Starting July 23, Sporting News will launch a daily newspaper-like product that will be e-mailed to 30,000 subscribers. The new digital paper will be heavily news-driven and is aimed at what its executives see as a growing pool of die-hard online sports fans. The product has been designed to reproduce the visual packaging of a newspaper with the navigation of the Web, says publisher Ed Baker. "Physically, it looks like a newspaper, it reads like a newspaper, and feels like a newspaper." Sporting News Today will not carry any advertising until the company builds up a significant subscriber …

You have to start somewhere. To celebrate its 75th year, Esquire will welcome technology with an electronic September cover that flashes the words, "the 21st Century Begins Now," on newsstands. It is very similar to the flashing signs in supermarket displays. Editor David Mr. Granger knows some will see the cover as a gimmick -- but he says the technology behind it speaks to the possibilities of print. The flashing feature is sponsored by Ford, which will have an ad for the Ford Flex on the inside cover using the same tech. "We wanted the marketing for …

U.S. daily newspapers aren't reducing just their newsrooms, they are also downsizing stories, page count, sections, international coverage and national news, according to a new Pew Research study. Ironically, many of the editors surveyed think their papers are improving their coverage, even as they lament recent reductions. At the same time, only a minority of editors thinks online journalism will save their papers. The 57-page study also confirms that the newspaper industry is really two businesses: big-city papers that are hurting mightily, and smaller papers that are doing fairly well. Of dailies with circulations over 100,000, 85% report …

Erin Burnett's meteoric rise at CNBC, since starting at the network two-and-a-half years ago, shows how TV networks are straining to transform fresh-faced hosts into household names. Thanks to all the choices that business news devotees now have when searching for information, the personality of news anchors has become as important as their acumen. Competing with the Internet and the fledgling Fox Business Network, CNBC has meticulously managed Burnett's ascent. "Erin's the ultimate growth stock," says Jonathan Wald, CNBC's head of business news. She is joining network breakout star Maria Bartiromo, tagged the "Money Honey" in the late '90s.

ABC is sexing up its soap operas with a promotion geared to get millennials to watch. Viewership for soaps never rebounded from the coverage of the O.J. Simpson trial, and the audience has evolved over the years, says Shari Cohen, MindShare president. A TV, magazine and online ad campaign features celebrities outside the world of daytime drama, and portrays the soaps as having more glitz than prime-time dramas. Despite dwindling audiences, advertisers like the daytime shows because they attract women in charge of household budgets--who come back repeatedly to catch up on the latest plot twists.

Global corporations will be rooting for China at this summer's Olympics. McDonald's is running a "Cheer for China" television spot, and Nike features Chinese athletes besting foreign competitors in its ad. They are part of a massive advertising blitz by Western brands to win over Chinese consumers. China, the world's second-largest advertising market after the U.S., is a dream for international consumer products companies. "For most, China is the growth market for the next 10 years," says Jonathan Chajet, Interbrand director. "You've never seen the Olympics in a market that has such domestic, commercial scale," says Michael Wood, Leo …

The New York Times is pressing to meet The Wall Street Journal in its own court: business. Times insiders say their coverage will grow in the areas of economy, energy, small business, personal finance and enterprise technology--all of it in WSJ turf. The WSJ is upgrading its Web coverage this fall, and the Times appears to be leaving little to chance with all this new ad-supported business content, which will be free online. Could this mean that the subscription-based WSJ.com will have to play defense against NYTimes.com? Or conversely, will the reporting by NYTimes.com become stretched and weak, benefiting …

Experts suggest that Condé Nast, by choice or necessity, may tighten its belt in the years to come--and risk losing some of its cachet. They ask: Will the successors of chairman Si Newhouse, 80, have his willingness to absorb years of losses on magazines they consider promising? In addition, analysts question whether the luxury goods market that supports the company can continue to defy gravity. CEO Charles H. Townsend responds that the future "certainly will require everyone to take a harder look at profitability. But we are the top-end publisher and that has served us well and it will …