Times Co. Buys About.com for $410 Million (Ad Age)
Jon Fine: The acquisition represents by far the largest bet the Times Co. is placing on ramping up Internet strategies.

Farewell for Gunga Dan (AP)
CBS will televise a one-hour prime-time tribute to Dan Rather the night he leaves the evening news anchor chair, and its producer says it won't avoid the story that has clouded his final days on the job.

White House Stages Its Daily Show (NYT)
Frank Rich: "Jeff Gannon" is now at least the sixth "journalist" to have been a propagandist on the payroll of either the Bush administration or an ally like Talon News while simultaneously appearing in forums that purport to be real news. Salon: Before he was buttering up Bush at White House press conferences, "Jeff Gannon" was doing the GOP's dirty work in attacking Tom Daschle, writes Joe Conason. E&P: Former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer was assured by "Gannon"'s boss that Talon News used GOP slogans only for marketing purposes.

PBS Warns Stations on Film's Possible Indecency Violation (NYT)
PBS has warned its stations that it cannot protect them against indecency sanctions if they broadcast an unedited version of a documentary about the military.

Metro Brings in Mediators (NYP)
Charges of racism and sexism at embattled free daily Metro led to heated internal "focus groups" for workers last week to air their grievances and complaints—and the scandal is beginning to hurt ad sales.

Blog Day Afternoon (National Journal)
Vaughn Ververs: What if political operatives—the types with the resources and connections to do it—started seeing bloggers as the ultimate outlet to go after journalists getting in the way of their agendas? CSM: Blogging, Jerry Lanson has discovered, is about as stimulating as singing to his refrigerator; the echo of his words dissolves quickly into silence.

News Media Grope for the Right Formula (WaPo)
Steven Pearlstein: What we're witnessing is nothing less than a wholesale restructuring of the news business—one that has been evolving slowly for a number of years but is now proceeding at mach speed.

Spears, Us Weekly's Min Feud (AP via USAT)
Britney Spears blasts the mag's running private honeymoon pics. Min fires back: "Coming from a celebrity who sold pictures of both her wedding and her stepdaughter, it's unlikely the issue here is privacy."

Return to Splendor (Texas Monthly)
Katy Vine: Hunter S. Thompson, Larry McMurtry, and others remember Grover Lewis as a pioneering journo, who became one of the best magazine writers of our time.

Who Says Models Can't Read? (Business 2.0)
Greg Lindsay: Two years old and already a front-row institution, the Daily is the glossy, attention-deficit-disorder-friendly house organ of New York Fashion Week.

Reuters Reaching Out to U.S. (Marketwatch)
Jon Friedman: Azhar Rafee is leading Reuters.com's drive to boost its online, mobile-devices, and interactive-television businesses in the United States.

Questions Remain About U.S. Security Record (CPJ)
Joel Campagna: The media was abuzz over ex-CNN exec Eason Jordan's comments, but we've yet to have an honest look at the U.S. military's record on journalist safety in Iraq.

Schieffer Bros. Say New Jobs Won't Strain Bonds (NYT)
The bonds between Bob Schieffer and his brother Tom are about to come into play, as one was nominated to be a CBS anchor and the other to be an ambassador.

Bernstein Back to Fairchild (Page Six)
Jacob Bernstein, the scrappy reporter son of Carl Bernstein and Nora Ephron, is giving New York magazine editor Adam Moss the kiss-off after a year's toil.

NYDN Ed Changes Colors (NYP)
Insiders were chagrined that new editor Michael Cooke was using a color lift from People's cover of Julia Roberts and her six-month-old twins on the wood—or front page—of last Friday's paper.

Will Bob Iger Rise to the Top at Disney? (Economist)
The timing of the succession is working in Mr. Iger's favor. Lately Disney has improved its financial performance and investors are feeling better about the company.

Wenner Rains, Pours (NYDN)
Wenner Media, publisher of Us Weekly, has torpedoed plans by British publisher Richard Desmond to launch a competing celebrity weekly in the fall.

Murdoch Hires McKinsey for Web Strategy (Guardian)
Rupert Murdoch has hired management consultants McKinsey to help come up with a new global Internet strategy for News Corp.

—David S. Hirschman