ENTERTAINMENT & MEDIA

Two Newspaper Associations to Merge: The nation’s two largest newspaper trade groups--the American Newspaper Publishers Assn. and the Newspaper Advertising Bureau--have agreed to merge their operations, effective July 1, subject to approval by members. ANPA Chairman Robert F. Erburu, who is also chairman and chief executive of Times Mirror Co., which publishes The Times, and NAB Chairman J. Stewart Bryan III, who is chairman of Media General Inc., said the boards of both groups agreed to merge and create a new organization called the American Newspaper Assn. The new group will increase the industry’s effectiveness in dealing with government and the advertising community, Erburu said.