DailyFinance.comhttp://www.dailyfinance.comDailyFinance.comhttp://o.aolcdn.com/os/df/2013/img/2-dailyfinance_logo_m.pngDailyFinance.comhttp://www.dailyfinance.comen-usCopyright 2013 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only.Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/So Long, and Thanks for All the Foosballhttp://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/10/08/bercovici-leaves-aol-dailyfinance/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/10/08/bercovici-leaves-aol-dailyfinance/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/10/08/bercovici-leaves-aol-dailyfinance/#commentsFiled under: ,

Well, DailyFinance readers, it's been a great ride, but now it's time for me to say goodbye. On Monday, I start a new job at Forbes, where I'll be covering media and technology. I've written a little bit about the strategy that Forbes has adopted under its new editorial leadership, and I'm excited to be a part of it. The idea of giving journalists more control over their own destinies appeals to me, as does the thought of aligning myself with a brand as widely known and respected as Forbes.

That said, working at AOL has been a blast. The people here at DailyFinance are kind, funny and talented, and they've always been ready to indulge my journalistic whims and back me up on tough calls. Some of my favorite moments from working here: digging deep into the archives of eHow to unearth the stupidest demand-driven content; busting Gawker Media for misleading its readers about the provenance of that "lost" iPhone prototype; breaking the news of Vibe magazine's closure; interviewing the members of The Kids in the Hall; calling out the New York Police Department for interfering with the First Amendment rights of climate-change activists protesting outside the News Corp. (NWS) building; and lots more.

Because I'll still be covering the media beat, it will be both as a professional observer and as a sympathetic alumnus that I watch the continued efforts of AOL to build a leading premium-content business consisting of a host of dominant, durable news brands. We've made big strides in just the 16 months I've been here, and I hope this company will show the patience and firmness of purpose required to achieve the big goals it has set for itself. The world can always use more great journalism.

As for me, you'll be able to find my new blog on Forbes.com, or just follow me on Twitter. Many thanks for reading.

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]]>AOLforbesforbes.comJeff BercovicimediaJeff BercoviciFri, 08 Oct 2010 20:15:00 ESTPage Six Editor Leaves. End of the Line for the 'New York Post'?http://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/10/07/page-six-editor-leaves-end-of-the-line-for-the-new-york-post/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/10/07/page-six-editor-leaves-end-of-the-line-for-the-new-york-post/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/10/07/page-six-editor-leaves-end-of-the-line-for-the-new-york-post/#commentsFiled under: ,

Richard Johnson New York PostA little advice to those who work at the New York Post: Make sure you don't leave your resume on the printer today. I'm assuming you'll be updating it after hearing the news that Richard Johnson, longtime editor of the "Page Six" gossip column, is leaving to work on digital initiatives for News Corp. (NWS), the Post's parent company, in Los Angeles.

For those into tea leaf reading, it's a strong indication that owner Rupert Murdoch's patience with the tabloid may be approaching its inevitable end. Murdoch certainly isn't keeping the Post around for its contribution to the corporate coffers: The paper reportedly loses around $70 million a year. He hangs onto it, instead, for its influence, and it's chiefly through two sections that that influence extends beyond New York: its business pages and its gossip column.

However, the Post's business reporting, historically aggressive though it's been, was rendered an afterthought in 2007 by Murdoch's purchase of The Wall Street Journal. That leaves "Page Six" as its chief national raison d'etre. Yet, as the Village Voice's Foster Kamer points out, that all-important franchise is now in the hands of three writers who've been there for a combined total of around two years.

Of course, there are other ways to read the move. It may be that Murdoch felt he had to find a way to mollify Johnson after blocking him from taking a million-dollar job with The Hollywood Reporter over the summer. Murdoch has a reputation for keeping faith with his favorite newspapermen, and Johnson, after 25 years of combat service at the Post, had the right to ask for a change of scenery. Murdoch also has big, if vague, plans for a new national iPad-based newspaper, which Johnson, in his new role, will be involved with.

But a Post without a punchy, must-read "Page Six" is a Post that has a perilously tenuous argument for continued existence -- especially when Murdoch is simultaneously pouring money into establishing a second local-news beachhead with the Journal's "Greater New York" section.

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]]>gossipgossip columnsjesse angelonew york postNews Corpnews corp.nwspage sixrichard johnsonrupert murdochthe hollywood reporterJeff BercoviciThu, 07 Oct 2010 15:30:00 EST'Parker Spitzer' Is a Bust, and CNN May Already Know Ithttp://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/10/06/parker-spitzer-is-a-bust-and-cnn-may-already-know-it/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/10/06/parker-spitzer-is-a-bust-and-cnn-may-already-know-it/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/10/06/parker-spitzer-is-a-bust-and-cnn-may-already-know-it/#commentsFiled under: , ,

Parker Spitzer on CNNTo say Parker Spitzer, CNN's new prime-time show starring former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer and conservative writer Kathleen Parker, failed to win over critics from the start understates the matter. Go here or here for a survey of the reviews, which mostly focus on the forced chemistry between the two hosts and the jarring lack of flow between segments.

Of course, the critical response would be irrelevant if the show were attracting viewers, but at least on its first night, it didn't.

CNN, of course, says it's happy with the show and confident in its prospects, but there's reason to think the network is already quietly lining up the fire trucks next to the runway in expectation of a flameout. The major reason is the dismissal, two weeks ago, of network President Jonathan Klein who developed Parker Spitzer and also recruited British TV interviewer Piers Morgan to succeed Larry King.

Another Swing and Another Miss

I noted that the timing of Klein's ouster, coming before his newest shows had a chance to prove themselves, was curious, but CNN Worldwide President Jim Walton had an explanation: "We felt it was important to go ahead and make the move before we launched the new programs because we felt it was important not to have any disruption once the programs were on the air nor any seeming of dissatisfaction with the programs."

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Maybe. Or maybe, once Parker Spitzer went from concept to execution and Walton got his first look at the result in the days leading up to the launch, it became glaringly obvious that Klein had swung and missed yet again and it was past time to give someone else a shot. After all, the two hosts were chosen and announced without so much as a screen test being performed.

That's just a guess. Here's another one: It will be weeks, not months, before Klein's replacement, Ken Jautz, makes a significant change to Parker Spitzer's format. Several critics have said the dual-host thing is awkward and that Spitzer, the bigger name of the two, might fare better with a show of his own. (MSNBC's Morning Joe, which seems to be the loose model for Parker Spitzer, is built around a similar dyad, but it's clearly Joe Scarborough's show.) Don't be surprised if that's the direction Jautz takes it.

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]]>cable newscnneliot spitzerjim waltonjoe scarboroughjon kleinjonathan kleinkathleen parkerken jautzmorning joemsnbcparker spitzerTime WarnerJeff BercoviciWed, 06 Oct 2010 17:00:00 ESTOprah Winfrey: It Was Hard to Accept Being a Brandhttp://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/10/05/oprah-winfrey-being-a-brand/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/10/05/oprah-winfrey-being-a-brand/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/10/05/oprah-winfrey-being-a-brand/#commentsFiled under: ,

Oprah Winfrey: It Was Hard to Accept Being a BrandYou might think that someone who puts her famous name on everything she does would be comfortable with the notion of self-branding. Not Oprah Winfrey.

"The idea of being a brand was hard for me to accept," the daytime talk show host and soon-to-be cable network founder said during a Q&A session at the American Magazine Conference in Chicago. Winfrey was interviewed by Susan Casey, editor in chief of O, The Oprah Magazine.

"I had no intention of being a brand," she said. "My intention was to just do the work and represent the truth in the work every day. But I guess that's what a brand is."

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"I accept that I am a brand now," she added. "I had to learn that being true to yourself is what creates a brand, and as long as you are true to yourself you don't have to worry what the brand is or how the brand is doing or how the brand is faring in the world. I never thought about what are the attributes of my brand. That's for other people to tell me."

Winfrey also talked about her mindset as she approaches the end of The Oprah Winfrey Show next year. "I said to my producers I can't think about it being the last show because every show consumes so much of your energy, and to be present for that show and that moment is all the energy I can give.

"So I'm really not thinking about what the end will be. I'm just trying to focus on making every day memorable for myself. I want this year not to be like the big wedding where you don't remember anything that happened."

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]]>american magazine conferenceo magazineo the oprah magazineoprahOprah brandOprah interviewoprah winfreyOprahWinfreyShowownown networkself-brandself-brandingJeff BercoviciTue, 05 Oct 2010 14:23:00 ESTConfirmed: Michael Wolff Joining e5 Global Mediahttp://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/10/04/michael-wolff-joining-e5-global-media/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/10/04/michael-wolff-joining-e5-global-media/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/10/04/michael-wolff-joining-e5-global-media/#commentsFiled under: ,

Michael WolffA few weeks ago, we reported that Michael Wolff, the Vanity Fair columnist and Newser.com co-founder, was spending an awfully large amount of time around the offices of e5 Global Media, a company that was known to be scouting an editorial director to run its collection of media trades, Mediaweek, Adweek and Brandweek.

We put two and two together and called up Wolff to ask if he was, as it appeared, in talks for the job. "Get some stuff right for once," he snapped, and hung up.

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So imagine our surprise, upon opening The New York Times this morning, to see that Wolff has indeed taken the job. We emailed him to gently remind him about how he tried to BS us, but haven't heard back yet.

But this is how he explained his reputation for rudeness to the Times (a paper that, by Wolff's reckoning, is doomed): "Media people are all egomaniacs. You either bow to that or not bow to that. If you don't bow to that you make enemies."

Congratulations, Michael.

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]]>adweekbrandweeke5 global mediamediaweekmichael wolffnewsernytrichard beckmanthe new york timesJeff BercoviciMon, 04 Oct 2010 10:10:00 ESTTablets and E-Readers Give Hope to Publishers, but Not Broadcastershttp://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/10/04/tablets-and-e-readers-give-hope-to-publishers-but-not-broadcast/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/10/04/tablets-and-e-readers-give-hope-to-publishers-but-not-broadcast/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/10/04/tablets-and-e-readers-give-hope-to-publishers-but-not-broadcast/#commentsFiled under: , , , ,

iPad tablet e-readerListening to the messianic way publishers talk about the Apple (AAPL) iPad and other tablet reading devices, it's hard not to ascribe some of their enthusiasm to the wishful thinking of people who see their own extinction approaching. But new consumer research to be released today suggests their confidence may, in fact, be grounded in reality.

Conducted by Harrison Group in cooperation with the digital publishing services provider Zinio, the study asked 1,816 adults about their behaviors and attitudes toward tablet computers and other e-reading devices, such as the Amazon (AMZN) Kindle. In a top-line result you're sure to hear quoted often, owners of such devices said they're consuming more newspaper and magazine content than the average -- a great deal more.

Tablet users report dedicating 75% more time to reading newspaper articles than nonowners, and 25% more time reading books, while owners of e-readers spend 50% more time reading newspaper stories and 45% more time reading books.

"Rupert Murdoch is right -- it's a true game-changer," says Jim Taylor, Harrison Group vice chairman, referring to the News Corp. chairman's encomium to the iPad.

Consumers of Content

The good news doesn't stop there. Harrison Group's survey also found that those who own what the study authors refer to as tablet-based technologies -- a designation that includes both the iPad and dedicated e-readers like the Kindle -- are more reconciled to paying for digital news content than the general public. Some 86% of tablet owners and 82% of e-reader owners describe themselves as comfortable being automatically debited for content, compared to 62% overall.

What makes these findings even more noteworthy, says Jeanniey Mullen, Zinio's chief marketing officer, is that the device owners aren't the sorts of trend outliers who typically rush to embrace new technologies. They're neither hardcore techies or serious businesspeople whose work needs drive their consumption. "Early adopters of tablet-based reading are a whole different type of person," says Mullen. "They're much more mainstream. It's someone who just really enjoys content."

"It's about their consumption of content, not their consumption of technology," adds Taylor.

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However, the study did turn up findings to give media industry executives indigestion. Offsetting the sharp rise in consumption of newspaper and magazine content is an almost equally marked drop in TV viewing among tablet and e-reader owners. "We're talking about a 25% cut in television consumption right out of the box," says Taylor. It really decouples people from the need for channels, and it clearly reduces the amount of television being consumed. It is a fundamental alternative entertainment medium."

That ought to give Murdoch -- whose News Corp. (NWS) derives the greatest share of its profits from cable TV -- something to think about.

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]]>aaplamazonamznapplee-readersipadkindlemagazinesNews Corpnews corp.newspapersnooknwspublishingrupert murdochtabletsJeff BercoviciMon, 04 Oct 2010 08:45:00 ESTAnderson Cooper as Daytime Talk Show Host: Good Move?http://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/09/30/anderson-cooper-daytime-talk-show-host/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/09/30/anderson-cooper-daytime-talk-show-host/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/09/30/anderson-cooper-daytime-talk-show-host/#commentsFiled under: ,

Geraldo Rivera. Jane Pauley. Phil Donahue. Jerry Springer. These are names that everyone knows. But are they names you want to be associated with if you're Anderson Cooper?

Apparently so. The CNN anchor is set to get his own syndicated daytime talk show, a program that will address "social issues, trends and events, pop culture and celebrity, human interest stories and populist news," according to a joint announcement by Telepictures Production and Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution. The one-hour program will debut in the fall of 2011. Cooper will continue to host his 10 p.m. newscast, Anderson Cooper 360.

This development, news of which was first broken by The Hollywood Reporter's James Hibberd, is in some regards a surprising one. Despite a taste for biceps-hugging T-shirts and a history of guest-hosting Live with Regis and Kelly, Cooper, who started out as a freelance foreign correspondent, is an award-winning journalist who cherishes his reputation for serious reporting. Daytime talk, as the list of names at the start of this article suggests, is not always compatible with that -- though, to be sure, neither is primetime, necessarily. According to the announcement, the yet-to-be-titled show will explore "relevant issues and social trends affecting women's lives" including "hot-button issues from race to infidelity to Internet predators."

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One way to read this is as Cooper's hedge against further upheaval at CNN (TWX). The network will turn over two-thirds of its primetime lineup in the next few months, with Eliot Spitzer and Kathleen Parker's debate show debuting and Piers Morgan taking over for Larry King.

The network also has a new president, Ken Jautz, who replaces Jon Klein. Jautz comes from HLN, where he built ratings by embracing the personality-first model of cable news. Were he to apply that philosophy to CNN, AC 360, which purports to be about the stories Cooper covers, not Cooper's views on them, would find itself in a precarious position. Clearly aware of that possible interpretation, CNN Worldwide president Jim Walton made an announcement of his own today, saying Cooper "has extended his relationship with CNN and will be with us for years to come."

Whatever the thinking, now is the moment for launching a new syndicated talk show, with Oprah Winfrey's move to cable creating a huge vacuum. CBS (CBS), spotting the same opportunity, is already moving ahead with plans for a new show, The Talk, that will be similar in format to ABC's (DIS) The View.

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]]>anderson cooperanderson cooper 360barbara walterscnndaytime talk showgeraldo riverahlnjane pauleyjerry springerjon kleinken jautzoprah winfreyphil donohuesyndicated talk showtalk showtelepicturestelepictures productionswarner bros.Warner Bros. Domestic Television DistributionJeff BercoviciThu, 30 Sep 2010 12:40:00 ESTMayhill Fowler's Farewell From Huffpo Prompts a Hypocritical Reactionhttp://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/09/28/mayhill-fowler-huffpo-farewell-huffington-post-hypocrisy/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/09/28/mayhill-fowler-huffpo-farewell-huffington-post-hypocrisy/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/09/28/mayhill-fowler-huffpo-farewell-huffington-post-hypocrisy/#commentsFiled under: , , ,

When blogger Mayhill Fowler quoted Barack Obama and Bill Clinton saying things they never would have said had they known they'd be quoted on the record, her editors at the Huffington Post couldn't have been more pleased. But when she pulled a Mayhill Fowler on those same editors, they were considerably less delighted.

Fowler, the citizen journalist whose on-the-scene reporting resulted in what was immediately termed "Bittergate," has left Huffpo, saying she's no longer willing to blog for free. In her farewell post, Fowler scorched some earth, calling Arianna Huffington "the quintessential opportunist" who treats her non-famous writers as disposable, and suggesting that Huffington's claims to be building an online "community" are just so much hot air.

Huffpo quickly struck back. A spokesman debunked Fowler's "resignation" -- "How do you resign from a job you never had?" -- and accused her of being the real opportunist. "At the end of the day, Mayhill Fowler asked for a paid position; we chose not to offer her one," he wrote. " [S]he is trying to turn that rejection into something that exemplifies a fault line between new media practices and traditional media practices. Hardly."

Golden Parachute of Publicity

Of course Fowler is trying to make her departure into a big fat deal. Huffington has always said that she pays her non-professional bloggers in visibility rather than dollars. Fowler is, in essence, just trying to maximize her golden parachute of publicity.

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But the funniest part of this back-and-forth is how put out Huffpo was by Fowler's decision to print her email exchange with her editor, Roy Sekoff. Even though Sekoff didn't say anything especially embarrassing, Huffpo's spokesman felt the need to admonish Fowler publicly -- perhaps as a warning to other Huffpo bloggers who might someday be tempted to do the same? "[I]n the future, she should refrain from publishing private emails with her editors without their permission," he wrote. "This happens to be both an old media and a new media ground rule."

I am reminded of Dennis Kneale lecturing The Daily Beast's Peter Lauria for his rudeness in publishing an incriminating voicemail left by Sumner Redstone. In this case, however, there's an added layer of hypocrisy, Huffpo having been only too happy to benefit from Fowler's disregard for journalistic niceties -- such as the time she hid a recorder in her cleavage while talking to Clinton. Not so fun to be on the other end, is it?

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]]>arianna huffingtonbarack obamabarack obama bitterbill clintonbittergatebloggingcitizen journalismhuffington posthuffpomayhill fowlermediaroy sekoffJeff BercoviciTue, 28 Sep 2010 14:01:00 ESTHearst CEO: Newspapers Will Survivehttp://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/09/27/hearst-chairman-newspaperse-will-survive-and-well-work-out-a/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/09/27/hearst-chairman-newspaperse-will-survive-and-well-work-out-a/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/09/27/hearst-chairman-newspaperse-will-survive-and-well-work-out-a/#commentsFiled under:

New York Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. may foresee a time when his paper may no longer appear as a physical product, but Frank A. Bennack Jr., the vice chairman and CEO of Hearst Corp., is more sanguine about the future of dead-tree newspapers. "They'll be around as ink and paper for as long as the eye can see," Bennack said Monday in an interview at the Internet Advertising Bureau's MIXX Conference. "Newspapers are starting to solve the problem of a business model that needs to be retooled," he said. Hearst's papers include the Houston Chronicle, San Francisco Chronicle and Albany Times-Union.

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Although Hearst is hard at work developing new products for the iPad and other mobile devices -- the company just named its first advertising director of tablet media and announced an "innovation initiative" -- Bennack does not foresee such devices becoming the dominant vehicle for newspapers. "My view is maybe as high as 25 or 30 percent of newspaper consumption will be on the new devices," he said.

He predicted that newspaper publishers will reach a workable agreement with Apple (AAPL) about how to sell subscriptions to app-based editions through iTunes. Currently, Apple is pushing a plan that would give it a large cut of subscription revenues while depriving publishers of the customer data that they need to sell advertising effectively.

"My own belief is [Apple is] very smart. They need content for these devices," Bennack said. "We'll work out a method of working together. We obviously want to be able to put our content on every conceivable platform."

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]]>aaplapp storeappleappsarthur sulzbergerfrank bennack jr.hearstitunesnew york timesnytJeff BercoviciMon, 27 Sep 2010 18:10:00 ESTCNN Hopes to Change Its Own Narrative with New Leadershiphttp://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/09/24/cnn-hopes-to-change-its-own-narrative-with-new-leadership/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/09/24/cnn-hopes-to-change-its-own-narrative-with-new-leadership/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/09/24/cnn-hopes-to-change-its-own-narrative-with-new-leadership/#commentsFiled under:

CNN Hopes to Change Its Own Narrative with New LeadershipCNN is sick of being the punching bag of the cable news world.

Explaining why the network replaced Jonathan Klein as president of CNN U.S. to reporters Friday morning, Jim Walton (pictured), its worldwide president, repeatedly cited what he characterized as unfair press coverage focusing on CNN's declining ratings, especially in prime time.

"There have been a number of stories over past few months about the end of CNN and the doom and gloom," Walton said. "It's remarkable to me. I understand it. Our prime time stars are in many people's opinion the public face of CNN. But it's a remarkable story, what we're doing."

Specifically, what's remarkable, according to Walton, is that CNN Worldwide is on track to increase its profits for its seventh consecutive year. "We're enjoying a time of profit in the news business when many folks around the world who do journalism are having financial difficulties," he said.
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In light of that accomplishment, Walton said the various columnists who have offered their unsolicited thoughts about what CNN ought to be doing are missing the point. "The frustrating part is when many of the soothsayers come in and offer advice for how to fix CNN," he said. "That's what's frustrating to me, because CNN's not broken."

While Ken Jautz, who replaces Klein, has demonstrated a knack for creating programming and growing ratings during his time running sister channel HLN, Walton left no doubt that the timing of the substitution -- coming before two new prime time shows Klein lined up have had a chance to debut -- had as much to do with optics as with anything else. "We felt it was important to go ahead and make the move before we launched the new programs because we felt it was important not to have any disruption once the programs were on the air nor any seeming of dissatisfaction with the programs," he said.

Walton declined to say whether Klein's departure was voluntary, but Klein told New York magazine's Gabriel Sherman it was not. "I got shot," he said.

Walton also said CNN is creating a new position, executive vice president and managing editor, that will oversee coverage across all platforms, both in the U.S. and overseas. The network is currently searching for candidates. "He or she will be a strong editorial mind who will help shape our coverage and build content and add analysis to what we're doing," Walton said.

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]]>cable newscable news networkcable news ratingscable news showscnnCNN profitabilitycnn uscnn worldwidefox newsgabriel shermanhlnjim waltonjon kleinjonathan kleinken jautzmsnbcnews ratingsprime timeprime time newsratingstime warnertwxJeff BercoviciFri, 24 Sep 2010 14:50:00 ESTHey John Tesh: Why Are You Lifting Everyone's Content?http://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/09/24/hey-john-tesh-why-are-you-lifting-everyones-content/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/09/24/hey-john-tesh-why-are-you-lifting-everyones-content/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/09/24/hey-john-tesh-why-are-you-lifting-everyones-content/#commentsFiled under: ,

John Tesh"Parasites' is a word that gets thrown around a lot in media these days. Just this week, former Washington Post editor Len Downie used it to describe the Huffington Post. Wall Street Journal editor Robert Thomson has said the same thing about Google and other aggregators. So it's worth remembering who the real media parasites are: the countless blogs that scrape content from legitimate news sites and republish it, word for word, with no regard whatsoever to copyright.

Blogs like Josh Tesh's.

You're probably thinking, "Surely he can't mean the Josh Tesh -- the multi-talented composer, performer and instrumentalist, former co-host of Entertainment Tonight, and all-around lifestyle guru?" Friends, that is exactly who I mean.

It has recently come to our attention that Tesh, in his somewhat under-appreciated capacity as a professional dispenser of commonsense advice (tagline: "Intelligence, Inspiration and Encouragement for Your Life") has been running a blog, aptly called The John Tesh Blog. Its content consists mainly of articles copied and pasted, often in their entirety, from such mainstream news outlets as CNNMoney.com, MSNBC.com, ABCNews.com, Oprah.com, and our own sister site, Walletpop. Today's offering, for instance, is a handy-dandy guide to fall cleaning, courtesy of RealSimple.com. Tesh -- or whichever member of The John Tesh Organization is responsible for maintaining The John Tesh Blog -- simply reused the entire story, with a couple sentences of added introduction. ("Cleaning. Well. No doubt about it - there is real, and true satisfaction at what you've accomplished when it's all said and done.")

We emailed Tesh at the address listed on his blog about his use of Walletpop's content only to receive an automatic message saying his mailbox was full. That figures: John Tesh is a very popular man. But maybe he would be more popular still if he stopped acting like a parasite on his blog? John, that is some free intelligence and inspiration from us to you.

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]]>cnn moneyentertainment tonighthuffington postjohn teshlen downiemary hartmsnbcoprahoprah.comparasitespersonal financereal simplerealsimple.comrobert thomsonwall street journalwalletpopyesJeff BercoviciFri, 24 Sep 2010 12:30:00 ESTCNN Replaces President Jon Klein as Makeover Loomshttp://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/09/24/cnn-replaces-president-jon-klein-as-makeover-looms/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/09/24/cnn-replaces-president-jon-klein-as-makeover-looms/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/09/24/cnn-replaces-president-jon-klein-as-makeover-looms/#commentsFiled under:

Jon Klein CNNCNN president Jonathan Klein (pictured) has been hard at work this year remaking the network's primetime lineup, its most important programming block. But whether or not his effort proves successful, he won't be around to find out. CNN just announced that Klein is leaving his post, and the network, after six years, to be replaced by Ken Jautz, head of sister channel HLN. The news was first reported by The New York Times.

In one obvious sense, Klein's departure is no surprise at all. CNN has struggled mightily for years to make a case for its own brand of relatively neutral, opinion-free news reporting while viewers have gravitated more and more to partisan personalities like Fox News's Bill O'Reilly and MSNBC's Keith Olbermann. The ratings picture has been nothing short of squalid: In the second quarter of 2010, CNN was down 20% for the full day and 27% in primetime among viewers age 25 to 54, the demographic most important to advertisers.

Jautz is the obvious candidate to succeed Klein, having overseen HLN's transformation from its previous incarnation as Headline News, offing bite-sized updates, to what it is now, an entity in the dominant mode of cable news, driven by big personalities like Joy Behar and Nancy Grace. Once a virtual afterthought to CNN, it actually edged out its sister network in the 25-to-54 demographic during weekday primetime in the second quarter.

Still, while the change of command makes sense, it's not immediately clear why Time Warner (TWX) management pulled the trigger now rather than waiting to see the results from Klein's new programming slate, including a new debate show co-hosted by Eliot Spitzer and Kathleen Parker, and an interview show by British journalist Piers Morgan, who replaces the retiring Larry King.

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]]>bill oreillycnneliot spitzerfox newshlnjon kleinjonathan kleinkathleen parkermsnbcparkerspitzerpiers morganratingstime warnertwxJeff BercoviciFri, 24 Sep 2010 10:25:00 ESTA New Era at Forbes: Staffer Calls Cover Story 'Stupefyingly Inane'http://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/09/23/forbes-obama-cover-story-criticism-dsouza-bash-bias-inane/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/09/23/forbes-obama-cover-story-criticism-dsouza-bash-bias-inane/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/09/23/forbes-obama-cover-story-criticism-dsouza-bash-bias-inane/#commentsFiled under: , ,

Forbes magazine unveils a new look this week, with a redesigned issue on newsstands tomorrow featuring its signature Forbes 400 list, but for a sense of how much the company has changed since Lewis D'Vorkin took over as chief content officer earlier this year, you need only witness the reaction to the previous issue's cover story.

That story, in which conservative writer Dinesh D'Souza argued that President Obama inherited an anti-colonial ethos and anti-business bias from his father, provoked an outcry that went all the way up to the White House, with Obama administration spokesman Robert Gibbs calling it "a new low." Forbes told the Washington Post that it was standing by the story -- but that stance was not monolithic.

Instead, some Forbes contributors have been using the new blogs they've been given to express their misgivings. Shikha Dalmia, an analyst at the libertarian Reason Foundation, called D'Souza's thesis "intellectual goofiness" and said his article suffered from "factual inaccuracies" -- the latter in running up against Forbes's official assertion that "[n]o facts are in contention." (D'Souza has, in fact, conceded one factual error involving the timing of Obama's visit to Pakistan.)

On Wednesday, a Forbes staffer, copy editor and book reviewer Craig Silver, followed that up with an even more sharply-worded critique: He calls D'Souza's piece "a stupefyingly inane, quasi-racist bomb-toss" that was "utterly devoid of intellectual probity" -- and that's just some of it. I asked Silver whether he'd gotten any unfavorable response to his post from Forbes's management. "No push-back so far," he told me.

It's hard to imagine this sort of intramural back-and-forth being tolerated, much less encouraged, at the old Forbes. But it's exactly the sort of ferment that D'Vorkin sought to catalyze at True/Slant, the blog network he founded and sold to Forbes Media, and whose architecture now serves as the framework for its online growth. (I was among True/Slant's paid contributors.)

D'Souza addressed outside criticisms of his story on his own Forbes.com blog, but he has yet to respond to his colleagues' brickbats.

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]]>barack obamacraig silverdinesh dsouzaforbesforbes 400Forbes blogsForbes criticismforbes mediaforbes.comlewis dvorkinobama anti-business biasObama biasObama fatherReason FoundationShikha Dalmiasteve forbestim forbestrueslantJeff BercoviciThu, 23 Sep 2010 16:07:00 ESTMuzzled Reporter Says 'Maw of Yahoo' No Place for Journalismhttp://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/09/22/muzzled-reporter-says-maw-of-yahoo-no-place-for-journalism/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/09/22/muzzled-reporter-says-maw-of-yahoo-no-place-for-journalism/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/09/22/muzzled-reporter-says-maw-of-yahoo-no-place-for-journalism/#commentsFiled under: ,

John CookYahoo (YHOO) has been trying to leverage its leading position in the portal business into a comparable dominance of premium content. But it's not so easy for a technology company to build a culture of journalism -- as the defection of one of its high-profile journalists illustrates.

In April, Yahoo hired Gawker's investigations editor, John Cook, to be the senior national affairs reporter for The Upshot, the news blog it was launching. While Cook (who is a friend and former colleague of mine) was joining a talent-packed team that also came to include Holly Bailey from Newsweek, Chris Lehmann from Congressional Quarterly and Michael Calderone from Politico, among others, his jilted boss, Gawker Media owner Nick Denton, pooh-poohed the move, saying Cook was "about to disappear into the maw of Yahoo."

It didn't take long for Cook to come around to Denton's way of seeing things. "Sadly, John Cook is heading back to Gawker," Andrew Golis, who runs The Upshot, wrote on his blog Wednesday. "John's a brilliant reporter, but he decided that he prefers the license Gawker gave him to add his opinions into his reporting to the scale and credibility Yahoo! News could offer."

But Cook offers a different interpretation of his move, saying that Yahoo's corporate conservatism repeatedly got in the way of his attempts to report the news. In one instance, Cook was forced to bowdlerize a quotation from New York Times reporter James Risen; he was told that referring to masturbation, even euphemistically, was unacceptable. On similar grounds, he was prohibited from writing about the conservative website Free Republic being used to promote child pornography*. Most glaringly, he was told that a proposed story on the Obama Administration raising the salary of White House staffers by 9% lacked the necessary balance; it was killed.

"As Andrew mentioned, I really valued being able to write what I think without somebody worrying about whether it will upset somebody, or meets the sort of balancing test that newspapers apply to themselves," Cook says. Also, he adds, "I think Nick Denton is going to win the Internet."

Whatever else you want to say about him, Denton has never discouraged his employees from using strong language, writing about controversial topics, or even venturing into legal gray zones to get stories.

I asked Golis about Cook's claim that Yahoo places excessive constraints on its journalists. His response: "We have nothing but respect for John as a reporter and a person and we wish him well."

---

DISCLOSURE: John Cook, as mentioned above, is a friend. Also, DailyFinance's parent, AOL, like Yahoo, is a technology/communications company that's building a large original content business. The two companies compete on a variety of fronts.

CORRECTION: Originally, this story said Free Republic was hosting child pornography. According to the Salon article that I linked to, Free Republic was not hosting it but being used to direct readers to an outside site that hosted it.

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]]>andrew golisfree republicgawkergawker mediaholly beckerjames risenjohn mccainmichael calderonenick dentonupshotYahooyhooJeff BercoviciWed, 22 Sep 2010 17:00:00 ESTWhy Sports Illustrated Ignored Apple's iPad Guidelineshttp://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/09/21/why-sports-illustrated-ignored-apples-ipad-guidelines/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/09/21/why-sports-illustrated-ignored-apples-ipad-guidelines/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/09/21/why-sports-illustrated-ignored-apples-ipad-guidelines/#commentsFiled under: , ,

Sports Illustrated Apple iPadMagazine publishers are at great pains these days to please Apple (AAPL), whose fast-selling tablet computer, the iPad, just may be the key to their future survival. But following all the persnickety dictates handed down by Steve Jobs isn't always easy.

Time Inc.'s Sports Illustrated was one of the first magazines to rush out with an iPad app that both replicates and enhances the experience of reading the printed product. After three months, SI's editors have decided there's no need to allow readers to view the pages in both landscape (horizontal) and portrait mode (vertical). The newest version of the app offers only the landscape view. "I've come to believe that, for now, and for photo-driven magazines like SI, the horizontal view is the optimal experience," wrote Josh Quittner, who oversees app development for Time Warner's (TWX) Time Inc., wrote by way of explanation.

One problem: Apple sees it differently. In its iPad Human Interface Guidelines, the company specifically warns developers against making applications that only operate in one orientation. "People expect to use your application in whatever orientation they're currently holding their iPad, and it's best if you can fulfill that expectation," state the guidelines. In those rare instances where it's impossible to enable both views, Apple asks users to "avoid displaying a [User Interface] element that tells people to rotate the device" -- another edict Sports Illustrated ignores.

Asked about the failure to comply, Quittner says, "All these recommendations were made before anyone actually used the device. And after having used it for a while we think we're able to provide a really good user experience in horizontal mode." Noting that many video game apps play only in one orientation, he says there's been no negative feedback on the change, either from customers or from Apple.

Indeed, the tweak helps to ameliorate one of the frequent complaints users have about magazine apps -- that they download too slowly -- and it also reduces the burden on SI's design staff. Still, as Time Inc., like other publishers, wrangles with Apple over when and how they'll be allowed to sell subscriptions to their iPad editions, you'd think they'd be taking all precautions to avoid annoying the legendary control freak who controls their destinies.

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]]>aaplapp storeappleipadipad appsitunesjosh quittnermagazine appssisports illustratedsteve jobstime inc.time warnertwxJeff BercoviciTue, 21 Sep 2010 16:30:00 ESTHow The Wall Street Journal Is Starting to Sound Like Fox Newshttp://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/09/20/wall-street-journal-sounds-like-fox-news/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/09/20/wall-street-journal-sounds-like-fox-news/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/09/20/wall-street-journal-sounds-like-fox-news/#commentsFiled under: ,

How The Wall Street Journal Is Starting to Sound Like Fox NewsIf you have any doubt that The Wall Street Journal is fast becoming steeped in the corporate culture of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. (NWS), I invite you to read a couple of quotations from today's news.

Here's Robert Thomson (pictured), the hand-picked editor Murdoch installed to run the Journal, dismissing the idea that changes he's made to the paper, most recently a beefed-up weekend lifestyle section, are aimed at stealing market share from The New York Times. "Nationally, there's no contest now," he told the Associated Press. "We're more than twice as big as The New York Times. They're not a serious competitor."

Now here's Brian Lewis, chief spokesperson for Fox News, responding to a claim that his network unfairly lumps NBC News in with its openly partisan sister channel, MSNBC. "NBC, and especially MSNBC, is not even a blip on our radar screen," Lewis told The Washington Post. "We don't care what they do."

Positively Obsessed

It's a tactic straight out of Murdoch's Fleet Street handbook: Declare victory, however prematurely, and express nothing but contempt for the competition. Of course, it's utterly bogus. Bill O'Reilly may not savage Keith Olbermann and GE (GE) boss Jeffrey Immelt the way he used to, but behind the scenes, the Fox News PR machine remains on the lookout for any opportunity, however tiny, to stick it to NBC and MSNBC. (Don't forget that this rivalry has another front, with CNBC crushing fledgling Fox Business in the ratings as badly as Fox News crushes MSNBC.)

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Likewise, Thomson and his boss are positively obsessed with putting the hurt on the Times, locally and nationally. But you needn't take my word for it. Just look at the speech Thomson gave when the Journal introduced its "Greater New York" section, which was almost entirely devoted to attacking the Gray Lady. Or recall that Thomson personally suggested using a photo of Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. to illustrate a story about men with feminine facial features.

I understand why Lewis engages in this kind of counterfactual posturing -- that's what he's paid to do. But Thomson is supposed to be a journalist, not a flack. Surely he could delegate the spinning to somebody else?


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]]>bill oreillybrian lewiscnbcComcastfox businessfox newsgreater new yorkMedia Biasmsnbcnbc newsnew york timesNew York Times CoNews Corpnews corp.nwsnytpartisanshiprobert thomsonrupert murdochwall street journalwsjJeff BercoviciMon, 20 Sep 2010 15:25:00 ESTCNBC's Dennis Kneale Set to Exit, Say Sourceshttp://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/09/16/cnbcs-dennis-kneale-set-to-exit-say-sources/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/09/16/cnbcs-dennis-kneale-set-to-exit-say-sources/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/09/16/cnbcs-dennis-kneale-set-to-exit-say-sources/#commentsFiled under: ,

Dennis Kneale's turbulent but entertaining tenure at CNBC is set to end, barring a last-minute plot twist. According to sources with knowledge of the situation, Kneale, the business channel's media and technology editor and one of its most recognizable faces, is likely to leave after his current contract expires sometime in the next several weeks. He joined CNBC from Forbes magazine, where he was managing editor, in October 2007.

"There's an outside shot that he could still work out a deal," says one knowledgeable source, but it's exceedingly unlikely as CNBC has made it clear it's unwilling to re-up him at anything close to his current salary, believed to be around $500,000 a year. Kneale did not respond to a message left on his cell phone, and a network spokesman declined to comment, citing a policy against discussing personnel matters.

Although he's a well-known figure with a considerable reputation in business journalism, Kneale has had difficulty finding a groove at CNBC. For five months, he hosted his own show in prime time, but that was canceled last September. More recently, he was the co-host of Power Lunch, but that ended in June. Since then, he has openly discussed the possibility that CNBC wouldn't renew his deal.

His splashiest moments in the past three years have generally come at his own expense -- for instance, when he ranted about the "dickweed" bloggers who make fun of him, and when he drew jeers from fellow journalists for suggesting they ought to protect the powerful people they cover in order to ensure continued access.

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]]>business newscable newscnbcdennis knealedickweed bloggersforbespower lunchtv newsJeff BercoviciThu, 16 Sep 2010 17:09:00 ESTApple vs. The Onion: App's Rejection Shows Flaw in New Guidelineshttp://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/09/16/apple-vs-the-onion-apps-rejection-shows-flaw-in-new-guideline/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/09/16/apple-vs-the-onion-apps-rejection-shows-flaw-in-new-guideline/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/09/16/apple-vs-the-onion-apps-rejection-shows-flaw-in-new-guideline/#commentsFiled under: , , ,

The OnionLast week, I told you that Apple's new guidelines for app developers are a failure -- that they merely codify the confusion over what kinds of content Apple will or won't reject rather than clearing it up. Here's a real-life case study that illustrates why.

A few months ago, the satirical newspaper The Onion carried a "report" on its video channel, the Onion News Network, about a fictional video game called Close Range, "the hotly anticipated video game in which players repeatedly shoot people point-blank in the face." (Be advised: The video is hilarious but graphic.)


Hot New Video Game Consists Solely Of Shooting People Point-Blank In The Face

Taking the joke farther, the paper actually created a playable version of the game and submitted it to Apple for sale in the app store. Apple rejected the app, saying it was too violent, leading The Onion to try again recently with a somewhat toned-down version. That one is still awaiting review.

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But the language in the new guidelines makes it hard to see how the Close Range app can ever win approval. The rules expressly say "[a]pps portraying realistic images of people or animals being killed or maimed, shot, stabbed, tortured or injured will be rejected." The Onion's game consists of nothing but such images. Of course, the purpose of those images, in this case, is to send up ultra-violent video games like Grand Theft Auto and God of War. ("Just like great literature or film transports you to different worlds, Close Range transports you to a world where you fire bullets into an endless stream of faces," says a supposed game reviewer in The Onion video.)

However, the guidelines do make allowances for "professional political satirists and humorists," stating they "are exempt from the ban on offensive or mean-spirited commentary." But does a video game qualify as "offensive commentary"? One of the delightful things about The Onion is how often its put-ons are mistaken by the dull-witted and literal-minded for real news. For every Apple customer who would buy Close Range for a sophisticated laugh, there's surely another who'd do it for the thrill of vaporizing an ostrich's head with a shotgun. Whose intent matters -- the creator or the end user?

No one from The Onion was willing to comment on this issue, which isn't surprising, seeing as the new guidelines also contain this rather thuggish thinly-veiled threat: "If your app is rejected, we have a Review Board you can appeal to. If you run to the press and trash us, it never helps."

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]]>aaplapp guidelinesapp storeappleApple guidelinesappsclose rangeClose Range video gameiPhoneOnion video gamesatirethe onionvideo gamevideo gamesviolent video gamesJeff BercoviciThu, 16 Sep 2010 14:30:00 ESTApple's New Subscription Plan Not So Great for Publishershttp://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/09/15/apples-new-subscription-plan-not-so-great-for-publishers/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/09/15/apples-new-subscription-plan-not-so-great-for-publishers/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/09/15/apples-new-subscription-plan-not-so-great-for-publishers/#commentsFiled under: , , ,

There's nothing newspaper and magazine publishers crave more right now than a straightforward way to sell subscriptions via Apple's App Store. In theory, iPhones and iPads could be a lucrative platform for publishers to sell digital versions of their products. But the news that Apple is on the verge of announcing a plan to let them do just that is likely to be of limited comfort to the beleaguered industry.

The program Apple is poised to announce is targeted at newspapers, according to the San Jose Mercury News. But it's a reasonable guess that the same template will also apply to magazines, which until now have been mostly sold as single copies through iTunes. Right now, only a few papers, including The Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times, offer paid subscription apps that give buyers access to the whole paper.

Apple's new program would allow other newspapers to join them, but not in the way they'd like. The big issue is control -- of the relationship with the customer, and of the customer's information. Publishers want to know who their subscribers are so they can hit them up with renewal notices and tie-in offers, and sell their eyeballs to advertisers more effectively. But Apple sees app users as Apple customers, not someone else's -- and it would prefer to keep it that way. "Steve Jobs believes that if he made recurring credit card charges available to vendors, that it would be abused, and he doesn't trust developers to use that judiciously," says one publishing executive who deals with Apple.

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The new compromise, such as it is, is that app subscribers will be invited to opt in if they want their information shared. But that's far from a solution as far as publishers are concerned. If not having their information shared is the default option, that's surely what most customers will choose. The result will be subscribers who are far less valuable to newspapers (and that's before Apple takes its 30 percent cut of the subscription price).

A better compromise would allow publishers to offer some kind of incentive to subscribers to yield up their information. Perhaps those who opt in could receive a discount off the subscription price. But that would run up against another Jobs prejudice, his preference for simple pricing structures.

"He's so caught up in control of his ecosystem, there are times when he misses the desire of his customers," says the executive who deals with Apple, "both the publishers and the end users."

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]]>aaplappapp storeappleipadiphonenewspaper industrynewspaperssteve jobsJeff BercoviciWed, 15 Sep 2010 18:01:00 ESTBehind Atlantic Media's Growth: A Return to Profits at The Atlantichttp://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/09/15/behind-atlantic-medias-growth-a-return-to-profits-at-the-atlan/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/09/15/behind-atlantic-medias-growth-a-return-to-profits-at-the-atlan/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/09/15/behind-atlantic-medias-growth-a-return-to-profits-at-the-atlan/#commentsFiled under: ,

Justin Smith, president Atlantic MediaFor a company that's been around in one form or another for 153 years, Atlantic Media is showing a lot of initiative. There's The Atlantic's new iPad edition, a straightforward digital version of the print magazine; another upcoming, subscription-based iPad app that will integrate content from both print and the Web; a slew of other possible apps that are still at the idea stage; and, of course, a total overhaul of the National Journal group, including a website relaunch and a new roster of all-star editorial talent.

Whew.

All this innovation takes money, of course, and these days some of those dollars are coming from a surprising source: from The Atlantic itself. The magazine is on pace to be profitable this year for the first time in many years, according to Justin Smith, the company's president (pictured). The growth is coming from both print and digital: November figures to be the single biggest month for advertising revenue in the publication's history, and Smith projects a year-over-year increase for 2010 of 45%. "We've been really fortunate to come out of the recession in a strong position," he says.

Getting Around an Apple Roadblock

Like most other publishers, Atlantic Media is anticipating strong consumer demand for apps, and it's racing to meet it. "We don't know what people are going to want to do on these new tablets, so we're experimenting with a few models," says Scott Havens, vice president of digital strategy and operations. Coming soon is Atlantic Premium, a paid product that will give users continuously updated access to all the content generated under the Atlantic brand, from 10,000-word features to blog posts.

Somewhat notoriously, Apple has so far refused to allow most publishers to sell subscriptions directly to consumers via the iTunes store, insisting on handling all the transactions -- and keeping the valuable information they generate -- itself. To get around this roadblock, the Atlantic employed a vendor called Urban Airship, which allowed it to offer a reasonable facsimile of a subscription, including renewal notices and choices of multiple subscription terms.

But Havens notes that it's far from the direct-sales holy grail publishers have been waiting for. "We're trying to be careful right now that we stay within the guidelines of Apple," he says. "Apple will maintain the customer relationship and take their 30% share."

The Appeal of Being "Treated Like Grownups"

Other apps are still on the drawing board, but one avenue being considered is to offer mini-apps that give access to the output of individual writers, such as Andrew Sullivan, whose Daily Dish blog continues to be the Atlantic's biggest traffic draw.

Then there's the makeover of the National Journal Group, which in late October will unveil a new Web home for National Journal, Congress Daily and Hotline. The three publications combined their staffs into one unified newsroom earlier this year. Buyouts reduced the headcount of that newsroom by about 40, but since then what Smith calls a "national talent search" has pushed that number close to its original total of 100. Among the newcomers are Editor in Chief Ron Fournier (formerly of AP), Editorial Director Ron Brownstein (formerly of the Los Angeles Times) and congressional correspondents Major Garrett (formerly of Fox News) and Susan Davis (formerly of The Wall Street Journal).

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"Very few people we hired were looking to leave where they were," says Smith. What lured them away, says Atlantic Media Vice President Linda Douglass (formerly President Obama's chief spokesperson on health care) was the opportunity to be "treated like grownups." "There's not someone hovering over you, telling you what to write, how to cover the story," she elaborates.

It's hard not to hear that as a dig at competitors, particularly Politico, from which National Journal plucked three of its new hires, and which has a reputation for treating journalists not as grownups but as drones to be micromanaged and driven incessantly.

But while National Journal's new staffers will be given time and space to do "deep, serious reporting" and "really good writing," they'll also be churning out a lot of content, says Douglass: "These are people who enjoy being prolific."

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]]>Amgenatlantic mediaatlantic monthlydavid bradleyjustin smithlinda douglassmajor garrettnational journalnational journal groupron brownsteinron fournierscott havenssusan davisurban airshipJeff BercoviciWed, 15 Sep 2010 16:00:00 EST