3. Daily SPJ Press Notes

SPJ PressNotes for Tuesday, August 26, 2008
*
Compiled by Tara Buehner
Ward Neff intern
Department of Journalism and Mass Communication
South Dakota State University
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Headlines: Media News*
------------------------------------------------------------------------

* * Hometown papers splurge on convention coverage
* CW's KPLR-TV changes times, expands news
* WGN anchor tries to defend on-air slur
* Bush advisers favor a veto of shield law
* Thinking of you (especially the media buyers)
* Scottish newspaper body opposes BBC local news plans
* Protester pulls off the Clandestine radio broadcast in Beijing
* 'Times Union' may cut 28 pages each week
* Inquirer, Daily News to shed more staff
* Jon Stewart lectures reporters on coverage
* Tennessean' reporter has background check by THP
* Obituary: Laurence Urdang
*

------------------------------------------------------------------------
* Headlines: Media Commentary*
------------------------------------------------------------------------
* * Did 'NY Times' columnist cross an ethical border?
* Photos: Journos around the Pepsi Center
* AP Bureau Chief's objectivity at issue
* The speedy Biden news cycle
* Goliath slays a small-town newspaper
* Middle East: Privacy laws on publication of photos needed
* The joke's on you

*
------------------------------------------------------------------------
TODAY'S MEDIA NEWS
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*_ __Campaign 2008_*
* Hometown papers splurge on convention coverage
* Like their counterparts across the country, the local newspapers in
Denver and Minneapolis-St. Paul have been cutting back as advertising
sales dwindle. The next two weeks will be an exception: As the political
conventions roll into town, the four major hometown dailies are planning
lavish coverage worthy of the Olympics.

Source: Shira Ovide and Russell Adams, The Wall Street Journal
<http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121971109070871363.html?mod=rss_media_and_marketing>

*_ __Television_*
* CW's KPLR-TV changes times, expands news
* Bucking the time zone, KPLR-TV, Tribune's CW affiliate, is moving its
9 p.m. half-hour news to 7 p.m. and expanding the newscast to an hour.
Beginning Sept. 8, CW network programming will clear as if KPLR were in
the Eastern, not the Central Time Zone, at 8 p.m. KPLR's newscast will
be the only prime time newscast in the market.

Source: Katy Bachman, MediaWeek
<http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/content_display/news/local-broadcast/e3i2c3db17a74e129769e02e60155947270>

*_ Ethics _*
* WGN anchor tries to defend on-air slur
* WGN-Ch. 9's Allison Payne is apologizing to viewers but says that they
didn't see what some might have thought they did the other night. "I was
not drunk," Payne said over the weekend as she prepared to broadcast
this week from Denver, site of the Democratic National Convention...

Source: Phil Rosenthal, Chicago Tribune
<http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-080824payne-slurring,0,5372885.story>

*_ Reporter's Privilege _*
* Bush advisers favor a veto of shield law
* President Bush's top advisers signaled last week they would urge him
to veto a reporter's shield bill, according to The Associated Press.
Attorney General Michael Mukasey has been outspoken in his opposition to
the Free Flow of Information Act, which would generally protect
reporters against having to reveal their confidential sources except in
extreme cases, including when national security is at stake. Earlier
this summer, Mukasey told Congress the national security exemption built
into the bill did not go far enough; in a letter Friday to Senate
Democrats, according to the AP, Mukasey and National Intelligence
Director Mike McConnell said they would recommend the president veto it
altogether.

Source: Reporters Comittee for Freedom of the Press
<http://www.rcfp.org/newsitems/index.php?i=6934>

*_ __Magazines_*
* Thinking of you (especially the media buyers)
* A NEW magazine is giving new meaning to the term business cards,
sending special greeting cards to the decision makers at media agencies
to encourage them to buy advertising pages for their clients. The
identity of the magazine explains why the message is being delivered by
greeting cards rather than T-shirts, coffee mugs, customized chocolate
bars or the many other trinkets that publishers distribute among the
denizens of Madison Avenue.

Source: Stuart Elliott, The New York Times
<http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/26/business/media/26adco.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss>

*_ __International_*
* Scottish newspaper body opposes BBC local news plans
* The Scottish Daily Newspaper Society has added its voice to the
growing number concerned with the BBC's plans to provide online local
video news. Jim Raeburn, director of the SDNS which represents the
country's local and national titles, has formally written to the BBC
Trust opposing the plans, saying they could "distort the market".
Broadcasting regulator Ofcom is carrying out an enquiry into the BBC's
plans to spend £68m providing on-demand local video news content.

Source: HoldtheFrontPage.co.uk
<http://www.holdthefrontpage.co.uk/news/080826scotsbbc.shtml>

*_ __Olympics 2008_*
* Protester pulls off the Clandestine radio broadcast in Beijing
* This is a special report for MediaShift from the person who set up a
clandestine FM radio broadcast in Beijing to protest censorship. The
correspondent is associated with Reporters Without Borders, but is
writing under the pseudonym "Mina Martin" for fear of retribution from
the Chinese government. You can hear the 20-minute broadcast in English,
French and Mandarin at this site.

Source: Mina Martin, MediaShift
<http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2008/08/embedded_in_chinahow_a_protest_1.html>

*_ __Newspapers_*
* 'Times Union' may cut 28 pages each week
* NEW YORK The Times Union of Albany, N.Y. may cut up to 28 pages each
week, including several feature and business sections, to counter the
rising cost of newsprint, according to Editor Rex Smith. Smith told E&P
Monday that an internal task force reviewing cost-saving options for the
past month is expected to put forth recommendations next week. Among
those is likely to be the page cutback.

Source: Joe Strupp, Editor and Publisher
<http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003842157>

*_ Newspapers _*
* Inquirer, Daily News to shed more staff
* As the financial troubles of Philadelphia Media Holdings (PMH),
previously reported here, continue to mount, more layoffs are coming at
the Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News. Specific newsroom employees
are being approached and asked to consider accepting voluntary layoffs,
says administrative officer Bill Ross of the Newspaper Guild. "The idea
is that they'll get the severance agreement negotiated under the
contract," he says, "and they will save someone with less seniority from
facing layoffs."

Source: Philadelphia Magazine
<http://www.phillymag.com/news/2008/08/25/inquirer-daily-news-to-shed-more-staff/>

*_ __Campaign 2008_*
* Jon Stewart lectures reporters on coverage
* DENVER (CNN) - As Comedy Central's "Daily Show" descends on Denver for
four days of coverage, Jon Stewart took after the "established" media
for getting too cozy with candidates and regurgitating campaign spin
when it comes to political coverage. In a breakfast with reporters,
Stewart directed most of his ire at the 24-hour cable news networks,
which he called "gerbil wheels," and said the media at-large had
"abdicated" to what he called the "slow-witted beast."

Source: CNN
<http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/08/25/jon-stewart-lectures-reporters-on-coverage/>

*_ __Journalists_*
* Tennessean' reporter has background check by THP
* A list of 182 people believed to have been subjects of background
checks from a Tennessee Highway Patrol officer includes the Tennessean
reporter who revealed the Highway Patrol's probe into the officer's
unauthorized activities. Brad Schrade, who has reported on the Highway
Patrol for years and first reported the probe earlier this month,
received a call Saturday morning from a Highway Patrol special agent who
said that Lt. Ronnie Shirley, the subject of the probe, had accessed
Schrade's background information.

Source: Theo Emery, Tennessean.com
<http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080824/NEWS0201/808240419/1009/NEWS>

*_ __Obituaries_*
* Laurence Urdang
* Laurence Urdang, a prolific lexicographer who had a hand in more than
100 dictionaries and other reference books, died on Thursday in
Branford, Conn. He was 81 and lived in Old Lyme, Conn.

Source: Bruce Weber, The New York Times
<http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/26/books/26urdang.html?_r=1&ref=obituaries&oref=slogin%22>

------------------------------------------------------------------------
TODAY'S MEDIA COMMENTARY
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*_ __Ethics_*
* Did 'NY Times' columnist cross an ethical border?
* Whether he's buying prostitutes' freedom or taking college students on
a tour of African slums, New York Times op-ed columnist Nicholas Kristof
isn't the sort of journalist who worries about getting overly involved
in the stories he covers. But did his crusading spirit cause Kristof to
overstep the paper's ethics guidelines?

Source: Jeff Bercovici, Portfolio
<http://www.portfolio.com/views/blogs/mixed-media/2008/08/25/did-ny-times-columnist-cross-an-ethical-border>

*_ __Campaign 2008_*
* Photos: Journos around the Pepsi Center
* See a slideshow of journalists at the Democratic National Convention

Source: MediaBistro
<http://www.mediabistro.com/fishbowlDC/west_wing_reportage/photos_journos_around_the_pepsi_center_92611.asp?c=rss>

*_ Media Criticism_*
* AP Bureau Chief's objectivity at issue
* The Washington bureau chief for the Associated Press, already under
attack for a perceived tilt toward Sen. John McCain, the presumptive
Republican presidential nominee, wrote on Saturday that Sen. Barack
Obama's pick of Sen. Joe Biden as his running mate says "something
profound about Obama: For all his self-confidence, the 47-year-old
Illinois senator worried that he couldn't beat Republican John McCain
without help from a seasoned politician willing to attack."

Source: Richard Prince, Journal-isms
<http://www.mije.org/richardprince/ap-bureau-chiefs-objectivity-issue>

*_ __Coverage_*
* The speedy Biden news cycle
* At 3 a.m. on Saturday, after most in the political establishment had
gone to bed, disappointed and, more commonly, indignant that Barack
Obama hadn't yet announced his choice of a running mate, millions of
cell phones began vibrating. The wee-houred national cacophony---buzzes,
rings, tinny renditions of "Canon in D" and "In Da Club" and "Sweet Home
Alabama"---heralded two things of note: first, that the lowly
text-message---its uses in the past generally confined to confirming
plans ("gr8! c u there!") and drunken flirting ("looved talking 2 u...cn
i have yr number?")---was moving up in the world ("Barack has chosen
Senator Joe Biden to be our VP nominee"). And second: So, too, was Joe
Biden.

Source: Megan Garber, Columbia Journalism Review
<http://www.cjr.org/campaign_desk/something_by_megan.php>

*_ Newspapers _*
* Goliath slays a small-town newspaper
* For Mike Ladyman, controversy was all in a day's work. And enemies,
well, they come with the territory in the newspaper business. In the
nine or so years that his name anchored the masthead of the Montgomery
County Bulletin, he says, the small weekly paper withstood death threats
and political vendettas and faced down attempts to crush it for being an
alternative voice in a bastion of conservatism.

Source: Carilyn Shroposhire, Houston Chronicle
<http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/life/main/5958657.html>

*_ Opinion _*
* Middle East: Privacy laws on publication of photos needed
* JEDDAH: The news that a Syrian man beheaded his 15-month-old nephew in
a Jeddah supermarket in March shocked many, but for some the tragic
events were made worse when Saudi newspapers published gruesome photos
of the decapitated boy. For a group of Saudi bloggers, the publication
of those pictures was beyond the pale; they initiated a letter-writing
campaign to one of the papers that had published the photo...

Source: Fatima Sidiya, Arab News
<http://www.arabnews.com/?page=1&section=0&article=113322&d=25&m=8&y=2008>

*_ __Blogs_*
* The joke's on you
* We started The Joke's On You in January 2007. (The blog came later.)
In the feature, artist/humorist Tim Rickard draws the cartoon and
readers provide the caption. It's not an original idea; other newspapers
have a similar feature. Parade magazine went so far as to steal an idea
from us. Well, seriously, I doubt it was stolen; it's just remarkably
similar. Anyway, the Evansville Courier-Press has debuted a feature with
the exact same name. And to their credit, they credit us for the name. I
only wish they had linked to us, too.

Source: John Robinson, News-Record.com
<http://blog.news-record.com/staff/jrblog/2008/08/the_jokes_on_yo_1.shtml>

------------------------------------------------------------------------
THIS DAY IN HISTORY
------------------------------------------------------------------------
* 1873: *Dr. Lee DeForest was born. He was the inventor of the Audion
tube. The tube makes the broadcasting of sound possible.

*1939: *The radio program, "Arch Oboler's Plays", presented the NBC
Symphony for the first time.

Source: On-This-Day.com
<http://www.on-this-day.com/>

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Matthew Cecil, Associate Professor of Journalism and Mass Communication
at South Dakota State University, edits Press Notes. Cecil may be
reached at: matt.cecil@gmail.com <mailto:matt.cecil@gmail.com>. Tara
Buehner may be reached at: tarabuehner@gmail.com.
<mailto:tarabuehner@gmail.com>

SPJ PressNotes is an e-mail newsletter produced every business day by
the Society of Professional Journalists. It is made possible through
a grant from the Sigma Delta Chi Foundation. Send subscription requests
or changes to pressnotes@spj.org.

SPJ PressNotes Monday, August 18, 2008
*
Compiled by Tara Buehner
Ward Neff intern
Department of Journalism and Mass Communication
South Dakota State University
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Headlines: Media News*
------------------------------------------------------------------------

* * Topic pages to be hub of new BusinessWeek site
* Guardian defends marketing tactics
* Former direct TV chief named 'L.A. Times' publisher
* Tribune, Scripps and Lee report declining online revenue
* News divisions retooling Facebook apps
* NBC coverage gives a narrow view of China
* The Enquirer: Even scandal can be news
* McCain ad strikes wrong chord, singer-songwriter says
* Key news audiences now blend online and traditional sources
* CNN tunes up campaign
* Obituary: Leroy Sievers
* Obituary: Jack Landau
*

------------------------------------------------------------------------
* Headlines: Media Commentary*
------------------------------------------------------------------------
* * If you thought the internet was cool, wait until it goes space age
* Jon Stewart: the prototype postmodern news anchor
* Are editors a luxury that we can do without?
* Live photo blogging and instant journalism
* Protecting journalism teachers
* Teaching the technical without losing sight of journalism
* Padding the paper

*
------------------------------------------------------------------------
TODAY'S MEDIA NEWS
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*_ __Online News_*
* Topic pages to be hub of new BusinessWeek site
* With advertising revenue sliding, publications try a lot of things
online to get noticed, like --- pardon the jargon --- verticals,
aggregation, user-generated content, popularity rankings and even
something resembling social networks.

Source: Richard Perez-Pena, The New York Times
<http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/18/business/media/18businessweek.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&adxnnlx=1219061093-b5lT8STDnCdejQB6DmGo3Q>

*_ __Newspapers_*
* Guardian defends marketing tactics
* A national newspaper journalist this week questioned rival papers' use
of paid-for search engine advertising, but new data suggests that it
only accounts for a small fraction of traffic from search engines to
newspapers' websites.

Source: Martin Stabe, The Press Gazette
<http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=7&storycode=41918&c=1>

*_ __Journalists_*
* Former direct TV chief named 'L.A. Times' publisher
* LOS ANGELES Eddy Hartenstein, a former head of DirecTV, will become
publisher of the Los Angeles Times, the newspaper reported Saturday.
Hartenstein, a pioneering satellite television executive with no
newspaper experience, will take over Monday. His job will be to
invigorate a newspaper that has cut back hundreds of jobs as it
struggles with plunging circulation and ad revenue in the Internet age.

Source: The Associated Press, Editor and Publisher
<http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003839860>

*_ __Advertising_*
* Tribune, Scripps and Lee report declining online revenue
* CHICAGO -- File this under "It can always get worse." Amid the
constant stream of circulation declines, vanishing ads and staff
reductions that have afflicted print newspapers, some major publishers
are seeing online-revenue declines for the first time.

Source: Jeremy Mullman, Advertising Age
<http://adage.com/mediaworks/article?article_id=130363>

*_ __Social News_*
* News divisions retooling Facebook apps
* ABC News and Facebook quietly removed the much-ballyhooed U.S.
Politics application they partnered on last year to engage users during
the presidential-election season, and they are expected to announce a
new, larger project in the coming weeks. The move marks one of a number
of course corrections that some of TV's biggest news organizations are
making to their efforts to tap Facebook's powerful user base during the
run-up to the political conventions and election.

Source: Alex Weprin, Broadcasting and Cable
<http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6588071.html?rssid=193>

*_ Olympics 2008_*
* NBC coverage gives a narrow view of China
* For NBC, Beijing is just a backdrop. Granted, there was never any
chance that NBC, which paid more for its broadcast rights than the rest
of the world combined, was going to jeopardize that investment by making
Michael Phelps take a back seat to some investigative reporter. Still,
rather than expand our understanding of China beyond the Water Cube, NBC
seems determined to shrink it, turning a blind eye to most any hint of a
problem, like a parent who pretends not to notice when his kid is
misbehaving in public.

Source: Robert Bianco, USA Today
<http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/reviews/2008-08-17-olympics-coverage_N.htm?loc=interstitialskip>

*_ __Tabloids_*
* The Enquirer: Even scandal can be news
* It was more than a week since the National Enquirer's coup about John
Edwards's affair had broken into plain view, but David Perel, the
tabloid's editor in chief, seemed to be expecting my call. Mr. Perel
remembered a gullible 2005 column I had written (and all but forgotten)
about the Enquirer's owner, American Media Inc., replacing him and his
team with a British invasion of crack Fleet Street reporters and editors
to bring some sizzle to a tabloid that seemed to be losing readership
and steam...

Source: David Carr, The New York Times
<http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/18/business/media/18carr.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss>

*_ __Copyright_*
* McCain ad strikes wrong chord, singer-songwriter says
* LOS ANGELES --- Jackson Browne doesn't want John McCain running on
anything fueled by his lyrics. The singer-songwriter sued McCain and the
Ohio and national Republican committees in U.S. District Court in Los
Angeles on Aug. 14, accusing them of using his song "Running on Empty"
without his permission.

Source: The Associated Press, The First Amendment Center
<http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/news.aspx?id=20417>

*_ Studies _*
* Key news audiences now blend online and traditional sources
* For more than a decade, the audiences for most traditional news
sources have steadily declined, as the number of people getting news
online has surged. However, today it is not a choice between traditional
sources and the internet for the core elements of today's news audiences.

Source: Pew Research Center for People and the Press
<http://people-press.org/report/444/news-media>

*_ Campaign 2008_*
* CNN tunes up campaign
* Maybe it's your first time. Maybe it isn't. Either way, CNN is
counting on a specially recorded cover of Foreigner's 1977 hit "Feels
Like the First Time" to attract new or returning voters who want to find
out what's going on in the presidential campaign.

Source: William Triplett Variety
<http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117990695.html?categoryid=14&cs=1&nid=2562>

*_ __Obituaries_*
* Leroy Sievers
* Leroy Sievers, a veteran broadcast journalist, former executive
producer of ABC News' "Nightline" and the author of a popular and candid
daily blog about his battle with cancer, "My Cancer," has died at age
53. Sievers was an award-winning television producer who reported from
nearly every major war and natural disaster in his nearly three decades
in the business.

Source: ABC News <http://abcnews.go.com/print?id=5197492>

*_ Obituaries _*
* Jack Landau
* The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press is saddened to learn
of the death of its first executive director, Jacob C. (Jack) Landau.
Landau, 74, died on Aug 9. He was a resident of Falls Church, Va.
Landau, a lawyer and journalist, frequently referred to himself as a
"First Amendment guerilla." He had been a Supreme Court reporter for
Newhouse Newspapers when he briefly left journalism to become a
spokesman for Attorney General John Mitchell at the start of the Nixon
Administration.

Source: Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press
<http://www.rcfp.org/newsitems/index.php?i=6916>

------------------------------------------------------------------------
TODAY'S MEDIA COMMENTARY
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*_ __Technology_*
* If you thought the internet was cool, wait until it goes space age
* The internet is still very young. It was only November 1977 when a
group of computer scientists successfully connected three networks
around the world, including one at University College London. It took
until 1989 for the internet to become commercially available and about
another decade after that for it to achieve widespread household use in
Europe and the United States. Only then did we emerge from what I think
of as the 'internet comma' days, when its mention in the media was
always followed by a comma and a short description.

Source: Vint Cerf, The Guardian
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/aug/17/internet.google?gusrc=rss&feed=networkfront>

*_ __Television_*
* Jon Stewart: the prototype postmodern news anchor
* I was paying a bill on Friday when the clerk --- a bright young man in
his late 20s --- began talking about how the news makes him feel
depressed (the world and its denizens are, to me, a rolling focus
group). He then made this remarkable statement: "The only news I really
watch is Jon Stewart. I mean, it's all the same thing, but at least he's
entertaining."

Source: Terry Heaton, Terry Heaton's PoMo Blog
<http://www.thepomoblog.com/archive/jon-stewart-the-prototype-postmodern-news-anchor/>

*_ __Opinion_*
* Are editors a luxury that we can do without?
* Do we need editors? I hesitate to ask, knowing that one or two will be
taking a sharpened pencil - a cursor, rather - to this very question.
It's like insulting the surgeon moments before going under the knife.
But as newspapers - especially regional papers in the UK and US - pare
to the bone and then the marrow, it is worth asking whether editors are
now a luxury.

Source: Jeff Jarvis, The Guardian
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/aug/18/1>

*_ __Technology_*
* Live photo blogging and instant journalism
* At the IdeaLab blog, Anthony Pesce, editor of the UCLA Daily Bruin,
beholds the glory of the iPhone's photo instant-upload feature and
wonders at its implications for breaking-news journalism --- and for
creating unfortunate Facebook keepsakes. Excerpt:

Source: Social Media
<http://www.socialmedia.biz/2008/08/live-photo-blog.html>

*_ Student Journalism _*
* Protecting journalism teachers
* The blog era (or is it the post-blog era?) has already made it harder
to believe H.L. Mencken's old saw that freedom of the press is limited
to those who own one. Now a bill awaiting Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's
signature may further weaken the once-mighty grip of an important class
of publishers: high school and college administrators.

Source: Los Angeles Times
<http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-ed-advisors18-2008aug18,0,7621805.story?track=rss>

*_ __Journalism_*
* Teaching the technical without losing sight of journalism
* Recently, MediaShift started running reports from "embeds" at various
media outlets and educational institutions. This report comes from
Alfred Hermida, an assistant professor at the Graduate School of
Journalism at the University of British Columbia. Classic Hollywood
movies tend to idealize the job of the reporter, from Cary Grant in "His
Girl Friday" to Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman in "All the
President's Men." All they needed was a pen and a notebook.

Source: Mark Glaser, PBS MediaShift
<http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2008/08/embedded_at_ubcteaching_the_te.html>

*_ __Newspapers_*
* Padding the paper
* Kevin Roderick of LAObserved points out that though the Los Angeles
Times boasted about the "1180 pages" that comprised this past Sunday's
print edition (up from 828 pages the Sunday before), it's just
misleading talk. Why?...

Source: Jane Kim, Columbia Journalism Review
<http://www.cjr.org/behind_the_news/padding_the_paper.php>

------------------------------------------------------------------------
THIS DAY IN HISTORY
------------------------------------------------------------------------
* 1735: *The "Evening Post" of Boston, MA, was published for the first
time.

*1937: *The first FM radio construction permit was issued in Boston, MA.
The station went on the air two years later.

Source: On-This-Day.com
<http://www.on-this-day.com/>

SPJ PressNotes is an e-mail newsletter produced every business day by
the Society of Professional Journalists. It is made possible through
a grant from the Sigma Delta Chi Foundation. Send subscription requests
or changes to pressnotes@spj.org.

SPJ PressNotes for Friday, August 22, 2008
*
Compiled by Tara Buehner
Ward Neff intern
Department of Journalism and Mass Communication
South Dakota State University
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Headlines: Media News*
------------------------------------------------------------------------

* * London's tawdry tabloids turn upmarket
* Afghanistan: Media-friendly enemy
* Brown urges China to continue press freedom moves
* ABC, USA Today hit the road
* Man's anti-war T-shirts express 'core political speech'
* Radio dips 7% for first half of '08
* 'U.S. News' sees drop in participation
* P&G taps bloggers, moms for unconventional product launch
* Diller's IAC splits into 5 companies
* MSNBC to deliver 20 hours of daily live convention coverage
* Army plan would give press better access to Arlington Cemetery funerals
* Obituary: Bob Palmer
* Obituary: V. Orville Wright
*

------------------------------------------------------------------------
* Headlines: Media Commentary*
------------------------------------------------------------------------
* * Newspapers will not survive despite blind journalistic optimism
* Ads are the new online tip jar
* Amid convention coverage, Couric's 'loosey-goosey' webcast
* Content is king...again
* Newspaper industry in crisis, 'everything's on the table'
* Daniel Pearl Award finalists named
* The best and worst commercials from the Summer Games

*
------------------------------------------------------------------------
TODAY'S MEDIA NEWS
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*_ Tabloids _*
* London's tawdry tabloids turn upmarket
* LONDON -- Next month, for the premiere of Mozart's Don Giovanni, the
Royal Opera House in London plans to fill all 2,200 seats in its scarlet
and gold auditorium with readers of one newspaper. The Sun tabloid. When
the upmarket Guardian newspaper, which has a classical music critic,
grumbled that the opera house had never helped other newspapers this
way, the Sun retorted in classic fashion: Guardian readers "can have a
night in with their mung bean sandwiches and discuss existentialist
feminism.

Source: Karla Adam, The Washington Post
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/21/AR2008082103510.html>

*_ __International_*
* Afghanistan: Media-friendly enemy
* Within hours of the news breaking of the ambush of French soldiers on
Monday, text messages arrived on reporters' mobile phones in Kabul. From
Zahibullah Mujahed, a Taliban spokesman, they boasted of the defeat of
the "invader forces". Nato spokesmen in the city took much longer to
issue a statement.

Source: Jason Burke, The Guardian
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/aug/22/afghanistan.gordonbrown2?gusrc=rss&feed=networkfront>

*_ Press Freedom _*
* Brown urges China to continue press freedom moves
* Gordon Brown today urged China's leaders to continue with the greater
press freedoms opened up for the Beijing Olympics after the Games are
over. At a meeting with President Hu Jintao, the Prime Minister said
that it would be in China's own interest to make the easing of
restrictions on journalists permanent. Brown arrived in Beijing for the
final days of the Games, including the formal handover to London for the
2012 Olympics at the closing ceremony on Sunday.

Source: PA Mediapoint, at The Press Gazette
<http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=1&storycode=41969&c=1>

*_ Campaign 2008 _*
* ABC, USA Today hit the road
* ABC News and USA Today announced Thursday that they will partner to
report from all 50 states in the United States in the run-up to the Nov.
4 presidential election. Dubbed "50 States in 50 Days," the project will
kick off Monday, Sept. 15, with daily features in USA Today and location
reports from all of ABC News' broadcast properties, Good Morning
America, World News with Charles Gibson and Nightline. Both will share
content on their respective Web sites.

Source: Broadcasting and Cable
<http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6589367.html?rssid=193>

*_ __First Amendment_*
* Man's anti-war T-shirts express 'core political speech'
* PHOENIX --- A federal judge has permanently barred Arizona from using
a state law to prosecute an online merchant who sells shirts that list
names of thousands of troops killed in Iraq. U.S. District Judge Neil
Wake did not strike down the 2007 law against selling products that use
military casualties' names without families' permission. But he ruled
yesterday that using the law to prosecute Dan Frazier would violate the
Flagstaff man's First Amendment rights because his "Bush Lied --- They
Died" shirts are "core political speech."

Source: The Associated Press, First Amendment Center
<http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/news.aspx?id=20441>

*_ __Ratings_*
* Radio dips 7% for first half of '08
* No matter how you spin it, radio's revenue story is still bleak.
Combined local and national spot radio advertising dropped 8 percent in
second quarter to $4.6 billion for a 7 percent drop in the first half of
the year to $8.4 billion, according to figures released Thursday (Aug.
21) by the Radio Advertising Bureau. Even factoring in a robust 12
percent growth in off-air advertising to $889 million and a healthy 3
percent climb for network radio to $567 million, radio advertising is
still down 5 percent to $9.9 billion at mid-year.

Source: Katy Bachman, MediaWeek
<http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/content_display/news/local-broadcast/e3iea21f1e730544128869a3831b9cac0e0>

*_ __Readership_*
* 'U.S. News' sees drop in participation
* Even though many colleges will boast today about their placement in
the annual rankings by U.S. News & World Report, more colleges than ever
are declining to participate in the survey that makes up the single
largest part of the magazine's formula.

Source: Inside Higher Ed.
<http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2008/08/22/usnews>

*_ __Advertising_*
* P&G taps bloggers, moms for unconventional product launch
* Procter & Gamble Co. is trying something decidedly new with
toothpaste: launching a product designed to be used once a week. The
idea, of course, isn't to get people to brush less often. Rather, Crest
Weekly Clean Intensive Cleaning Paste, which is set to hit stores by
mid-September, is billed as a weekly addition to people's daily tooth
brushing. The goal is to provide that "just-from-the-dentist," smooth,
clean feeling, as P&G and some bloggers who've gotten sneak previews of
the product have put it.

Source: Jack Neff, Advertising Age
<http://adage.com/article?article_id=130476>

*_ __Media Business_*
* Diller's IAC splits into 5 companies
* NEW YORK --- IAC/InterActiveCorp (IACID) officially broke itself into
five companies Thursday, marking what could be one of the toughest
challenges that CEO Barry Diller has faced. After wowing Wall Street for
decades with his dealmaking prowess and advocacy of corporate synergy,
the Hollywood and Internet mogul finds himself struggling to regain
investor confidence with a collection of mostly Web-based assets
grappling with competitors and a weakening market.

Source: David Lieberman, USA Today
<http://www.usatoday.com/money/media/2008-08-20-iac-diller_N.htm>

*_ Election 2008_*
* MSNBC to deliver 20 hours of daily live convention coverage
* MSNBC will telecast 20 hours a day of live coverage from the
Democratic National Convention in Denver and the Republican National
Convention in St. Paul, Minn., officials said Thursday. As part of
MSNBC's coverage, NBC Universal's broadcast and cable networks will
telecast a one-minute convention roadblock, anchored by Keith Olbermann,
with an update on the day's happenings and a preview of the upcoming
coverage on MSNBC and NBC.

Source: Linda Moss, MultiChannel
<http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6589412.html?nid=4262>

*_ __Newsgathering_*
* Army plan would give press better access to Arlington Cemetery funerals
* A special U.S. Army committee has drafted a proposal that would allow
reporters covering military funerals at Arlington National Cemetery to
listen in using a microphone, according to a Voice of America report.
The proposal addresses an issue that came to a head in April when
Arlington National Cemetery officials forced reporters covering a
military funeral to stand at least 50 yards away from the services, even
though the service member's family had agreed to let the media attend
the funeral.

Source: Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press
<http://www.rcfp.org/newsitems/index.php?i=6930>

*_ __Obituaries_*
* Bob Palmer
* Bob Palmer, who was a fixture on Denver television newscasts for
decades, died Tuesday night. He was 77. The family said he died of
natural causes and there will be a private service. A memorial with
friends will be held later. Palmer, who had two stints as an anchorman
at Channel 4 and one at Channel 7, "was a phenomenon" in television
because he spent his entire career in one market, according to Denver
Post television columnist Joanne Ostrow.

Source: Virginia Culver, The Denver Post
<http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_10258776>

*_ __Obituaries_*
* V. Orville Wright
* V. Orville Wright, 87, president and chief executive of MCI
Communications during its transformation from a start-up into the
leading challenger of AT&T in the 1970s and 1980s, has died. Mr. Wright,
who died of kidney failure Aug. 21 at his home in Chevy Chase, was a
pivotal backstage figure in disrupting AT&T's virtual monopoly on
long-distance phone service and communications technology.

Source: Adam Bernstein, The Washington Post
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/21/AR2008082103370.html>

------------------------------------------------------------------------
TODAY'S MEDIA COMMENTARY
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*_ Newspapers_*
* Newspapers will not survive despite blind journalistic optimism
* A thoughtful, if bleak, assessment of the state of newspapers in the
United States by Vin Crosbie on his Digital Deliverance blog should be
read here in Britain with an understanding that our industry, regional
and national, is likely to follow a similar route. Crosbie's analysis,
Transforming American newspapers (Part 1), is lengthy, so I have
selected some highlights (or should that be lowlights) from his polemic.

Source: Roy Greenslade, The Guardian
<http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/greenslade/2008/08/newspapers_will_not_survive_de.html>

*_ __Online Advertising_*
* Ads are the new online tip jar
* "I never click on ads." It's almost a badge of honor to say that. The
subtext is, "I'm too smart/busy to waste my time doing that," or
perhaps, "I don't want someone to sell my attention." But the real
effect is that you're starving great content. I can say this because
there are no ads here but, If you like what you're reading, click an ad
to say thanks...

Source: Seth Godlin, Seth Godlin's Blog
<http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2008/08/ads-are-the-new.html>

*_ __Journalists_*
* Amid convention coverage, Couric's 'loosey-goosey' webcast
* They won't have thousands of drummers or lip synching little girls.
Instead, some nifty balloon drops no doubt. But the two parties'
political conventions, running back to back the next two weeks from
Denver and St. Paul, will represent the Olympics of American politics -
and are already being advertised as such by MSNBC -- insofar as TV news
coverage is concerned.

Source: Roger Catlin, Courant.com
<http://blogs.courant.com/roger_catlin_tv_eye/2008/08/amid-convention-coverage-couri.html>

*_ Odds and Ends_*
* Content is king...again
* Content is again becoming the hot commodity for media companies.
Claire Gruppo, of Gruppo, Levey & Co., and Tuna Amobi, of Standard &
Poor's, discuss. (video.)

Source: CNBC <http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=827950087>

*_ __Newpapers_*
* Newspaper industry in crisis, 'everything's on the table'
* NEW YORK - Something's happening here, in the newspaper industry, and
as the old Baby Boomer anthem goes, what it is ain't exactly clear.
Faced with an unprecedented crisis that combines cyclical turbulence
with metastasizing digital technology that steals away revenue and
readers at an alarming and seemingly accelerating rate (while offering
newspapers only stingy payoffs), publishers and editors everywhere have
thrown away their rule books --- and, to find their way in this new and
alien environment, are ready to implement previously unthinkable
changes. Or are they?

Source: Mark Fitzgerald and Jennifer Saba, Editor and Publisher
<http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003841443>

*_ Awards and Recognitions _*
* Daniel Pearl Award finalists named
* WASHINGTON, D.C., August 21, 2008 --- The International Consortium of
Investigative Journalists is proud to announce the finalists for the
first Daniel Pearl Award for Outstanding International Investigative
Reporting. Formerly the ICIJ Award, the prize was renamed this year
after Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, who was slain by
Pakistani militants in 2002. (see list)

Source: Poynter Online <http://poynter.org/forum/view_post.asp?id=13555>

*_ Olympics 2008 _*
* The best and worst commercials from the Summer Games
* Super Bowl commercials---self-important, big-budget chunks of
pitchmanship---reflect the fact that people watch the game as an excuse
to watch the ads. The commercials we've seen on NBC since Aug. 8,
generators of more than $1 billion in revenues for the network, reflect
the fact that people watch the Olympics to watch the Olympics...

Source: Josh Levin, Slate <http://www.slate.com/id/2198315/?from=rss>
------------------------------------------------------------------------
THIS DAY IN HISTORY
------------------------------------------------------------------------
* 1762: *Ann Franklin became the editor of the Mercury of Newport in
Rhode Island. She was the first female editor of an American newspaper.

*1932: * The BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) began its first TV
broadcast in England.

*1998:* "The Howard Stern Radio Show" premiered on CBS to about 70% of
the U.S.

Source: On-This-Day.com
<http://www.on-this-day.com/>