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Murdoch's Presence Felt at Journal (LAT)
In the last two weeks, News Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch has called at least three reporters who were considering leaving the top financial publication and asked them to stay. Some journalists in the newsroom took the gesture as a sign of Murdoch's commitment to keep the staff's quality high. Others said it showed that Murdoch would take a hands-on approach in newsroom affairs.

Brownridge Poaches Wenner Editor James Kaminsky to Helm Maxim (NYP)
It didn't take long for Kent Brownridge to turn his guns on his old boss Jann Wenner. James Kaminsky, who was running Wenner Media's title Men's Journal, has been named editor of Maxim, the bawdy men's magazine that rode the lad mag boom on the way up and is now fighting to preserve its gains as the entire category gets slammed. Kaminsky's pay package is believed to be worth around $600,000.

Decision on Business 2.0 Could Come Next Week (Folio:)
A little more than a month after reports surfaced saying that advertising revenues at the San Francisco-based mag were down nearly 40 percent, and suggesting that the magazine was ready to fold, a well-placed source says Time Inc. will decide the magazine's fate next week. "It seems like the rumor mill is kicking into high gear, so I think [Time Inc.] is getting close to a resolution," the source says.

Fox Cancels Anchorwoman After Just One Episode (B&C)
In the tradition of highly promoted flops that lasted just a single episode like ABC's Emily's Reasons Why Not last year, Fox canceled Anchorwoman, a network spokesperson confirmed. The show — about a former model and World Wrestling Entertainment performer who becomes a news anchor — debuted Wednesday night to a miniscule 1.0 rating in the adult 18-49 demo.

NBC Bringing Back American Gladiators (TV Week)
The reinvention of American Gladiators is finally under way at NBC. The network is partnering with MGM Television and Reveille for a long-rumored modern update on the early-1990s classic. The new Gladiators will still have everyday weekend warriors competing against the show's cast of athletes, but it will add "special effects, water skills and the latest technology," according to the press release.

Yahoo, Microsoft Asked to Censor Chinese Blogs (Bloomberg via LAT)
Yahoo Inc., Microsoft Corp. and other providers of blogging technology in China have agreed to try to sign up users under their real names and to censor their posts. Under the accord with the Internet Society of China, an offshoot of the Information Industry Ministry, the companies are "encouraged" to register users under their real names, Reporters Without Borders said in a statement.

BET Stirs Controversy With Edgy Video Campaign Promoting Literacy and Black Pride (LAT)
Long criticized for showing gangsta rap videos and scantily clad female dancers, Black Entertainment Television is now taking those images and remixing them into an audacious animated video about literacy and black pride that is drawing both praise and condemnation. The satire orders viewers to "read a book, read a book, read a [expletive] book" with a bouncy rap lyric.

New Mexico Looks Again at CBS Show's Use of Children (NYT)
The New Mexico attorney general has reopened an investigation into whether the CBS reality show Kid Nation violated the state's child-labor laws and other state regulations governing the welfare of children. A parent of one child who appeared in the program complained about injuries and working conditions at the site. Slate: Are reality-TV actors professional?

Web Editors Reveal Online Flops or Failures (E&P)
Amid all the news scoops and tech innovations that come with online news, there are no shortage of starts and stops, bumps, flops, and sometimes outright debacles. Nearly every daily paper has felt the growing pains that new online news tools require. As one top editor says: "If you are not failing, you are not stretching."

No More First-Class Flights for NYT Mag (Gawker)
Yesterday afternoon a memo went out from New York Times Magazine head Gerald Marzorati. It seems that staffers and freelancers have been flying business and first class while on assignment. Clearly this cannot stand! Approval to fly business class will now only be granted after being run past Times managing editor John Geddes or assistant managing editor Bill Schmidt.

Glamour Not the New Jane (Page Six)
Former Jane magazine staffers are livid that Condé Nast is sending their one-time readers copies of Glamour now that Jane has bitten the dust. "I want all the Jane readers to just cancel, rather than get Glamour," one ex-staffer griped. "I hope they call and say, 'I don't want this. Give me GQ, anything but this.'"

Americans Not Just Interested in Britney and O'Reilly, But You Wouldn't Know It (The Nation)
Eric Alterman: The fact that most Americans find themselves increasingly alienated from the system that Rupert Murdoch, Roger Ailes and Rush Limbaugh have pioneered has not led their competitors to rethink the content of their broadcasts, only to focus more intensely on what remains of their diminishing audiences.

Fox's Shep Smith Doesn't Get Caught in News-Star Persona (Marketwatch)
Jon Friedman: While he takes his work seriously, the 43-year-old newsman tries not to get caught up in the hubbub of his persona as a cable-news star. It's the Fox News Channel approach, explained Smith. "We don't take ourselves seriously — we take the news seriously," stressed Smith. "I've never been in a focus-group meeting," he observed. "I wonder how many anchors can say that."

The Suit Behind the Sale of the Chicago Reader (Chicago Reader)
Michael Miner: The former owners of the Reader explained when they sold this paper last month that it was facing financial challenges they felt too old and spent to tackle. One of the most exhausting of those challenges was personal: the owners who spoke for the Reader were being sued by a founder they'd stripped of operational authority some 20 years earlier.

Lad Mag Maven Brown Still Loaded With Ideas (Guardian)
David Teather: James Brown remains best known for coming up with Loaded, a title which exploded on to the market in 1994 and pretty much created the men's magazine category. More specifically, he created the lad mag, a totem for a wider shift in popular culture. Loaded was about booze, football, music, women and mayhem, but there was a sharp wit that many copycats lacked.