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Bonnie Fuller Out at AMI, Will Announce New Media Venture Soon (FishbowlNY)
Bonnie Fuller, no longer queen bee at American Media Inc., has something up her sleeve. "My next venture will be in media," she said. "I really can't give you any details ... but there's something specific I want to do." She'll announce the new endeavor "shortly." She called the decision to leave "100 percent" hers, adding that she was "thinking about the next stage in life and the new, exciting adventure I'll pursue." NYP: Fuller's contract was set to expire March 31, 2009, but relations between Fuller and American Media CEO David Pecker have been frosty for a while. Portfolio: Fuller says she doesn't think the mania for celebrity news that AMI hired her to exploit — and whose blossoming can arguably be traced to her successful reimagination of Us Weekly — is anywhere near burning out. WWD: Speculation in the industry is that Fuller has been looking for a new gig for some time, leaving her office frequently to take meetings and even trying to lobby television honchos for a job. Fuller, however, said she was "very busy" at AMI in recent months, overseeing the covers each week at Star and redesigning Fit Pregnancy and Country Weekly.

Carl Icahn Considering Attempt to Oust Yahoo Board (AP)
Billionaire investor Carl Icahn is reportedly loading up on Yahoo Inc.'s stock in preparation for a possible attempt to shove aside the Internet icon's board and bring the company's disillusioned suitor, Microsoft Corp., back to the bargaining table. As he mulls whether to lead a rebellion, Icahn has accumulated about 50 million Yahoo shares, a stake of roughly 3.6 percent in the company.

American Idol Viewers Disappearing (AP)
Contestants are disappearing as the American Idol finale approaches. Unfortunately for Fox, so are the viewers. The 21.8 million people who watched last Tuesday's competition was the show's smallest Tuesday audience in more than five years. The show did better the next night, with 22.9 million, but that was the smallest Wednesday audience in three years, according to Nielsen Media Research.

Diller, Malone Agree to IAC Spinoff Terms (NYP)
The war is over between IAC CEO Barry Diller and Liberty Media boss John Malone. The media moguls yesterday announced a truce ending their fight over voting rights control in the proposed breakup of IAC into five publicly traded companies, with Liberty dropping its appeal of a defeated lawsuit challenging the plan.

ABC Will Have Only 2 New Fall Shows (AP)
ABC will introduce only two new series in the fall in a schedule the network admits was affected by the writers strike. The new David Kelley-produced drama, Life on Mars, is about a police detective transported back to 1973. In the second new series, Opportunity Knocks, producers show up at a home with a truckload of prizes and quiz family members on what they know about each other. USAT: Hurt by ratings declines for its stalwart crime dramas and the lingering effects of the writers' strike, CBS is hoping to find a buzzworthy hit to soften the blow. Variety: The CW will get a jump on the competition next season, launching Sept. 1 with a fall schedule that the network is touting as its most cohesive to date.

Clear Channel Accepts Smaller Takeover Bid (NYT)
Clear Channel Communications agreed on Tuesday to a revised $17.9 billion takeover by two private equity firms after settling a long and often acrimonious dispute with the six banks that agreed to finance the deal. The deal heads off what would likely have been two rancorous legal battles over the buyout, one of the last holdovers from the recent private equity boom.

The Dolans March in on Newsday, But Please, No Press! (NYO)
The Dolans haven't been known for their warm embrace of the media. Ask any Knicks beat reporter about life at Madison Square Garden, and you'll get your share of war stories about Cablevision's Moscow-like media policies. But to many on the Newsday staff, the attempt by the paper to introduce itself to the Dolans the best way it knows how was pretty roundly rebuffed, and that didn't look good.

Web Users Back Code of Conduct for Bloggers (Guardian)
Nearly half of all internet users would support a voluntary code of conduct for bloggers and online commentators. A survey by legal firm DLA Piper said 46 percent of Web users think bloggers should sign up to a code that reflected the laws on defamation, intellectual property and incitement, with 15 percent ambivalent and 4 percent strongly opposed. Around 34 percent of bloggers opposed the idea but 32 percent supported it.

Online Ad Spending Estimates Drop for Social Networks (NYP)
Web ad tracker eMarketer cut its ad spending estimates for Facebook, MySpace and other social-networking sites amid growing questions over whether such sites will attract major ad dollars. Advertisers in the U.S. will spend $1.4 billion to place ads on social-networking sites this year, down from an earlier estimate of $1.6 billion, eMarketer said in a report released yesterday.

Report: Al Gore's CurrentTV Offered $100 Million For Digg In 2006 (TechCrunch)
Michael Arrington: Sarah Lacy's new book, Once You're Lucky, Twice You're Good: The Rebirth of Silicon Valley and the Rise of Web 2.0 does a deep dive into the histories of a number of high profile Web startups. But Lacy was also able to uncover a few stories that were never covered in the day-to-day press, including the story of a failed 2006 attempt by Al Gore's CurrentTV to buy Digg.

TNR Obama Cover's Metaphor a Bit Too Apt (Portfolio/Mixed Media)
Revenge or coincidence? A few weeks ago, The New Republic cried foul after Time produced a concept cover that resembled one that TNR had published. Now it's TNR's turn to be accused of lacking originality. This week's paint-by-numbers cover, consisting of an unfinished watercolor rendering of Barack Obama, bears a distinct resemblance to a Time cover from 2004 featuring Howard Dean.

What Keeps Viewers Glued to the Tube? Disney Wants to Know (LAT)
Walt Disney Co. is trying to get inside the minds of television viewers. The entertainment company, with its profitable ESPN and ABC entertainment networks, said Tuesday that it was developing an "emerging media and advertising research lab" to try to figure out why people watch the shows they do. AdAge: "In today's rapidly changing media environment, we need to go beyond traditional forms of research to ensure an effective connection with our audience," George Bodenheimer, president-ESPN and ABC Sports and co-chair, Disney Media Networks, said in a statement.

Zweig Leaves Money to Become WSJ Personal Finance Columnist (Talking Biz News)
Jason Zweig has been hired to be personal finance columnist for The Wall Street Journal. He will begin work there on July 1. In this role, Zweig's responsibilities will include writing a weekly column for the Journal. "Jason is one of the best-known personal finance journalists," said Nikhil Deogun, editor of the Journal's Money & Investing section, in a statement.

Writers Pick Their Favorite Obscure Books (Village Voice)
Ah, summer! The time to kick back in the sun, sucking up both gin and tonics and intellectual stimulation. But why be the hundredth person on the beach getting sand in Jhumpa Lahiri's Unaccustomed Earth or smudging Richard Dawkins's The God Delusion with SPF 45? To help guide you through the waters of the literary unknown, we asked some authors to name their favorite obscure book.

Bloomberg News Seems Poised To Do Something Big (Marketwatch)
Jon Friedman: It was big news when Bloomberg announced Monday that Norman Pearlstine had joined the company as chief content officer. After all, Pearlstine had been the top news executive at Time Inc. and The Wall Street Journal. But Pearlstine's newly created position may be a precursor to an even bigger story involving the powerful information and news company.