Mediagazer: Fox News Slams Professors Who Claimed Its Viewers Were Ill-Informed (Paul Bond/Hollywood Reporter)

11:35 AM ET, May 24, 2012

Top News:

Steve Myers / Poynter:

Times-Picayune to publish three days a week, cut staff — A memo from Times-Picayune publisher Ashton Phelps Jr. confirms that the newspaper will cease daily publication, moving to three days a week in the fall: Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. The memo also confirms staff cuts, though it doesn't say how large they will be.

Discussion: NetNewsCheck Latest, Media Decoder, JIMROMENESKO.COM, Guardian, CJR and The Newspaper Guild

Jack Mirkinson / The Huffington Post:

New Orleans Times-Picayunes Faces Deep Cuts, Will End Daily Publication — The New Orleans Times-Picayune, the paper that became internationally famous for its courageous reporting during Hurricane Katrina, is facing steep cuts and will end its 175-year history of daily publication, the paper announced Thursday.

Discussion: New Orleans Times-Picayune, Forbes, The Gambit, Media Decoder, @davidfolkenflik, @the_gambit, @the_gambit, @the_gambit, @ryanchittum, @toffleresque, @elgray, @bmccarthytp and @lizzieohreally

Paul Bond / Hollywood Reporter:

Fox News Slams Professors Who Claimed Its Viewers Were Ill-Informed — The cable channel was mum the first time around, but now that Fairleigh Dickinson University has released a follow-up study that disparages its audience, FNC is striking back with some observations of its own.

Discussion: TVNewser, mediabistro.com, TVWeek.com and Mediaite

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

Survey: NPR's listeners best-informed, Fox viewers worst-informed — People who watch no news at all can answer more questions about international current events than people who watch cable news, a survey by Fairleigh Dickinson University's PublicMind finds.

Discussion: The Media Machine, Erik Wemple, Hit & Run, Mediaite and The Huffington Post

Laura Hazard Owen / paidContent:

Amazon bans Kindle Store spam (finally) — Amazon is finally banning some of the junkier content in the Kindle Store, including “content that is freely available on the web unless you are the copyright owner of that content.” — The company is making new rules on public domain and “other non-exclusive content.”

Discussion: WebProNews and The Domino Project

Christine Haughney / New York Times:

Time and Newsweek Magazine Covers Catch Eyes and Clicks — Who knew there could be so much controversy left in the subject of breast-feeding? — The recent Time magazine cover featuring an attractive 26-year-old mother suckled by her 3-year-old son — with the headline “Are You Mom Enough?”

Discussion: FishbowlNY and magCulture.com/blog

David Kravets / Wired:

New York Legislation Would Ban Anonymous Online Speech — Did you hear the one about the New York state lawmakers who forgot about the First Amendment in the name of combating cyberbullying and “baseless political attacks”? — Proposed legislation in both chambers would require New York-based websites …

Discussion: Techland, ThinkProgress, CNET, The Daily Caller, Betabeat, @anonyops, @jimgiles, Guardian, The Atlantic Wire, Mediaite, Mashable!, Runnin' Scared, Gothamist, Techdirt, NYConvergence.com, New York Magazine and Digital Trends

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

Why rich people are investing in newspapers, again — In March, Chris Hughes paid around $5 million for a majority share of The New Republic. On Sunday The New York Times reported he'd be doubling the magazine's staff and hiring former editor Franklin Foer to edit the magazine once again.

Discussion: Publishing Executive …

Julie Bosman / Media Decoder:

Esquire to Publish E-Books Devoted to Men's Fiction — That creaky label “women's fiction” tends to conjure up images of novels about family, career or relationships. But men's fiction? — Esquire magazine will try to define it in June with a new push into publishing fiction …

Discussion: New York Magazine and The Huffington Post

Kara Swisher / AllThingsD:

This Was Inevitable: Huffington Post + Oprah Coming — While it might seem as though Web content queen Arianna Huffington could soon launch a moon edition of her eponymous Huffington Post — perhaps HuffPo Lunar — the AOL-owned unit's next effort will be an Oprah Winfrey section on the huge online publishing platform.

Discussion: NetNewsCheck Latest, mediabistro.com, Media & Entertainment, MediaPost, FishbowlLA, The Huffington Post and Adweek

Gordon Rayner / Telegraph:

Leveson Inquiry: DCMS exchanged 799 texts with News Corp during BskyB bid — Between June 2010, when the bid was announced, and July 2011, when it was abandoned because of the News of the World phone-hacking scandal, Mr Michel also exchanged 191 telephone calls and 158 emails with Mr Hunt's department …

Discussion: @jamesro47, @arusbridger, @tomjharper, @rosschawkins, Guido Fawkes and London Evening Standard

Laura Hazard Owen / paidContent:

Hachette is offering new e-books to some libraries — Hachette, which has not made new e-books available to libraries since 2010, is reconsidering the idea. In a pilot program starting this spring (which is...now?), the publisher is working with two e-book distributors to bring a …

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

It's official: Chicago Reader sold to Sun-Times parent — A memo from group publisher Alison Draper and CFO Tammy Bailey to Creative Loafing employees confirms the sale: … The likely sale to Wrapports was first reported about two weeks ago. — The Reader and Washington City Paper …

Discussion: NetNewsCheck Latest, Chicago Sun Times and The Huffington Post

Michael Miner / Chicago Reader: Wrapports buys the Reader

Jonathan Stempel / Reuters:

Apple: U.S. e-book lawsuit “fundamentally flawed” — (Reuters) - Apple Inc is rejecting charges that it conspired to fix prices of electronic books, calling the U.S. government's antitrust lawsuit a “fundamentally flawed” endeavor that could discourage competition and harm consumers.

Discussion: CNET, 9to5Mac and GigaOM