In your blustery Wednesday media column: the newspaper industry burns, News Corp can't handle hardcore music, NPR needs more black people, and the NYT sells a jet: What is happening in the land of dying newspapers today? Only the usual tragedy and grief. The Miami Herald is laying off a fifth of its...

Filed under: Television, Time Warner (TWX), Walt Disney (DIS), Viacom (VIA), News Corp'B' (NWS), Media World According to The Hollywood Reporter , media conglomerate Disney (NYSE: DIS) intends to keep the song going at the High School Musical workshop. The fourth film in the series will return to th...

This has to be one of the best lines I’ve read in a while, from SAI’s Nicholas Carlson’s piece on succession planning at News Corp. Know what happens when a boxing referee slips between the ropes and out of the ring in the middle of the match? A hint: The brawlers don’t sudde...

Sean Delonas' New York Post cartoon said, essentially, "Screw you, monkeys." The Post itself said, "Screw you if you didn't like it." But Rupert Murdoch—their boss—is suddenly being polite! Did Rev. Al win? Rupert has issued what we must admit is a very civil and human-sounding apology! ...

A tipster tells us Wendi Deng dropped by MySpace headquarters with a friend on Friday. What is Mrs. Rupert Murdoch up to at the News Corp.-owned social network? Aside from her unofficial role as her husband's consigliere, Deng is the chief strategist of MySpace China. So it's hardly unusual for her ...

By Sean Mills Noticed something interesting today on the web. Not once, but twice, News Corp properties said something nice about The New York Times, or at least referenced their content as interesting and discussion worthy. First, Andrew LaVelle of the Wall Street Journal penned this post to the Di...

1. Will the Post-Intelligencer Flip the Switch in Seattle? You know, go online-only. (Is online the onliest medium?) With Hearst's Ken Riddick and the PI's Michelle Nicolosi working through the what-ifs, we may have a new, great test to watch. We’d be able to compare the online PI to the Seattle s...

Noticed something interesting today on the web. Not once, but twice, News Corp properties said something nice about The New York Times, or at least referenced their content as interesting and discussion worthy. First, Andrew LaVelle of the Wall Street Journal penned this post to the Digits blog, bas...

Anyone who watches Fox News with any frequency is painfully aware that it is little more than a marketplace for rightist propaganda and rancor. But lately, I noticed another kind of hucksterism that is rampant on the network. Several of their regular anchors and contributors are identified as author...

Stock downgrades. Acquisitions that didn't pan out. Businesses leaking cash. Layoffs. And a whole lot of pessimism about the future. Is Rupert Murdoch losing his magic, wrinkly touch? ITEM: An analyst downgraded News Corp's stock because of a whole freaking parcel of problems which he thinks managem...