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Mort Zuckerman is one lucky man.
What could've been a doomsday scenario for Zuckerman's New York Daily News receded over the horizon on Friday as Rupert Murdoch withdrew from the bidding for Newsday, saying it had "become uneconomical."
Now, with no prospect of a Newsday-New York Post joint venture cornering the local ad market, Zuckerman, who's always seemed ambivalent about the newspaper business, is free to drop his own pursuit of Newsday ... Continue-A Fox News assistant was fired for confusing the stuff you think in your head with the stuff you say out loud. [TV Newser]
-Newsday blah blah Cablevision blah blah News Corp. blah blah blah. Nothing to see here, people. [Newsday]
-It looks like CNN might actually be in talks to sign Ryan Seacrest as Larry King's replacement. [FishbowlLA]
-Chris Matthews has been taking tips on hair-color-modification from Rupert Murdoch, perhaps? [Huffpo].So the Time 100 was last night. Sure, it's a glorified marketing program, but it's the kind of glorified marketing program where the likes of John McCain, Rupert Murdoch, Martha Stewart, Lorne Michaels and Indra Nooyi rub elbows, and where the concentration of bold-faced names is such that Mort Zuckerman, Paul Wolfowitz, Angelica Huston and Charlie Rose are relegated to the nose-bleed seats. McCain, playing to his "base," offered a classy toast to Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, Robert Downey Jr. kept trying to dig something out of his ear, and Amy Poehler and Seth Myers delivered a hilarious monologue (duologue?). Hopefully I'll have video to post later.
The event is about influence -- the Time 100 is supposedly the hundred most influential people of the year -- so I asked a few attendees about their own. Murdoch very politely declined to be interviewed, and Poehler somewhat less politely, but others took the bait. First up: MSNBC's Joe Scarborough, who better get his mom an extra nice card this Sunday ... Continue
Dove is doing its best to bat down accusations that the beauties of its "Real Beauty" campaign were less than entirely real.
A retoucher who worked on the campaign, Pascal Dangin, was quoted in this week's New Yorker seeming to imply that now-iconic images of "lumpier-than-usual" women were actually heavily altered. But now Dove says the New Yorker's account was misleading, and Dangin and photographer Annie Leibovitz both agree.
(By the way, is there any photo controversy Leibovitz isn't in the middle of?) ... Continue-NBC Universal chief Jeff Zucker gets Katie Couric to do his Mother's Day shopping for him. Sweet deal. [P6]
-Amazingly, a TV program featuring one talking head (Charles Gibson) interviewing another talking head (Barbara Walters) about her life as a talking head did poorly in the ratings. [NYT]
-For some mysterious reason, NBC is making full, commercial-free episodes of The Office and 30 Rock available for streaming on iPhones. [SAI]
-Ron Paul's lobotomized legions made sure his book topped the New York Times bestsellers list. [VF Daily]
-Discovery Communications has pushed its IPO back a quarter. [WSJ].-Hachette Filipacchi Media laid off a large number of web staff at Elle.com and other sites. [Gawker]
-How much retouching went into Dove's "Real Beauty" ads? Enough to make the brand look most hypocritical right about now, that's for sure. [Ad Age]
-Congressional Democrats are calling for an inquiry into a Pentagon program to seed cable news with pro-military analysts. [Politico].The murky future of Project Runway is getting even murkier.
Unconfirmed reports have been flying this week that Marie Claire is set to replace Elle as the partner magazine of the show following season five, which shoots next month. Now it looks like that could happen even sooner, with rumors that Nina Garcia, the former Elle fashion director who is one of the show's judges, is about to accept a position at Marie Claire ... ContinueYou can't believe everything you read on TechCrunch...but would you believe it if you read the same thing in the Washington Post?
The venerable D.C. daily, which led all newspapers with six Pulitzer Prizes this year, has made a deal to syndicate content from the tech-industry news site on WashingtonPost.com, becoming the first news site to do so. Second in popularity among all blogs, according to Technorati, TechCrunch is (in)famous for usually being the first to publish the rumors floating around Silicon Valley, regardless of whether they turn out to be true. "Journalism is evolving," says founder Michael Arrington in the announcement. Hard to argue with that ... ContinueRupert Murdoch must be as confident of winning Newsday as he claims to be. Why else would he be ceding the New York tabloid circulation war when victory is so tantalizingly close?
In yesterday's News Corp. earnings call, Murdoch made a surprise announcement that the New York Post will increase its cover price from 25 cents to 50 cents. (A spokesman says the change will take effect May 19.) Of course, this is not unprecedented, but the precedent is exactly what makes it surprising: A year ago, the Post raised its price, but reversed course 10 days later ... Continue-Keith Kelly says the number of layoffs in the New York Times newsroom was 15, mostly at the Metro desk. [NYP]
-Ryan Seacrest, not Katie Couric, is going to take over for Larry King, and it's going to happen at the end of the year. Do we believe this? I'm thinking no. [Scoop]
-Us Weekly editor Janice Min says she had to kick a Bill Clinton-penned essay back to him for rewrite. Too bad she didn't edit My Life. [NYT]
-Tribune Co. has promoted Randy Michaels to chief operating officer, via a press release that is only mildly wacky. Michaels had been overseeing the interactive and broadcast units. [Tribune]
-TorrentSpy, a defunct service that helped users find materials to download, has been hit with a $110 million fine for copyright violations. [Wired]
-Do you appreciate irony? Read this. [E&P].-NBC Universal is launching a 24-hour local news channel for New York City. [NYT]
-Cablevision is buying the Sundance Channel for $496 million. [AP]
-Remember when everyone thought the political press corps wanted to see the Democratic race go into a convention floor fight? Not anymore. [NYT]
-Star Jones says it's "sad" that Barbara Walters revealed in her book that Jones asked her View castmates to lie about her gastric bypass surgery. She also hints that Walters is going to die soon. Classy! [Us].