Bloomberg
Google and LG Electronics may launch a Google TV set with the company's software at January's Consumer Electronics Show. Talks between the two companies aren't public, so neither would comment on the story, brought by sources with "knowledge of the project."
Reuters
More on the always depressing newspapers-in-financial-trouble beat: The Toronto Star, Canada's biggest daily newspaper, will be offering buyouts to editorial staffers as "a voluntary program for anybody who's wishing to exit on their own terms," notes Chief Financial Officer Lorenzo DeMarchi. The paper is planning a 'major trim' of staff to be completed by the end of the year," that may include outsourcing of editorial and graphic duties, according to anonymous Star journalists cited in this report.
New York Times
TV personalities Charlie Rose and Gayle King will be joining CBS' "The Early Show" as part of a complete revamp of the low-rated morning program, according to anonymous CBS staff members cited by Brian Stelter. As far as we know, this is the first on-air job that King, now host of a morning talk show on OWN, has had outside the media kingdom of her BFF, Oprah Winfrey. She "will help lead the 8 a.m. hour, typically the softer hour for morning news shows," writes Stelter. The two-hour program "will defy the gauzy conventions of morning television," by focusing on …
Broadcasting & Cable
Stations groups including Fox Television Stations have picked up a second season of the Warner Bros. talk show featuring Anderson Cooper, thus "guaranteeing its return," according to Broadcasting & Cable. Paige Albiniak delves into the particulars of who's taking on the show -- Fox instead of Tribune in New York, for example -- along with discussing the fate of other daytime talk shows like Warner Bros.' new "Bethenny Frankel," which is currently without a home.
Adweek
New York magazine is raising its single-copy price by 20% to $5.99, beginning with the last issue of the year. The weekly will hold subscription fees steady. The mag's single-copy sales -- which only account for 4% of its circulation -- actually declined " more than the industry average, by 21 percent to 14,573 in the first half of 2011, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations," writes Lucia Moses.
Paid Content
David Kaplan examines the trend for major publishers to move beyond editorial properties and into tech-related products, often "becoming incubators of startups that can then be sold" or "service providers." Most recently, there's "Hearst’s sale of a majority stake in its niche entertainment topics site/app collection LMK to... Black Ocean." Condé Nast also developed organizer iPad app Idea Flight.
newmediaage
The USA Network show "Covert Affairs" wil be the first channel to use Shazam technology that gives viewers the chance to buy products featured on the show from their Apple or Android phones. The example mentioned in this article is "fashion brands" -- but, since the show features a CIA agent, wouldn't it be cool for some spy gadgets to be part of the package? Expect other NBCUniversal shows to follow suit. How about the music featured on "Parenthood," where two characters just opened up their own recording studio?
LA Times
Interesting news for "Top Chef" viewers, and those looking for ideas to freshen up an aging franchise, as well as move eyeballs from TV to computer screens: Season nine of the show features a weekly Web-only component, the "Last Chance Kitchen," that allows the loser of each episode to compete again in hopes of eventually getting back in the game for the always-exciting finale. However, John Horn thinks this contest, which has each episode loser competing against the winner of the previous "Last Chance" round (follow?), is actually mathematically unfair to the chefs -- and unfair to viewers who must, …
Vulture/New York Magazine
Ok, Eddie Murphy will not be hosting the Academy Awards show early next year. He announced he was quitting this gig earlier today -- a day after Brett Ratner, the guy who tapped him for hosting duties, resigned as producer of the show. That may upset the 72% of viewers who, in a Hollywood Reporter
poll Nov. 6, said they supported Murphy as Oscar host. But we're sure they'll be able to adjust.In a 2010 pre-Oscars poll, after all, a majority -- 54% -- of viewers actually supported James Franco/Anne Hathaway in 2010 (and we know …
LA Times
Hmm. Reporters and editors for the Web site News Hawks don't seem to exist, according to an investigation by the L.A. Times. And stories on the site promoting L.A.'s Central Basin Municipal Water District appear to have been written by a PR consultant.