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Detroit Papers Drop Home Delivery to 3 Days a Week - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/16/AR2008121602699.html Fighting to stay in business, Detroit's two daily newspapers will cut home delivery to three days a week, print smaller editions on other days and encourage people to get information online. The Detroit market is the largest in the country to undergo that transformation. The move reflects a calculation facing the newspaper industry, with print circulation dropping as readers increasingly get their news on the Internet. Dave Hunke, chief executive of Detroit Media Partnership, which runs the Detroit Free Press and the Detroit News, said the move announced Tuesday was not an experiment. He acknowledged it was a "big risk" but predicted it would succeed in keeping the two papers alive. Detroit Media Partnership has lost millions of dollars this year, and Michigan has been hammered by home foreclosures, high unemployment and the near-collapse of the auto industry.

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How long can newspapers keep delivering the news? - Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-onthemedia17-2008dec17,0,5954741.story This might go down as the week that they took paper out of the newspaper business. Detroit's two daily newspapers announced Tuesday that they plan to reduce home delivery to just three days a week. And the trade organization for newspaper editors scheduled an April vote on whether to drop "paper" from its name. The idea in both cases is to fully embrace the shift of many readers and advertisers to the Internet, where many news executives believe the business must stake its future, and to finally begin to break away from a 400-year-old delivery system. Bosses at the Detroit Free Press and Detroit News said they will save millions of dollars they would have spent to print and deliver their newspapers, which have been steadily losing circulation. Better to alter the delivery system, they argued, than to further cut the news staffs. Tuesday's announcement followed recent news that the Christian Science Monitor would go online-only and that suburban papers near Detroit and Phoenix would cut home delivery.

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FCC Chairman Abused Power, House Probe Finds - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/09/AR2008120903132.html Congressional Democrats yesterday sharply criticized the Federal Communications Commission, calling it a dysfunctional agency led by a chairman who manipulated and withheld data and reports to advance his own policy positions. The Democratic lawmakers made their accusations in a 110-page report released by the House Energy and Commerce Committee's oversight and investigations subcommittee after a year-long investigation into the management and regulatory practices of FCC Chairman Kevin J. Martin. "Any of these findings, individually, are cause for concern," House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman John D. Dingell (D-Mich.) said. "Together, the findings suggest that, in recent years, the FCC has operated in a dysfunctional manner and commission business has suffered as a result. It is my hope that the new FCC chairman will find this report instructive and that it will prove useful in helping the commission avoid making the same mistakes." The report does not, however, state that Martin violated any law.

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Debt-Saddled Tribune Co. Files for Bankruptcy Protection - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/08/AR2008120802200.html Media giant Tribune Co. yesterday became the first major newspaper or chain in several decades to enter Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, as the debt-saddled company fights sharply dropping advertising revenue and an ongoing recession. The move will allow Tribune to stay in business while it seeks better terms from its creditors. The company stressed that all of its businesses, which include eight major daily newspapers and 23 television stations, will continue their day-to-day operations while Tribune restructures its debt. According to Tribune's bankruptcy filing in a Delaware court yesterday, the company has $12.9 billion in debt and $7.6 billion in assets. Tribune's largest creditor is J.P. Morgan Chase, which is owed $8.6 billion. Merrill Lynch is second, at $1.6 billion, and Deutsche Bank is third, at $900 million.

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New York Times enters talks with lenders - USATODAY.com

http://www.usatoday.com/money/media/2008-12-09-nytimes-debt_N.htm New York Times Co. (NYT) says it is in talks with lenders about debt payments coming due in the next two years, as the newspaper publisher struggles to weather continued declines in advertising sales. The company says it will borrow up to $225 million against the value of its Manhattan headquarters to help repay debt due in May, and is evaluating assets for potential sale as it looks to boost liquidity. "There is no doubt that 2009 will be among the most challenging years we have faced and more steps will be needed," New York Times Co. Chief Executive Janet Robinson said Tuesday ahead of a media conference presentation.

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Debt-Ridden Tribune Co. Considers Bankruptcy - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/07/AR2008120702039.html Media giant Tribune Co., saddled with billions in debt since it became a privately held company last year, has hired bankruptcy advisers, according to its flagship newspaper, the Chicago Tribune. The Chicago-based company owns a coast-to-coast empire with television stations and newspapers in most of the nation's largest cities. Its holdings include the Los Angeles Times; cable television super-station WGN in Chicago; the Baltimore Sun; and WDCW-50 in Washington, the CW affiliate. The company even owns the Chicago Cubs. Tribune assumed some $13 billion in debt when real estate mogul Sam Zell engineered an employee-owned transition to private ownership one year ago this month. Hopes were high among employees that the company could be re-engineered to be a news company of the 21st century.

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Media Bombardment Is Linked to Ill Effects During Childhood - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/01/AR2008120102920.html In a detailed look at nearly 30 years of research on how television, music, movies and other media affect the lives of children and adolescents, a new study released today found an array of negative health effects linked to greater use. The report found strong connections between media exposure and problems of childhood obesity and tobacco use. Nearly as strong was the link to early sexual behavior. Researchers from the National Institutes of Health and Yale University said they were surprised that so many studies pointed in the same direction. In all, 173 research efforts, going back to 1980, were analyzed, rated and brought together in what the researchers said was the first comprehensive view of the topic. About 80 percent of the studies showed a link between a negative health outcome and media hours or content. "We need to factor that in as we consider our social policies and as parents think about how they raise their kids," said lead researcher Ezekiel J. Emanuel, director of the Department of Bioethics at the National Institutes of Health, which took on the project with the nonprofit organization Common Sense Media. "We tend not to think of this as a health issue, and it is a health issue."

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Violence Against Journalists Grows in Mexico’s Drug War - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/24/AR2008112402776.html Armando Rodríguez, at El Diario newspaper, was the top crime reporter in the deadliest city in Mexico. He had seen it all. But this was different. This was personal. Earlier this month, someone had hung the decapitated body of a local drug thug from a bridge on the airport road. Later the head appeared downtown at the Plaza of Journalists, wrapped in a plastic bag, carefully placed at the foot of a statue of a newsboy hawking papers. Arturo Chacón, a reporter at El Norte, a competing daily in this tough border city, said the message was unmistakable: Journalists beware. "We knew it was bad, but we didn't know how bad," he said. "A week later I heard the shots, and then I heard they got Armando." Rodríguez, 40, was killed Nov. 13 in front of his home by a single gunman. He was shot 10 times while warming up his car, directly in front of his 8-year-old daughter, as he was about to drive her to school in the morning. The slaying highlighted the growing danger to Mexican journalists reporting on the drug war, which has claimed more than 4,500 lives since President Felipe Calderón unleashed the army and police against the cartels and corrupt officials in early 2007. Most journalists continue to do their jobs but concede they are limiting their coverage of the carnage.

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Post-Election, The Audience Drifts Away - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/20/AR2008112003755.html Americans became smitten with the high drama of the presidential election, but the transition of power is proving less than sexy. Ratings for cable TV news and the number of visits to news Web sites built for weeks and then peaked on Election Day, giving the electronic media some of their biggest audiences in years. But since then, TV ratings and online traffic have fallen -- in many cases precipitously -- indicating that viewers and visitors have largely quenched their thirst for political news. The ratings rise and fall suggest that the suspense and conflict of the campaign's closing days made for a far better story than the aftermath of President-elect Barack Obama's victory and the beginnings of his administration. The lone exception was broadcast news, which has held relatively steady through November.

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Rather’s Lawsuit Shows Role of G.O.P. in Inquiry at CBS - NYTimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/17/business/media/17rather.html?ref=washington When Dan Rather filed suit against CBS 14 months ago — claiming, among other things, that his former employer had commissioned a politically biased investigation into his work on a “60 Minutes” segment about President Bush’s National Guard service — the network predicted the quick and favorable dismissal of the case, which it derided as “old news.” So far, Mr. Rather has spent more than $2 million of his own money on the suit. And according to documents filed recently in court, he may be getting something for his money. Using tools unavailable to him as a reporter — including the power of subpoena and the threat of punishment against witnesses who lie under oath — he has unearthed evidence that would seem to support his assertion that CBS intended its investigation, at least in part, to quell Republican criticism of the network. Among the materials that money has shaken free for Mr. Rather are internal CBS memorandums turned over to his lawyers, showing that network executives used Republican operatives to vet the names of potential members of a panel that had been billed as independent and charged with investigating the “60 Minutes” segment. Mr. Rather attracted the ire of Republican bloggers and talk radio in particular after the segment, which was broadcast on a weekday edition of “60 Minutes” in September 2004. It purported to have unearthed evidence about favorable treatment extended to President Bush during his Vietnam-era service in the Texas Air National Guard.

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‘Iraq War Ends,’ proclaim 1.2 million copies of New York Times spoof - Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-nyt13-2008nov13,0,5198161.story Commuters nationwide found out during Wednesday morning rush hour that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan had ended and global warming, healthcare spending and the economy's problems were on their way to being solved. On behalf of a collective of liberal activists, 1,000 volunteers across the country handed out 1.2 million copies of a spoof of the New York Times, dated July 4, 2009. At first glance, the parody, which used the Times' Gothic-style font on the nameplate, could easily be mistaken for the real thing. The 14-page paper -- which also announced the abolition of corporate lobbying, a maximum wage for CEOs and a recall for all gasoline-fueled cars -- showed up across the nation including in L.A., San Francisco and Washington.

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B-Rock Is in the House - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/11/AR2008111102957.html The hip-hop artist Nas says he was on tour in Sweden in the early hours of Election Day when a line from his recent song "Black President" started running through his mind: "What's the black prez thinking on election night?" Hopeful about the voting to come that day, "I thought, 'Wow, we're really here, he's really here,' " said Nas, speaking about President-elect Barack Obama in a phone interview from London. In the dark of night, he set up a mike and started to speak on that: "How many old folks been through Jim Crow got tears going down their cheeks," he rapped. "America surprise us, and let a black man guide us," he finished. "It was just spontaneous," said Nas. "I have the studio stuff I need and just put it together right in the hotel room. We had a DJ, Green Lantern, who produced it, and he blasted it off online and everywhere else." By daytime in New York, Nas's song "Election Night" had arrived at MTV, and was playing on hip-hop radio stations around the country.

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Networks vow to be patient, to a point, in projecting presidential winner - Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-networks4-2008nov04,0,7833433.story If Sen. Barack Obama racks up victories in key Eastern and Midwestern states tonight, television viewers will probably hear that he appears headed for victory even before the polls close in the West. But officials at the broadcast and cable networks as well as the Associated Press said Monday that they would not project a president-elect until one nominee has at least 270 electoral votes in his column. And they won’t award any electoral votes from a state until after all the polls in that state are scheduled to close. Short of an Obama landslide, it’s unlikely that either candidate will reach the requisite 270 electoral votes without Western states such as California or Nevada. But that won't stop network analysts from indicating the direction the race appears headed. "If it seems very likely that one man will reach 270, we will leave little doubt about our expectations," said one TV news executive.

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McCain campaign accuses L.A. Times of ‘suppressing’ Obama video - Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-video29-2008oct29,0,7568849.story John McCain's presidential campaign Tuesday accused the Los Angeles Times of "intentionally suppressing" a videotape it obtained of a 2003 banquet where then-state Sen. Barack Obama spoke of his friendship with Rashid Khalidi, a leading Palestinian scholar and activist. The Times first reported on the videotape in an April 2008 story about Obama's ties with Palestinians and Jews as he navigated the politics of Chicago. The report included a detailed description of the tape, but the newspaper did not make the video public.

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Monitor to End Its Daily Print Edition - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/28/AR2008102802132.html The Christian Science Monitor is about to pull the plug on its print edition, just as the venerable newspaper is about to turn 100. The money-losing paper announced yesterday that it will stop publishing next April, except for a weekly edition, and shift its emphasis to the Internet. "Everyone who grew up with print, and everyone who worked in print like me, you feel a little sad," editor John Yemma said in an interview. But he said the Church of Christ, Scientist, which has heavily subsidized the $26 million annual cost of running the Boston-based paper, wants to stem the flow of red ink. The Monitor's circulation is just 52,000 -- down from 160,000 two decades ago -- and its early deadlines are crippling. Since most copies are sent to subscribers by snail mail, all copy must be turned in by noon for the next day's edition. "The cost of producing it, printing it and distributing it is pretty high," Yemma said.

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ABC only major TV network not airing Obama infomercial - Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-fi-abc29-2008oct29,0,7323859.story It initially balked at the requested time slot but relented too late. The commercial will run on CBS, NBC, Fox and Univision tonight.

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The Election That Has the Whole World Blogging - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/27/AR2008102702725.html Differing time zones aren't considered barriers on the Web, where different languages can be easily translated on Google. Sure, many foreigners have paid attention to America's presidential elections through newspapers and television in the past. But the continued mainstreaming of the Internet, online experts say, has given non-Americans access to more information than ever before -- and, through blogging, an interactive platform to express their views. David Sifry, founder of the search engine Technorati, says: "As the tools have gotten simpler and easier to use, there's been an absolute explosion in the number of bloggers outside of the U.S., and one of the subjects they blog about is politics."

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Business news gets soaring ratings - USATODAY.com

http://www.usatoday.com/money/media/2008-10-13-financial-news-tv-ratings_N.htm There's nothing like a global financial crisis to whet appetites for business news. But don't be surprised if leading providers keep the champagne on ice for now. Despite soaring TV ratings and Internet traffic for business news, executives want to see whether top advertisers — financial-services companies — trim spending. "I would not be surprised, but so far we have not seen that," says CNBC President Mark Hoffman, who expects the network to generate record profit for the third consecutive year. Many advertisers have stayed in to reach audiences that typically are well-to-do and hard to reach. CNBC attracted an average of 722,000 viewers last week during the daytime hours when the markets are open. That's the network's best performance ever during that key time period, and doesn't include people who tune in at offices, colleges and hotels.

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Krugman Wins Nobel for Economics - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/13/AR2008101300369.html Paul Krugman occupies two spheres in the American intelligentsia. In one, he is a New York Times op-ed columnist known for his barbed opinions about President Bush's policies. In the other, he is a Princeton University economist famous for his research on international trade and finance. Yesterday, it was Krugman the academic who was awarded the Nobel Prize for his study of international trade and the effects of globalization. In announcing the prize, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences cited in particular Krugman's work nearly 30 years ago in advancing a theory on trading patterns and why certain countries produce what they do.

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‘SNL’ wants laughs, not votes - Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-et-snl9-2008oct09,0,5594671.story The satirical show is sharpening its focus on politics, attracting more viewers and generating plenty of criticism. The show will add three prime-time specials before election day.

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Congress passes bill intended to pave way for deal on Internet radio copyright royalty rates—chic

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-internet-radio-congress,0,1158364.story Congress has cleared the way for a potential agreement intended to save the emerging Internet radio market from a crippling hike in copyright royalty rates. The measure, which was sponsored by Rep. Jay Inslee, D-Wash., and now heads to the president, would green-light an anticipated deal between Webcasters and SoundExchange, a nonprofit that collects royalties for recording copyright owners from Internet radio stations and other digital radio services. The two sides have been negotiating new royalty rates following a March 2007 ruling by the federal Copyright Royalty Board that dramatically increased the rates that Internet radio stations must pay artists and record labels. Internet radio stations say the new rates — which most but not all are paying — could effectively put them out of business. Unless something is done, copyright royalties could eventually eat up as much as 70 percent of Internet radio industry revenue, by some estimates.

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VP debate moderator accused of bias - The Boston Globe

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2008/10/02/vp_debate_moderator_accused_of_bias/ Several conservative bloggers are accusing Gwen Ifill, the moderator of tonight's vice presidential debate, of being biased because she is working on a book about up-and-coming African-American politicians that features Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama. Conservative commentator Michelle Malkin complained in an online column that "there is nothing 'moderate' about where Ifill stands on Barack Obama. She's so far in the tank for the Democrat presidential candidate, her oxygen delivery line is running out." Ifill, a veteran journalist who is senior correspondent for "The NewsHour" on PBS and moderator/managing editor of "Washington Week," dismissed the criticism. She said that she started the book when it looked unlikely that Obama would win the Democratic nomination and hasn't written the Obama chapter yet. She said the book will be published whether Obama wins or loses. "I've got a pretty long track record . . . so I'm not particularly worried that one-day blog chatter is going to destroy my reputation," Ifill said yesterday. "The proof is in the pudding. They can watch the debate . . . and make their own decisions about whether or not I've done my job."

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David Letterman commiserates with Paris Hilton over McCain ‘disses’—chicagotribune.com

http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/sns-ap-mccain-letterman,0,783439.story David Letterman kept up his verbal assault on John McCain, commiserating with Paris Hilton and saying he felt like an "ugly date" because the GOP presidential candidate backed out of an appearance on the "Late Show." The late-night CBS comedian was upset Wednesday when McCain canceled an appearance to deal with the economic crisis. After backing out of the Letterman show, McCain sat for an interview with Katie Couric, then didn't leave New York until Thursday, further angering Letterman. At first, Letterman said, he felt like a "patriot" to let McCain off. "Now I'm feeling like an ugly date," Letterman said. "I feel used. I feel cheap. I feel sullied."

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Dan Rather’s suit against CBS is trimmed - Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-et-rather23-2008sep23,0,5766176.story A New York state Supreme Court judge Monday limited the scope of Dan Rather's $70-million lawsuit against CBS Corp., tossing out his claims that the network committed fraud and unlawfully interfered with his contract in his final months at the news division. But Justice Ira Gammerman allowed Rather to proceed with his claims that CBS broke the terms of his contract and breached its fiduciary duty by sidelining him in the wake of a controversial story about President Bush's service in the Texas Air National Guard. The ruling "allows us to prove everything we need to prove to a jury," said Martin Gold, Rather's lead attorney. "I think the breach-of-contract claim is essentially a slam-dunk."

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Liberal Blogs Assail Anchor Changes - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/08/AR2008090802489.html The decision by MSNBC to yank Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews from anchor duty during live political events did not exactly send a thrill up the leg of liberal bloggers. A number of them denounced the cable channel yesterday for making a change that had long been sought by NBC News veterans, saying MSNBC was caving into pressure from John McCain's campaign and the right wing. MSNBC President Phil Griffin denied that complaints from either Republicans or NBC journalists were a factor. He said he reached the decision after "talking to my guys, mainly Olbermann," following the Republican convention. Olbermann and Matthews will remain as analysts during such major political events as the presidential debates. "We came to the conclusion it was better not to restrain them" by making them wear "two hats," Griffin said. "It's not like we haven't talked about this all along. What Keith can say on 'Countdown' and what Chris can say on 'Hardball' is a little different" than what they could tell viewers in the role of news anchors.

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