—Bertelsmann: Sony (NYSE: SNE) Music’s global digital head Thomas Hesse is leaving to join Bertelsmann in February, tasked with its digital transformation, MusicWeek writes. Hesse previously led digital at SonyBMG.

Two business publishers have reported modest financial growth in interim financial updates, after content and services subscriptions held up.

It sounds like RBI’s restructuring may not yet be over. Reporting eight percent lower revenue for the first half of the year, parent Reed Elsevier (NYSE: RUK) said “leading (RBI) brands returned to growth in the first half; (but there are) continuing difficult print advertising markets in other business magazines”.

Reed Business Information, which has avoided its own sell-off by off-loading many of its own titles, is now in buying mode, acquiring Ascend Worldwide, a supplier of aerospace information to investors.

After offloading many titles over the last year, Variety and Farmers Weekly publisher Reed Business Information returned to revenue growth in the first three months of 2011, parent Reed Elsevier (NYSE: RUK) says in an interim management statement for the period.

Yet another Reed Business Information selloff—it is selling its Computer Weekly magazine’s website and events to IT publisher TechTarget (NSDQ: TTGT) Inc (release). The print edition will be closed by RBI after 45 years on paper.

Variety and Farmers Weekly publisher Reed Elsevier (NYSE: RUK) says its Reed Business Information earned 19 percent less money through 2010, as it off-loaded many magazines to reshape its portfolio.

—Nokia (NYSE: NOK) MeeGo: The handset maker’s higher-end Symbian alternative is due out on its first phone by year’s end, but Ari Jaaski, Nokia’s head of MeeGo devices, is leaving the company, Reuters reports.

Keith Jones, the group CEO of Reed Business Information is retiring later this month, as the B2B publisher’s contraction nears its final stages for now. UK CEO Mark Kelsey will add the group-level role to his job, reports Journalism.co.uk , which has this excerpt from Jones’ leaving email to staff…

The first half of the year for Reed Elsevier (NYSE: RUK) saw ad dollars stabilize, though executives expressed a greater degree of caution regarding the rest of its business looking ahead. The company didn’t provide much detail on its magazines’ performance. The main driver of the company’s business was the…

		EPS*	Rev. vs Qh109	Net Inc. vs Qh109
Reed Elsevier	Release		1%	1%

* vs. Analysts' Estimates: Beat Met Missed

Affluent ad-focused Martini Media Network has raised $6 million second round led by Reed Elsevier (NYSE: RUK) Ventures. Granite Ventures and Venrock participated in the round as well. While the b2b magazine division of Reed Elsevier has spent the past year selling off periodicals, the venture capital arms has been…

It’s sold or shut dozens of magazines since aborting the planned sale of RBI whole; now parent Reed Elsevier (NYSE: RUK) has also quietly off-loaded its German division to the Munich-based European Professional Publishers Group. The sale was alluded to in Reed Elsevier’s Q1 interim management statement today but was…

Reed Business Information is shutting down 23 controlled circulation titles (listed below) in the United States, the almost-final phase of an often painfully slow divestiture effort that started last July after earlier attempts fizzled. Almost, because the company still has intellectual property and other assets to disperse. A Reed Elsevier…

Update: It has been announced officially by the two companies: Canon Communications is buying four brands from Reed Business Information-US: Electronic Design News (EDN), Design News, Test & Measurement World, and Packaging Digest. This is a worldwide deal for the brands bought, not just U.S.; the acquisition of the US…

Business slow in Europe? Some are buying into the East to hedge their bets: Ten Alps today announced that it is buying 10 B2B publications in Asia from the gradually-dismantling RBI. Separately, it is also buying Interface Media, a Singapore-based B2B sales and online search specialist. Ten Alps, the TV…

Even if there wasn’t a recession this year, 2009 was always going to be a crunch year for B2B and consumer magazine publishers, given the pull of online media and social networking on their readers. So how have they fared? Awkwardly, publishers’ balance sheets show us…

It’s another sell-off from B2B publisher Reed Business Information, but is it enough? The Reed Elsevier-owned company has sold its Scandinavian wing for €10 million (£9.2 million) to PE firm GMT, as FT.com reports. The B2B magazines and sites will be merged with GMT’s DOCUgroup which has titles in Sweden…

Variety and New Scientist B2B publisher Reed Business Information needs “additional cost-cutting fast” and “some things must be done differently or not at all”, according to an internal memo from RBI CEO Keith Jones reported by Dow Jones. Dow Jones: “It also said it wants to raise the sale of…

Reed Elsevier (NYSE: RUK) plans to sell off a major portion of its U.S. assets—including B&C and Multichannel News—but will keep Variety, which has a detailed report. At the same time, the company announced that longtime U.S. top exec Tad Smith is leaving as CEO of Reed Business Information-U.S., effective…