Condé Cuts, Leno's Debut & Falling Ratings
• The bad news for Condé Nast now that McKinsey has finished up its summer-long review: Editors and publishers at the company may be asked to trim their budgets by as much as 25 percent. The good news, according to one Condé insider: "This doesn't mean Anna Wintour is going to start taking the bus," nor is the company going to get all cheap "like Hachette." [Crain's]
• Jay Leno's new show debuts tonight on NBC. Will it be a success? A massive failure? Only time will tell, but the stakes "couldn't be higher." [LAT]
• Oprah's ratings are down. And Barack Obama is to blame, apparently. [AP]
• Ratings are down for Project Runway, too. Barack is not to blame. [WWD]
• According to a poll of newspaper publishers, 51 percent think they can successfully get their readers to pay for content online. Optimistic! [PC]
• As if newspapers and magazines don't have enough to worry about these days, a new survey finds that the percentage of people who think journalists are increasingly "inaccurate and biased" is on the rise. [AP]
• More on McGraw-Hill's efforts to find a buyer for BusinessWeek. [NYT, BW]
• TV Guide's glory days are over, in case that wasn't abundantly clear. [NYP]
• Rumor has it billionaire Warren Buffett is backing the Cronkite Channel, a news website "that would uphold the values of the broadcast legend." [NYDN]
• The New York Times broke the embargo on Dan Brown's new book, The Lost Symbol. Much publishing industry hand-wringing ensues. [E&P]
• Phil Corbett will take over as the New York Times' standards editor after Craig Whitney retires at the end of the month. [NYO]
• Lloyd Grove has joined The Daily Beast on a full-time basis. [NYP]
• Harry Smith of the CBS's Early Show has come down with swine flu! So he'll be spending the next few days at home, if you don't mind. [AP]