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News Corp./NBC Video Site to Be Called 'Hulu' (BusinessWeek)
Other than the name, the company would reveal little else about the much-hyped project. The home page features promotional shots from some of NBC's and News Corp.'s most popular shows: Heroes, Family Guy, The Simpsons, 24 and Friday Night Lights, to name a few. Yet it is unclear whether single episodes, entire seasons or only clips of those shows and others will be available on the site. Bloomberg via LAT: The name was chosen because it is short, easy to spell and rhymes with itself, project chief Jason Kilar said on the Hulu Web site. AdAge: Hulu backers made it clear that the site will not be fully launched by September, a target date its parents had suggested in the past might be possible. Guardian: Bloggers pointed out that Hulu is the Chinese for calabash — a vine which produces fruit renowned for their healing properties. It is also the name of a privately owned Swedish Internet company specializing in WiMax — a sophisticated version of wireless online connectivity. MediaPost: "The first thing I thought of was those little plastic hula girls people put on their dashboards," said Mike McGuire, an analyst with Gartner Research.

CondéNet and MSNBC Enter Content-Sharing Deal (AdAge)
CondéNet and MSNBC.com announced a unique content partnership today in which the Web division of Condé Nast will share its content with the news portal. The two parties have partnered before, but this marks the first time CondéNet has signed up for an overarching partnership with a third-party site. Mediaweek: MSNBC said it will disperse the Condé Nast/CondéNet content throughout its health, business, entertainment and travel sections, as well as within its Today Show channel.

For Idaho Paper and Reporter, the Craig Story Posed a Moral Dilemma (WaPo)
Howard Kurtz: The kind of dilemma facing the Idaho Statesman has played out repeatedly in recent years at news organizations. Among the issues: What is an adequate level of proof? Are affairs or the hiring of prostitutes, even if documented, fit to print? Or do they require an element of public hypocrisy, such as gay sex involving a lawmaker who holds forth on the sanctity of marriage? WaPo: The Craig case is ripe for Law&Order. E&P: Statesman editor and reporter defend their probe of Craig's misconduct.

GLAAD Calls on Tucker Carlson, MSNBC to Apologize for Comments, Gay-Bashing (Edge)
The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) called on Tucker Carlson, NBC News and MSNBC to apologize for remarks made Tuesday night that appear to condone violent assault. As part of a discussion about the sexual scandal involving Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho), Carlson referenced an incident from his past when he was the recipient of an unwanted advance from another man. Gawker: Didn't Tucker just confess to an actual crime on air?

Every Day Publisher Jumps to WWD (Folio:)
The staffing war between Condé Nast and the Reader's Digest Association just got a little more interesting. Christine Guilfoyle, publisher of Every Day with Rachael Ray since its launch, has left the magazine to become publisher of Women's Wear Daily. The move put a stop, if temporary, to the seemingly one-way exodus of Condé executives to ex-Fairchild CEO Mary Berner's new reign at RDA.

BusinessWeek Publisher to Join Salesforce.com (NYP)
Publisher Geoffrey Dodge is leaving the magazine to join Salesforce.com, a fast-growing software developer, just three months after he was passed over for the job of BusinessWeek president. That position went instead to Keith Fox, an insider at BusinessWeek publisher McGraw-Hill Cos., who had been running one of the company's book publishing divisions.

Fitch: Newspaper Industry Doing Worse Than Expected in '07 (E&P)
In its latest broad survey of the industry, Fitch Ratings says newspapers are doing even worse than it expected at the beginning of the year. The only good news the credit ratings agency could find is not likely to cheer newspaper CEOs: Fitch believes the current credit crunch will likely halt the highly leveraged transactions — think Sam Zell's takeover of Tribune — that could be risky for bondholders.

HST's Antics Stirred Fear, But No Loathing (NYDN)
Two years after his suicide, hellbent journalist Hunter S. Thompson continues to provide stories so over-the-top it's hard to believe he ever really existed. "One of the first times I met him, he pulled out a gun in the middle of a house," Jack Nicholson remembers in the forthcoming book, Gonzo: The Life of Hunter S. Thompson. "Me and a friend of mine jumped out the window."

Networks Scurry as Writers Strike Looms (Variety)
NBC and ABC have had conversations with international producers and broadcasters about using finished episodes of their existing series as replacement programming should a WGA strike occur. There's also increasing talk of broadcasters acquiring cable hits as strike contingencies, with sibling cable nets serving as logical suppliers (think USA Network for NBC).

'Why Can't More Writers Be Smart Enough to Be Beautiful, Handsome or at Least Cute?' (Boston Phoenix)
Sharon Steel: Literature, unlike so many other media industries, is technically a meritocracy. But that won't stop book marketers, bloggers, critics and the literary community at large from collectively slobbering over a pretty author. So publishers have begun to count on their authors to do double-duty — to act as sex symbols as well.

Feud? What Feud?: Letterman to Appear on Oprah (AP via USAT)
David Letterman will make his first appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show next month, another sign the talk-show titans have buried the hatchet after a rift that lasted more than a decade. Letterman will tape the interview, a rare appearance on someone else's show, on Sept. 10 at Madison Square Garden in New York, Winfrey's production company announced Wednesday.

NFL Ad Campaign Focuses on Players' Positive Qualities (NYT)
Concerned by growing uneasiness among fans and marketers about athletes gone wild, the league is embarking on a television and online effort to burnish its brand image by accentuating the positive aspects of the on- and off-field lives of its players. The idea is to counter the outcry over the criminal behavior of some players by shining a spotlight on what is presented as the good behavior of the many.

Should Moonves Pull the Plug on Kid Nation? (LA Weekly)
Nikki Finke: Everyone in Hollywood knows that many kids' parents can't be trusted to do what's best when the bright lights of show biz beckon. So CBS had a duty to take extra precautions to protect those kids, not just protect itself from corporate-liability issues. That's why I put this scandal squarely on Les Moonves' expensively tailored shoulders, even though he'd like to hide behind CBS' lawyers.

Supreme Court Extends Deadline for Seeking Profanity Ruling Review (B&C)
The Supreme Court has given the solicitor general an extra month to decide whether to ask for a high-court review of the federal appeals court decision that the FCC has not sufficiently justified its crackdown on cussing. The solicitor general, who argues cases before the high court, is the one who will make the decision on whether to take the FCC's case to the highest court.

The Future of the TV News (WSJ)
Daniel Heninger: It's possible that too many people now simply don't much care about the major media anymore. Once there was a time when TV announcers used to say, "Stay with us." Now no one stays. They go surfing, endlessly seeking a five-minute wave of TV that will take them just a little higher than the five minutes they just watched.