Mediabistro.com's DAILY NEWS FEED

mediabistro.com's
DAILY MEDIA NEWS FEED
edited by David S. Hirschman
Wednesday, January 11, 2006

TW'S BEWKES SEES NO NEED FOR BREAKUP [MARKETWATCH] Despite pressure from billionaire investor Carl Icahn, TimeWarner's COO says no "material gain" would come from spinning off the company's cable and publishing businesses.
http://www.marketwatch.com/

CAN A MEMOIR BE FICTIONAL? [NYT]
Increasingly, book editors say the genre inhabits a "grey area" between fact and fiction. Doubleday shrugs off revelations about James Frey.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/11/books/11memo.html

FOR ALL-NEWS CHANNELS, THE FUTURE IS ENGLISH [NYT] Rolling news channels are emerging everywhere from India to Russia to Qatar, and they have settled on a lingua franca: English.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/11/arts/television/11engl.html

QUESTIONS OVER KIDNAP STORY BLACKOUT [E&P] The president of Military Reporters and Editors (MRE), Sig Christenson, criticizes US media outlets for agreeing to a two-day blackout to hide news that American journalist Jill Carroll had been abducted in Iraq. Slate: How long is long enough before it's OK to report the story?
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/

LET'S HEAR IT FOR NEWSPAPERS [MARKETWATCH] Despite all the commentary and seeming evidence to the contrary, newspapers are still good buys for investors, says Thomas Kostigen. Where else do you find 20 to 30 percent profit margins?
http://www.marketwatch.com/

CONSUMER MAG ADVERTISING UP [FOLIO]
Ad pages are still slow, but overall sales for the industry showed a healthy lift over 2004.
http://www.foliomag.com/index.php?id=396&backPID=392&tt_news=1487

BLAME KURT ANDERSEN [MARKETWATCH]
Jon Friedman: Kurt Andersen is the reluctant Godfather of Snark.
http://www.marketwatch.com/

SCHANBERG: GIVE THE TIMES A BREAK [VV]
Ombud Calame's column accusing his paper of "stonewalling" went overboard, says Voice critic. Shouldn't we save some of our anger for the president?
http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0602,schanberg,71637,6.html

WALDMAN: HOW I FELL FOR LEROY [SALON]
Salon columnist says she knew all along that JT Leroy was a fake, but still let herself be "sucked in."
http://www.salon.com/

ROSENBAUM'S TREATMENT DELAYED [WAPO]
D.C. emergency medical technicians treated David E. Rosenbaum as if he were intoxicated and not the victim of a beating and robbery Friday night, a misdiagnosis that delayed treatment for the longtime journalist.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/

Former Disney boss will host Conversations with Michael Eisner on CNBC. No launch date has been set. NYT: Show is "first of several projects" Eisner plans to announce.
http://today.reuters.com/news/

SHORT LIST FOR TIME INC. JOB [NYP]
Michael Rooney and Tom Beusse are seen as likely contenders to head Time4Media division.
http://www.nypost.com/business/kelly.htm

ANALYSTS SEE DISNEY-PIXAR DEAL [WAPO]
An outright purchase would be too expensive, but a distribution deal seems in the works.
http://www.washingtonpost.com

IS STERN WORTH $13 A MONTH? [SALON]
Salon's Farhad Manjoo says the shock jock's new Sirius radio program is much the same as his old one.
http://www.salon.com/ent/feature/2006/01/10/stern/

ADVERTISERS SHUN DANIEL [NYT]
The controversial TV program loses one advertiser, and others seem reluctant to buy spots.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/11/business/media/11adco.html

COOPER ON COOPER [SLATE]
Satire: One year after a devastating tsunami, four months after the fury of Katrina, mere days after a tragedy underground, which emotions will overtake Anderson Cooper next?
http://www.slate.com/id/2134080/?nav=tap3

DES MOINES PUBLISHER KRUIDENIER DIES [NYT] David Kruidenier, a former publisher of The Des Moines Register who devoted much of his post-newspaper career to revitalizing downtown Des Moines, was 84.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/11/business/media/11kruidenier.html

AL-JAZ BOMBING CASE GOES TO COURT [NYT]
A British civil servant and a former researcher appeared in court on Tuesday as part of an unfolding legal battle over claims that President Bush proposed bombing Al Jazeera's headquarters.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/11/international/europe/11jazeera.html

HACHETTE READIES FOR DIGITAL AGE [ADAGE] The publisher has named Marta Wohrle as VP-director of digital media, responsible for the development of 16 websites, four mobile applications, digital editions for all Hachette titles, joint ventures in new media, video-on-demand and new media acquisitions.
http://www.adage.com/news.cms?newsId=47404

TIME SCALES BACK OVERSEAS PRESENCE [GUARDIAN] Half of the magazine's London editorial staff is being slashed, following the recent axing of bureau chiefs in Moscow, Seoul, and Beijing.
http://media.guardian.co.uk/presspublishing/story/0,7495,1683441,00.html

B-TO-B EDITORS 'CONCERNED' OVER ETHICS [FOLIO] A survey of editors at 157 trade publications reveals concern over product placement and increasing pressure to blur the lines between advertising and editorial.
http://www.foliomag.com/index.php?id=396&backPID=392&tt_news=1486

IN YESTERDAY'S MB BLOGS:
FISHBOWLLA EXCLUSIVE: FISHBURNE, SHEIK CONJURE THE ALCHEMIST ON FILM [FISHBOWLLA] FishbowlLA has learned that a financing package is fast coming together for Laurence Fishburne's The Alchemist thanks to Sheikh Sultan bin Tahnoon Al Nahyan of the United Arab Emirates.
http://www.mediabistro.com/

SOFT SKULL GOES POP [GALLEYCAT]
Soft Skull Press has unveiled a new publishing venture with PopMatters, an indie site devoted to pop culture reviews and other feature stories. The PopMatters Books imprint will take the site's tradition of strong-voiced cultural criticism and apply it to the print medium.
http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/publishing/soft_skull_goes_pop_30646.asp

EISNER: "AN ALMOST INSATIABLE CURIOSITY" & AN "INCESSANT QUESTIONER" [TVNEWSER] CNBC president Mark Hoffman approached Michael Eisner with the idea for "Conversations" after seeing the former Disney exec fill in for Charlie Rose on PBS one night last October, the AP says.
http://www.mediabistro.com/

FOUND: SODUKU-PLAYING WH CORRESPONDENT [FISHBOWLDC] Not only does the Washington Times' Joe Curl play Sudoku, he's also got some choice words for those WH correspondents who said a collective "Wha?" at the mere mention of the game...
http://www.mediabistro.com/

HOW TO GET YOUR SELF-PUBLISHED PRINT-ON-DEMAND BOOK INTO BARNES & NOBLE [MBTOOLBOX] Having published a small book with a small press, I've had good and bad experiences doing so. Ups: getting the finished product, procuring a review from Booklist. Downs: lots and lots of legwork that can yield some, but not lots and lots of results. This is not to say that I'm not proud of what I did. But I probably won't do it again.
http://www.mediabistro.com

HE'S A MAN, BABY! ACTUALLY, TWO OF THEM: THE SECRET IDENTITY OF NOAH TALL [FISHBOWLNY] It's Literary Unmasking Week! Yesterday, JT Leroy; today, Noah Tall, the mysterious and shadowy author of Blink parody Blank: The Power of Not Actually Thinking At All, first brought to you a month ago by FishbowlNY.
http://www.mediabistro.com/