This Week in Media

It was a blockbuster week for news about media: on Thursday, the head of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) -- a close friend of Karl Rove -- was removed from the board after a negative inspector general report; he is the subject of an inquiry into misuse of public money and the use of phantom or unqualified employees. On Tuesday, before the markets closed -- and again on Thursday -- investors called on Knight-Ridder to put itself on the sale block. Also on Tuesday, NBC announced it would deliver its nightly news via the web (but only for Windows viewers). On Wednesday, CNN dumped 57-year-old anchor Aaron Brown for 38-year-old Anderson Cooper and expanded Wolf Blitzer's program.

• CPB: Kenneth Y. Tomlinson was ousted from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) after a critical inspector general report that examined his "efforts as chairman to seek more politically conservative programs on public radio and television in the United States." CPB directs about $400 million in federal money to public radio and television. Tomlinson had a little more than a year remaining on his six-year term as a member of the board.

  In the investigation of Tomlinson, the inspector general examined several contracts that were approved by the chairman but not disclosed to board members. The contracts provided for payments to a researcher who monitored the political content of several shows, including "Now" with Bill Moyers, and payments to two Republican lobbyists who were retained to help defeat a proposal in Congress that would have required greater representation of broadcasters on the corporation's board.

  Tomlinson remains the chairman of the Broadcasting Board of Governors, which, according its website, "oversees all non-military U.S. international broadcasting, including the Voice of America (VOA), Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL); Radio Free Asia (RFA); Radio and TV Martí, and the new broadcasting initiative in the Middle East." Condoleezza Rice, Secretary of State, is a board member.
  
  However, he is also under investigation in that role as well. News reports say that the State Department is examining e-mails between Tomlinson and Karl Rove, a long-time friend.
  
  Blogs following this story: Media Citizen, New Media Musings
• Knight-Ridder: Knight-Ridder is the second-largest newspaper chain in the country. It has recently broken several stories which put the Bush Administration in a negative light. On Tuesday, Bruce Sherman, CEO of the Florida-based Private Capital Management (PCM) unit of Legg Mason, wrote Knight-Ridder chairman, asking that he "now aggressively pursue the competitive sale of the company."
  
  PCM is a privately-owned investment firm with assets totaling $32 billion and is the largest Knight-Ridder shareholder (19 percent). It is also the largest single shareholder at Gannett (6 percent stake), which publishes USA Today. It is a major shareholder in most major newspaper companies, including the New York Times Company, Belo, Lee Enterprises and Media General.
  
  St. Louis is one of the nation's few cities that is still a two newspaper town. PCM holds 37 percent of McClatchy, the corporate parent of the Minneapolis-based Star Tribune. The Star Tribune's competitor, the Pioneer Press, is a Knight-Ridder property. PCM could force consolidation. While this may be better for investors (at least in the short term), is it the best thing for citizens of Minneapolis.
  
  On Thursday, the third-largest Knight-Ridder stockholder joned PCM in calling for sale of the company. Harris Associates LP, a Chicago-based money manager, owns 8.2 percent of the company and has urged the company to "immediately" seek a sale because of "the wide gap between the company's current share price and its intrinsic value."
  
  Knight-Ridder, based in San Jose, owns 32 newspapers; in addition to the Star Tribune, papers include the Miami Herald, the San Jose Mercury News and the Philadelphia Inquirer.
  
  According to Business Week, the company's second-largest shareholder -- Southeastern Asset Management Inc. (8.9 percent) -- "disclosed in a regulatory filing Thursday that it would be seeking a more active role in making recommendations to the company about its strategy." In addition, Knight Ridder "is one of only a few large newspaper companies -- along with Gannett and Tribune Co. -- without a two-tier stock structure allowing insider shareholders to exercise voting control."
  
  Blogs following this story: Romenesko. See Media Ownership.
• NBC: The network is the first to deliver its entire nightly news show via the web, but only for PC users. The news company has bowed to pressure from Microsoft, its technology partner, and is consciously delivering the content in a form not accessible to Mac customers. However, the "error message" (screenshot) for Mac users makes no explicit mention of "Windows only."
  
  Angela Clark said, "This is very much an experiment for us, but we intend on accompanying much of the interactive content available along with the news." On Friday, MSNBC.com began making the NBC Nightly News available for download at 10 pm PST. The site also features the blog writen by Nightly News host Brian Williams.
• CNN: Capitalizing on its hottest new personality, CNN replaced veteran Aaron Brown with Anderson Cooper and expanded the news slot by two hours. The 10 pm EST show is being renamed "Anderson Cooper 360" and launches Monday 7 November. Cooper's old 7 pm EST slot will be filled with an expanded version of Wolf Blitzer's afternoon show, "The Situation Room." Before joining CNN, Cooper was an ABC News correspondent and host of the network's reality program, "The Mole."

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