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This New Yorker Brought to You by Target (NYT)
The Aug. 22 issue of the magazine, due out Monday, will carry 17 or 18 advertising pages, all from the Target discount store chain.

Did Pecker Pay Hush Money for Governator? (LAT)
Tabloid publisher American Media, which was wooing Arnold Schwarzenegger for a business deal, promised to pay a woman $20,000 to sign a confidentiality agreement about an alleged affair.

Sopranos Extended Into '07 (NYT)
HBO announced yesterday that the wildly successful series will not end with its next season (which begins in March), but will continue with an additional eight episodes starting in January 2007. WaPo: The "bonus" episodes will be shot immediately after the episodes for the sixth season, which are in production. CSM: Rome vital to HBO empire.

Bloomberg Ltd. Staffers Claim Age Discrimination (NYP)
In a lawsuit, four claim the company has caused them "loss of employment, monetary damages, great emotional pain, suffering and humiliation and mental distress and anguish."

Mag Associations Rewriting Ethics Rules (Folio:)
In addressing the latest installment of ethical tripwires faced by publishers—including product placement—ASBPE plans to rewrite its ethics guidelines to address such concerns for trade publishers.

Antiwar Activists Slam Media Sponsorship of Pentagon Event (WaPo)
Organizers of next month's planned antiwar demonstrations criticized media organizations for co-sponsoring an event to remember the victims of the Sept. 11 attacks and to support the troops in Iraq.

Gossips Take the Gloves Off (Rolling Stone)
It's shaping up as a classic battle: the establishment vs. the little guy, old world vs. new media, Richard Johnson, the dapper godfather of Page Six, and his crew vs. the Gawker set.

Anchors' Influence Shrinks As Media Choices Expand (AJC)
Industry watchers say that in today's fractured media world, it's unlikely any future evening network anchor will ever achieve the status of the big three.

Media Death Watch Hits Closer to Home (Marketwatch)
Jon Friedman: When famous people are dying, TV journos are challenged with getting the story without being premature. This gets an extra twist when the dying person is a famous journalist.

Books Getting Bigger for Boomers (NYT)
As baby boomers near retirement, they are finding it harder and harder to read the small type of mass-market paperbacks, so publishers have begun issuing books in a bigger size.

Meta-Coverage of 'Beautiful Blond Woman Missing!' Stories (WaPo)
Eugene Robinson: The pathological cable news obsession with young, attractive white women who vanish continues unabated, but now the media are suddenly obsessed with their own obsession.

Stoner Mags Going to Pot? (NYDN)
Lloyd Grove: Does the recent arrest of Marc Emery, publisher of Cannabis Culture magazine and the self-proclaimed "Prince of Pot," mean that the high times are over for marijuana mags?

China Hot for Housewives (Variety)
Chinese authorities may keep U.S. movies and TV operators on a tight leash, but Desperate Housewives is about to hit the mainland..

What Do You Mean Niche Media Is Shallow? (BusinessWeek)
Jon Fine: If life in the big city is high school with money, then Jason Binn's society magazines are the yearbooks, the mirrors in which readers wish to see their reflections.

Situation Critical (Slate)
Dana Stevens: The Situation Room's main claim to innovation is twofold: It's live, and it's three hours long. The result is both an impressive technical achievement and a colossal bore.

Court TV Dreams of Televised Saddam Trial (WSJ)
Editorial: The prospect of watching Saddam in the dock raises the thought of the media injecting entertainment into a proceeding about extermination campaigns that killed thousands.

Next-Generation CCTV (BBC)
Smart software is taking Closed Circuit television into the domain of 3D gaming by combining graphics, map data, and different camera views in one composite image.

Egyptian Mag Blocked (Guardian)
Egyptian censors have stopped sales of a news magazine that shows on its cover plainclothes security forces preparing to attack pro-democracy demonstrators.

—David S. Hirschman

IN YESTERDAY'S MB BLOGS:

Carol Lin & Jon Klein Seem To Disagree... [TVNewser]
On August 7, "the possibility arose that CNN would have to decide whether to break the story" of Peter Jennings' passing or let ABC announce it first.

Sit Room: More Thoughts [FishbowlDC]
With the first day of "The Situation Room" all wrapped up and work beginning this morning on episode two, everyone appears to be clear on one thing: We. Are. In. The. Situation. Room. With that settled, please stop reminding us.

Arianna Huffington is no dummy [FishbowlNY]
I just checked the Huffington Post and saw a post from Cindy Sheehan, subject of yesterday's much-discussed Maureen Dowd return column, still riding MEL with the effortless grace and beauty of this girl I really, really like.

LA racks to be standardized [FishbowlLA]
LA Citybeat reports on a new law that will impose a $21.69 permit fee on every free-standing newsrack in the city (how'd they come up with that number?) and mandate that all racks be painted a standard color over the next seven years, as well as limited to sixteen per block face, one rack per publication.

Get Your Shinebox, We'll Get Our Intellectualism [UnBeige]
A few months ago, a completely unknown Boston-based architect filed suit against monolithic SOM architect David Childs, author of the current Freedom Tower (and of the earlier version, in "collaboration" with Danny Libeskind), claiming that Childs had taken the design for the torqued and twisted tower from Shine's senior project, which, to be fair, looked remarkably similar.

The Zoo: Week Six [mbToolbox]
Today is the sixth in a series of posts by San-Diego-based writer Thomas Shess who has decided to keep a journal on his journey to find a publisher for his novel.