Talk about diversifying revenue streams in perhaps-odd ways -- some cable companies, including Comcast and Time Warner, are branching out into home security. This analysis of the trend includes funny consumer comments, like this one: "Yes Mr. Smith, we got a report that your burglar alarm is going off, we are dispatching a security officer to your home and you can expect him on Monday between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m."

AMC Networks President and CEO Josh Sapan says his stations will soon be raising ad rates and carriage fees -- though he didn't say exactly when the price increase would occur. "We think we've accomplished a couple of the things we set out to do, one of which is to be a network of import," he says. And since the flagship station had began attracting critical kudos with such shows as "Mad Men," it has been undercharging both ad buyers and cable operators, he says.

Ten NBC-owned stations around the U.S., including those in Chicago, L.A. and Philadelphia, will work with nonprofit news outlets like Pro Publica to strengthen news gathering and reporting. This move will presumably help fulfill Comcast's promise to add local public-interest programming as part of its deal to buy NBCUniversal.   This is also part of a major media trend to share resources "as operators try to trim the high costs that come with producing stories on their own," writes James Rainey. He provides specifics of media outlets where such arrangements are in place.

Mathew Ingram explores the new commenting system on the New York Times site, in which "trusted" commenters with a history of good behavior can post without moderation. "The motivation behind the move is sound," he writes. "If media companies like the NYT really want to behave like communities (which they should), then they need to encourage their readers to" behave intelligently. Still, there are some issues with the Times' initial approach -- like the fact that in order to attain "trusted" status, a commenter must have a Facebook account, which "makes those without Facebook accounts feel like second-class citizens," writes …

Atlanta-based Get Married Media just killed off its magazine and website. That's the 18th bridal publication to shut down in 2011, making it the hardest-hit category for mag fatalities this year, according to a Mediafinder.com survey cited in this Folio piece. So the era of the ginormous bridal mag -- perhaps one of the last bastions of giant, catalog-like print issues -- coming to an end? Maybe not. This post also explores less-discouraging ad-page figures and revenues for three major bridal pubs.

The parent company for the St. Louis Dispatch, Davenport, Iowa-based Lee Enterprises, will be filing Chapter 11 bankruptcy by Dec. 12 to refinance a debt of $1 billion. The company previously tried such strategies as layoffs, buyouts and paycuts to reduce costs. Its newspaper holdings in Tucson, Ariz. and Madison, Wisc., are not affected by the filing.

Nielsen says its prior estimate of an overall increase in children's TV ratings this fall was incorrect -- but it still stands by its report that ratings for Nickelodeon declined sharply this fall. Instead of increasing by 1.7%, the number of kids aged 2 to 11 watching television in Q3 declined by 2.9% compared to last fall, Nielsen said, citing an error it found after Viacom, Nickelodeon's owner, questioned Nielsen numbers. But the company stands by its data otherwise -- data that "comes at a sensitive time for [Nickelodeon]," since "the holiday season is typically when marketers target holiday ads …

Now that "All My Children" and "One Life to Live" are gone, ABC Daytime pres Brian Frons will also be exiting. He’ll be replaced by Vicki Dummer, formerly the network’s senior vice president of current series and specials, who will head up not only ABC’s daytime programs but also its syndicated fare under a new division called Times Square Studios. So she’ll be helming Katie Couric’s upcoming syndie talk show as well as ABC net shows like “General Hospital,” “The View” and “The Chew” -- but not “Live! with Kelly,” which remains part of the  ABC Owned Television Stations Group.

We had read a few articles about ABC’s deal with Creative Mobile Technologies for in-taxi programming, including a MediaPost brief, but still wondered if this meant that we’d no longer be seeing celebrity clips from our Brooklyn neighbor Cat Greenleaf’s entertaining NBC show “Talk Stoop” seemingly every time we plop down into a backseat.  We’re still not sure. In this post, Dave Haynes writes that “ABC appears to be replacing ClearChannel and content partner NBC,” but then adds “It’s more than a touch confusing, as the NY10 [Clear Channel] service seems to be hooked to the OTHER taxi TV …

For six years, we’ve been enjoying editor Gersh Kuntzman’s witty writing and observations in our local now-News Corp.-owned weekly The Brooklyn Paper.  Now, Kuntzman is moving on to teach journalism at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism -- and to oversee the school’s hyper-local online collaboration with The New York Times, “The Local-Fort Greene.”  Before joining the Brooklyn papers, Kuntzman was a long-time columnist for both The New York Post and Newsweek, writes Kat Stoeffel.