Mediagazer: Disney Unexpectedly Reveals Movie Write-Down and Sluggish Ad Revenue (Brooks Barnes/Media Decoder)

5:25 PM ET, September 13, 2012

Top News:

McKay Coppins / BuzzFeed:

Romney's Team Turns On The Press — A frustrating week in Boston. “The polls are close, and so the media starts cheering on their guy,” says one adviser. — DULLES, Va. — As Mitt Romney finishes his second week of dismal news coverage — with slipping polls and a combustible international crisis driving …

Discussion: Capital New York, The American Conservative, Forbes and The Daily Dish

Erik Wemple:
Fact-checkers say no to Romney ‘apology’ claims

Discussion: Mediaite, Mashable!, PolitiFact and FactCheck.org

Erik Wemple / Washington Post:
Obama-rooting reporters — In these days of media conspiracy …

Discussion: Mediaite and National Review

Lucia Moses / Adweek:

‘USA Today’ Redesigns — USA Today is about to roll out the biggest redesign in its history, but is it too late? On the eve of the paper's 30th anniversary, John Hartman, author of The USA Today Way, said the paper is showing “all the makings of a death spiral” and predicted that it would shut down within three years.

Discussion: Poynter, MediaPost, Gawker, AdAge, New York Times, Capital New York, FishbowlNY, The Atlantic Wire, Reuters, @jbenton, FishbowlDC, Mashable!, JIMROMENESKO.COM, USA Today and @ckrewson

Bill Carter / Media Decoder:

After ‘Today’ Criticism, NBC News Chief Apologies to Affiliates — As it promised, NBC did not apologize on the air Wednesday for its decision not to observe a moment of silence during the “Today” show on Sept. 11. — But Steve Capus, the president of NBC News, did send out a message …

Discussion: Erik Wemple, Los Angeles Times, Broadcasting & Cable, TVNewser, TVSpy, Inside TV, TVLine, Deadline.com, The Huffington Post and New York Magazine

Jim Romenesko: Wall Street Journal's front page ignored 9/11 anniversary, too

Julie Moos / Poynter:

L.A. Times, NY Daily News feature graphic Libya ambassador photo on front page — The New York Times said Wednesday that it was not planning to use a graphic photo on its Thursday front page of Christopher Stevens, the U.S. Ambassador killed in Libya this week.

Discussion: New York Times

Margaret Sullivan / The Public Editor's Journal:
The Times Denies State Department Request to Remove Photo From Web Site

Lucia Moses / Adweek:

Nomad Editions Calls it Quits — Nearly three years after launching Nomad Editions, Mark Edmiston is all but calling it quits—providing yet another example of just how hard it is to start a mobile-only publication from scratch. Edmiston, a former president/CEO of Newsweek turned media investment-banker …

Discussion: eMedia Vitals

Jim Romenesko:

Survey: U.S. publishers optimistic about future of newspapers — A survey by Missouri School of Journalism's Reynolds Journalism Institute finds that most publishers of U.S. dailies remain optimistic about the future of newspapers: 40% are “somewhat optimistic,” 25% are “very optimistic,” 4% are “not optimistic,” and 31% are neutral.

Brooks Barnes / Media Decoder:

Disney Unexpectedly Reveals Movie Write-Down and Sluggish Ad Revenue — James A. Rasulo, Disney's chief financial officer, unexpectedly revealed two important tidbits at a gathering of Wall Street analysts on Thursday: The company will take a $50 million write-down at its movie studio …

Discussion: The Wrap, Cable Television News, Reuters, Los Angeles Times and Wall Street Journal

David Benoit / Wall Street Journal:

TheStreet Buys The Deal for $5.8 Million — TheStreet Inc . has purchased The Deal LLC, owner of the mergers-and-acquisition publication The Deal, for $5.8 million, TheStreet confirmed Wednesday morning. — The magazine will be closed and staff will be laid off, people familiar with the matter said.

Discussion: Deal Journal, NYConvergence.com, eMedia Vitals and Folio

Alex Weprin / TVNewser:

CBS News, Showtime To Launch ‘60 Minutes of Sports’ Newsmagazine — CBS News and sister pay cable network Showtime are partnering on a new sports newsmagazine, “60 Minutes of Sports.” The program will air on Showtime, greatly bolstering the pay cabler's sports news output.

Discussion: Media & Entertainment, Radio & Television …, Media Decoder, Broadcasting & Cable and JIMROMENESKO.COM

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

Lawyer: 4 — not 3,000 — interns have joined class action suit against Hearst — When I aggregated Kayleen Schaefer's New York magazine piece about a former unpaid intern at Harper's Bazaar whose lawsuit against Hearst has become a class-action suit, I incorrectly interpreted this passage to mean 3,000 interns had joined the suit:

Phillip Swarts / The Washington Guardian:

Investigation questions EPA money spent to fund newspaper — Once a month, a free print publication gets delivered to mailboxes, coffee shops and libraries across the Mid-Atlantic with the latest news about how the government and private sector are trying to protect one of America's natural crown jewels: the Chesapeake Bay.

Discussion: The Newspaper Guild

Peter Walker / Guardian:

WikiLeaks criticised for linking Benghazi attack to Julian Assange case — WikiLeaks has been accused of crass self-centredness after it intimated that its founder Julian Assange's current refuge inside the Ecuadorean embassy in London in part explained or even justified Wednesday's attack …

Discussion: Betabeat, Telegraph, mediabistro.com, Forbes and Capital New York

Katherine Fung / The Huffington Post:

Bob Costas Rips NBC's Olympics Coverage — Even NBC News' own Bob Costas is blasting the network over the Olympics. The network was hit with wave after wave of criticism for various gaffes and editing decisions in its broadcast of the 2012 summer games. Costas, NBC News' primetime host …

Gillian Flaccus / Associated Press:

California man confirms role in anti-Islam film — LOS ANGELES (AP) — The search for those behind the provocative, anti-Muslim film implicated in violent protests in Egypt and Libya led Wednesday to a California Coptic Christian convicted of financial crimes who acknowledged his role …