From the viewpoint of troubled newspaper publisher Knight Ridder, it's not clear if this constitutes bad news or not, but industry heavyweight Gannett, which had been thought to be a bidder for the assets of KR, said late last week that it would not go it alone. If it makes an offer, it will be in an alliance with a partner. Reuters' Julie MacIntosh says Gannett "may try to forge some sort of agreement with Denver-based publisher MediaNews Group and its investment partners." MacIntosh says MediaNews' group is regarded as "strong... because it combines [its equity partners'] financial firepower with …

For the fourth consecutive year, Oprah Winfrey topped the Harris Interactive poll of most popular television personalities, TheWall Street Journal reports this morning.  Winfrey has been in the top three ever since the poll was initiated in 1993, a remarkable run that helps explain the unflagging ratings of her syndicated show. The poll revealed no major surprises, although Jon Stewart, who appears only on late-night cable TV, emerged as the No. 2 most popular personality, passing CBS' David Letterman, who placed second last year. Jay Leno took the fourth-place slot. And Conan O'Brien, who is set to replace …

Yahoo, reacting to widespread concern (fear?) among traditional news organizations that it was planning to establish a full-scale newsgathering shop of its own, told a group of media professionals the other day that they needn't worry. Neil Budde, the general manager of Yahoo News, said his company was mainly interested in aggregating news from other sources and finding ways to personalize news for its 25 million news-site users. Although Yahoo has lately made some moves that suggested it might be mounting an assault on traditional news media--hiring its own high-profile overseas newsman, for example-- Buddle had a clear message when …

Keith Kelly, the New York Post's publishing-industry columnist, says it "appears to be a less than sunny day for the right-leaning broadsheet New York Sun." The paper has largely abandoned its costly efforts to establish a paid-subscriber base in Manhattan. Instead, it is moving to free distribution, concentrating on the city's so-called elite neighborhoods. The hope is that this will attract advertisers, many of whom have resisted coming into the thin daily paper.  Explaining the Sun's decision, its circulation president, August Fields, told Kelly, "The competitive environment in New York ranks among the fiercest in the world. The free …

Julia Day, a reporter based in Qatar for the U.K.'s MediaGuardian, began a dispatch yesterday with a provocative statement, which she attributed to a source friendly to al-Jazeera Broadcasting: "Arabic-language media have an unprecedented chance to take over as the world's premier news source because trust in their U.S. counterparts plummeted following their 'shameful coverage' of the war in Iraq." The speaker was Amy Goodman, identified as executive producer and host of a "US TV and radio news show" called "Democracy Now!" Goodman spoke at a news forum organized by al-Jazeera. The MediaGuardian headlined its story "U.S. Media At …

When it acquired the Shop At Home cable channel three years ago, E.W. Scripps believed it to be a great opportunity to enter the burgeoning home-shopping category, but it has proved to be a bust, and Scripps is considering its options, including a partnership or sale. Scripps says it is taking a $103 million writedown against Shop At Home's assets, about two-thirds of the network's value. According to a report in Broadcasting & Cable, "losses for 2005 were nearly double what Scripps had expected." Part of the problem, reports B&C, is that Shop At Home has a series of …

The ultra-conservative American Family Association, gloating over the cancellation of NBC's "Book of Daniel," for which it takes credit, yesterday announced its next target: "Will & Grace," the long-running NBC sitcom featuring a determinedly gay storyline. Specifically, it is claiming outrage over a forthcoming (April) episode in which guest star Britney Spears plays the role of a Christian-TV host on a show titled "Cruci-fixin's." The director of special projects for AFA said in a statement that the espisode was "a direct attack on people of faith" from a network that "has a history of anti-Christian bigotry. They would not be …

Talking to analysts--and against the backdrop of Carl Icahn's noisy bid to break up the company--Time Warner CEO Dick Parsons said yesterday that he and his board would not "experiment with flavor-of-the-day" strategies to increase the media conglomerate's long-depressed share price. "Our board of directors and management are confident that we are on the right course," Parsons said. "No one can run these businesses better than the current management is running them." Time Warner stock has risen sharply in the last couple of days since the company reported fourth-quarter results, which were slightly better than anticipated. "After many years of …

Comic Jamie Foxx's Tuesday special, “Unpredictable,” registered a stronger rating among 18- to 49-year-olds than any other show NBC has sent up against an hour-long edition of Fox TV's “American Idol,” which seems like good news for NBC--except that “Idol” actually attracted six times more viewers to its show.  "NBC is calling the special a winner, while former fans of Foxx just call it sad," writes Lisa de Moraes, the Washington Post's television columnist. Two weeks into its new season, “American Idol” is up 15 percent over last year.  In other ratings news, as reported by de Moraes: In …

Putting in writing what industry observers have been saying in the days since the Walt Disney Company acquired Pixar Animation Studios, Reuters reporter Gina Keating describes John Lasseter, Pixar's creative czar, as the embodiment of Walt Disney himself.  Lasseter, who will take control of Disney's once-revered animation unit when the Disney-Pixar deal closes, once worked at Disney but soured on the company when it turned out not to be the creative environment he'd dreamed of. Now, having overseen a string of mega-hit animation features at Pixar, he has the opportunity to return Disney to its glory days. "Most animators …