CNN's YouTube Debate Hype Machine Goes Overboard (CBS Public Eye)
Matthew Felling: I know [last night's] debate is novel and first-of-its-kind and has the potential to advance the political discussion a tad, but CNN owes its viewers more than an eight hour pre-game show during their broadcast day. While they may have been guilty of a "thinly veiled ratings grab" a little over a week ago, [yesterday's] cable news hucksterism insults the most casual viewer.

Online Newspaper Audiences Up 7.7% From 2006 (Mediapost)
More than 59 million people on average — representing 37.3 percent of all active Internet users — visited newspaper Web sites during the second quarter of 2007. This is a 7.7 percent increase over the same period a year ago, according to a custom analysis provided by Nielsen//NetRatings for the Newspaper Association of America. It is level with first-quarter 2007 visits.

Superhero Lawyer Ads Are Ruled Fit for TV (NY Sun)
Citing the First Amendment, an upstate federal judge is allowing lawyers to once again televise gimmicky ads, scrapping the efforts of top state judges who banned much attorney advertising in the name of the dignity of the legal profession.

New Opposition Arises to Dow Jones Deal (WSJ)
Members of the Bancroft family gathered at a Boston hotel yesterday to consider whether to end their more than century-long stewardship of Wall Street Journal publisher Dow Jones & Co. and sell the company to Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. One key family member — Jane MacElree — who had been ambivalent about the sale to Mr. Murdoch told her relatives she was staunchly opposed. Jane MacElree, a family trustee who votes shares totaling about 15% of Dow Jones's total shareholder power.

The 12 Types of Ad Spots (Slate V)
In 1978, Donald Gunn was a creative director for the advertising agency Leo Burnett. Though his position implied expertise, Gunn felt he was often just throwing darts — relying on inspiration and luck (instead of proven formulas) to make great ads. So, he decided to inject some analytical rigor into the process: He took a yearlong sabbatical, studied the best TV ads he could find, and looked for elemental patterns. After much research, Gunn determined that nearly all good ads fall into one of 12 categories.

ABC Greenlights Newlyweds Reality Show (Variety)
Jay Blumenfield and Tony Marsh of the Jay and Tony Show are executive producing the tentatively titled program, which pits seven recently hitched couples against each other in competition for an ever-escalating cash prize. Couples will engage in various challenges designed to test their relationships, with one husband and wife voted off each week.

Making Money From Online Video (ABC News)
Amateur video producers shoot video, edit, and submit it to one of these websites, which generally make money through advertising. (Some ads are played immediately before or after the main clip, while others appear on the surrounding Web page.) Payments to producers are modest — around $4 per thousand views or $1 per click or per view. Most videos get less than a thousand views. The profits are generally small, but the possibility of creating the rare true "hit" with a million or more views keeps producers coming back.

Wholesalers Are Not Dying — They Are Committing Suicide (Mr. Magazine)
Samir Husni: It is amazing that the only publisher who revived single handedly the single copy sales, Bauer Publications, is now forced to kill what would have been their fourth weekly because of the "single copy market climate." In the good old days, magazines that sell are rewarded with better placement and good publicity. The wholesalers, in their recent attempt to force Bauer to increase the cover prices of their magazines, are gasping for their last breath of air.

Playboy, Others Refuse to Learn From History (AdAge)
Al Ries: Playboy is digitizing its entire archive. All 636 issues of the magazine will be rendered page-by-page on six disks, one for each decade. Price: $100 per disk. What a mistake. Every time a new medium arrives, older media players think, "What an opportunity to extend our franchise." So magazines and newspapers and radio and TV outlets are jumping all over themselves to digitize their brands.

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