Media News

Click here to receive mediabistro.com's Morning Media Newsfeed via email.

USA Today Names David Callaway Its New Editor In Chief (USA Today)
USA Today named David Callaway its new editor in chief Tuesday, ending a seven-month search that began when former editor John Hillkirk stepped down to head the paper's investigative team late last year. Gannett Blog Callaway, 48, joins MarketWatch founder Larry Kramer, who was named USA Today's publisher in May. Poynter / MediaWire Callaway has been editor in chief of MarketWatch for nine years and was executive editor and managing editor before that. FishbowlNY Prior to that he was a columnist with the Boston Herald. HuffPost Callaway will start the job later in July, according to the paper. WSJ In recent years, MarketWatch, with 17 million unique users, has taken various top honors among large business-focused websites from Editor & Publisher, Media Week, the Society of American Business Editors and Writers, and other publications and organizations. The Associated Press Callaway will take over USA Today's content strategy at a time when the newspaper is turning its focus toward digital products such as mobile news applications for tablet computers and smartphones. Like other newspapers, USA Today has been trying to increase revenue from its digital operations as print circulation declines. NYT / Media Decoder The newspaper's circulation has declined from 2.295 million readers in 2007 to 1.8 million this year, according to data tracked by the Audit Bureau of Circulations. While USA Today remains the nation's largest newspaper in terms of print circulation, The Wall Street Journal surpassed USA Today in March to become the largest daily newspaper when print and digital circulation were combined.

Confidence In TV News At All-Time Low (Politico / Dylan Byers On Media)
Americans' confidence in television news has hit an all-time low, according to a new survey by Gallup. Twenty-one percent of the 1,004 adults polled said they had "a great deal" or "a lot" of confidence in television news media, continuing a steady decline from the 46 percent who expressed confidence in television media in 1993. Mediaite In 2011, 27 percent of respondents said that they had confidence in television news -- a slight uptick from 2007-2010. JimRomenesko.com Newspapers do slightly better than TV in the confidence survey, although papers slipped too -- from 25 percent expressing a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in them this year versus 28 percent last year. In 1979, 51 percent expressed confidence in newspapers. Gallup The full results of the survey.

Next Issue's 'Hulu For Magazines' Hits The iPad (Time / Techland)
Back in April, a company called Next Issue Media launched its digital-magazine app. A joint venture of five big publishers -- Condé Nast, Hearst, Meredith, News Corp and Time's owner, Time Inc. -- it bundled a bunch of famous publications into a single app with all-you-can-read pricing. If nothing else, it was an intriguing idea. But at the time, it was only available for Android tablets running Android 3.0, and so my reaction was, in large part, "this'll get more interesting once it's on the iPad." And now it is. paidContent With the app, users can read popular magazines like People, Vogue, The New Yorker and Real Simple for a flat monthly fee. AppNewser The basic plan for $9.99 a month includes access to Traveler, Esquire, Real Simple, and Wired, among many others. The premium level membership, which costs $14.99 a month, adds access to weekly magazines including The New Yorker, People and Sports Illustrated. SocialTimes Single subscriptions range between $1.99 and $9.99 per month; individual issues cost between $2.49 and $5.99 per issue. FishbowlNY As time goes by, Next Issue will add more titles, but for now, whether people subscribe to this service is questionable. GigaOM But as appealing as it might be for magazine junkies, one of the biggest risks for Next Issue is that its distribution model doesn't really fit with the way growing numbers of people consume content. For them, the newsstand is already an anachronism.

No Deal: DirecTV Loses Viacom's Channels As Carriage Talks Break Down (Deadline New York)
DirecTV's 20 million customers lost Viacom's 17 channels -- including Nickelodeon, MTV, and Comedy Central -- at about 11:50 p.m. ET Tuesday. Now the finger-pointing is underway. NYT / Media Decoder On Monday night and into Tuesday morning, the dispute was publicized by both sides, first by Viacom, which warned DirecTV customers that they could lose access to Nickelodeon, MTV, Comedy Central and its other cable channels early Wednesday morning because contract talks with DirecTV had "reached an impasse." DirecTV, in turn, said in a statement that it had offered Viacom "increased fees for their networks going forward; we just can't afford the extreme increases they are asking for." Multichannel News DirecTV claims Viacom is asking for a 30 percent rate increase -- amounting to an extra $1 billion in carriage fees -- while Viacom says it is asking for only "a couple pennies" more per subscriber per day. THR The channels yanked from the satellite TV giant's lineup include Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, MTV, BET, VH1, CMT, Logo, Spike, TV Land, MTV2, VH1 Classic, Palladia, Nick Jr., NickToons and TeenNick, in addition to several HD counterparts. Bloomberg The standoff marks the latest fee tussle between a pay-TV provider and program supplier. Such fights have blacked out millions of subscribers in recent years, including 14 million Dish Network Corp. customers who lost access to AMC Networks Inc. last month.

Donald Newhouse: We're Not Selling The Times-Picayune (JimRomenesko.com)
Advance Publications president Donald E. Newhouse has responded to the letter signed by Wynton Marsalis, Archie Manning, James Carville and other New Orleans notables, asking the 22 members of the Newhouse family to sell The Times-Picayune. "We have read the letter with great respect and concern," says Newhouse. "Advance Publications has no intention of selling The Times-Picayune." Poynter / MediaWire Both NOLA.com and Gambit say the group has lined up a buyer for the paper, citing an unnamed source. Politico / Dylan Byers On Media Late last week, the Archdiocese of New Orleans, the presidents of Tulane, Xavier, and Loyola universities, jazz great Wynton Marsalis, and political/media power couples James Carville and Mary Matalin and Steve and Cokie Roberts co-signed a letter on behalf of the Times-Picayune Citizens' Group pleading with Newhouse to sell the struggling paper to an owner that was willing to invest in it.

Good Afternoon America Bow Improves On Canceled Revolution (Deadline Hollywood)
The premiere of ABC's nine-week run of Good Afternoon America drew 1.923 million total viewers and 359,000 women ages 18 to 49 on Monday, according to fast national data released Tuesday. B&C GAA improved on The Revolution's average delivery in the 2 p.m. ET timeslot by 40 percent in total viewers and 21 percent in women ages 18 to 49 (ABC canceled The Revolution in April). Washington Post / The TV Column But if you compare the launch of GAA with the launch of The Revolution, it's a different, glass-half-empty-ish story. When it launched in January, The Revolution attracted 2.145 million viewers -- nearly 450,000 of them 18- to 49-year-old chicks. THR / The Live Feed Running a total of nine weeks before Katie Couric's self-titled talk show takes its spot in September, GAA will make a heavy play for eyeballs with appearances from regular GMA staffers Sam Champion, Robin Roberts and George Stephanopoulos. The Associated Press ABC brought its morning news franchise to the afternoon on Monday, but its producers might want to hold on to their alarm clocks.

Breaking: Some Journalists Forced To Work On Hamster Wheels (The New Republic)
Nothing gets journalists chattering like a debate about themselves, so I suppose it shouldn't be a surprise that my post Monday about the fixation many news outlets have with being first attracted some notice. Politico / Dylan Byers On Media If we can reach across the aisle here, I'm sure we can find some common ground.

Steven Thrasher Named National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association Journalist Of The Year (Village Voice / Runnin' Scared)
The Voice's Steven Thrasher has been named the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association journalist of the year. FishbowlDC Soon-to-be Buzzfeed senior political writer Chris Geidner and Metro Weekly co-publisher Sean Bugg also received awards.

Zuckerberg's New Friend (NY Post / Sun Valley Chronicles)
With Facebook stepping up its courtship of the media business, the buzz is building that Mark Zuckerberg is eyeing Hulu chief Jason Kilar for a top job. AllFacebook Interestingly enough, Kilar recently declined Yahoo!'s request to bring him on as CEO.

NBC Names Pearlena Igbokwe New Drama Head (THR)
NBC has found its new executive vice president of drama programming. A day after Laura Lancaster departed the post, NBC Tuesday named Pearlena Igbokwe as her replacement, effective immediately. TheWrap At Showtime, Igbokwe was involved in hit series such as Dexter and Nurse Jackie. She also developed the pilot for the upcoming Showtime series Masters of Sex, which will star Michael Sheen. B&C In her new role, Igbokwe will oversee the development of all NBC dramas, reporting to NBC Entertainment president Jennifer Salke. FishbowlLA She will be reunited with her old boss Bob Greenblatt, who also jumped ship from Showtime to NBC.

Hyperlocal News Sites Mature As Founders Of Baristanet, Dallas South News Move On (Poynter)
In as many months, two pioneers of hyperlocal news websites have decided to leave those sites for jobs in the public sector.

Time Publisher Kim Kelleher Departs For Say Media (TheWrap / Media Alley)
Time magazine's worldwide publisher Kim Kelleher is leaving Time Inc. to become president of Say Media. FishbowlNY Kelleher, worldwide publisher of Time and Ad Age's publisher of the year in 2011, is leaving the magazine to become president of Say Media, a San Francisco-based blog network that includes sites such as XOJane and ReadWriteWeb. Adweek The hire is a big one for Say Media, which was founded in 2005. Last year, the site made some larger acquisitions buying the tech blog ReadWriteWeb and home design site Remodelista. TechCrunch Kelleher's resume also includes working as vice president and publisher for Sports Illustrated (which is how she started at Time), as well as holding that same title at Self Magazine and Golf For Women. WWD / Memo Pad It's unclear when she'll depart Time but Kelleher is expected to join Say Media in September.

Saving Auntie: Meet The BBC's New Boss (CJR / Behind The News)
Last Wednesday, the BBC announced the appointment of longtime employee George Entwistle to the corporation's top post of director general. He took over immediately from Mark Thompson, the man who weathered Russell Brand's phone pranks and oversaw the opening of a new office in Salford, in the north of England.

Facebook Now Displays Up To 10 Ads On A Single Page (Inside Facebook)
Facebook is testing a way to show users up to 10 display ads on a single page -- up from the former maximum of seven per page. We've seen 10 ads appear on permalink pages for posts that have a large number of comments. AllFacebook Of course, this all comes on the heels of Facebook's poor post-initial public offering reception. The company has been trying several ways to increase revenue, and this could be another avenue for Facebook to show that it can make money.

Foursquare Helps Magazine And Radio Station Sell Ads (Adweek)
Lifestyle magazine Urbanite and public radio station WTMD, each local entities in Baltimore, say Foursquare helps sell traditional advertising. The media brands have teamed up to create a contest-based geosocial game dubbed "The Great Baltimore Check-In," which they are packaging with print ads, website promotions and radio plugs. It's an unusual marriage of mobile check-ins and offline ad units.