Weekend Wire: 2006 was full of media love especially for your favorite mags

2006 saw a lot of media deals. Whether it was some old boys with deep pockets coming together to take over a company or old media buying into new media, the past year was all about the hook up. A total of $20.5 billion in media deals - led by the $11.1 billion purchase of VNU, owner of The Hollywood Reporter, Billboard and Nielsen Media Research - were consummated in 2006, an increase of 242 percent over 2005. The media industry hasn't had a bigger year by dollar volume since 2000. Of course, that year was heavily skewed by AOL's $100 billion purchase of Time Warner. MEDIA DEALS HIT RECORD LAST YEAR [NYP]