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McClatchy Sells 4 Former Knight Papers for $1B to MediaNews (AP)
The deal announced late Wednesday will strengthen MediaNews' presence in northern California, where it already owns several papers in the San Francisco Bay Area. MediaNews is a privately held company based in Denver and run by William Dean Singleton. E&P: Complex sale suggests McClatchy deals to come. Reuters: McClatchy gets Dept. of Justice information request on Knight deal. LAT: The deal has two of Singleton's hallmarks. It allows him to save money by combining resources at newspapers that are close to each other, and it has the potential to soften the competition from a well-financed neighbor. NYT: The acquisition is expected to help cement Singleton's reputation as a dealmaker who likes to take risks and wants to raise his public profile.

Showtime at the White House (WaPo)
Ari Fleischer: Gone are the days when this daily session was a serious affair. Instead, the public is now treated to a spectacle in which the media do their best to pressure the White House ... into admitting that much of what the president is doing is wrong, and the White House pushes back. NYT: Bush hires a loyal critic as a spokesman. CJR Daily: Snow's first test as press secretary will be facing off against bloggers.

'I Genuinely Believed Each Word Was My Own' (AP)
Teenage author Kaavya Viswanathan said she was shocked to see so many similarities between her acclaimed first book and two novels by Megan McCafferty and maintained they were unintentional. She said she hopes McCafferty can forgive her. Slate: Plagiarists do it because they can, writes Jack Shafer.

Rove Testifies Again in Plame Leak Case (NYT)
The senior counselor to President Bush testified for several hours yesterday before the federal grand jury in the C.I.A. leak case in an appearance that was a sign of renewed attention by the special prosecutor in a matter that has lingered unresolved for months.

Seventeen Goes Deluxe (WWD)
The failure of the teen glossy's reality series to earn a second season on MTV hasn't diminished the title's appetite for brand extensions. This fall, Hearst will publish the first installment of Deluxe, a Seventeen supplement about West Coast luxury fashion.

Times Co. Seeks Expert Help to Deal With Shareholder Crisis (NYP)
Facing shareholder dissent and getting flak for bloated executive pay deals, The New York Times Co. is frantically searching for crisis PR experts as the company gears up for a public battle over the future of the newspaper giant. Exactly what sort of assault the company might be in for is not yet clear.

Post-Stern, CBS Manages to Hold Its Own (LAT)
The broadcasting giant reported first-quarter profit rose slightly as a strong performance by the television and billboard advertising divisions was offset by its slumping radio unit. The numbers mark the first time CBS had released quarterly earnings as a stand-alone company. NYP: CBS mulling radio station sales.

Disney and CBS Explore Univision Deal (NYT)
Several big media companies, including the Walt Disney Company and CBS, have held meetings with Univision's management over the last week about making a takeover offer. Univision, the largest Spanish-language television and radio company in the nation, put itself up for auction in February.

Warner Bros. TV Unit Starts Producing a Cable Show (NYT)
Warner Brothers Television, the biggest producer of prime-time series for broadcast networks over the last two decades, is creating a unit to generate series specifically for cable TV networks. The longtime head of the studio, Peter Roth, will also lead the unit.

New CW Network Screwing the Viewers (LA Weekly)
Nikki Finke: The CW cherry-picked the two netlets' affiliates in major and minor TV markets around the country. That leaves those orphaned WB and UPN stations to subsist on syndicated shows, which are programming's nutritional equivalent of pork rinds.

The Frustrating Mission of a Foreign Correspondent in China (Public Eye)
CBS correspondent Barry Petersen noted in a story about the censorship, "In China, what you see is what you get, and what you get is often not the full story." RSF via IFEX: Chinese authorities accused of kidnapping blogger.

On 10th Anniversary, Fox News Sunday 'Clearly a Player,' Says Host (USAT)
This year, FNS has averaged 1.4 million viewers, and an additional 725,000 tune into a rebroadcast on Fox News Channel, compared with 4 million for Meet the Press, 3 million for Face the Nation and 2.6 million for This Week.

Media Overdrive on Duke Lacrosse Rape Scandal? (NY Press)
Russ Smith: The real reason for the Duke University onslaught is because the media, mostly comprised of upper middle-class white men and women, are feeling the financial squeeze as prestigious universities, such as Duke, raise their tuitions, pricing out their academically qualified offspring.

Povich Vows to Fight Harassment Suit (NYDN)
Maury Povich said yesterday he would fight the $100 million lawsuit that threatens to tarnish his storybook marriage to Connie Chung — but never denied the claim that he cheated on her with a staffer. "Because this matter is in litigation, the attorneys have advised me not to comment," Povich said.

Sharon Stone Wins Damages From Daily Mail for Gossip Item (Guardian)
The British newspaper issued a formal apology and agreed to pay "substantial" damages to the actress over allegations that she left her son in a car while she had a late-night dinner.