AP
The Presidential campaigns are gearing up for their most important media flights, including a last-minuute blitz of media buys in key battleground states. Mitt Romney entered Pennslvania for his first significant buy, while Barack Obama heavied up in Michigan.
Think Progress
Conservative political candidate backers the Koch brothers, have surpassed $95 million in ad spending supporting Mitt Romney and other GOP candidates, according to a Think Progress analysis of data from Kantar Media CMAG.
New York Post
Current TV recently put itself on the market -- but its prospects for a happy payday are low as "it seeks to lure buyers even as it struggles with low ratings and questions about its cable distribution," writes Claire Atkinson. "The network, started in 2005 by former Vice President Al Gore, averaged only around 35,000 viewers in the first two weeks of October, according to Nielsen figures."
Gigaom
Hurricane Sandy's effect on media hub New York City's production and consumption of content "has in some ways been stranger than the storm,"
writes Matthew Flamm in
Crain's New York Business. For one, "there were no newspapers on newsstands—if newsstands were open—across large portions of the city on Tuesday." Flamm details other ways New York companies and consumers coped with the storm, from
New York Daily News staffers relocating to New Jersey to work, to Time Warner Cable's overnight interruption of, and then resumption of, cable service (when we were cut off from a Spencer Tracy movie retrospective on …
New York Times
The fact that 1970s sitcom "All in the Family" was "a huge hit, the No. 1 show on television for more than half its run... may also have been a high-water mark for television in terms of how much impact a single series can have in shaping American culture," writes Neil Genzlinger. His review of the just-released boxed set of the iconic show also takes a sharp look at a bygone era's TV environment versus today's. "All in the Family"'s nine-season run "represents one of the last times that the best show on TV was also the most popular show …
Bloomberg Businessweek
Boxee TV has signed an exclusive deal with Walmart stores: starting tomorrow and through the holiday season, the mega-retailer will be the only seller of the new $98 Boxee TV, a "Web-connected device that brings live television and online video together," writes Mark Milian. Boxee, competing with Apple and Roku, will have the advantage of Walmart's marketing muscle.
Mediabistro
With a big bump in digital subscribers, the New York Times circulation is up 40%, according to the latest Audit Bureau of Circulations figures for the six-month period ending in September.
Advertising Age
"Advertising, publishing and marketing observers are reluctant to predict how Election Day results may affect the industry, especially with so many close races and a restive electorate," writes Ana Radela, who quotes ad association folks analyzing the situation in Congress. For example: "Linda Woolley, CEO of the Direct Marketing Association, pointed out that the political futures of certain individuals are more important than which party controls Congress. Direct marketers concerned with new restrictions on internet data have friends and enemies on both sides of the aisle."
Baltimore Sun
Two opposing views on storm coverage: "Viewers visiting The Weather Channel, or just about any other TV news program, will surely encounter the young correspondent strapped to a utility pole, or staggering down a beach, while being lashed by wind and rain. He will tell us in the most serious tone that the wind is rising and the rain is coming down, which any fool could see without Jasper saying a word, or even being there, where he will surely be under the feet of first responders who have a legitimate reason for being there,"
writes The American Spectator's …
New York Times
Forget next week's big election for a moment. Hurricane Sandy wrote its own political story, giving three officials -- two, at least, "considered future presidential contenders" -- their own "tests of political leadership," writes Michael M. Grynbaum in a story parsing the different storm-briefing styles of Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Mayor Mike Bloomberg and Gov. Chris Christie. So it's blunt, passionate Christie versus "stern parent" Bloomberg and "confident but unhurried everyguy" Cuomo. "All three were undoubtedly aware that although the fortunes of politicians are rarely boosted by how they handle big storms, their reputations can easily wind up among the casualties," …