Media company executives have branded Communications Minister Helen Coonan's reform package for Australian broadcasters a "digital dud" reports The Age. Since News Corporation helped scuttle a plan to repeal laws banning cross-media and foreign ownership, Coonan's proposals to overhaul digital television "also appear doomed, with the networks unable to reach agreement," the paper says. Digital television has been a failure in Australia, with almost no one signing on. Coonan wants to make converting more attractive for consumers by allowing "multichanneling"--where one network would be able to broadcast on more than one channel--and a range of other new services. An executive …

After a story that actress Reese Witherspoon could be pregnant with her third child last week, Ad Age reports that the supermarket tabloid Star now faces a lawsuit charging a violation of her privacy, and that she was portrayed in a false light. Readers were promised "all the happy details" of the new arrival, with Star noting such clues as to Witherspoon's delicate condition as a trip to a baby boutique, her loose-fitting clothing, and the sight of her in a bathing suit looking four months pregnant. Star says it has the right to ask if Witherspoon is pregnant, but …

A start-up ratings service that plans to use audience data gathered from set-top boxes is trying hard to get cable operators onboard--even promising them a hefty piece of the action. Multichannel News reports that erinMedia, owned by real estate developer Frank Maggio, is ready to offer cable systems as much as 50 percent of the profits in exchange for data from their boxes. "It would not be a controlling interest--it would just be a profit incentive," says Maggio, who also has an antitrust lawsuit pending against dominant TV rating service Nielsen Media Research. He is, he says, trying "to subvert …

While most of the ad money is still being spent offline, how well traditional media companies adapt to the digital age is apt to determine their ultimate future. In a story republished in the International Herald Tribune, Richard Siklos of The New York Times runs down a few of the current efforts by "old media." He gives News Corp. points for "their speed and resolve to gain traction online, as evidenced by its purchase of MySpace. Disney is notable for being the first to stream TV shows onto the Web with sponsor support, while Time Warner has the AOL "paradox" …

While most folks want to see more risk information in direct-to-consumer drug ads, Ad Age reports on a new study from pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca that claims you can only mention so many dangers before the consumer is overloaded. Three is optimal, while four is good and five is okay, the report claims. But anything more than that and a company could be in too-much-information territory. "Trying to communicate more than five risks appears to negatively impact the consumer's ability to remember and comprehend the information presented," says AstraZeneca's senior director-consumer marketing, Don Apruzzese. "Beyond this point of diminishing return, consumers …

The day after a Los Angeles Times piece ripped into Anderson Cooper and CNN for their breathless promotion of an interview with Angelina Jolie, it was the turn of a San Francisco Chronicle scribe, who says the news network "hit a new low in smarmy" as it hyped a special edition of Cooper's program. "Start with Cooper, the glam, my-precious-feelings correspondent, whose ascent to cable-TV news stardom steamrolled over avuncular veteran newsman Aaron Brown and depressed the news slot's ratings for months," writes Debra Saunders. "Add Jolie, the tattooed ex-wife of Tinseltown bad boy Billy Bob Thornton, fresh from Namibia, …

Les Moonves is thinking of getting CBS into the movie business, reports the Associated Press. At a conference this week, the CEO of the media company said he was pondering a plan for CBS to potentially roll out six to eight pictures a year--each in the $20 million to $50 million range. The company lost its tie to the talkies when it was spun off from Viacom--parent of Paramount--earlier this year, and currently spends millions licensing movies for use on its networks. But at least one Wall Street analyst was torn on the idea, the AP notes. "It's not shocking …

Efforts by right-wingers in Congress and in the media to brand Democrats as favoring a "cut-and-run'" policy on the occupation of Iraq have received wide coverage in the past week, writes Greg Mitchell in Editor & Publisher. And while some pundits, and even reporters, have suggested this is working because Americans are not in favor of a "hasty" withdrawal, that conclusion "flies in the face of surveys by all major polling firms, as E&P has chronicled over the past two years." It's one thing when polls are "dismissed, ignored or twisted by political or media spymasters," he continues, "but when …

"American Idol" not only got us interested in voting again, but apparently the hit Fox TV show has also performed that ultimate civic duty of saving someone's life, People reports. Runner-up Katharine McPhee has admitted to the celeb-worshiping weekly that she suffered from bulimia for five years--but after successfully auditioning for the program last fall, she decided to seek help. "When I made it onto "American Idol" I knew that food--my eating disorder--was the one thing really holding me back," she says. "So when I got on the show, I said, 'You know what? I can do well in this …

It was a physical assassination that brought Dan Rather to national prominence when, as young Texas reporter known for covering hurricanes, he reported the murder of President John F. Kennedy, writes Danny Schechter at MediaChannel. But "his long and colorful career as a TV anchor has now been killed by a media assassination staged by his own company." His fate was sealed when he exposed George W. Bush's military record--or, rather, lack thereof--when some documents he used to enhance the report could not be proven authentic, Schechter writes. "Most observers felt the story was true but the evidence used was--mostly …