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CBS News Fires Back At 'Perverse Hobby' Of 'Ridiculous' Collapse Predictions (Mediaite)
The Daily Beast's Rebecca Dana wrote Wednesday about the "implosion" and "collapse" at CBS News, focusing on a variety of issues -- from ratings to business cards. CBS News has fired back. "Predictions of CBS News' collapse is a perverse hobby for some writers and they are tiresome, unoriginal and always wrong," a CBS News spokesperson said. "And in this case even the article's purported evidence of decline is a ridiculous series of outright fabrications and distortions." One area of evidence in the article relates to business cards. "The claim that nobody at News has been able to get their business cards because someone was cut is nonsense." Daily Beast: Dana wrote: "The person who handled ordering business cards vanished, and staffers haven't been able to get them since. Cell phone services are blocked on company-provided BlackBerrys for many producers, who are now encouraged to communicate by text. The communication between CBS brass, including news division president Sean McManus, and their staff has all but vanished."

Aol, Google Extend Search Partnership (Mediaweek)
Google and Aol have agreed to stay search partners for the next five years. Google will continue to power Aol's natural and paid search results, with the two companies sharing in the associated ad revenue. Plus, as part of the new pact, Aol has agreed to distribute its content on YouTube, Google's massive video destination. In addition, Google will now power search on Aol's mobile properties.

National Journal Undergoing Business And Editorial 'Transformation' (Folio:)
Atlantic Media's National Journal Group has garnered headlines from media outlets across the country in recent weeks because of the big names it has been hiring. The most recent among them was the appointment of Newsweek senior editor and national economic correspondent Michael Hirsh as chief correspondent. But the National Journal's slew of recent hires goes beyond simple staffing up.

Campaign Kickoff (Time)
Time managing editor Richard Stengel took the time to inform readers of the magazine's upcoming game plan for tackling the campaign season, which will include extensive coverage online and in print from a stable of reporters and photographers. Time will also launch Time-CNN election polls, which act as "a weekly gauge of key races that we will serve up between now and the election."

2010 Fall Fashion Magazine Weigh-In (TheWrap)
Fall fashion magazines are getting back into pre-recession shape. The total weight was 16.58 pounds, up from 15.34 last year. Vogue's September issue was the heaviest, at 2.89 pounds, and turned in both the most total pages (726) and ad pages (492). It was a big turnaround for Anna Wintour's tome, at least compared to 2009, when Vogue's 584 pages (447 ad pages) weighed 2.39 pounds.

Forbes Is Going To Start Digging Up Dirt On Everyone On Its Billionaires List (BI)
It's been a month since Forbes.com launched a new landing page for its blogs, to which every editorial staffer and a growing number of external writers now contribute. As part of that expansion, Forbes.com has recruited a handful of freelance journalists to blog about the people on its annual World's Billionaires List, with news, analysis and, of course, inside dirt, say sources familiar with the plans.

Cycle News Ceases Publication (minOnline)
The weekly source of news, profiles and reviews around the competitive motorcycle racing field, Cycle News, has ceased publishing with this week's issue, a company source confirmed. According to reports, editor in chief Paul Carruthers had been laid off recently and the staff was informed of the closure this week. At its site, the weekly has not posted public mention of the closure and is still advertising subscriptions.

Analyst: Paywall Subscribers Worth A Quarter Of Print Readers (paidContent)
Even if newspapers migrate every print reader to paying online, they will still face big losses, according to one analyst. Annual income per paywall subscriber on TheTimes.co.uk and WSJ.com is just a quarter that from subscribers to print editions, Enders Analysis' Benedict Evans observes. Switching off the presses, after a hypothetical future print-to-digital tipping point, might save newspapers 25 percent of their total costs, but this is not enough to make up the gap from the smaller online income.

Newsweek's Big Name Economics Editor Is Headed To Yahoo Finance (BI)
Dan Gross, Newsweek's economics editor, is leaving the magazine. He's headed to Yahoo Finance. Yahoo has been on something of an editorial hiring spree this year, ramping up its original content efforts. Yahoo would not confirm what his official title will be. Gross declined to comment. He also writes Slate's twice-weekly "Moneybox" column.

Investigative Shortfall (AJR)
Many news outlets are doing far less accountability reporting than in the past, bad news indeed for the public. New nonprofit investigative ventures have emerged, but they can't pick up the slack by themselves. Shrinking rosters represent a two-front assault on investigative reporting. Investigations take time and with much smaller staffs doing much more work in a multimedia era, it becomes harder to spring reporters from their day jobs to tackle important but labor-intensive probes.

How Publishers Are Making News More Personal (eMedia Vitals)
Publishers are finding new and better ways to personalize content for audiences that increasingly are looking for information that's most relevant to them. Personalized aggregation tools, which have existed on the web for years, are now becoming more prominent on new digital platforms. News organizations such as The Los Angeles Times continue to experiment with personalization, using customization as both a content and advertising initiative.

Martha Stewart Wants To Take Barbara Walters' Place As Next Important Interviewer (WaPo)
Martha Stewart, whose talk/crafts show is moving to cable's Hallmark Channel in two weeks, coinciding with the launch of her prime-time interview specials for that network, wants to become the new Important Interviewer in the television firmament. "My favorite interviewers are Larry King [and] Barbara Walters, both of whom are kind of retiring," Stewart said in a conference call Wednesday.

Fine Cooking To Launch Holiday Cooking iPad App (FishbowlNY)
Fine Cooking magazine is launching an iPad app to help readers brainstorm and prepare their holiday meals. The app will go live on November 1 and will be available until January 31. The Holiday Cooking app will include recipes and tips for holiday entertaining, supported by an array of images and slideshows. And the app is just as appealing to advertisers -- they have the option of taking out full page, interactive ads on the app that can boast video components as well.

Judge Rules News Station Is Immune From 'Cyber Libel' Resulting From Commenters (MediaPost)
A federal court has dismissed news anchor Toni Miles' claim that her former employer, Raycom Media's WLOX-TV, committed "cyber libel" by allowing readers to post unfiltered comments about her. U.S. District Court Judge Louis Guirola, Jr., in the Southern District of Mississippi ruled that the federal Communications Decency Act immunized the news station from liability for readers' posts.

News Analysis: The Field Of Dreams For Radio (TMM)
Call it the "Field of Dreams" mandate -- radio's got a bold plan for the future. Ask the federal government to make sure cell phones can tune into the radio dial. Radio's big idea? If your phone can tune in, you'll listen. Problem is, the plan assumes you want a disc jockey to pick your music.