid off. NPR has hired a sizable number of journalists and technicians since then, many of whom work for its expanding online ventures like NPR.org and its apps.

Cesar Conde of Univision Leaves for NBCUniversal

Cesar Conde, who has been the president of Univision’s networks division since 2009, on Friday jumped to one of the Spanish-language broadcaster’s rivals, NBCUniversal.

Cesar Conde will be leaving Univision for a rival, NBCUniversal.

Mr. Conde initially will be an executive vice president at the company. In a news release, NBCUniversal said he would “focus on business development, strategic priorities and special business projects” across the sprawling company, which includes the Spanish-language broadcaster Telemundo along with the English-language broadcast network NBC, cable channels including USA and Bravo, and Universal Studios.

Associates of Mr. Conde said this was likely to be a holding position of sorts â€" a precursor to a more specific appointment. A spokeswoman for NBCUniversal declined to comment on that prospect, but said that Mr. Conde’s role would not involve oversight of Telemundo, signaling a break from his decade in Spanish-language television.

Stephen B. Burke, the chief executive of NBCUniversal, to whom Mr. Conde will report, said in a statement, “His experience leading multiple domestic and international businesses will be instrumental in maximizing all the opportunities to grow our portfolio.”

Mr. Conde’s move comes at a time when his boss at Univision, Randy Falco, himself a former NBC executive, has been consolidating power. Mr. Falco was promoted to chief executive of Univision in mid-2011, succeeding Mr. Conde’s mentor, Joe Uva, who is now at Telemundo. While Mr. Conde has remained in charge of Univision’s broadcast networks and cable ventures since then, some of Mr. Conde’s responsibilities have shifted to executives hired by Mr. Falco.

One of Mr. Conde’s associates said he was tempted by the opportunity to work for a media company larger than Univision. While Univision is the largest Spanish-language broadcaster by far, and is growing quickly, it does not have the scale of NBCUniversal.

A Univision news release on Friday said that Mr. Conde had “announced he is resigning to pursue opportunities in English-language media.” Mr. Falco said he would not name a new president of the networks; instead, three executives will start reporting to him directly in a structure that he called “more nimble.” The executives are Alberto Ciurana, who manages programming and content; Isaac Lee, who oversees news; and Juan Carlos Rodriquez, the head of Univision sports.