PR, Perfected: Pitching Bloggers
Pitching An Agent: 'Looking For Exceptional Voices'
Hey, How'd You Build a Vibrant Digital Brand, Larry Burstein, Publisher, New York Media?
So What Do You Do, Greg Gutfeld, Host, Red Eye?
How to Pitch: Preservation
How to Pitch: Relish

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As Dykstra and Doubledown Wage War, Overtime Watches From the Sidelines (Folio:)
As the bitter legal dispute between Lenny Dykstra and Doubledown Media plays out in a federal court, a publishing company with its own legal troubles may eventually insert itself into the narrative. Watching this case with a keen interest is Maven Media Group, publisher of its own financially-challenged magazine for professional athletes, the 35,000-circ Overtime.

Vibe to Cut Rate Base, Hike Cover Price (Mediaweek)
Vibe, which along with other music titles has seen its ad pages plummet in recent months, will cut its rate base to 800,000 from 850,000 while raising its cover price to $4.99 from $3.99 in the second half of '08. Steve Aaron, CEO of parent company Vibe Media Group, said Vibe tested the higher price this past winter and saw no sales falloff.

'Deafening' Silence in on Military Analyst Story (Politico)
Even with countless media outlets available, a Sunday New York Times cover story could always be counted on to send a jolt through the TV news cycle. But apparently that's no longer the case. David Barstow's 7,600-word investigation of the Pentagon's military analyst program — whereby ex-military talking heads parroted Defense Department talking points on the air — has been noticeably absent from the airwaves.

MySpace: Going Places (BusinessWeek)
MySpace is moving into your space. Users of the social network will soon be able to transport their MySpace profile pages to sites across the Web, including the portal Yahoo, global shopping site eBay, and microblogging service Twitter. "Today, MySpace no longer operates as an autonomous island on the Internet," company co-founder Chris DeWolfe said on a conference call May 8.

Wall Street Vet Alexis Glick Is Exactly What Fox Business Needs (Marketwatch)
Jon Friedman: Glick's high-octane approach is exactly what the seven-month-old Fox Business Network, now available in 35 million homes, needs. That's why Fox Business assigned her to cover events as different as the Davos conference in Switzerland and the Super Bowl. Her appeal is a big part of Fox Business' long-term strategy to convince viewers and advertisers that it's superior to rivals.

Since When Does Tim Russert Get to Tell Us the Election Is Over? (Slate)
Jack Shafer: Were the latest election returns so conclusive that the TV correspondents couldn't have arrived at the same conclusion days or weeks ago? It's not as if Obama's landslide in North Carolina and Clinton's Indiana squeaker sent a flood of superdelegates to the game-ending, presumptive, and indisputably victorious Obama.

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Ryan Seacrest in Talks to Replace Larry King (FishbowlLA)
Sources have confirmed that Ryan Seacrest is in talks with CNN to shimmy into Larry King's chair. Now "talks" can mean a lot of things, and our source also says, "I don't think it's going to happen." Why? Well, for one thing Ryan is currently the host of... everything. E! News, American Idol, a popular KIIS-FM radio show — not to mention a producer.

Microsoft Reportedly Disbands Yahoo Slate (LAT)
Microsoft Corp. continued to distance itself from Yahoo Corp. on Thursday, telling the people it had lined up to nominate to the board as part of a prospective hostile takeover battle that their services were no longer needed, according to a person familiar with the conversations. BusinessWeek: Inside Microsoft's war against Google.

Nina Garcia to Marie Claire? (P6)
Project Runway isn't alone in switching allegiance from Elle to Marie Claire. One of the show's three judges, Nina Garcia , who was fashion director at Elle until recently, is said to be going to Marie Claire, too. The show's winning models and designers will now be featured in the Hearst title rather than Elle. A Marie Claire rep said: "We have no personnel announcements at this time." FashionWeekDaily: Currently, Marie Claire's fashion department is directed by Tracy Taylor, but it appears that Taylor will be leaving the magazine. Portfolio: If Garcia does land at Marie Claire sooner than later, it presents quite a quandary for Elle, which has seen a revival in its circulation and advertising performance since the show became a hit.

Months of Talks End in New Contract for ABC's President (NYT)
The Walt Disney Company signed the president of ABC, Stephen McPherson, to a new contract, signaling confidence in the executive's ability to deliver new hits to succeed workhorses like Grey's Anatomy. The agreement, which was completed Thursday after months of negotiations, locks up one of Hollywood's most highly regarded creative developers for an unspecified number of years.

Study of Daily Show: It's a lot like O'Reilly (AP)
A journalism think tank studying The Daily Show doesn't believe many people get their news from Jon Stewart — because otherwise they wouldn't get the jokes. The Project for Excellence in Journalism also said it was surprised at how much the Comedy Central late-night program resembles The O'Reilly Factor, Hardball, and other cable news shows in content.

Hachette Cuts 15 From Digital (WWD)
Roughly 15 editorial jobs were cut from Hachette digital's staff of about 100, though a company spokeswoman claimed the positions would eventually be refilled with hires possessing a "new skill set." At least two of the cuts came from Ellegirl.com, which lived on after the magazine's demise in 2006: fashion editor Joyann King and senior editor Holly Siegel, according to sources.

Time Honors 100 Influentials (NYP)
The hottest spot in town on the media scene was the Time 100 party last night at Jazz at Lincoln Center to honor the 100 people that the mag deems the world's most influential. Somewhere between 30 and 40 honorees were expected to be on hand, which meant that the majority of those who were named didn't attend the black-tie bash. FishbowlNY: The Time 100 in real time.

Condé Shuffles Gourmet, Allure Publishers (Mediaweek)
In Condé Nast's second string of publisher changes this year, Tom Hartman, VP, publisher, Gourmet, will move to over the Condé Nast Media Group as VP, corporate sales, reporting to Lou Cona, senior VP at the Media Group. Nancy Berger, currently VP, publisher of Allure, will succeed Hartman as VP, publisher, Gourmet.

TV's New 'Money Honey' (USN&WR)
Washington's political and financial biggies are talking ABC's Bianna Golodryga up big time. "She's smoking," says an administration official. Golodryga used to be with CNBC, home to the original money honey, Maria Bartiromo. When Bartiromo outgrew the sexist title, others like Erin Burnett were set up as successors, but none have won the Washington kudos like Golodryga.

Washingtonpost.com to Syndicate TechCrunch (Portfolio)
You can't believe everything you read on TechCrunch... but would you believe it if you read the same thing in the Washington Post? The venerable D.C. daily, which led all newspapers with six Pulitzer Prizes this year, has made a deal to syndicate content from the tech-industry news site on WashingtonPost.com, becoming the first news site to do so.

Tax Gains Lift Tribune Co. to Q1 Profit (Chicago Tribune)
Tribune Co. reported a big first-quarter profit, thanks to a mammoth tax gain the Chicago media concern recorded in connection with the leveraged buyout by which it went private at the end of 2007. Without that artificial boost from the tax change, the company swung to a loss, as interest payments soared to service Tribune's heavy load of buyout-related debt.

Comedy Central to Revive Gong Show (Variety)
Comedy Central is reviving Chuck Barris' The Gong Show, with comedian Dave Attell as host. The cable network has ordered eight half-hour segments of the program, which is set to premiere July 17. The Gong Show will air weekly at 10:30 p.m. in tandem with new reality TV spoof Reality Bites Back at 10.

Can Craigslist Stay Oddball? (BusinessWeek)
Jon Fine: For years, I've been amused to watch craigslist — the stupefyingly successful, mostly free online classified ad site — leave many business types red-faced and exasperated. Here is a homely, text-heavy site that's among America's top 10 in monthly page views and time spent on it. Yet to a remarkable degree it staunchly refuses to turn on any moneymaking machinery.

When Bad Publishers Happen to Good Magazines (Folio:)
Mark Newman: There is nothing that will create a bond between art and editorial quicker than a meddling publisher. Granted, editors and artisans should already be thick as thieves, but when a publisher starts needlessly getting involved in the creative aspects of a magazine, there will be blood!

Danish Cartoon Editor Disillusioned With U.S. Press (NY Sun)
A Danish newspaper editor who received death threats and is facing criminal charges for commissioning cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad is accusing his American counterparts of undermining free speech by failing to republish the cartoons when the issue prompted riots in Muslim countries two years ago.

FishbowlNY: James Bond Tackles Most Difficult Task Yet: Saving Book Publishing
FishbowlDC: Linda Kramer: The FishbowlDC Interview
FishbowlLA: LA Times Lets Lie Stand
TVNewser: CNN Reporter 'Pinned' During Beirut Firefight
GalleyCat: Bookvideos.tv Gets a Makeover
UnBeige: A New York Without Patricia Lancaster
PRNewser: The Jammys: Publicizing an Awards Show
AgencySpy: You Call That a knife?... This Is a knife!
MobileContentToday: Indiana Jones and the Samsung Soul Phone

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How to Pitch: Preservation

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MTV Plans to Increase Its Blending of Ads and Shows (NYT)
Every year at this time, networks pitch advertisers on their programs for the coming year in previews called the upfronts. On Thursday, MTV Networks will sell not only the appeal of its programs but of its commercials as well. In the past year MTV Networks, which is owned by Viacom, has produced a series of commercials for its advertisers that look like regular content.

Web Ad Revenue Up Against 'The Wall' (E&P)
Shackling content behind a pay wall may be off the drawing board — or at least a thing of the past — for most big metros. Yet in smaller markets, some papers have had success online with the paid model while others can't pull the wall down fast enough.

Adults Spend Slightly More Than Half Their Media Hours With TV (AdAge)
The results of a survey on consumer media habits commissioned by the Television Bureau of Advertising, out this week after the study was conducted by Nielsen Media Research, show that adults spend a little over half of their media hours with TV. Meanwhile, a recent survey of marketers and advertisers found many were losing confidence in TV as a medium

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NBC Plans 24-Hour News for the New York Region (NYT)
NBC Universal announced on Wednesday plans to start a 24-hour local cable news channel similar to New York 1. It will de-emphasize the identity of NBC's flagship station, WNBC, Channel 4, rechristening it a "content center" and making it one part of a larger media presence. The new channel will provide the first 24-hour local news coverage of the New York region, including New Jersey and Connecticut. NYP: "We think New York represents such a great news market for us, we want to make a statement about how serious we are about local news," said John Wallace, president of NBC's local media division.

Times Ax Falls on 15 (NYP)
The New York Times is laying off 15 journalists after the company acknowledged it fell short of its goal of getting 100 people to take voluntary buyout packages. The company would not confirm the precise number of layoffs, but in a memo executive editor Bill Keller said the ax would fall on "relatively small numbers" of staffers.

Kaplan to Return to Evening News Next Week (TVNewser)
Insiders say Rick Kaplan's days of double duty are coming to a close. Kaplan has been acting EP of The Early Show since early March. He's also kept his day job as EP of the CBS Evening News With Katie Couric, though the EN staff has done most of the heavy lifting. Kaplan's last day at Early will be this Friday. CBS execs are looking at internal candidates to fill The Early Show EP vacancy.

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FishbowlDC: CNN Posts Indiana/North Carolina Ratings Win
FishbowlNY: Tired of Waiting for Hillary to 'Die,' Slate Takes Aim at Obama
FishbowlLA: Production Moving to New York Because It's (GASP) Cheaper?!
TVNewser: Rove Settles 'McCain Adviser' Question
GalleyCat: Which Author Remains Obscure Because of All the Ink Wasted on Barbara Walters?
UnBeige: Branding Universities Ain't Easy, Boston Demonstrates
PRNewser: Chrysler Draws Criticism for Gas Incentive
AgencySpy: Rethinking The Strategy: Allied Media Corp.
MobileContentToday: Is Facebook Microsoft's Next Takeover Target?