• The New York Times Co. is now publicly shopping the Boston Globe. Meanwhile, the list of potential acquirers is getting longer: The firm that bought the San Diego Union-Tribune is now a possible buyer. [AP, NYT]
• Related: The Globe is going to start charging to access its Web site. [E&P]
• News Corp. and GE were hoping to "ratchet down the rhetoric" when they ironed out a peace pact between MSNBC and Fox News recently. Keith Olbermann didn't abide by it, of course. (And Bill O'Reilly returned the compliment.) But Olbermann is still pretending it never happened. [WP, HP]
• It seems one embarrassment this week wasn't quite enough for Olbermann. Because he's resorting to shameless (and familiar) excuses to try and explain away the Richard Wolffe conflict-of-interest fiasco. [Gawker]
• Profits at CBS dropped by 96 percent in the second quarter. [WSJ]
• Why did Twitter go down yesterday? Blame the Russians. [NYT]

• The FT will introduce a "pay-per-article" system next year. [Guardian]
• Ben Stein didn't lose his New York Times column because he's a fool (which he is). It was because he was shilling crap on TV commercials. [Gawker]
• When asked how newspapers could be saved a few months ago, Daily News owner Mort Zuckerman suggested "sports betting" was the solution. Now he's mentioned it again! Looks like someone is pretty serious. [Forbes]
• TV upfront season was down 22 percent this year compared to last. [THR]
• Those subscription cards that get shoved into magazines, inevitably fall on the floor, and force you to bend over to pick them up, may be on way out. This may be the only good media-related news you hear today. [NYT]
• Actually, scratch that. There is one other bit of good news. One the 13 receptionists let go by Condé Nast this week has been spared! [NYP, WWD]