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Portfolio.com: Mixed Media

Longtime media reporter Jeff Bercovici spotlights the key individuals, institutions, and insights of this rapidly-evolving sector.

Late Breaks: The Trouble with Time Warner, moreToday

-Google CEO Eric Schmidt says there's not much his company can do to ease the newspaper industry's death agonies. "We...can't materially change the way consumers behave." Uh, isn't that exactly what Google does? [Fortune]

-"What is so shocking about Time Warner's fourth-quarter loss is that it's being presented to the market as a shock. It's been eight years since the failed marriage of AOL and Time Warner, and despite repeated efforts at therapy, the union is still broken." [The Big Money]

-ABC News is outsourcing much of its newsgathering in Iraq to the BBC. Says an ABC executive, "This is more of a reallocation of resources so we're not spending money for a substantial presence on the ground waiting for something to happen." Isn't it tiresome how car bombings never happen on your schedule? [THR]

-The post-election editions of The New Yorker and Time, commemorating Barack Obama's victory, were the best-selling issues of the year. [NYO]

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Couric: Early Exit Talk Was 'Taken Out of Context'Today

How close did CBS and Katie Couric come to parting ways? Last April, you'll recall, The Wall Street Journal reported that an early departure from the Evening News anchor chair was all but a done deal, with Couric's exit possibly coming soon after the presidential inauguration.

At the time, CBS waved off the report as "speculative," leading the Observer to dismiss it as "fake news"; The New York Times, meanwhile, suggested that, somehow, the Journal's premature scoop "may or may not have...ensured Ms. Couric's early departure."

Let's go with "may not have." For now, it doesn't look like Couric is going anywhere. But it does sound like there was a measure of fire behind last April's smoke, judging from an interview she gave Portfolio's Sheelah Kolhatkar. After weaving around several questions about the reports of an early exit, Couric finally gave this answer:

Like any person, I want to make sure people are happy with the job I'm doing, and there are ongoing con­versations about whether we are doing the r

The Future of the 'Times': Two ViewsToday

It's easy to criticize New York Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. It sometimes seems like his leadership of the paper consists chiefly of commercializing the paper's brand (eg. launching "Thursday Styles" and the T magazine franchise), or taking measures long after their necessity had become obvious (eg. cutting the dividend, borrowing against the Times building), or both (eg. putting display ads on the front page).

But rather than find fault, the New York Observer today chooses to celebrate Sulzberger as one of its "Media Mensches" of the year. For all his history of bumbling, says the Observer, Sulzberger proved a steady hand in the midst of an industry-wide crisis: "All over newspaper land last year, newspaper owners were stampeding over the cliff in a mass panic. And Mr. Sulzberger, unlike every single other newspaper boss in the world, didn't pillage or dismember his p

Dear NBC News: Grow a Backbone.Today

Up till now, I've avoided writing about this week's Ann Coulter-Today Show "controversy" because, let's face it, Ann Coulter is not a real person. But this is just too much.

A quick recap: Coulter was supposed to be on Today yesterday to promote her new book but was bumped for other news. Coulter, with the aid of friendly intermediaries like Matt Drudge and Sean Hannity, accused NBC News of buckling to pressure from Media Matters, or of indulging its own liberal bias, or something like that. Manipulation accomplished, NBC promptly extended a fresh invitation to have Coulter on the show this morning, and she accepted.

Now watch Matt Lauer's craven, pathetic interview:

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Hey Matt: If you think Ann Coulter cynically played you and your show and stoked the already considerable right-wing hatred of NBC News just to sell books -- which she clearly did -- then why are you sitting there like a schmuck trying to persuade her of your good intentions? If she's shown bad faith towards you, why have her on the show at all? It's not like she's an actual newsmaker. Sh

Idle Chatter: Secretary Parsons? Layoffs at OgilvyToday

-Time Warner Cable has agreed to pay for the right to retransmit CBS shows over its tubes. The deal is a huge victory for CBS even though, whether to save face or avoid setting a precedent, the payments will take the form of higher fees paid to carry Showtime. [WSJ]

-Former Time Warner chairman Dick Parsons is under consideration to be the next secretary of the Commerce Department. [B&C]

-Entertainment Weekly, a title whose profits have plunged in recent years, has replaced its new top editor, promoting Jess Cagle and sending his predecessor, Rick Tetzeli, upstairs to corporate. [NYP]

-Ad agency Ogilvy & Mather is planning to lay off about 10 percent of its workforce, or more than 150 people. [Ad Age]

-TV news organizations are preparing to cover the bejesus out of the Obama inauguration. [NYT]

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