Mediagazer: Media Mogul James Dolan Elects to Use ‘Nuclear Option’ … (Runnin' Scared)

7:15 PM ET, May 7, 2010

Top News:

Mexican tycoon Slim not doubling NY Times stake -aide — * Washington Post looking to sell Newsweek — Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim is not doubling his stake in New York Times Co (NYT.N) or looking to acquire Newsweek magazine or silver miner Fresnillo, one of his close aides told Reuters on Friday.

Discussion: Billions, The Wire, Romenesko, Newser and DealBook

New York Post:

Slim has his pickings — MEXICAN billionaire Carlos Slim is wheeling and dealing his way through the media world. — According to people familiar with the matter, Slim is sinking more money into The New York Times Co., doubling his current 7 percent stake, while also visiting the offices of Newsweek …

Discussion: Romenesko, FishbowlNY, Vanity Fair, The Wire and Fitz & Jen

Michael Calderone / Yahoo! News:

Likely Newsweek buyers not exactly thronging the market — Ever since news broke that the Washington Post Co. was putting Newsweek on the market, there's been lots of speculation about who-if anyone-will make a play for the money-losing magazine. Newsweek editor Jon Meacham only amped …

Discussion: Big Think and FishbowlNY

Bill Mickey / Folio:

Discover Magazine Up for Sale — First round of bids are due May 17. — Discover Magazine is on the block, FOLIO: has learned. The first round of bids are due Monday, May 17. — Discover Media LLC is backed by private equity firms WallerSutton and Sandler Capital Management.

Discussion: Romenesko, Crain's New York Business, FishbowlNY and The Wire

Runnin' Scared:

Media Mogul James Dolan Elects to Use ‘Nuclear Option’ on Village Voice, Yet Again Pulling More Advertising Than Ever! — Back in March, a blog post we published regarding a potential media acquisition by Cablevision, MSG Entertainment, and Rainbow Media owner James Dolan …

Discussion: FishbowlNY, Mediaite, New York Observer and Soup

Joe Pompeo / The Wire:
Following James Dolan's Lead, MSG And Live Nation Pull All Of …

Discussion: Gawker and The Awl

Ryan Lawler / NewTeeVee:

CBS Will Have Full Slate of Web Video on the iPad — CBS may have the most aggressive plans to enable viewers to watch web video on the iPad, but so far, that's all they are — plans. The broadcaster has made only a limited number of promotional clips available for viewing on the tablet device …

Discussion: Mashable! and The TV Guy

Steve Krakauer / Mediaite:

CNN's Ad Revenue Down On Weak Ratings - Time Warner CEO Wants To “Fix” Problem — CNN has consistently claimed all is well even as ratings have fallen off significantly. — But according to Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes on yesterday's first quarter conference call, CNN has declined financially …

Discussion: Variety, Bloomberg, Chickaboomer and Media Buyer Planner

Paul Bradshaw / Online Journalism Blog:

UK general election 2010 - online journalism is ordinary — Has online journalism become ordinary? Are the approaches starting to standardise? Little has stood out in the online journalism coverage of this election - the innovation of previous years has been replaced by consolidation.

Discussion: Editors Weblog, One Man & His Blog, Journalism.co.uk and Mirror.co.uk

Felix Gillette / New York Observer:

Rachel Maddow Touts the ‘The Maddow Blog’ — “I think a lot of times the blog is better than the show,” said Rachel Maddow. — It was Thursday afternoon, and Ms. Maddow was on the phone with Media Mob talking about her team's newly revamped platform, The Maddow Blog, which quietly launched a few months ago.

Discussion: The Wire, The Huffington Post and WebNewser

Jolie O'Dell / Mashable!:

Wikipedia Now Lets You Order Printed Books — Wikipedia's launching a new feature for English readers: The ability to create custom books from Wikipedia's huge bank of free content. Because of the way Wikipedia's images and copy are licensed, they're free for anyone to access, use and share in this way.

Discussion: Lost Remote

Business Wire:

The Washington Post Company Reports First Quarter Earnings — The Washington Post Company (WPO 476.00, -12.50, -2.56%) today reported net income available for common stock of $45.4 million ($4.91 per share) for its first quarter ended April 4, 2010, compared to a net loss available …

Discussion: Romenesko, Economy Watch, paidContent, The Wrap, Folio, The Wire and Reuters

John Plunkett / Guardian:

ITV chairman outlines five-year plan — Archie Norman says ITV will develop its presence on non-traditional platforms such as the internet, video-on-demand and mobile phones — ITV chairman Archie Norman warned today that the broadcaster could afford “no more false dawns” …

Discussion: Variety

Nielsen Wire:

Three Screen Study Shows Many Chinese Homes Online While Watching TV — Recently, The Nielsen Company launched a pilot “Three Screen” study to provide China with its first ever audience insights across TV, Internet and Mobile phone platforms, to better understand how Chinese consumers use media.

Joshua Benton / Nieman Journalism Lab:

An involuntary Facebook for reporters and their work: Martin Moore on the U.K.'s Journalisted — In the era of big media, our conceptions of trust were tied up in news organizations. If a story was on page 1 of The New York Times, that fact alone conjured up different associations of quality …

Jason Fry / Nieman Journalism Lab:

Why Twitter looks like a social network but feels like news media — Information Week posted an interesting account of an academic paper presented at the International World Wide Web Conference last month. The paper, written by four Korean researchers, analyzed 41.7 million Twitter user profiles …

Discussion: InformationWeek and Reinventing the Newsroom

Alissa Walker / Fast Company:

Theme Announced for 48 Hour Magazine, Over 6,000 Contributors Have Two Days to “Hustle” — That sound you hear, of thousands of writers, designers and photographers banging their heads against the wall to the beat of a ticking clock? That's the sound of 48 Hour Magazine …

Discussion: Speakeasy and 7x7

Paul J. Gough / Hollywood Reporter:

Networks banking on World Cup — Soccer tourney begins June 11 in South Africa — As the World Cup ads say, one game changes everything. — ESPN is counting on that maxim to justify its biggest marketing blitz to date for a single event, designed to position the sports nicher …

Jesse Fruhwirth / Salt Lake City Weekly …:

Chronicle staff investigated for “PENIS” gag — FIRE, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, in conjunction with the Student Press Law Center, have written a letter to university administration in support of the Chrony 9. “These actions are unacceptable,” they write.

Discussion: Romenesko, Mediaite, Salt Lake Tribune, College Media Matters, splc.org and Deseret News

Brian Stelter / Media Decoder:

On a Dramatic Afternoon for Dow, a Scramble to Cover the Story — Cable news anchors and financial Web sites struggled to keep up as the Dow fell nearly 1,000 points and then mostly rebounded in a matter of minutes Thursday afternoon. — As my colleague David Carr put it just now …