Mediagazer: CBS Evening News Ratings Tie 20-Year Low (Brian Stelter/Media Decoder)

10:05 AM ET, August 25, 2010

Top News:

Disney, Apple Near iTunes Deal — Apple is in discussions with major TV companies to offer 99-cent rentals of television episodes, according to people familiar with the situation, as the company tries to reshape the television business around its devices. — The Cupertino, Calif. …

Discussion: Reuters, Electronista and Fortune

Bloomberg:

Apple Said to Prepare New 99-Cent TV Show Rental Service — Apple Inc. is in advanced talks with News Corp. to let iTunes users rent TV shows for 99 cents and is in discussions with other media companies about similar deals, said three people familiar with the plan.

Brian Stelter / Media Decoder:

CBS Evening News Ratings Tie 20-Year Low — For any person who believes that the American people should be paying greater attention to the war in Afghanistan, the following statistic might disappoint. — On a week that included the anchor Katie Couric's trip to Afghanistan, the …

Discussion: TVWeek.com, Romenesko, TVNewser and On Media's Blog

Joe Strupp / Media Matters for America:

Former White House Correspondents President Chen: Fox News Seating ‘A Travesty’ — Allowing Fox News to move up to the first row in the White House briefing room was a “travesty of a decision,” according to Ed Chen, the former White House Correspondents Association president who left that post just a few months ago.

Discussion: Mediaite and The Huffington Post

Jeff Bercovici / DailyFinance:
Why Media Matters Should Stop Picking on Fox News (This Time)

Discussion: Mediaite and On Media's Blog

Marc Graser / Variety:

‘Angry Birds’ flies with Hollywood — IPhone game eyes TV shows, movies, toys — The “Angry Birds” are flocking to Hollywood. — Rovio, the Finnish creator of the hit iPhone and iPad game, which has sold more than 6.5 million downloads, wants to turn the property into a major franchise …

Discussion: The Wrap, Telegraph, TechCrunch, Gawker, /Film, Voices on All Things Digital and New York Magazine, more at Techmeme »

Brian McDermott / Online Journalism Review:

What the ‘Ground Zero mosque’ flap says about the state of journalism — By Brian McDermott: The Ground Zero mosque does not exist. — There is, of course, the planned Park51 Muslim community center and mosque, which local authorities approved for construction on Park Place in lower Manhattan …

Discussion: Making Sense of Media

Journalism.org:
MOSQUE CONTROVERSY, IRAQ WAR DOMINATE THE NEWS

Discussion: TVNewser, NPR, The Wire, Runnin' Scared, Media Decoder, CJR, PewResearch.org and On Media's Blog

Keach Hagey / The Politico:

New life for Washington Times — The owner of the Washington Times entered into an agreement Tuesday to sell the paper to another entity affiliated with its parent, the Unification Church, which would return funding to the cash-strapped conservative publication, POLITICO has learned.

Discussion: Washington Post, Gawker, New York Observer, On Media's Blog, Associated Press, Romenesko and City Desk

John Cook / Yahoo! News:

What does News Corp. want in return for that $1 million? — Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. raised eyebrows last week with a $1 million donation to the Republican Governors Association that the New York Times described as “bold” and “one of the biggest [contributions] ever given by a media organization.”

Lara Sinclair / TheAustralian:

Newspapers gone by 2022 says futurist — NEWSPAPERS as we know them will be irrelevant within 12 years, according to futurist Ross Dawson, who said journalism would be largely ‘crowdsourced’. — Mr Dawson, who will address a Newspaper Publishers' Association forum on the future of the industry …

Discussion: Trends in the Living Networks, Journalism.co.uk, newsfeed.time.com, Guardian, Editors Weblog and mUmBRELLA

Tom Bissell / New York Observer:

From Tragedy to Trend Story: In Defense of Virginia Quarterly Review Editor Ted Genoways — On July 30, Kevin Morrissey, the managing editor of The Virginia Quarterly Review, one of America's most respected and ascendant literary journals, took his own life, apparently unable to abide the pressures of his job.

Discussion: The Wrap

Julie Bosman / New York Times:

Random House Wins Battle for E-Book Rights — An e-book battle between Random House and the Wylie Agency appears to have ended. — After a monthlong standoff, Random House said on Tuesday that it now held the rights to publish e-book editions of 13 classic books that the literary agent Andrew Wylie …

Discussion: Electronista

Daniel B. Roberts / Salon:

Tao Lin: Lit “it boy” for the Internet age — Tao Lin gets arrested in a bookstore. He lets fans buy shares of his book. Meet literature's Net-savvy new star — Tao Lin is the next big thing in urban hipster lit. At least, so say the people that read his books on the subway.

Discussion: New York Observer

John Hamer / Washington News Council:

Ira Glass on broadcasting's “failure of craft” — A radio personality filling a concert hall with fans? That's pretty rare, but it happened Aug. 21 when Ira Glass, host of “This American Life” (TAL) on National Public Radio (NPR) appeared at Seattle's Benaroya Hall. The place was packed.

Discussion: Romenesko

Vinicius Vacanti / Yipit Blog:

The Ultimate Guide: How Media Companies Should Offer Daily Deals — Groupon launched less than two years ago, and is on pace to make $300 to $500 million in revenue this year. How? They simply went out and created a distribution list of over 9 million subscribers in local areas and negotiated deals on their behalf.

Philip B. Corbett / Times Topics:

Everything From This to That — Notes from the newsroom on grammar, usage and style. (Some frequently asked questions are here.) — My colleague Vanessa Gordon and others have noted our frequent use of what critics call “false ranges.” These constructions generally are framed with phrases like …

Discussion: Romenesko

Ryan Singel / Epicenter:

Ad Firm Sued for Allegedly Re-Creating Deleted Cookies — Specificmedia, one of the net's largest ad-serving and tracking companies, has been hit with a federal lawsuit accusing the company of violating computer intrusion laws by secretly re-creating cookies deleted by users.

Discussion: Between the Lines Blog

Lauren Kirchner / CJR:

Patch's Problematic Redesign — Blurring the lines between edited and user-generated content — AOL's Patch Media launched its 100th hyperlocal news site last week in Morristown, New Jersey, and is apparently planning on quintupling in size by the end of the year.

Peter Morris / Prospect Magazine:

Who guards the Guardian? — “Securing the long-term future of the Guardian” was the headline on the cover of Guardian Media Group's (GMG) 2008/09 annual report. Not long after, in March 2010, the group's chief executive Carolyn McCall announced she was leaving after 24 years to become chief executive of easyJet.

Jason Linkins / The Huffington Post:

News Corp. Executives Actually Recently Met With Saudi Billionaire In Mosque Controversy — By now, you may have heard about how on last night's edition of The Daily Show, Jon Stewart made fantastic comedic hay out of a Fox And Friends segment, in which the gathered panel indulged …

Discussion: Arab News, Think Progress and Mediaite