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25 Percent of Americans Read No Books Last Year (AP)
One in four adults say they read no books at all in the past year, according to a poll released Tuesday. Of those who did read, women and seniors were most avid, and religious works and popular fiction were the top choices. The typical person claimed to have read four books in the last year — half read more and half read fewer. Excluding those who hadn't read any, the usual number read was seven. AP: Book publishing chief responds to poll data showing that liberals read more books than conservatives.

Google Aims to Make YouTube Profitable With Ads (NYT)
The company said that after months of testing various video advertising models, it was ready to introduce a new type of video ad, which it said was unobtrusive and kept users in control. The ads, which appear 15 seconds after a user begins watching a video clip, take the form of an overlay on the bottom fifth of the screen, not unlike the headline tickers shown during television news programs. LAT: The experiment, which has been quietly underway for several weeks, features ads on videos from Warner Music Group, Ford Models and lonelygirl15. Bloomberg: Google planning to insert YouTube videos into news aggregator. Wired/Underwire: Craigslist and YouTube a marriage made in heaven?

MTV, RealNetworks Challenge Apple Music (AP)
Viacom Inc.'s MTV Networks and digital media company RealNetworks have announced a digital music joint venture that will compete with Apple's dominant trinity of the iTunes store, iPod player and iPhone. MTV will merge its Urge music service into the Rhapsody offering from RealNetworks Inc., forming a new company called Rhapsody America. NYT: Urge's Web site was made over to announce the new service yesterday, and a range of promotions for the service are expected to unfold as part of MTV's annual Video Music Awards, scheduled for Sept. 9.

Tribune Shareholders Approve Zell Plan to Take the Company Private (Chicago Tribune)
Tribune Co. shareholders yesterday formally approved the company's $8.2 billion plan to be taken private, with 97 percent of the shares voted cast in favor of the $34-a-share buyout led by a group that includes Chicago real-estate mogul Sam Zell. Chicago Tribune: Zell issued a statement after the meeting: "I believe Tribune Co. is reasserting itself as a national leader in news generation and distribution. Despite the recent upheaval in the credit markets, my view of the company as an investment has not changed." NYT: The transaction still has several major hurdles to clear.

Barnes & Noble Won't Stock O.J.'s If I Did It (Publishers Weekly)
The nation's largest booksellers have made their decisions about carrying If I Did It, and the results suggest that more customers may be buying the book online than in stores. Amazon said it will carry If I Did It on its site just as it would any other book, and BarnesandNoble.com will also list the title. But B&N said it will not carry the title in its traditional stores.

Philadelphia Media Holdings Will Offer Inquirer Building for Sale (Philly Inky)
Brian Tierney, chief executive officer of the company, said that the PMH would sell the Inquirer Building, which also houses the Philadelphia Daily News and Philly.com, and downtown property to reduce debt and reinvest in the company's media businesses. The company will present the 18-story building for sale to real estate developers in an offering memorandum in September.

CBS Was Warned on Kid Nation, Documents Show (NYT)
The producers of a CBS reality show featuring 40 children living on their own in the New Mexico desert were warned by the state attorney general's office while the show was being taped last spring that they might be violating the state's child-labor laws, according to interviews with state officials and documents obtained Tuesday under the state's open records act.

NBC, AP Partner for Olympic Content (Hollywood Reporter)
NBC Universal and the Associated Press announced Tuesday a partnership that will make the AP the exclusive news agency for some NBC-produced Olympics content in 2008. The AP will in turn offer to its customers a premium product using AP material and NBC content from the 2008 Summer Games in Beijing.

Press Credentials for Blogging Convention Only Available to Traditional Media (Information Week)
Stephen Wellman: Chalk this one up to the great moments in unintentional irony department. I just received an invitation to "the industry's first BlogWorld and New Media Expo." What's interesting is that the only people who can get in with a media pass are traditional press.

Portfolio Courts Its Harshest Critic; Says Spiers: 'I'm Tired' (NYO)
With Portfolio now shifting to a monthly schedule, will Elizabeth Spiers keep churning out takedowns after each issue? In April, Spiers reviewed Portfolio's first issue on DealBreaker, christening Condé Nast's business start-up "the Paris Hilton of business magazines." But even after the April hit piece, Spiers discloses that Portfolio still approached her about blogging for its site.

AJR's Pains Reflect Media's Malaise (WaPo)
American Journalism Review, the influential but financially troubled media journal, could face a shutdown by year's end. Tom Kunkel, the review's president, said it is "more likely" that the magazine will be able to continue publishing next year, but that he must close a deficit of roughly $200,000. "It's always been 'The Perils of Pauline' with the finances of a journalism review," said Kunkel.

CondéNet Goes to the Movies (AdAge)
In a deal between CondéNet and Emerging Pictures, content that was made for CondéNet Web sites will now be screened as pre-show videos for Emerging Cinemas. Emerging Cinemas is a national network of venues with digital screens, housed in independent film and cultural centers. The features will run before each feature film screened throughout the network.

Hearst Launches 'Mobile-Dot' Sites For Harper's Bazaar, Marie Claire (Folio:)
Pushing ahead with its comparatively aggressive digital strategy, Hearst this week announced the pair of mobile site launches — bringing the current number of sites within Hearst's existing mobile portfolio to nine. According to a Hearst rep, there are "no other mobile sites on the horizon."

NYDN TV Critic Out (NYP)
David Bianculli, a TV critic who has been at the Daily News for 14 years, is about to get the boot. Sources said that his contract is not going to be renewed when it expires this fall and that his last column will probably run in late October. "Everyone is horrified," said a source. "I assume it is a money thing. They'll probably replace him with some blogger who sits around in his pajamas."

Anchorwoman Is Shallow — Film at 11! (LAT)
Mary McNamara: If you hate women, men, Texas, Los Angeles, television news and any of the social progress made by Americans in the 20th century, then Anchorwoman is the show for you. On the new Fox reality series, Phil Hurley, owner of KYTX in Tyler, Texas, has hired Lauren Jones, L.A. model, WWE spokeswoman and general bombshell, to anchor the news, despite the fact that she has no previous news experience. WaPo: Anchorwoman is the sort of trailer-park television you wouldn't mark your calendar to watch each week, but if you channel-surfed across it, you couldn't help but watch, writes Neely Tucker. Slate: TV's aryan sisterhood knows only one hair color: blonder!