Lately broadcast networks are opting in on shows based on all manner of contests and challenges, with "people dancing, fighting, singing and conniving their way to the top." To find the dramas, sitcoms and news coverage that once gave the networks their brand identities, viewers now have to go to cable. Channels such as TNT, AMC and FX have carved out niches by showing that narrative, quality and drama have not gone off the grid--they have just switched coordinates. "Networks are on an endless search for the next big thing," says Steve Koonin, president of Turner Entertainment. …

Entertainment magazines are one of the few media outlets benefiting from the transition of content from print to online. Executives at People magazine say the magazine's site People.com clocks 830 million page views a month. Readers will come to People.com for coverage of an event or a star "and then click through to look at seven months worth of dresses that celebrity has worn," says editor Mark Golin. Entertainment editors say the Internet gives them the welcome ability to respond quickly. Depending how much attention a story is or isn't getting from viewers, they might change how it …

Riding on the tail of Monday's announcement of a faster, cheaper iPhone, the Associated Press unveiled an upgraded iPhone program that lets people access news, photos and video even when the phone isn't connected to the Internet. The service displays ad-supported local news stories from more than 100 participating newspapers, as well as national and international news from AP, all organized by Zip code. With the free iPhone-specific application, users will also be able to submit news and photos back to the AP directly from their iPhones if they happen to capture images from the scene of a …

In a reaction to Tribune chief Sam Zell's announcement that the Los Angeles Times and other Tribune papers have too many pages and not enough productive reporters, The New York Times wonders if he might be right. "Is a thinner, flashier, more local newspaper with a smaller newsroom the best financial model for a struggling industry?" Analyst John Morton says no. When papers diminish their product to cut costs and preserve unrealistic profits, they diminish their print and online brand. "It's a strategy, basically, of gradually closing down," he says. Conversely, Allen H. Neuharth, former chief …

Media executives planning for a digital future are embracing mass media "network" advertising models that may appear viable in the short term, but will ultimately fail to deliver. Ask venture capitalists who have made bets on content-based and ad-dependent companies how their investments are performing. "You'll hear that two to four years in, most are generating returns for investors far below the minimum ten-time multiples they expect." The problem is that the pool of ad dollars is stagnant, while new media alternatives are popping up virtually every day and ad budgets are splintering into micro-fragments. Advertisers …

For WPP's Martin Sorrell, the obstacles to his latest takeover attempt of Taylor Nelson Sofres don't make sense. Sorrell wants a bigger slice of the market research pie, but his three approaches to TNS and was swiftly rebuffed each time. A deal with TNS would help WPP leapfrog over Omnicom to become the world's biggest advertising behemoth. TNS says it prefers a merger of equals with its German rival GfK, but Sorrell contends, "mergers of equals tend to be the two drunkards being propped up by the lamppost." He says TNS is "prejudiced against engaging with us." …

It looks like vaudeville has never really gone away; dancing and singing TV shows seem to discourage people from ad zapping. An survey of media-buyer projections of commercial ratings reveals that "American Idol" and "Dancing with the Stars" will have the highest "C3" ratings--households that will watch the ads within three days of a program's original air date. Shari Anne Brill, Carat senior vice president says that "Idol" and "Dancing With the Stars" are "foxtrotting away with the night." Ad Age's survey is compiled by averaging fourth-quarter C3 household estimates from four major media agencies. CBS …

Ads for the fictional Derrie-Air airline that ran last week in the Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News included a disclaimer informing readers that they were fakes, in case people didn't figure it out. The ads, which claimed to set prices based on the weight of each passenger and their luggage, were also a test of the papers' and their Web site's ad response. (The ads ran both in print and online.) The company says it will review the online page views and traffic results as well as reaction to the print versions. "It was a one-day …