Time Warner Cable is considering a new channel, called Hits, that would permit subscribers willing to pay an additional $10 a month to watch various network shows immediately following--or possibly the day after --their first airing. The cable giant says it has already held discussions about the concept with ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox. "It's just another outlet for customers to do time-shifting," Mark Harrad, a Time Warner Cable spokesperson, says. "It wouldn't necessarily substitute for and could complement DVRs." He also points out that Hits is basically another iteration of what is already being done, although less comprehensively, by …

Bonnie Fuller's hometown newspaper, the Journal News of Westchester County, New York, has an interview with the famous--and oft-reviled-- magazine editor, pegging it to the publication next month of Fuller's long-awaited book, The Joys of Much Too Much.  Fuller says in the interview that, contrary to the widely held belief, women can in fact have it all- motherhood, a rocking career, friendships, and a time to get away from it all. The book focuses more on career advice for young women that it does on its author's life as a star-maker.  Don't go looking here for inside info on …

NBC Universal is planning to launch a daytime talk show as early as year's end. As currently envisioned, it would immediately follow the two-hour "Today," essentially adding a third hour to NBC's powerful morning block. According to the network, what will differentiate the new program from others tried before is a local component. Jay Ireland, NBC station group president, says local programming is crucial. "When you air a locally oriented program, you compete only with TV stations in your market. If you use syndicated programming which isn't local, you are no longer differentiated, and you are suddenly competing with the …

As if conventional news-content services, such as the Associated Press, didn't have enough challenges these days. Now comes Mochila, a new-age service that intends to sell print, photographs, audio, and video content on a customizable basis to its media clients. What makes Mochila novel is that customers--newspapers, magazines, broadcasters, and Web sites--can easily sell information to other content providers. According to today's New York Times, "Publications buying content from Mochila have the option to accept related advertising along with the content. Doing so eliminates the cost of buying the content and the buyer can share in ad revenue if the …

With more and more big-time newspapers introducing Web logs as an enticement to readers and advertisers, it's a wonder there haven't been more brouhahas over the content in those online journals. The Washington Post experienced the risk of the blogosphere firsthand last week when washingtonpost.com, which operates independently from the print paper, discovered that its newest hire had had some problems with plagiarism in the past. The Post's online unit had recently brought on 24-year-old Ben Domenech, a former Bush administration aide, to write the Red America blog. Says C|Net, "The Redstate.com blogger, who had recently referred to Coretta …

The Financial Times is reporting that Bertelsmann, Europe's largest media conglomerate, is preparing to sell off its music division, possibly setting off a worldwide realignment within the highly competitive music industry.  "People familiar with the company's plans said a sale was under preparation, though still at an early stage," according to FT.com. "The group is examining the sale of its 50 percent stake in Sony BMG and of its wholly-owned BMG Music Publishing division, which has the rights to more than 1m songs from artists including Christina Aguilera, Keane and Coldplay."  Vivendi Universal, among others, would be likely bidders …

How long has it been since media buyers and planners applauded NBC for its lineup of TV shows? It's been a while. With stinkers such as "Joey," an Olympics telecast that basically flopped with viewers, and nothing to counter the enormous popularity of Fox's "American Idol," NBC has been in the doghouse for a couple of years. But media vets are impressed by what NBC showed them last week, saying the network has a number of winners in development. They're especially keen on NBC Uni's plans to make that content available across a variety of platforms. Reports TheWall Street …

Despite assertions on both sides that we're talking about happenstance, the mass-market paperback edition of Dan Brown's TheDa Vinci Code will finally hit retail shelves tomorrow--on the very same date that The Jesus Papers is published.  That’s significant because the author of The Jesus Papers is Dan Baigent, who has been alleging in court that Brown's Da Vinci Code, a publishing phenomenon, is based on Baigent's earlier novel, Holy Blood, Holy Grail.  Publishers Weekly:  "Although Baigent’s publisher, Harper San Francisco, insists the shared laydown date is a coincidence, you couldn’t pray for a better publicity hook. ‘We’re really …

Molly Ivins, the plain-speaking syndicated columnist, has written an acerbic piece about the state of her beloved newspaper industry.  First of all, she abhors all the hype and misinformation about the decline of papers.  Sure, she acknowledges, they're losing readers and advertisers. But slowly, not overnight.  Most papers still make money.  You wouldn't necessarily know that, she writes, if you simply read the recent headlines, especially those about the sale of Knight Ridder to McClatchy. Even if they eventually die altogether and all news shifts to the Internet, the newsgathering business would still have its challenges, Ivins says. In …

Norman Pearlstine, former editor in chief of Time Inc., told a media-industry group in India this week that old media and new media are tap dancing as fast as they can in an effort to establish beachheads and, in some cases, survive, in the rapidly morphing media jungle.  "If you look at the development of the Internet it is clear that the best of times for newspapers have gone--business models are changing fast, and individual voices through channels such as blogs are rising and this is affecting advertising revenues," Pearlstine said.  He was also critical of the role of some …