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Business Gets Nastie (NYT)
By planning to start a business magazine and website, Condé Nast has decided to go where others have already gone—and are struggling. NYP: New Condé biz ed was WSJ star. BusinessWeek: The as-yet-untitled magazine won't launch until 2007, and Jon Fine handicaps who will replace the new division's president Peter Carey at his current New Yorker job. WSJ: Mag will be closer to Fortune, which features magazine journalism about the culture of business, than newsier business periodicals such as Business Week and personal finance titles such as Money and Smart Money.

Did You Get Her Digits? (Folio:)
In a move that underscores the magazine's wide brand dissemination in competing with an increasingly Maxim-ized market, Playboy will begin offering digital editions of its monthly magazine. Guardian: The mag's CEO Christie Hefner said that the digital edition would be a more cost-effective way of distributing the magazine's content while boosting its circulation.

News Corp. Execs' Pay Surges (Reuters)
Chairman and chief executive Rupert Murdoch, who controls the media conglomerate, took home a 2005 bonus of $18.9 million. President and COO Peter Chernin got $18.9 million. AFX via Forbes: China resistance blocks News Corp. satellite push. Guardian: News Corp. sizes up TSL bids.

MB Increases Media's Public Accountability (Boston Phoenix)
Mark Jurkowitz: Mediabistro.com's Morning Newsfeed and blogs (among other media news sources) have democratized the often-secretive news culture and put pressure on executives to act more quickly under far greater scrutiny.

Is It Really as Bad as Embroidering Kathie Lee's T-Shirts for $1 a Day? (LAT)
Reality TV producers have disputed allegations that their employees toil in sweatshop conditions. They say writing for a reality show isn't the same as working on a scripted program.

Blogging From the Anchor's Chair (NYT)
He was the first anchor to take over a network evening newscast in the 21st century, so it was probably inevitable that NBC's Brian Williams would begin channeling his inner Gawker on his own daily blog.

Sirius Stern Show Ready for Debut (Mediaweek)
The company will launch one of its Howard Stern-produced channels in September, even though the syndicated morning man is contractually forbidden from appearing on-air at Sirius until January 2006.

Pulitzer-Winning Journo William Eaton Dies (AP via Chicago Sun-Times)
The former Washington and foreign correspondent's reports from Moscow were enlivened by his curiosity about the effect of the Soviet Union's pending dissolution on ordinary Russians.

VVM/New Times Merger May Raise Anti-Trust Issues (SFBG)
Editorial: If the two companies are in any sort of talks, the implications for the alternative press and for readers, advertisers, and employees in 18 cities are too serious for federal regulators to ignore.

She Only Wants You for Your DNA (Reuters via Yahoo!)
Billionaire television producer John de Mol, behind the pioneer show Big Brother, will test the limits of reality TV with a program in which a woman searches for a potential sperm donor to conceive a child.

That Crack Coverage Was Wack, Yo (Slate)
Jack Shafer: As the nation descends into the screeching psychosis of a moral panic over meth, we would all benefit by pausing to look back at our most recent drug panic over crack-cocaine.

Alt-Weekly Slapfight (SF Weekly)
Tommy Craggs continues SF Weekly's ongoing obsession with baiting the competition by having Bay Guardian Publisher Bruce Brugmann's handwriting analyzed.

MTV Empty of Videos (NYDN)
Jim Farber: It makes no sense for MTV to give out awards for the best music videos these days. That's because there's nothing in the actual programming to reflect it. NYP via FoxNews.com: MTV showers VMA stars with $26K swag bags.

Analyzing the Aruba News Assault (CJR Daily)
David Adams, the Latin America correspondent for the St. Petersburg Times, talks about his recent story on Arubans' frustration with the U.S. media's coverage of the Natalee Holloway case.

Tough Year for Newspaper Stocks (CNN/Money)
The industry of the ink-stained wretch has been derided for being unglamorous in an age where blogs are stealing advertisers and readers. This skepticism has hit the shares of most of the large publishers.

Jon Stewart 'Reinventing Television' (Wired)
Q&A: "I'm surprised people don't have cables coming out of their asses, because that's going to be a new thing," says Stewart. "You're just going to get it directly fed into you"

Cop Show Stars Warned About Police Uniforms (Hollywood.com)
Actors on shows Law & Order and CSI: NY will face arrest if they are spotted carrying police costumes to and from work.

Cribs, Corcoran-Style (NYO)
Real-estate giantess Barbara Corcoran Is leaving the field she has dominated to begin a new career as a television producer and personality.

—David S. Hirschman

IN YESTERDAY'S MB BLOGS:

Greta Is Covering A "Growing Epidemic" [TVNewser]
America has a GROWING EPIDEMIC of missing persons, Greta Van Susteren declares on GretaWire.

He's Just a Dope [FishbowlDC]
An amusing Sit Room exchange today on Pat Robertson's comments earlier in the week suggesting that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez should be assassinated:

Jon Friedman misspells "Argggggghhhhh," and other notes on his column [FishbowlNY]
In today's MarketWatch column, Jon Friedman decries the media circus that was Hunter S. Thompson's funeral, calling it the "nadir" of "made-for-media spectacles." PLUS: Lunch at Michael's

Kinsley considering an even longer commute [FishbowlLA]
The Observer picks up on rumors that Michael Kinsley is being considered for the editorship of the Atlantic and asks owner David Bradley if indeed the K-dog is on the S-list for the E-position.

Making Money Must Be Nice [UnBeige]
In between chilling with his boy Brad, discussing biopics with his man Sydney, and firing the people who, arguably, made him what he is today, Frank Gehry designed a clock.

Laid Off and Laid Back [mbToolbox]
Losing one's job can be a shocking, humiliating, terrifying experience. Fortunately, in this day and age, more people have been there than you would ever think. One of these people is writer Jennifer van der Kwast, who knows so much about being unemployed that she titled her new novel Pounding the Pavement. She has some tips for you, the unemployed (or soon to be unemployed.)