MarketWatch columnist Jon Friedman just got religion. Or, to be more accurate, he just "observed" those who have got it. The "religion" in this case is Entertainment Weekly, the 15-year-old magazine from Time Inc. Friedman recently had the opportunity to sit in on an EW focus group and was astonished to witness the devotion of its adoring readers. "Suffice it to say, I have seen the light! Gadzooks!" writes the columnist today. "It was endearing, even heartwarming, to observe the loyalty of these [EW] subscribers." Friedman says the connection between EW and its largely youthful audience is impressive -- a …

New York's WABC Radio plans to dump two hours of prime, weekday morning advertising through the winter as an experiment, to see if it will help the big station compete more effectively against other all-news stations in the market. "We're taking a gamble, but I think it's a good one," Phil Boyce, WABC's programming director, told Billboard Radio Monitor. But "there are some things we can do" to make up for the lost revenue, such as bringing in a "title sponsor." He says "a couple of really big companies" are considering taking the sponsorship role, which would ensure several brief …

At a time when many newspapers across the country are struggling, two brothers who operate Florida's largest black-owned media company are preparing to launch a black statewide paper in Florida next month. Glenn and Charles Cherry, who own Tama Broadcasting, say the Florida Courier will launch with a circulation of 100,000. It will be a weekly, distributed free of charge. According to Editor & Publisher, Florida has a black population of about 1.8 million in the five metro markets the Cherry brothers intend to target.

In one of the stranger, vaguely media-related stories of the year, various news outlets are reporting that the bones of the late broadcaster and author Alistair Cooke have been stolen by a New York criminal gang that trades body parts for profit. The report, originally published in the New York Daily News, "enraged" Cooke's stepdaughter, Holly Rumbold, according to a British radio station. "My stepfather is not the only one that's been used for this macabre purpose, and people are making billions of dollars out of it," she said. "He died in the night, and the undertakers collected him. His …

Some observers are openly skeptical of the decision by several key content providers to offer "classic" TV shows to their audiences. Apple Computer (via iTunes) and AOL have recently announced that they were going to provide a slate of old TV shows, such as "Dragnet," "F Troop," and "Adam-12," as available downloads. Clearly, there is interest in classic TV programs as witnessed by the popularity of TVLand and Nick at Night. But will audiences be willing to pay for them, or be forced to watch commercials as part of the downloaded package? "There is a big difference between what AOL …

Today is the final day to buy a 25-cent copy of the Red Streak, the youth-oriented newspaper launched amid much hoopla by the Chicago Sun-Times three years ago. No layoffs are expected, as most Red Streak employees are expected to be absorbed back into the Sun-Times. The tabloid was launched as a defensive tactic when the Chicago Tribune, going after the Sun-Times' younger demo, brought out the RedEye, which was filled with light news, celeb gossip, youth-fashion stories, and so forth. "The plot line for Red Streak from the start was to confuse the marketplace and not allow the …

Time Warner CEO Dick Parsons yesterday named Jeff Bewkes president and COO of the media giant, saying he expected the 57-year-old executive to eventually succeed him. Bewkes, along with Don Logan, who said yesterday that he was retiring, had served for the last three years as one of Parsons' top lieutenants, helping the company emerge from the disaster that was the merger with AOL. Before rising to his current position, Bewkes headed Time Warner's HBO division, where he was widely perceived as a talented executive and leading candidate for promotion at Time Warner. Yesterday's announcement by Parsons therefore did not …

A number of media analysts in Australia have told the Sydney Morning Herald to expect 2006 to be a difficult one for traditional media companies, particularly on the ad-sales side. As one analyst put it, old-line media companies "can expect to spend the year watching their advertising revenue migrate to the Internet. It's going to be a tough year." Although surprises could emerge-- who would have predicted the rise of Google only a few years back--all in all, the picture in Australia is thought to be pretty gloomy. Taking a contrarian view is the publisher of the Sydney Morning Herald. …

GeezerJock, launched in 2004 and aimed at amateur athletes on the far side of 40, is showing evidence of strength. Mediaweek's Lisa Granatstein reports that the Chicago-based magazine is expected to raise its rate base next month, to 75,000 from 45,000. At the same time, the controlled-circ quarterly will begin publishing on a bimonthly frequency. "Boomers are the largest generation, the wealthiest, and are growing older in ways that are unseen before," said Brian Reilly, GeezerJock's vice president-publisher. Granatstein reports that the magazine is also set to begin testing a paid subscription model. Currently, advertising in the mag "ranges between …

Nielsen Media Research confirmed Wednesday that an unspecified number of "programmers" are interested in using its new shifted average audience ratings (SAA), which would create a gross rating based on multiple exposures of TV programming viewed via time-shifted devices such as digital video recorders or video-on-demand. "There has been interest among the programmers in looking at that data first," said Pat McDonough, senior vice president-planning and analysis at Nielsen during a conference call the company held with journalists to brief them on plans for the transition to time-shifted ratings beginning next week. McDonough did not say whether any ad agencies …