Media Audit

PR professionals: one of the "holy grails" in terms of media placements has about two years left before it is no more. Oprah Winfrey told employees late yesterday that she will no longer host the "The Oprah Winfrey Show" after September 2011.

One can imagine Winfrey may have more programming on her own network, the Oprah Winfrey Network. Expect Winfrey to talk about the move on her show today. After the jump, the full memo to staff from Tim Bennett, president of Winfrey's Harpo production house. [via ABC News]

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As Bloomberg works through the process of folding its new property - BusinessWeek - into its media portfolio, the WSJ reports that layoffs will include 100 people, or 25% of the total staff.

In a memo to staff, Bloomberg chief content officer Norman Pearlstine said that this week, meetings will include, "Marketing, Communications & Events."

Almost no department will be spared, as meetings will also take place with, "Circulation and Production; Finance; Technology, Digital...Sales and Sales Development, and Editorial." Bloomberg also announced this week that Josh Tyrangiel, the editor of Time.com, will become the publication's new editor.

After some speculation last week, it's now official: Fox News' Major Garrett will interview President Obama tomorrow morning in Beijing. The interview comes after recent attacks on the network by now outgoing White House Communications Director Anita Dunn, and despite reports that said the administration told Fox News not to expect an interview with Obama until 2010. News broke last week that Dunn will be stepping down from her post at the end of November.

"I am not a person who is known for going rogue," Dunn said at a media conference last week, claiming Obama was aware of the strategy to go after Fox News. Nonetheless, a source told PRNewser, "it's a shame when they throw people under the bus," hinting that the timing of Dunn's departure was not her choice. Fox News spokeswoman Dana Klinghoffer said to Bloomberg only, "We wish her well in her new position."

CBS' Chip Reid, ABC's Jake Tapper, NBC's Chuck Todd and Ed Henry for CNN will also interview the President.

TVNewser has complete details on the changes at CNN, as longtime anchor Lou Dobbs last night announced he is leaving the network. John King, anchor of Sunday's "State of the Union" program on the network, will take over the 7pmET time slot on CNN early next week. PR pros: time to update your Rolodex.

The full press release sent out by CNN announcing the move, after the jump.

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PR people will soon be able to pitch their clients' op-eds to AOL News, a site with 26 million monthly uniques. Opinion Editor John Merline tells PRNewser that though an official launch date is TBD, he's looking for pieces "across the political spectrum as well as corporate and industry-related op-eds, on top news of the day." One such op-ed from an American Enterprise Institute Fellow recently ran on AOL's Sphere site.

This PR opportunity comes at a point of major shifts at AOL as the company is expected to be spun off from Time-Warner by the end of the year (with layoffs), and as is rebranding and shifting the news URL to Sphere.com. The original Sphere will relaunch as Surphace. Sphere was a blog engine in its original incarnation when it was acquired by AOL in 2008.

If you traffic in opinion, you'll want Merline in your rolodex. His email is John dot Merline at Corp dot AOL dot com.

BusinessWeek's editor-in-chief, Stephen Adler will not be making the move to Bloomberg, following the company's acquisition of the magazine. Neither will Roger Neal, GM of BusinessWeek's online operations. However, executive editors Ellen Pollock and John Byrne and managing editor Ciro Scotti will make the move and stay with BusinessWeek.

Bloomberg chief content officer Norman Pearlstine said in a memo to the troops today that the majority of BusinessWeek employees would be hired by Bloomberg.

Neal, along with Byrne, was primarily responsible for Business Exchange, a social networking site created by the publication to the tune of $20 million. So far, it accounts for 16% of BusinessWeek's digital revenue, but has not grown as fast as expected. We hear that is a source of discontent from many employees who feel the company overpaid to build it.

Health insurance company Humana, Inc. bought a large ad in the Detroit Free Press after a story idea the company suggested on Medicare open enrollment was committed to by the paper's editorial team, according to The Wall Street Journal.

A Humana spokesperson told the Journal that the company, "simply asked whether the Free Press was planning a special section on the Medicare enrollment period and, on learning that it was, decided to buy an ad in the section."

"Editorial content needs to remain, and does remain, with the newsroom...But where we can find the connections that make sense for marketing purposes, that's something that we need to be open to," Paul Anger, editor and publisher of the Free Press told the Journal.

The Sunday talk shows yesterday continued to focus on the back and forth between the White House and Fox News. CNN's Reliable Sources, ABC's "This Week" and NBC's "Meet the Press" all devoted segments to the issue, again highlighting recent comments from White House Communications Director Anita Dunn, specifically her statement, "The reality of it is that Fox News often operates almost as either the research arm or the communications arm of the Republican Party" and discounting Fox News as a "legitimate" news organization.

We've posted the "Meet the Press" clip above. Host David Gregory cut straight to the chase at the beginning of the segment. "Why is the White House doing this, and is it working for them?" he asked. Panelist Tavis Smiley of PBS called it "a distraction." TVNewser has the CNN and ABC segments.

CNN held a large press event last night to reveal the new CNN.com. TVNewser and Webnewser both have reports. "Some CNN employees were surprised that details of the design didn't leak during the development process," wrote TVNewser's Kevin Allocca.

As far as the actual design, "it will do a better job of highlighting previously buried content and video. The homepage will feature three columns: one for breaking news, one for features and video, and one for customizable weather, sports, and news content," he wrote.

So, how did CNN PR keep things from leaking? "We're obviously happy the designs didn't leak," Jennifer Martin, Director Of Public Relations for New Media and Digital Networks, CNN Worldwide, tells PRNewser. "At the end of the day, we are fortunate that at CNN.com in particular, there really is an air of transparency. The more open you are with employees, the less likely you are to have leaks. Only recently we began to be transparent with our PR and marketing plans and it's really helped us."

Martin also said of the press conference last night that her team didn't expect a huge turn out, however they beat expectations. "We were expecting 10-15 RSVPs, but we had 100," she said.

FishbowlNY has the memo to the troops from New York Times executive Editor Bill Keller in which he explains that the company will be eliminating 100 newsroom positions via buyouts and potentially layoffs.

"When we took our 5 percent pay cuts, it was in the hope that this would fend off the need for more staff cuts this year. But I accept that if it's going to happen, it should be done quickly. We will get through this and move on," he wrote.