Dissident shareholder Carl Icahn has attracted yet another marquee name in his effort to take control of the Time Warner board. The Times of London reports that Capital Research and Management--the largest institutional shareholder in Time Warner--is expected to throw its considerable support behind Icahn and the team he is assembling. A week ago Icahn announced that Frank Biondi, a well-known former entertainment industry executive, had agreed to run for the board on an Icahn slate. General Re, which holds more than 5 percent of Time Warner stock, is said to be dissatisfied with the performance of its investment, according …

Is Katie Couric nighttime anchor material? That's the question Reuters' Sue Zeidler asks in her story about the longtime "Today" co-host, who as everyone knows is being wooed away from her NBC job by CBS. The network has yet to permanently fill the anchor chair of "CBS Evening News," left vacant by Dan Rather's departure. Couric appears to be the frontrunner for the position, although her NBC contract doesn't expire until May, and she has said again and again that she has not made up her mind about what to do. Zeidler assesses Couric's strengths (she's funny, she's famous, she …

Fashion magazine Elle is putting its green foot forward with its May issue. Acknowledging that a number of its editors feel strongly about environmental issues, Elle's May number will be printed on recycled paper and be guest edited by well-known environmental advocate Laurie David.  Aveda will help defray the costs of the paper.  The editors of Elle got to know David, according to its editor in chief, when they wrote about her several months ago. Most, but not all, of the special issue will be devoted to green topics. "I think [an entire issue about eco-friendly subjects] would bore …

"Golf Magazine is becoming a content company.  We want to be all things golf.  We're trying to deliver quality golf content however and wherever our audience demands it."  So says publisher Chris Wightman, who suddenly finds himself atop an expansive media franchise devoted to one of America's favorite sports.  For Wightman and his cohorts, the world changed dramatically last month when Golf's corporate parent, Time Inc., purchased the Golf.com Web site.  Described by Mediaweek as a "monster-size portal," Golf.com will now attach to both GolfMagazine and a forthcoming spinoff title, Golf Magazine Living. Golf, operated by Time Inc.'s …

Ronald Grover, who has covered media for Business Week for a couple of decades, sees the emergence of a "worst nightmare" scenario for traditional media:  Somewhere, probably in the not-too-distant future, an Internet radio or video program is going to leap from a small, zealous audience to a huge audience, unencumbered by all the restraints of commercial radio and TV.  He focuses his piece on The Young Turks, a trio of ultra-liberal commentators who produce and host their own TV-like Webcast, which is heard by perhaps 100,000 listeners a week. But that has gotten them some advertisers, plus a …

So, what else is not news?  Business Week magazine, citing a Q&A that appears in the latest issue of Newsweek, says Rupert Murdoch is soon to launch a business channel, essentially confirming what just about everyone in the industry has been anticipating for months.  The surprise would have been an announcement by Murdoch, the head of News Corp., that he'd decided to forgo a stab at a niche that seems ripe for the profit-taking. With the abandonment of the all-business format by CNN last year (remember CNNfn?), only CNBC is on-air to mine the lucrative market for viewers who …

The news last week that E.W. Scripps was very likely to unload all or part of its recently acquired Shop At Home cable operation tarnished what was otherwise a rather bright, upbeat quarterly report by a company best known for its old-media properties. In particular, most everyone failed to take proper notice of Scripps' solid performance as a provider of TV content for niche markets. Its HGTV, Food Network, DIY Network, Fine Living, and Great American Country channels are all thriving. Revenues in this category increased 21 percent in the fourth quarter to $247 million. Profits were up 34 percent, …

They go by a variety of cutsie names--Diaper Daze, Reel Movies, Stroller Matinees--but their mission is as serious as a quarterly earnings report: increase revenues. Beset by increased operating costs, threats from new distribution channels (think Netflix), and mindful of a precipitous drop in audience attendance last year, theater owners across the country are inviting moms to bring their li'l ones to midweek movies. It's a brand-new trend, reports the Los Angeles Times.  While most cinema operators charge a discount for the kids, several ask full ticket price.  It's not as if these businesspeople are all of a sudden …

Several VOD networks, seeing both a need and an opportunity, are moving forward with plans to establish their own advertising upfronts, beginning this year.  Emily Olman, national ad manager for Anime Network, which launched in 2002, tells TV Week that "she'd like to create new standards for the way VOD ads are valued, such as by cost per thousand impressions, unique impressions or guarangeed impressions." The problem with the current model--charging on a cost-per-impression basis--"is that programmers arrive at that count in different ways," writes Daisy Whitney of TV Week.  "An impression could mean an ad has been viewed …

A story about Tom Doctoroff, author of Billions: Selling to the New Chinese Consumer, is fascinating for its revelations about the exploding consumer market in China--particularly his assertion that the ancient culture, although changing, will forever resist mirroring our own U.S.-style consumer habits. "Basically, the underlying motivations of Chinese people do not change with the first gust of capitalist wind," says Doctoroff, chief executive of JWT in China. "We often confuse their desire to modernize with a desire to become Western. They fundamentally don't want to. It's a very different worldview." However, the very good news for media and …