Archives: August 2009

TVNewser: ABC had a good year at the Daytime Emmy Awards yesterday. “Good Morning America” took home the “Outstanding Morning Program” prize for the third year in a row and “The View” was honored for “Outstanding Talk Show Host.”

New York Times: Newsday is being picky about its advertising. It has rejected ads from Verizon, which is a direct competitor of the paper’s parent company, Cablevision.

Folio: Despite the economy, more magazines are launching.

Mediaweek: As they struggle to find new ways to sell ads, magazines are trying lots of new cover ad gimmicks.

Examiner: WCBS anchor Chris Wragge has climbed from weeknight sports anchor to part of the main anchor team at 5 and 11 p.m.

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For its second annual people’s choice EWwy Awards, pop culture magazine Entertainment Weekly has partnered with online video Web site Hulu.com.

The EWwy’s are EW‘s answers to television’s Emmy Awards. They give readers a chance to honor their favorite shows and stars, including those perpetually snubbed by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. Starting today, readers can vote online for their faves through EW.com and Hulu. Explained the two:

“EW.com’s EWwys programming will include galleries of photos for the ten categories with links back to Hulu’s EWwys package, as well as a series of posts on the award-winning blog PopWatch with embedded video clips of the nominees. Hulu will feature a thematic ‘carousel’ of videos at www.hulu.com/ewwys2009 with links to vote and review all the nominees at EW.com.”

Here’s how it works: EW readers picked six nominees for each category for online visitors to pick from. For the next week, online visitors will be able to vote in the five comedy series categories (best series, best actor, best actress, best supporting actor, best supporting actress). Voting for the five drama series categories will start next Monday.

The winners will be announced on September 14, with recipients each earning a golden female sheep or “ewe” statuette.

“EW.com has received a hailstorm of emails and blog comments from fans who are outraged that their favorite shows haven’t been recognized,” EW.com’s managing editor Cyndi Stivers said in a statment. “They say, ‘How did the Emmys manage to ignore “True Blood”?’ and ‘What about “Battlestar Galactica”; what about “The Shield?” They had the most amazing final seasons!’ We’re delighted to join forces with Hulu so we can show as well as tell what our audience believes to be TV’s best.”

Read on for the full list of EWwy nominees

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Hearst is looking to capitalize on one of its largest advertising categories with the launch of a beauty-focused site next month.

Today, the publisher of women’s magazines like Cosmopolitan and Redbook announced its newest digital venture: RealBeauty.com. The site will launch next month in beta, with the official launch coming in November with the introduction a feature called “The Beauty Book.”

“Beauty Book” will be a personalized make-over tool that will give users customized beauty and wellness info and tips, as well as product recommendations and advice. The feedback will be based on characteristics submitted by users including age, ethnicity and hair color, as well as certain preferences for products and the like. Users can then carry their Beauty Book over to other Hearst Web sites as well as social networking sites like Facebook.

The site’s founding editor Nicole Stagg said the idea arose out of women’s desire to find a “highly personalized beauty site that covers all aspects of beauty.”

Hearst already owns a number of online properties like shopping community Kaboodle, RealAge and Delish. And Hearst’s women’s, fashion and beauty and teen networks rank in the top 10 of all ad-focused sites in those categories, according to ComScore.

Full release and more details about RealBeauty.com after the jump

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We’ve been keeping an eye on Stars & Stripes‘ coverage of The Rendon Group, a private public relations company that profiled reporters who requested embeds with the military in Afghanistan. Now, they report that the Pentagon has canceled its $1.5 million contract with the company.

In an article on Monday, the military publication reported that U.S. public affairs specialists in Afghanistan revealed that all reporters were profiled by Rendon prior to being embedded. But there were mixed reports all week as to whether or not journalists had been denied an embed based on their previous coverage.

On Friday, Stars & Stripes reported that the background reports were “used by military officials to deny disfavored reporters access to American fighting units or otherwise influence their coverage as recently as 2008.” But other military officials are still denying that report.

As PRNewser reports even after news of the contract cancellation came out, one military spokesperson said in NPR interview that the practice of denying reporters embed positions based on their background reports was “flat out incorrect.”

Update: New York public radio station WNYC points us to an August 7 interview on its “On The Media” program. During the interview, Matt Mabe, a journalist and soldier in the U.S. Army, revealed the military’s use of background checks:

“The military is now commissioning private companies to research, profile and make assessments about reporters’ previous military coverage. They rate it using pie charts and graphs…and finish it off with a summary evaluation, which to me carries an almost Orwellian overtone.

“For example, we have a reporter on the ground right now, and his assessment reads like this: ‘Given his neutral to positive sentiment typical in his narrative reporting, as well as the characterization of his media outlet, which is politically center right, one may expect this reporter to produce coverage that is, at the least, neutral in sentiment and representative of the military point of view of events, if not neutral to positive.’

“Now, the idea here is to figure out the best place to put them or prevent them from embedding at all. And, in my opinion, this just counters the ideals that we who wear the uniform are expected to represent.”

Listen to the whole interview here:

PRNewser: Pentagon Cancels Rendon Contract Over Profiling Flap

Earlier: An Embedded Reporters’ Thoughts On His Own Background Report

FishbowlLA editor Tina Dupuy has a very personal story about seeking payment from publications.

Dupuy, a blogger and freelancer, submitted an unsolicited op-ed to the Tampa Tribune. The paper published it, without telling her or working out any terms of payment. When Dupuy learned of the article’s publication, she wrote them an email. She received a response that basically said she was just lucky they published it at all.

In response, Dupuy sent an invoice — for a measly $75 — and created the YouTube video above. We’re awaiting word on whether she receives payment. We’ll keep you posted!

In the meantime, tell us: has this ever happened to you?

FishbowlLA: Self-Pimp: FBLA Editor Takes on Tampa Tribune Editor

The Audit Bureau of Circulations released its important report for the first half of the year today, and the findings are not that surprising: total paid and verified circulation, single-copy sales and verified subscriptions are down overall.

However, the ABC said total paid subscriptions were basically flat in the past year. Compared to historical numbers, between the December 2007 and December 2008 reports, paid and verified circ was flat and single-copy sales were down 11.12 percent. Between June 2007 and June 2008, circulation was unchanged and single-copy sales declined 6.34 percent.

Single-copy sales were down the most in this report — more than 12 percent — with almost all of the top 25 top sellers suffering a decline. The biggest newsstand seller, Cosmopolitan, saw a 7.8 drop, although Woman’s Day, OK!, Family Circle and In Style saw the biggest declines in single-copy sales among the top 25, with each logging a more than 20 percent drop.

Meanwhile, the consumer magazines that saw the biggest newsstand growth included Mother Earth News, Women’s Health, Ebony, GQ, Essence, Sporting News, Time, National Geographic International, Real Simple and Runner’s World.

Despite its recent financial challenges, Reader’s Digest remained one of the top 25 consumer magazines in regards to paid and verified subscriptions, along with AARP, which saw a 400 percent jump in subscriptions.

We’ve also been tracking epicurean magazine Saveur since sitting down with its publisher Merri Lee Kingsly last week. Today, Kingsly told us the magazine’s circ is up 4.3 percent, while its epicurean competitors, Food & Wine, Gourmet and Bon Appetit have all seen double-digit declines.

Related: So What Do You Do, Merri Lee Kingsly, Publisher of Saveur?

Also: Listen to Fishbowl NY editor Amanda Ernst talk about Kingsly, Saveur and the upcoming ABC numbers on Friday’s podcast.

It might be the last day of August and the beginning of the last week of summer, but you would never know it from the amount of media news that’s surfaced today.

On the mediabistro.com Morning Media Menu podcast, hosts Jason Boog of GalleyCat and AgencySpy‘s Matt Van Hoven had many headlines to talk about, starting with news reported by Stars & Stripes and PRNewser that the Pentagon had canceled its contract with the Rendon Group, a PR company responsible for doing background checks on reporters set to embed with the military. The question remains: did these checks lead to certain journalists getting their embed requests denied?

Matt and Jason also discussed a story on AgencySpy about car company Chrysler steering business away from its advertising agency of record, BBDO. Also in the news, former first daughter Jenna Bush Hager joins the “Today” show and some new magazines are launching.

You can listen to all the past podcasts at BlogTalkRadio.com/mediabistro and call in at 646-929-0321.

Two public media companies who have made big money from cartoons announced a huge deal today.

The Walt Disney Co. (DIS) announced today that it will acquire Marvel Entertainment Inc. (MVL) — including its portfolio of more than 5,000 characters — for $4 billion in stock and cash. Marvel shareholders will receive $30 in cash per share plus about 0.745 in Disney shares, the companies said.

In a conference call about the deal this morning, Disney CEO Robert Iger said the deal would help build shareholder value and strengthen Disney’s position worldwide. Iger said the deal should be completed by the end of 2009.

Under the terms of the deal, Marvel CEO Ike Perlmutter will continue to oversee his company’s properties and will work with Disney to integrate the brands into the new company.

Full release after the jump

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If you’ve been wondering what former President George W. Bush‘s daughters have been up to, look no further than morning TV.

Jenna Bush Hager will soon be starting a gig as a correspondent for NBC‘s “Today” show. Although the 27-year-old is currently a teacher in Baltimore, she will be working part time at her school while working part time out of NBC’s Washington, D.C. bureau to produce once monthly stories for the morning show.

Hager was sought out by “Today” executive producer Jim Bell, who told the Associated Press that she had a “natural presence” on air during previous “Today” show appearances.

In fact, during an appearance in April 2008 — the video’s below — she seems very comfortable being interviewed and being on camera. But will that translate into being a good reporter?

We’ll find out when Hager files her first report, which will most likely focus on education, next month.

Former first daughter Jenna Bush joins Today — Associated Press

Earlier: Jenna Bush Locked Out

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