Mediagazer: Liz Smith Publishes Nora Ephron Obit, TMZ Reports She Is Alive But ‘Gravely Ill’ (Alex Alvarez/Mediaite)

7:25 PM ET, June 26, 2012

Top News:

CNN Hits 21-Year Ratings Low in Second Quarter — Battered by a series of rough weeks and big losses for Anderson Cooper and Piers Morgan, the cable news network sinks with total viewers and in the coveted adults 25-to-54 demo. — After several months of bad ratings news for CNN …

Discussion: Mediaite, Deadline.com, New York Magazine, TVNewser and The Daily Caller

Bill Carter / Media Decoder:

Without News, CNN Is Without Viewers — The news for CNN has been bad for a long time, but it got especially bad in the second quarter of this year. Ratings for the network's prime-time shows plunged by 40 percent from a year ago, and the network's performance was its worst ever for a second quarter.

Discussion: The Huffington Post, TVNewser, The Wrap and Broadcasting & Cable

Jeff John Roberts / paidContent:

News Corp statement confirms spin-off plan under consideration — Following numerous reports that News Corp is thinking of spinning off its publishing operations, the company issued a short statement that it is “considering a restructuring to separate its business into two distinct public companies.”

Discussion: Media & Entertainment, Radio & Television …, Guardian, Wall Street Journal, Wall Street Journal, Speakeasy, MinOnline, The Huffington Post, VentureBeat, New York Magazine and AdAge

Amy Chozick / Media Decoder:
Anxious News Corp. Editors Arrive in New York to Discuss Corporate Split

Discussion: Radio & Television …

Roy Greenslade / Guardian:
Why a reluctant Murdoch is splitting up News Corp and what it means

Discussion: Guardian, DealBook and @lisaocarroll

Bloomberg:
News Corp. Is Said To Work With Goldman Sachs On Breakup Plans

Discussion: The New York Observer

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:
Two Questions for Rupert Murdoch

Discussion: Guardian, WebProNews and paidContent

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

Wall Street Journal intern fired for fabricating sources — Liane Membis' internship with The Wall Street Journal is at an end, an editor's note on an article she wrote says: … Membis' article is still available on Talking Biz News. Some of the people Membis claimed to interview in the piece …

Discussion: Erik Wemple, Media Decoder, FishbowlNY, New York Magazine, Talking Biz News, Politico and Gothamist

Craig Silverman / Poynter:

Hearst editor acknowledges New Canaan News still searching for fabricated stories — Ashley Varese does not want to talk about Paresh Jha. — Varese is the editor of the New Canaan News, a small weekly paper owned by Hearst that last week admitted fired staff reporter Jha …

Discussion: @jackshafer

Craig Silverman / Poynter:
Hearst serial fabricator Paresh Jha may have made up more stories than Stephen Glass

Discussion: TERI BUHL and FishbowlNY

Jeff Sonderman / Poynter:

Content going ‘everywhere’: WSJ extends premium subscriptions to Pulse newsreader — One day after The New York Times announced an “NYT Everywhere” strategy that will extend subscriber content to Flipboard, The Wall Street Journal stepped up its own “Journal Everywhere” …

Discussion: PRWeb, http://blog.pulse.me/, Bloomberg and NetNewsCheck Latest

Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:
Pulse vs. Flipboard: Which will win, subscriptions or ads?

Discussion: paidContent and MarketingVox News & Trends, Thanks:@mathewi

Alex Alvarez / Mediaite:

Liz Smith Publishes Nora Ephron Obit, TMZ Reports She Is Alive But ‘Gravely Ill’ — Tuesday afternoon, columnist Liz Smith published a wowOwow post seemingly eulogizing writer and director Nora Ephron. The post soon spread across the web, prompting many to note that there were no other reports of Ephron's passing.

Discussion: TMZ.com, wowowow, The Wrap, Deadline.com, Business Insider, Gawker, New York Magazine, Yahoo! News, The New York Observer, The Atlantic Wire and Movieline

Bill Dedman / MSNBC:

Bloomberg TV's ads make false claim to Pulitzer nomination for anchor Liu — NEW YORK — Bloomberg Television has a new ad campaign in the New York City area, touting the journalistic credentials of its morning anchor, Betty Liu. “PULITZER PRIZE-NOMINATED,” the ads shout at commuters on trains in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.

Discussion: The Atlantic Wire, Talking Biz News, TVNewser, Inside Cable News and The Huffington Post

Robert Channick / Chicago Tribune:

Redesigned Chicago Tribune website to wall off some content — Users will need to become digital members to see stories from newspaper — The Chicago Tribune is launching a redesigned website that will give it the ability to sell digital subscriptions. — Beginning this week …

Discussion: paidContent and The Next Web

Carl Nolte / San Francisco Chronicle:

George Hearst Jr. - Hearst Corp. chairman - dies — George R. Hearst Jr., chairman of the board of the Hearst Corp., died Monday at Stanford University Medical Center in Palo Alto of complications following a stroke. Mr. Hearst, who became ill June 16 at his ranch home in Paso Robles (San Luis Obispo County), was 84.

Discussion: FishbowlNY, MediaPost, LA Observed and mediabistro.com

Jim Romenesko:

Patch puts pressure on local editors — My reliable source on Patch matters reports that demands on local editors are growing. “Among other mandates, Local Editors now must have seven posts each day — that's including weekends — and blog posts no longer count toward that total,” he writes.

Jeff Sonderman / Poynter:

Gannett says paywalls are generating strong revenue, despite circulation declines — Gannett says its digital subscription plan, paired with metered paywalls, is now active in 38 of the company's 80 community newspaper markets. Gannett executives provided updates in a presentation last week …

Discussion: Gannett Blog

Foster Kamer / New York Observer:

New York Times' Crosswords Going Premium-Premium, Even for Subscribers — It's like TimesSelect returned with a vengeance, basically. — What's another seven-letter word for premium? — Right now, some pissed-off puzzle-solving New York Times home subscribers are probably answering …

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York:

‘Times’ will end partnerships with N.Y.U., CUNY on hyperlocal blogs — The New York Times' three-year-old experiment in hyperlocal community journalism is coming to an end—for now, at least. The Times has decided to terminate its collaborations with the journalism schools of New York University …

Discussion: NYConvergence.com