It was a banker, and not P.T. Barnum, who first said "there's a sucker born every minute," writes Paul La Monica of CNNMomey.com. That axiom may prove true for major media companies in the coming months. He notes that News Corp.'s social networking site MySpace was sold for $580 million last year, sending shock waves through the traditional media industry and contributed to a big rally in the company's stock. Now, "old" media firms are supposed to be scrambling to find their own MySpace to get reach teens and young adults. "And I fear that the rush to become a …

Huge "360-degree televisions" in shopping centers are screening Australian Broadcasting Corporation updates in news, business, sports and weather--complete with advertising--in a move that has upset some folks Down Under, reports The Age. Says Friends of the ABC spokeswoman Glenys Stradijot: "Broadcasting of ABC news with advertisements damages the integrity of the ABC and its news service." She is also concerned by what her group sees as a too-cozy relationship between the public broadcaster's commercial arm and its news and current affairs division. But ABC Enterprises' director Robyn Watts defends the practice. "Certain advertising is permitted but to strict guidelines, and …

Mel Gibson's drunken, anti-Semitic tirade was a big boost to the top syndicated TV entertainment and news magazines, with four of five posting ratings gains for the week ending August 6. And the scandal brought gains to a genre that has generally performed well all season, the magazine adds. King World's "Inside Edition" got the biggest bump--climbing 13 percent for the week and 21 percent from the same week a year ago, to finish at a 3.5 national syndication barter rating. That moved it into second place behind CBS Paramount's "Entertainment Tonight"--a program that hit its best mark in five …

The newspaper industry faces a $20 billion revenue shortfall over the next five years if advertising and circulation continue downward spirals, reports Editor & Publisher, citing a study from research firm Outsell. The firm based the projection on the industry's reliance on paid circulation, which has been slipping fast over the past several years. "The entrenched habits of using the Web will only deepen the circulation decline," writes Ken Doctor in the report. "Couple that change with less-meaty print products, more free daily and weekly competition, and newsprint pricing increasing in the 5% to 8% range, and the problems multiply." …

CNN will chop an hour off "American Morning" in mid-October to ease the load on co-anchors Soledad O'Brien and Miles O'Brien, reports TV Week. "I just don't want to burn the guys out. The O'Briens are only human," CNN/U.S. President Jon Klein says. Also, starting Labor Day, Heidi Collins and weekend man Tony Harris will become the main anchors of the 10 a.m.-to-noon weekday block, to be re-titled "CNN Newsroom." It's "a combination of lightening their load and the confidence we have in our team," Klein adds, referring to the Collins-Harris union. The changes in personnel and lineups come a …

"Those consumers who prefer their entertainment unbranded--that is, without the products, logos and other trappings of advertisers embedded in the content--are in for a disappointing decade," writes Stuart Elliott in The New York Times, citing a new report. The study, from PQ Media, predicts that marketers will keep placing products wherever they can: movies, TV, radio, Web sites, videogames, lyrics, newspapers and magazines, and even the plot of novels. "As technology enables consumers to avoid or skip over ads, by using devices like digital video recorders or iPods, marketers are trying to restore the balance in their favor by placing …

Faced with cries from its shareholders, Citigroup has made big cuts in media spending--trimming its investments in cable TV, magazines and the Internet, Ad Age reports. And the pullback comes even as the banking giant tries to boost revenue from its consumer business. Cable deals have been killed in the middle of upfront negotiations, and publishers have had to yank ads that were already scheduled to run in their magazines, the trade magazine says. And some have been told that the business may not be back until the middle of 2007. "It's an earnings-related thing," says one magazine executive. "The …

"When a baby joins a family, older children often become jealous of the attention showered on the newborn," writes WWD. And a similar phenomenon seems to be taking place at Condé Nast over its new business magazine. As it gestates over a 20-month period, Portfolio is apt to receive "as much money, manpower and corporate cuddling as it needs to thrive and succeed"--possibly in the area of $100 million. Most insiders interviewed weren't envious of Portfolio's financial backing (or claimed not to be), but they understand how old-fashioned sibling rivalry could develop. Condé Nast puts plenty of cash into marketing, …

"The story of how the crass comics magazine Cracked was brought back to life begins, of all places, at a white-shoe law firm in New York," reports the Associated Press. A pudgy young lawyer named Monty Sarhan spent his time abetting the dreams of Internet entrepreneurs. He helped them with finance deals when he caught the entrepreneurial bug himself. So, he decided to quit the legal profession and "go for the brass ring" by acquiring a media company. He found it in Cracked, a magazine best known for bathroom humor that had always played second fiddle to Mad. But he …

While radio languishes in the old media doldrums in the U.S, it is doing just fine in Canada, reports the Toronto Globe and Mail. Canada's radio industry is quietly thriving, it reports. "In fact, the last time the sector had it this good, George Michael and Tiffany were topping the charts." Sales of ad time on private radio were up 8.7 percent last year--its biggest jump since 1988, according to Statistics Canada. The increase pushed commercial revenue to a combined $1.3-billion for AM and FM stations, led by the top three markets in the country: Calgary, Ottawa-Gatineau and Toronto. The …