cnn
Twitter, CNN, Fox News & Facebook
cityfile · 05/26/09 12:04PM• How is Twitter going to make money? With a reality TV series, naturally. The show will involve "putting ordinary people on the trail of celebrities in a revolutionary competitive format," in case you were wondering. [Variety]
• The primetime lineups for next year "are chockablock with shows meant to make recession-weary viewers laugh and feel better." How encouraging! [NYT]
• Ratings are down for CNN's Anderson Cooper as well as for Roland Martin, who has been subbing for Campbell Brown recently. [Page Six]
• Bravo's next Real Housewives installment: Washington, DC. [Daily Intel]
• Fox News nut Greta Van Susteren may not be around for long. Rumor has it her contract won't be be renewed and Megyn Kelly will replace her. [NYT]
• New York lost close to $5 million last year; with ad pages down 37 percent thus far in 2009, "losses are expected to be even higher this year." [NYP]
• A Russian investment firm has dropped $200 million into Facebook's bank account in return for a 1.96 percent stake in the company. [NYT]
• Ben Stiller's Night at the Museum sequel beat out the fourth installment of the Terminator franchise with a four-day pull of $70 million. [Reuters]
Soledad O'Brien's War Against Flatulent Dogs Suffers a Setback
The Cajun Boy · 05/25/09 10:49PMBack in January CNN's Soledad O'Brien, serving on the co-op board of her Chelsea building, signed the eviction notice for fellow resident Steven Lyon complaining about the "size, slobbering, shedding, drooling, gassiness and odors" of his Neapolitan Mastiff, Ugo. A Manhattan Housing Court judge has now dismissed the case.
Microsoft's Silly Holographic Meeting Tech Has Perfect Customer
Ryan Tate · 05/21/09 03:30PMTwitter Is Down! Twitter Is Down! What Will CNN's Rick Sanchez Do?
Owen Thomas · 05/13/09 03:37PMNewsday, The Times & The Gloomiest Cannes Ever
cityfile · 05/12/09 11:13AM• Jim Dolan's Cablevision says that Newsday is not for sale, which is good since there isn't a company on the planet that wants to buy it. [E&P]
• David Geffen made an offer to acquire the stake in the New York Times Co. controlled by Phil Falcone's Harbinger fund; Harbinger passed. [Fortune]
• The mood isn't too upbeat at the Cannes Film Festival, unsurprisingly. [THR]
• 60 Minutes' segment on Anna Wintour should air this Sunday. [Gawker]
• As of the publishing biz didn't have enough to worry about, "web pirates" are now posting copies of books on the Internet. [NYT]
• Anderson Cooper's ratings have been on the decline all year. [LAT]
• OK! appears to be dissolving into chaos. [ASSME, Gawker]
CNN Confuses Similar-Looking Bush, Obama
Ryan Tate · 05/03/09 06:24PMThe End of Portfolio, Newspaper Circulation Falls
cityfile · 04/27/09 11:59AM• More on the decision by Condé Nast to shut down Portfolio. [NYO, Gawker]
• Newspaper circulation figures for the past six months show steep declines at most major papers, including the Times, Post, and Daily News. One bright spot: the Wall Street Journal, which experienced a tiny, 0.6% gain. [E&P]
• Phil Falcone's Harbinger, the hedge fund that battled for a piece of the New York Times Co. last year, may now be looking to unload its stake. [WSJ]
• CNN has fallen behind MSNBC and Fox News, as you may have heard. [NYT]
• PRWeek is going monthly. But it'll still be called PRWeek, so you know. [NYT]
• Obsessed starring Beyonce was No. 1 at the box office this weekend. [THR]
CNN's Tony Harris Doesn't Want to Read Your Stupid Comments on His 'Blog Page'
John Cook · 04/23/09 01:46PMLevi Johnston's Strangest Moments with Larry King
Ryan Tate · 04/23/09 04:24AMSusan Roesgan Must Apologize For Not Being Polite to Angry Mob
Pareene · 04/22/09 04:34PMFox News' Clumsy Pundit Emails
Ryan Tate · 04/19/09 06:42PMDid Ashton Kutcher Cheat His Way to a Million Twitter Pals?
Owen Thomas · 04/17/09 12:44PMThe Only News is Bad News
cityfile · 04/17/09 11:55AM• The first quarter wasn't such a hot one for NBC Universal: Earnings dropped 45 percent as the ad market continued its downward spiral. [WSJ, TVWeek]
• The world's largest newsprint maker has gone bankrupt. [NYT]
• Rolling Stone is closing up shop in San Francisco. [Portfolio]
• Ads sales figures at The New York Times Co. are looking pretty ugly. [E&P]
• Some good news, at least for impoverished porn addicts: Time Warner no longer plans to charge customers based on bandwidth usage. [Wired]
Fox-Bashing CNN Reporter Applied for a Job at Fox
John Cook · 04/17/09 09:21AMOh ... That's What That Means: Fox News Learns the Definition of 'Teabagging'
John Cook · 04/16/09 02:14PMThe Times Cuts Back, Trouble at ABC?
cityfile · 04/16/09 11:28AM• The Times is folding in several sections of the paper (City, Escapes); scrapping the weekly fashion spread in the New York Times Magazine, and cutting the budget for freelance writers. Grim times, indeed. [NYT, Gawker]
• NBC CEO Jeff Zucker is reportedly concerned that CNBC has become too conservative and is becoming "the anti-Obama network." [P6]
• The new Ben Silverman? That would be ABC's Stephen McPherson. [NYP]
• Bill O'Reilly tends to ambush liberals more often than he does conservatives. Could that mean he, like, has an agenda or something? How surprising! [NYT]
• Twitter on fire: Traffic is up 131 percent from February. [AdAge]
• Gannett Co. reported a 60 percent decline in first-quarter profit today. [AP]
Anderson Cooper Eagerly Shares His Teabagging Knowledge
Ryan Tate · 04/15/09 06:30PMAmazon's Scandal, MSNBC's New Show & More Layoffs
cityfile · 04/13/09 11:32AM• Amazon.com is in the hot seat for stripping gay and lesbian books of their sales rankings, something the bookseller is now calling a "glitch." [EW, WSJ]
• MSNBC is reportedly in the process of developing a weekend political show to be moderated by chief White House correspondent Chuck Todd. [NYO]
• More bad news for barely-living BlackBook: its longtime fashion director is out. And Jann Wenner's marketing chief is leaving Wenner Media. [WWD]
• Alpha Media has laid off a handful of employees at Maxim, including deputy editor Chris Wilson and editor-at-large Steve Garbarino. [NYO]
• Magazines are looking to raise subscription rates to save themselves. [NYT]