Click here to receive mb's Newsfeed by email.

MSNBC Chief Kaplan Out (TVNewser)
Rick Kaplan stepped down as president of MSNBC yesterday amid swirling rumors about his tenure at the network and future elsewhere. WaPo: Two and a half years after he was named president of MSNBC and about two years after rumors started to fly about his imminent departure from the job, the network that continues to finish a distant third to its cable news rivals in the ratings. TVNewser: Kaplan's memo to staffers.

Congress Toughens TV-Indecency Fines (WSJ)
The legislation will lift fines to a maximum of $325,000 a violation — a tenfold increase over the current level. The swift passage gives lawmakers of both parties an election-year gift to take home to constituents, particularly conservatives and religious voters angered by risqué television and radio.

Three Tribune Directors Object to Stock Buyback (NYT)
Three directors of the Tribune Company have reportedly dissented from a plan to buy back stock because the move would not address the fundamental challenges facing the company. The dissenters represent the Chandler Trusts, which collectively own 12.2 percent of Tribune shares. NYP: Tribune vows to press buyback, nixes critics.

McClatchy Sells 5 Papers Bought From Knight Ridder (E&P)
McClatchy Co. announced that it has found buyers for five Knight Ridder papers now in its hands, resulting in a total sale of $450 million. Four owners will buy the five, leaving one paper, in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., still on the block. McClatchy CEO Gary Pruitt said the deals prove the naysayers wrong. AP via E&P: All of the newspapers sold so far were bought by private companies, which don't have to answer to Wall Street.

New Out Editor Pushing For More Mainstream Journalism (WWD)
Alongside the beefcake will be a beefed-up supply of serious reportage, with the goal to produce journalism that could just as easily be found in the New Yorker or Vanity Fair, said Aaron Hicklin. "The question I ask myself is, 'What would those magazines do if they were gay?'"

Wounded CBS Journo Flies Back to U.S. (Reuters)
CBS journalist Kimberly Dozier, wounded in Iraq last month, was flown home to the United States from Germany on Wednesday and is in a critical but stable condition, the news organization said on its Web site.

Charlie Rose Ready to Return to Work (NYDN)
Charlie Rose is going back to work Monday on his nightly PBS talk show. And he does so with a new pig-heart valve, added in late March after surgery in Paris. He'd already had one pig-heart valve replaced in 2002. "I love every one of them," Rose said of his porcine pals.

Five More Staffers Axed at Star (NYP)
The magazine chopped five people yesterday, including the fashion editor, Angela Jones, and Kelly Will, a one-time personal assistant to the company's high-octane editorial director, Bonnie Fuller.

Former Russian President Gorbachev Buys Stake in Opposition Newspaper (Forbes)
The ex-president has partnered with the Russian billionaire Alexander Lebedev to buy a 49 percent stake in opposition bi-weekly Novaya Gazeta, renowned for its investigations into corruption and affairs in Chechnya.

Don't Believe the MySpace Hype (CNN Money)
Paul La Monica: While MySpace is immensely popular — the site attracted a whopping 38.4 million unique visitors in April, up from 8.2 million a year ago — it's far from being the money-maker that Google and Yahoo are just yet. Salon: School administrators and even cops are policing the social networking site. For teens used to living their lives online, that isn't fair.

Gauging the Fallout From the Wen Ho Lee Settlement (Slate)
Jack Shafer: In public, the news organizations treated the settlement as if they'd ordered the least-nasty entree from a bad restaurant at which they were compelled to dine. But in private, I'll bet editors and their attorneys are as sick as dogs over all this.

Reporters Tire of Bad Political Reporting (CJR Daily)
A group of media observers recently asked a collection of seasoned journalists to put aside the minutiae of political reporting for a moment and think about big-picture changes that could improve news coverage in the upcoming campaign season.

Guardian Coverage Goes Web-First (Guardian)
The paper will shift to a Web-first model, making it the first British national newspaper to run news from foreign correspondents and business journalists online before print. The move is intended to better serve a worldwide readership and to go beyond the "limitations of the daily paper."

To What Degree Should Journalists Be Banned From Politics? (San Antonio Current)
Katherine Stump: The New York Times ethics handbook states that, "journalists have no place on the playing field of politics." But where do journalists draw the line between their voting rights as citizens and their professional duties?

J.K. Rowling Tops 'Greatest Living British Writer' Poll (BBC)
The Harry Potter author topped the poll for The Book Magazine, receiving nearly three times as many votes as second-place author, fantasy writer Terry Pratchett. The pair were followed by previous Booker Prize winners Ian McEwan, Salman Rushdie and Kazuo Ishiguro.