Click here to receive mb's Newsfeed by email.

Two in Embedded CBS Crew Killed in Iraq, Correspondent Critically Injured (WaPo)
Paul Douglas, a cameraman, and James Brolan, a sound man, died in the blast, CBS News said in a statement. Both were British citizens based in London. Kimberly Dozier, an American correspondent who has covered the war in Iraq for nearly three years, was taken to a Baghdad hospital for surgery to save her leg. NYT: By some reckonings, the deaths firmly secured the Iraq war as the deadliest conflict for reporters in modern times. NYDN: The bomb detonated as the CBS crew — doing a story about Memorial Day — got out of an armored vehicle along with members of an American military convoy in Baghdad. USAT: Monday's incident is a reminder that "journalism is a high calling and sometimes a mortal one. Journalists risk their lives to bring the story of war home," said Tom Rosenstiel of the Project for Excellence in Journalism. Guardian: Media deaths in Iraq reach 127. E&P: Total of journalist deaths in Iraq surpasses number killed in World War II.

Times of London Aims for 10,000 Readers for New U.S. Version (Reuters via The Scotsman)
The paper announced plans to launch a U.S. edition on Friday, making use of fellow News Corp paper the New York Post's distribution and printing facilities. Like the Post, it will be printed in a tabloid-style format. News Corp is reportedly planning additonal foreign expansion. NYT: The paper's editor, Robert Thomson, said the newspaper would be intended for "American readers who are global in their outlook and global citizens who are in America."

Vargas Exiting Stage Center (WaPo)
The National Organization of Women has joined with two other prominent women's organizations to protest Elizabeth Vargas' departure as ABC anchor. The organizations characterize Vargas' status as "a dispiriting return to the days of discrimination against women that we thought were behind us." New York Mag: ABC's newly appointed Katie-Couric-killer Charles Gibson on reporting from Iraq, Diane Sawyer's wrath, and why he's not just a Schieffer-esque codger. Slate: What's the real story behind Vargas' departure from World News Tonight?

Toledo Blade Publishes 3,200-Word Probe on Fired Reporter (E&P)
The lengthy piece focused on reporter George Tanber, a 14-year staffer who was fired last week after admitting he sent an anonymous letter to the Pulitzer Prize Board earlier this year alleging that the paper's heralded "Coingate" series was tainted.

Reuters Planning to Hire 100 (Guardian)
The international news and financial information company is in the process of hiring 100 journalists after three years of cost cutting and reorganization. The new hirings will boost the ranks of Reuters journalists to 2,400, who operate in 196 news bureaus in about 130 countries.

Can You Spell 'Prime Time'? (LAT)
Now that American Idol has bowed out for the season, ABC is betting that the show's formula — nervous civilians performing live — will turn the once-stodgy National Spelling Bee into the latest reality TV phenom.

Web Ad Spending Set to Overtake Ad Spending in U.K. Newspapers (The Irish Times via TMC.net)
The Internet will overtake national newspapers to become the U.K.'s third-biggest advertising medium this year, according to an authoritative report. The study estimates that the Internet will take 13.3 per cent of the total U.K. media advertising market in 2006. National newspapers will take 13.2 per cent.

Reality TV Ripens in Summer Heat (NYT)
Reality shows play summer after summer because they provide two advantages: higher ratings than repeats and lower costs than new scripted shows. But the real standard for summer reality shows, of course, is making it into the regular season, and here their record is impressive.

Quick & Simple Finds the Going Tough in U.S. (WWD)
Recent sales projections put the new Hearst weekly's average single-copy sales at around 160,000. Despite a bargain-basement cover price of $1.49, its sell-through rate is approximately 20 percent, according to a source with access to distribution data.

A Blogger Love Story (New Yorker)
"Jason Kottke and Meg Hourihan Wed: Most Flickr'd Ceremony Ever," the tech gossip site Valleywag reported. Thousands of readers have visited Meg's Flickr page, where photographs of the wedding are posted. "A lasting positive effect of the San Francisco dot-com boom!" one visitor commented.

Buyers: NBC Show Shifts a Smart Strategy (Mediaweek)
Media buyers were for the most part supportive of the scheduling changes NBC announced last week for its new 2006-07 season. Expectations were that NBC would move its new drama, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, but no one had expected changes on almost every night of the week.

When a Newsmaker Buys a Newspaper (NYT)
"I'm interested in this not because I want to control the press," said new Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News owner Brian Tierney, "but because as a business, boy, this is an incredibly important mass media tool and it's way underutilized."

Will 2008 Bring the First Web President? (Newsweek)
Jonathan Alter: To begin busting up the dumb system we have for selecting presidents, a bipartisan group will open shop this week at Unity08.com. Their hope: to get even a fraction of the 50 million who voted for the next American Idol to nominate a third-party candidate for president online.

Celebrated Journalist Fallaci Turns Her Anger Toward Islam (New Yorker)
Italian journalist and novelist Oriana Fallaci, who for two decades was one of the sharpest political interviewers in the world, now believes the Western world is in danger of being engulfed by radical Islam. Since September 11, 2001, she has written three short, angry books advancing this argument.

Ice Cube Joins Rap Stars Dissing Oprah (NYP)
Following in the diss-steps of Ludacris and 50 Cent before him, Ice Cube says he, too, has a beef with the talk queen. "I've been involved in three projects pitched to her, but I've never been asked to participate," the rapper-actor told FHM magazine.