• Readerless Paper On Viewerless Network!
    On July 24, the public will get an inside look at certain news-gathering methods when Bravo rolls out "Tabloid Wars," a documentary/reality show about the New York Daily News, reports Editor & Publisher. The six-week series is produced by Hearst, and follows reporters around the Big Apple as they try to out-scoop their arch rivals at the New York Post. While "the concept suggests static shots of pasty reporters, phones glued to their ears," the pilot seen by the trade magazine "is quick-paced, and provides a glimpse behind the scenes at a Gotham daily." One subject is city reporter Kerry …
  • Insider Upfront
    "The upfront is the ultimate game show, and reporting on it is a little bit like being a contestant," writes Claire Atkinson in Ad Age. "At the start, all the participants--broadcast networks and media agencies alike--try to decide if it's a billion dollars in the suitcase or just $1, and then as budgets get registered, a picture begins to emerge and cost-per-thousand rates rise to the surface." At that point, half of the audience yells "higher!" and the other half "lower!" and then "some kind of consensus emerges." Atkinson observes that with multiple sources, "it's possible to get pretty close …
  • A Common Enemy At Last
    With his coattails "a wee bit short this year," George W. Bush has had to pick his opponent carefully as his party had into mid-term elections, writes Jon Carroll in The San Francisco Chronicle--and has "chosen to campaign against The New York Times." And it's a good target, he continues, as people who think the media is left-wing believe the Times is leftiest of all. And those who believe the media is mainstream think it excels in that department as well. "Hardly anyone has a good word to say about it, except that it's the best newspaper in the country," …
  • Their Guy Looks To Lose Anyway
    Fox News Channel is going dark in Mexico ahead of that country's presidential election on Sunday, reports the Los Angeles Times. The News Corp. unit wants to steer clear of local restrictions on campaign ads and public surveys, channel executives say--and Fox is concerned that their coverage could jeopardize the standing of the cable and satellite companies that distribute its signal. "I just don't think we had much choice," says Janet Alshouse, senior vice president of international distribution for Fox News. "We can't restrict our coverage." Fox News will resume transmission after the polls close Sunday evening. A columnist for …
  • The Bloody Commonwealth Is Welcome To Have Him Back
    "By their pronouns, ye shall know them," writes Peter Wilby in The Guardian. Many Brits decided that Maggie Thatcher was getting above herself--and maybe losing it altogether--when she began to employ the royal "we," as in "we are a grandmother." And now Rupert Murdoch is also showing signs that he is osing his grip in the same way. Earlier this week, he told the newspaper The Australian--which he owns--that current U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair should depart before the next polls because "we would like to see at least a year to 18 months' standoff between Gordon Brown and David …
  • Does He Wear One Of Those Masks?
    Grupo Televisa, the Mexican broadcasting giant that just failed to gobble up Univision, has always been "a tough pill" for the U.S. Hispanic media company and its combative CEO Jerry Perenchio, writes Ronald Grover in BusinessWeek. When Perenchio was first fashioning the station group that would become a $1.9 billion multimedia empire, he was said to have physically tussled with Emilo Azcarraga Milmo, then head of Televisa, "over of all things who would pay the bill at a restaurant." He has has battled in court and the boardroom with Azcarraga's son, whose company currently owns 11 percent of Univision. "So …
  • Bad Refs No Impediment To World Cup Viewing
    The controversy over lousy officiating is not harming TV ratings or keeping crowds away from the World Cup soccer tournament, reports the Associated Press. The tournament's TV rights partner, Infront, estimates a cumulative viewing audience exceeding 30 billion so far across the tournament. And about 40 percent of that audience is female--something Infront's Dominik Schmid says can only be attributed to "a World Cup phenomenon." All but one of FIFA's--soccer's global governing body--207 affiliated members had negotiated broadcasting deals, with only Turkmenistan not taking the live feed. He adds that ratings records are falling around the world, even in countries …
  • I'll Take Seven Of Nine
    "There are few things more delicious to a journalist than watching a senior media figure publicly shoot himself in the foot," writes Robert Clow in The Australian. So when the Nine Network backed from a legal action against its former news and current affairs chief Mark Llewellyn--and sought injunctions to stop details being published--"media writers smacked their lips." The new boss of Nine, a former game show host named Eddie McGuire, suddenly found himself on the spot--"a tall poppy begging for a scythe, and as a media man himself he would have to welcome the blade." But Clow notes that …
  • You've Got Jail!
    A Brazilian woman accused of running a high-priced brothel in New York City pleaded not guilty to prostitution, money laundering, and drug possession, but told cops she had sex for money with two high-profile U.S. executives--including Time Warner's Chief Financial Officer. Andrea Schwartz, 31, named Wayne Pace of Time Warner and Robert Voccola, chief investment officer at a unit of Legg Mason, as two of her clients. "I got up to $200K ($200,000) between 2001 and 2004 from just one guy who worked for AOL in cash, mortgage payments, and checks and other things," Schwartz says, using the company's former …
  • In Space, No One Can You Hear You Scream 'Anti-Trust Act'
    Sirius Satellite Radio CEO Mel Karmazin would like to buy rival XM--apart from the price and regulatory issues, reports Reuters. However, speaking at a conference in New York, Karmazin stresses that that his plan for the company "doesn't really involve our doing a deal." He adds, "We'd love to buy them. Price would matter, so that would be an issue... (and) there would definitely be the regulatory issue." An XM spokesman declined comment "on our competitors' wishful thinking." While XM leads Sirius in the market for nationwide pay-radio, the latter's growth has been powered over the last year by the …
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