Morning Reading List, 04.01.08

Good morning Washington. It's Justice Alito's bday, finally someone explains MoDo, Leon Harris likes baseball, The Deadline Club is out with its awards finalists, WRC's Vickie Burns is heading to WNBC in New York, it's the birthday of Redhead Fan Club favorite Jess Smith and don't forget to not fall for April Fools jokes today. Quickly navigate Morning Reading List: NEWSPAPERS | TV | ONLINE MEDIA | MAGAZINES | JOBS Hillary vs. McCain...you think McCain will win. Today's "Angry Journalist" rant of the day: "I'm angry because one of the finest, most talented journalists I've ever had the privilege to work with was forced to leave the paper last week. This senseless maneuver was attributed to flattening the management structure. I guess it's OK to flatten structures, but when people get crushed in the process, that's not OK" NEWSPAPERS E&P reports, "The newspaper industry has experienced the worst drop in advertising revenue in more than 50 years. According to new data released by the Newspaper Association of America, total print advertising revenue in 2007 plunged 9.4% to $42 billion compared to 2006 -- the most severe percent decline since the association started measuring advertising expenditures in 1950." Reuter's Media File reports, "Former San Francisco Chronicle Editor Phil Bronstein has taken on a new role at parent company Hearst Corp. that will involve, among other things, finding ways to keep the news business viable at a time when most people have classified it as a dying industry." Bloomberg reports, "U.S. newspapers suffered their worst drop in print advertising sales since industry record- keeping began 57 years ago, hammered by the housing-market slump and competition from the Internet." Reliable Source reports, "For Washington VIPs, there were two hot tickets in town last night -- not just an Opening Day seat at the new Nationals Park, but a coveted spot at the Lerner family's pre-party, a little casual-dress affair for 800 of their closest friends. Folks like Michael Chertoff, Norah O'Donnell, Maury Povich and Connie Chung, MLB Commissioner Bud Selig and Japanese Ambassador Ryozo Kato. Pretty much any boldface name not preoccupied with a presidential campaign or the NCAA regional finals showed up at the team owners' shindig on the top floor of a new office building two blocks from the stadium." Howard Kurtz writes, "Wall St. Journal Makes Politics Its Business" Top of post TV "Politics benefits CNN." "Rendell: 'Fox Has Done the Fairest Job'" "Kornheiser and Jaworski return to ESPN Monday Night Football" TVNewser reports, "CNN just announced that Wolf Blitzer's day just got longer. Blitzer anchors a special Sunday night edition of The Situation Room at 8pmET 'focusing on the presidential race', said Blitzer during Late Edition. An interesting programming move considering this is the final day of March ratings and CNN holds a slim 1,000 viewer advantage over MSNBC in prime time (Mon-Sun, 8p-11p) in the key A25-54 demo." Media Post's On Media reports, "Obsessing over Time Warner's fate and fortune is a time-honored pursuit that usually ends with the same discouraging realization. Even after adding AOL, subtracting cable, tweaking filmed entertainment and contemplating an overall breakup, the $50 billion behemoth is a product of reactionary rather than visionary leadership-and is, at its core, a content company." Bloomberg reports, "Time Warner Inc., the world's largest media company, must share control its Superman copyright with the heirs of the comic hero's creator, Jerome Siegel, a federal judge ruled." TVNewser reports, "With April 16 marking his one-year anniversary as co-anchor of CNN's American Morning, John Roberts is profiled by TV Guide. Asked by writer Stephen Battaglio about what he expects when AM gets a new executive producer, Roberts says, 'We'll take the opportunity to just tweak around the edges of the show. The show as it is right now is fairly heavily scripted. I think what we're going to do going forward we'll try to pare back the amount of scripting that we've got and introduce a little more of an ad lib aspect to it, which will make the show a little looser, a little more accessible...'" A release announced, "CN8, The Comcast Network today announced its plans to provide extensive coverage of the critically-important April 22 Pennsylvania primary, offering comprehensive, interactive news and feature programming available on air, online and ON DEMAND throughout April. Unlike traditional networks which are sending teams to Pennsylvania, CN8 is already utilizing its more than 120 PA-based employees, its six studios across the state, and its dozens of hosts, contributors and political experts who cover Pennsylvania and presidential politics 365 days a year." TVWeek reports, "Media buyer ZenithOptimedia has lowered its forecast for U.S. advertising spending for 2008 as the effects of the housing crisis seep into the economy and consumer confidence droops. Zenith sees newspaper advertising taking a bigger hit while Internet spending grows even faster than previously expected. Overall, ad spending will rise 3.7% in 2008, said ZenithOptimedia, which in December had forecast a growth rate of 4.1%." TVNewser's Gail Shister writes, "Dave Marash, a recent exile of Al Jazeera English, says his new book 'certainly won't be a 'kiss and tell,' 'cut and whine' about his former employer. The ex-'Nightline' correspondent confirms he's close to a deal for 'The World Really is Watching,' (working title), an analysis of the planet-wide expansion of television news. He's been mulling the topic for a while." TVNewser reports, "This Friday marks the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., and networks are set to mark the occasion in a variety of ways. CNN's Soledad O'Brien anchors the special 'Eyewitness to Murder: The King Assassination' at 9pmET on Thursday. The special is the first in CNN's Black in America series." Top of post ONLINE MEDIA "Arianna Huffington's Dick Wiki" National Journal's William Powers writes, "Not much is booming in the American economy these days, but there's a bull market in blame. All over the media, people are pointing fingers at those who supposedly got us into this mess. Some say that Alan Greenspan did it. Others fault, variously, President Clinton, President Bush, Congress, and, of course, Wall Street. And let's not forget the foolish people who took out all of those crazy mortgages in the first place. But there's one culprit the media don't mention much: themselves. This is a little strange because the news business has become quite good at publicly whipping itself for all kinds of sins. Many outlets employ columnists whose sole duty is to scold colleagues for their errors." PressThink reports, "The Love Affair Between McCain and the Press Sprains the Brain of the Liberal Blogosphere" The New York Times reports, "When Ms. Huffington, the 57-year-old author and former conservative pundit, announced her plans for The Huffington Post three years ago, many critics dismissed the idea as a digital dinner party for her new liberal friends. But it has grown in ways that few, except perhaps Ms. Huffington herself, expected." Wolf Blitzer, George Will, and other big names at Lerners party at opening night for Nats stadium, writes Harry Jaffe. AdAge.com reports, "Reinforcing print publishers' frequent assertions of relationships with readers, new research by MediaVest suggests that readers trust print more than the web in almost every area." USA Today reports, "Looking to snare a larger share of Internet ad dollars, traditional media companies are launching 'vertical ad networks' in which they sell ad bundles of space on their sites and on independent sites with complementary content. Forbes.com's Business and Finance Blog Network, announced last week, includes more than 450 finance-focused blogs, such as Talking Biz News and Xconomy. Forbes will sell ad space across that network, earning a cut of the revenue from the sites." "BBC launches redesign of its news site" TechCrunch's Erick Schonfeld writes, "Six Months In, And 600 Posts Later ... The Worlds Of Blogging and Journalism Collide (In My Brain)" New York Times reports, "When Ms. Huffington, the 57-year-old author and former conservative pundit, announced her plans for The Huffington Post three years ago, many critics dismissed the idea as a digital dinner party for her new liberal friends. But it has grown in ways that few, except perhaps Ms. Huffington herself, expected." Innovation in College Media reports, "Journalism school graduates: How to increase your chance of finding a job and decrease your chance of having to vent on AngryJournalist.com" Top of post MAGAZINES MediaWeek.com reports, "John Micklethwait, editor of the highbrow British news and opinion weekly The Economist, knew his magazine had solidified its place in the American culture when The Simpsons' beloved, hapless patriarch paid homage in an episode. But the magazine's recent business successes on these shores are anything but a joke. It has achieved impressive gains in ad business and readership and scooped up industry accolades (most recently, a National Magazine Award nom for General Excellence), even as much larger news and business titles wither and as a certain high-profile launch -- one promising 'business intelligence' on the front of every cover -- doesn't look so smart after all." AdAge.com reports, "Still on Ann S. Moore's to-do list: trimming the portfolio of Time Inc. titles. That's the impression she left with many staffers after a quarterly management meeting March 27. Ms. Moore, Time Inc.'s chairman-CEO, told top managers that she is still looking carefully at the portfolio of magazines so the company -- the country's biggest magazine publisher, with brands such as Time, Sports Illustrated and People -- can focus on the titles best positioned for growth in print and online." Business Wire reports, "For the first time ever, global news and business bible The Economist shoots to the No.1 spot on AdweekMedia's annual 'Hot List.' Released today, the highly anticipated 'Hot List' honors the publications and creative talents that keep consumers coming back to the newsstands. Leaping from its No. 10 rank last year, The Economist marks the biggest jump on the list and proves that news and business titles remain contenders in a market dominated by women's lifestyle titles." Top of post JOBS The Yomiuri Shimbun (Washington Bureau) is looking for a Reporter/Research Assistant. Top of post Hat Tips: DCRTV, TVNewser, IWantMedia, Romenesko, MediaBistro, JournalismJobs, JournalismNext

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Morning Reading List, 04.01.08

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