Katie Couric's trip to Iraq resulted in a new record low in the ratings race for "CBS Evening News." Still, there's an upside: "If CBS' hiring of Katie Couric was all about damaging the NBC Today show (rather than boosting the CBS Evening News) it's working. Today 'has lost about 360,000 viewers' in the past year, including 12% of women aged 25-54." [Kausfiles]
Money's so tight at Forbes that the publishing company had to sell of its two corporate airplanes. That Bono runs a tight ship! If you're looking to pick up a Faberge egg on the cheap, you might want to keep your ear to the ground: We wouldn't be surprised if they offload a few from Steve Forbe's collection sometime soon. [NYP]
It's a pleasant surprise, but we actually love Lloyd Grove's profile of New York Post editor-in-chief Col Allan in this week's New York. Allan, a saucy Aussie if there ever was one, comes off as a pugnacious tyrant who is driven by a desire to win at all costs. Also, he likes a drink every now and again. Mostly now. Read the whole piece: There's a ton of detail, and Grove's knowledge of the tabloid industry may not have saved his job at the Daily News, but it is put to good use here. Our handy highlights follow.
Could it be true? Eric Savitz of Barron's blogs about the apparent comeback of his former employer, The Industry Standard. The weekly tech trade magazine inflated, and imploded, more or less in sync with the dotcom bubble; shuttered by owner IDG, it's seen a series of mostly pathetic attempts to resuscitate its website, all of which floundered. But the website now promises that the Standard is "coming back." Odd timing, given Time Inc.'s shuttering of Business 2.0, and the discontinuation of the Red Herring's print edition. Founder John Battelle tersely wishes the new Standard luck. I'm betting that the publication bypasses print and goes straight to the Web — just like Battelle's current venture.
Realizing that there's no way they can really compete with Time and Newsweek, perennial bronze medalist U.S. News & World Report has decided to go with the gimmick of running one "best of" issue per month. The Post's Keith Kelly reports that the magazine—which can only sell copies with coverlines like "America's Best Colleges," or "America's Best Hospitals"—is hemorrhaging money that owner Mort Zuckerman would rather spend on glossy, embroidered pink slips that he's handing out like candy to Daily News employees. Asked to confirm the changes, U.S. News editor Brian Kelly tells Keith that, yeah, it's true, but offers the wan assurance that the magazine is "still in the news business," and then provides a handy list of the ten best reasons anyone should believe such obvious bullshit. We're actually kind of excited for the change: We hear February will have the long-awaited "America's Hottest Snatches" issue.
"News Corp. said Chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch received compensation for the year ended June 30 valued at $32.1 million under the SEC new rules, according to its annual proxy. Peter Chernin, president and chief operating officer, received compensation valued at about $34 million.... Roger Ailes, head of News Corp.'s Fox News Channel and planned Fox Business Network, and Fox Television Stations, received compensation valued under the SEC rules at $10.9 million." So that's how it works at News Corp.: the more evil you are, the less money you take home? Weird. [WSJ]
Time Inc. has officially announced Business 2.0's closure in an internal memo obtained by Jossip. In it, Time Inc. executive John Squires explains that folding in some of Business 2.0's staff into Fortune will give it "the largest San Francisco bureau of any major business publication." The Wall Street Journal bureau will still be twice its size, but never mind — we assume Squires meant "magazine." No, what's interesting in the memo is what's not said.
Yesterday on the Politico website, Andrew Glass posed a query about Washington Post columnist David Broder, who is known as "the dean of the Washington press corps" because his early columns about how he could see good arguments on both the Loyalist and Whig sides during the revolution set the template for evenhanded analysis that exists to this day. Glass' question is, in fact, related to that evanhandedness. Why, if Broder is so "relentlessly centrist," do so many people hate his fucking guts and vomit blood every time they read his meandering advocacy of the status quo?
We'd already heard that the October issue of Business 2.0 would be the last one published by Time Inc.; now, the New York Times reports on the Bits blog that it will be the last one, period. Talks with Mansueto Ventures, publisher of Fast Company and Inc., apparently failed; as we predicted, Time Inc. did not want to strengthen a competitor. A few staffers will join Fortune and Fortune Small Business. The rest will fall victim to what Bits colorfully calls "kill teams." This being Time Inc., don't expect black-suited corporate operatives. Or anything the least bit colorful. Instead, the teams will likely kill with kindness — and boredom. Time Inc.'s HR presentations — some of which, I should disclose, I sat through as a Business 2.0 employee — are legendary as cures for insomnia.
"Showtime," reports the Times, "is known for content that is too racy for network television, so it is perhaps fitting that its latest slogan should be inappropriate for the networks, too. A two-minute promotional spot on the cable network features the slogan, 'The Best Stuff on Television,' although the actual third word is an expletive that cannot be used by family-friendly networks (or newspapers)." The actual third word, is, of course, "shit," which the family-friendly Times will apparently only print if it comes out of the mouths of presidents or people threatening the governor's father. [NYT]
Congratulations to Scott Morrison, the former editor of Red Herring's website, on escaping the troubled publication and landing a new job in the San Francisco bureau of Dow Jones. No matter what they say, Rupert Murdoch has to be a better boss than Alex Vieux, whose mismanagement is driving the once-storied tech-magazine brand into the ground. We suspected he was on to greener pastures when coworkers told us he started missing work, but an announcement on the website of the The Society of American Business Editors and Writers confirms the new position for us. And for the rest of his colleagues, too. Note to Scott, next time you switch gigs, it might be more polite to send out an internal email before your underlings find out via an industry newsletter. Or some scurrilous gossip rag.
In an attempt to stave off a decline in circulation, News Corp. has slashed prices on its flagship U.K. tabloid The Sun. Given the fact that News Corp.'s Post is also being sold at a loss, how much longer can it be before Rupert Murdoch starts showing up at your door and giving you his papers for free? Well, at least he can still charge a premium for the Wall Street Journal, one of the classier publications in his stable. That's right, Journalists, RUPERT MURDOCH OWNS YOU. Expect him in person in mere seconds. [Guardian]
Keith Kelly repeats yesterday's Valleywag report that Mansueto Ventures, publisher of rival tech-business title Fast Company, is negotiating to buy Time Inc.'s Business 2.0, which is in the midst of publishing its last issue under the current staff. CNET, rumored to have also bid, has apparently dropped out of the sale process. [New York Post]
