The Hartford Courant's Dan Haar, in a lengthy, considered piece about the "crisis" in the news media business, argues for boldness: "Don't just manage the enterprise to beat back problems. Lead the troops to create great journalism, to sell advertising in innovative ways, to devise Web sites that people don't stop talking about." Noting that share prices are depressed throughout the industry and that profits, though strong, are under constant pressure, Haar says "we've seen little measurable benefit" from experiments in co-ownership--newspapers that own TV stations, TV stations that operate local magazines, and so forth--and that, furthermore, these co-ventures …

While no decision has been announced concerning the widely rumored 2006 launch of a Fox network newscast, that hasn't stopped pundits from speculating on what the show might look like and how Roger Ailes, Fox News' top executive, would fashion the nightly program around his populist conservative inclinations. Tom Dorsey of the Courier-Journal in Louisville, Ky., wonders how a network Fox News program would affect the local Fox TV affiliate, which of course already has a news operation. The general manager of the outlet, WDRB, indicates respect for Ailes' golden gut, but expresses concern about how "The Fox Evening …

Newspapers throughout Europe (and, to a lesser extent, the U.S.) that are contemplating a shift from full-size to tabloid format will certainly note with interest the experience of the U.K.'s The Independent Sunday edition, which, since moving to a compact format in October. is reporting that circulation has soared by 13.27 percent. The increase was achieved after just three editions of the newly trimmed paper were published. The experiment, carefully observed throughout the Continent, is thought to herald a wave of smaller papers, which consumers seem to find more user-friendly than the larger versions that preceded them. The European interpretation …

The Chicago Sun-Times' media critic, Lewis Lazare, has awarded an A- grade to the new book from Steve Cone, Steal These Ideas: Marketing Secrets That Will Make You a Star. Under the headline "New Book Hits Low State of Ad World," Lazare says "the evidence is here, there and just about everywhere to support the proposition that much of what passes for advertising today is rubbish." Clearly, he's a fan of Cone's contempt for the industry. Advertising "'professionals' don't like being informed what they've created and tagged as advertising isn't very good," writes Lazare. "Many of these professionals are paid …

The WB network has cancelled its long-running series "7th Heaven." No explanation was given for the decision, but production costs may have played a role. The show, in its 10th season, had grown exorbitantly costly to produce, which is often the case with programs that run beyond four or five seasons. And even though it was the WB's second most popular show at this time--after "Gilmore Girls"--the network elected to let it go. The Associated Press reports that the final episodes may run during May sweeps.

E.W. Scripps Co. says its expected fouth-quarter earnings disappointment is due in large measure to the impact of Hurricane Wilma, which disrupted operations at its South Florida newspapers and its TV station there. Although overall revenue at Scripps' newspaper division rose 4.1 percent to $64.1 million, the results were somewhat off earlier expectations, owing to the October hurricane.

Not happy with Fox News? MSNBC? CBS News? You're not alone. A Harris telephone survey has found that 61 percent of the general public generally trusted news on PBS and NPR, making the non-commercial outlets the most trusted source for news, according to Harris' respondents. No other news source, electronic or print, scored as well in the survey, commissioned by the Public Relations Society of America. However, several newspapers--The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal--were trusted by 56 percent of those polled. Only 53 percent of those reached by phone said they trusted what they hear …

Mainstream and alternative newspapers that have watched their valuable classified advertising linage migrate to craigslist, the national online advertising phenomenon, are beginning to fight back, if tardily. Several news operations, most notably Knight Ridder, have begun to offer free Internet advertising, and the result, according to some, has been encouraging. Instead of cannibalizing their print classifieds, total revenue has actually increased. Reason: Some ads are more free than others. Big advertisers, eager to be where the eyeballs are going, pay for their presence among the free online adverts. "Craigslist has created the kind of community-centric counterculture feel that the alternatives …

Responding to a charge by AIM TV, a producer of programming for U.S.-born Latinos, that its sampling method fails to properly account for Hispanic viewers, Nielsen Media Research has stoutly defended its practices. Jack Loftus, senior vice president of communications for Nielsen, said that "there is no credible research that we're aware of that indicates that country of origin is a better predictor of TV viewing behavior than language spoken in the home." Further, he said that comments made about Nielsen by AIM TV's CEO were "dead wrong," and he accused the executive, Robert Rose, of staking out his position …

Rupert Murdoch has expressed frustration over Wall Street's failure to recognize News Corp.'s strong financial performance as a media company, saying he believed News Corp. was being bundled in the financial community's mind with old-school media conglomerates whose future is too heavily pinned to traditional advertising models. His worldwide company, Murdoch said, is moving aggressively into Internet businesses, better positioning it for future growth. Meanwhile, the company yesterday reported a quarterly net loss due to a $1 billion non-cash charge resulting from accounting changes, but revenue rose 10 percent, mostly from significant advertising gains at Fox News and the Twentieth …