What better way to sell a merger than taking home a huge paycheck

Talk about bad timing. Sirius Radio CEO Mel Karmazin may have just put up yet another brick wall he has to try and break through regarding his dreamy Sirius, XM merger. But he shouldn't have any trouble breaking through it at all because he can use that heavy $31 million pay package he just got. Merger critics are no doubt planning a field day. With CEO compensation becoming a hotly debated flash point among institutional shareholders, Karmazin's pay, disclosed in a proxy filing last Monday, even if deserved is certain to catch the attention of regulators. "Details of Mel's pay package couldn't have come at a worse time for Sirius and XM," said Sanford Bernstein analyst Craig Moffett. MERGER CRITICS KEY ON KARMAZIN'S $31M PAY [NYP]

Winners, Losers & Idiots This Week: Guess who are the idiots?

WINNERS: Dow Jones: Even though the newspaper business is struggling right, Dow Jones still managed to report an OK Q1 Cathy Black & Ann Moore: Both women sit atop vast magazine empires. Both have had failures. Both will turn all their focus to the internet, coming up with ways to milk advertisers. Eric Schmidt: The Google CEO has the media industry on their toes and guessing. While traditional media companies play catch up, Schmidt is slowly invading their territory NBC: for airing video and photos of the V Tech psycho which resulted in a spike in ratings CNN: For pulling any and all footage of the V Tech psycho in an effort to not upset families who could possibly give them interviews Hearst "Tower Awards" winners: Even though it means shit, Yeeeah! to Harper's, Popular Mechanics, Town & Country, Good Housekeeping and Cosmo Girl for taking home one of these shiny trophies Sumner Redstone: The man may be a shark when it comes to business but he does have a heart you know. The media grand daddy has pledged $105 million to fund cancer and burn research at three major U.S. health care centers. This has Paula Redstone written all over it. Mike Eisner: The former Disney dictator finally came out of the closet as a gun hater after living a lie all those years he ruled Disney with an iron fist. Marcus W. Brauchli: For landing what is considered the most powerful position in business journalism at the Wall Street Journal. If only he had a different last name though. Barry Diller: The web mogul is about to tap some black ass when he launches a new website targeting black Americans and other ethnic minorities online CONTINUED... LOSERS: Liz Spiers: The blog queen and her partners couldn’t see eye to eye so she walked away from the company she launched and started to build. You should have put your foot down Liz. Kurt Eichenwald: This poor fuck just can’t catch a break. Just when he thought he was out, they pull him back in. Celebrity Gossip rags: Celebrity gossip magazines like In Touch weekly, for trying to be serious with cover stories related to the V Tech murders. Stick to your celebrity stalking and leave the big stories to Time and Newsweek. Beth Comstock: She may be in the good graces of her bosses but some of her colleagues are not too fond of her and her and her ideas Tribune Employees: Don’t listen to Sam Zell. He is going to lay a bunch of you off Bob Johnson: Perhaps the BET founder should think about another media play because he is just not a good NBA team owner, or so they say. Mel karmazin: When is Mel going to realize that he may never get his merger approved? IDIOTS: Us. But you love it

Music Wire: WMG sued | Apple to man handle record labels | Pint sized Israeli musician and more in today's music news round up

The world's fourth largest record company Warner Music Group (WMG) is being sued by AnywhereCD for alleging breach of contract, business defamation and trade libel you know the usual. Why don't they refer to WMG as the the smallest of the big four majors instead of the fourth largest? There are only four right? [Reuters] Ariel Lanyi is Israels latest secret weapon. The 9 yr old musician can barely see over the top of the piano or a drum set, but he recorded a jazz album? Interested? We didn't think so [AP] A jury of nine men and three women were sworn in yesterday for the Phil Spector murder trial. One of the jurors is an NBC producer. Is this NBC's way of having the upper hand on breaking news when the verdict is in? [E!] Did we mention that Sanjaya Malakar is about to be all up in your face? [Reuters] America's Got Talent just got even more crazy. Ozzy's wife Sharon Osbourne is taking singer Brandy's place as a judge on the Simon Cowel produced show. [E!] Another fight has erupted between the late James Brown's kids and estate trustees over who should pay the $70,000 funeral bill. Wait a minute. The Godfather of Soul didn't have insurance? [E!] New talk about Warner Music stepping to EMI has lifted EMI shares 4.9% like it did the last 10,000 times Warner approached them. [FT]

MTV wants to help you lose your virginity, kinda

-NOEL GESSNER Are you a young man looking to take that step into manhood but you can't land the ideal female partner willing to take the step with you? Then MTV will make it happen for you. No, they won't set it up, but they want to follow you around on your quest to get laid. So you ask how will MTV get me laid? Dude, you will have MTV cameras following you around. You already have it in the bag, the question is which one of the many females who will do anything to get on camera will you chose? From E! Online: MTV is looking for a few good men...who haven’t had sex yet and are willing to admit it.I've learned that the music network is quietly putting together a reality series that will follow a group of young straight men looking to lose their virginity. The first question that comes to my mind, though, is how exactly these men will prove to producers that they've never hit a home run? Along with the usual reality-show background check, producers are apparently just going to take the guy's word for it. Wanted: Young Virgins! [E!]

Everyone has their own reason why Liz Spiers left the house she built with other people's money

-NEIL YOSHIDA Bet former Deadhorse Media boss Liz Spiers doesn't mind all the attention her departure from her blog empire is getting? Hell it could help her in the long run if the coverage is all favorable. When we got word that she was indeed done at Dead Horse Media, our first reaction was "WTF", and why? Of course there is more to her leaving other than the usual template reason she shared via an email to colleagues and friends and we will probably never know. But that hasn’t stopped the blogosphere from speculating about the real reason Ms. Spiers decided to leave, if she left on her own that is. Even some commenters have weighed in on why Spiers got off the horse. We want you to vote for the reason you think she left. As usual we’ll post the final results here a week from today. WHY DID LIZ SPIERS LEAVE DEAD HORSE MEDIA HER REVIEW OF PORTFOLIO ANGERED SOME POWERFUL PEOPLE THE SOLENGO CAPITAL BEEF TRAFFIC FOR THE BLOGS SUCK HER PARTNERS WERE DICKS A JOHN CARNEY Coup d'état IT WAS PART OF HER PLAN ALL ALONG THE FAILURE OF SUPERMOGUL.COM TOO MANY LAUNCHES TOO SOON DEAD HORSE RAN LOW ON CASH WHO GIVES A SHIT

For Time Inc's Ann Moore and Hearst's Cathy Black, no new titles, at least not print anyway

-LENN HINDSMANN The two panty wearing CEOs of two of the worlds most powerful magazine publishers have no plans to launch any new titles. Instead Ann Moore and Cathy Black will focus on building their company's internet offerings, via web videos and user generated content. The days off multi-million dollar launches and over the top launch parties, may be a thing of the past as more and more magazine publishers close print titles to focus on the web. But will these two women roll out winning web strategies? Each have already failed at new launches in print and the internet. Time Inc launched an online magazine geared toward young men called "Office Pirates" but the site folded after it failed to generate the kind of buzz Time Inc was hoping far. Hearst launched the well buzzed Talk Magazine back in 1999 but the buzz went away and the magazine died soon after. Will Time Inc and/or Hearst experience this again in their push to land a seat on the digital media train? In the history of US magazine launches, the high point may have been August 1999, when Tina Brown's Talk magazine debuted. Jointly owned by Miramax and Hearst Communications, Talk came into the world with an extravagant party in which Hollywood celebrities and former presidents took over the Statue of Liberty. Time and Hearst focus on new media, not new titles [FT via MSNBC]

Can big media take on the mighty Google?

-LENN HINDSMANN When Google swallowed Youtube in a $1.6 billion deal, it set off the online video race. Big media companies knew it would take loads of cash and new technology to go up against the internet monster, so some of them teamed up and some decided to go it alone. Now it looks like there is some kind of joint goal among big media and the major internet companies who stand beside them to crush Google. But will Google CEO Eric Schmidt even give them the chance to catch up? While the big media guys are busy trying to figure out how to challenge Google’s Youtube, Schmidt has been building the company via some smart and key acquisitions quietly moving into traditional media territory. Maybe this is exactly what Schmidt wants, so while big media leaves their back door unguarded he can slip right in and catch them by surprise. One by one, the big media companies and the Internet giants have started to ante up for the big poker game over the future of the video content business. Google started it all with its acquisition of YouTube. Then GE’s NBC-Universal and Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. responded by joining forces to create “NewCo,” which Comcast, the country’s largest cable company, also just joined. Sumner Redstone’s CBS followed with the announcement of their own independent distribution initiative, called the “CBS Interactive Audience Network”. Standing alongside these big media giants are all the biggest Internet portals, including Yahoo!, AOL , and MSN. What has essentially happened, in a very short period, is that most of the existing Internet and media establishment have lined up on one side of the fence in support of each other, all against GooTube! Viacom Needs to Team Up With Google, Rather Than Sue It [SeekingAlpha]

TIP: Time Warner could announce succession plan this week

-LENN HINDSMANN Checking our tip box this morning which is usually packed with spam or shit we already know, one stood out due to its very attention grabbing subject line which is the title of this post. Now we can't confirm this but we felt we should put it out there in hopes that someone can. Below is the actual email sent in by the tipster as is. Hi, I am familiar with inner plans within Time Warner and wanted to give you a heads up that some major news will be coming out this week regarding the future management of the company. The board is planning to announce Jeff Bewkes as CEO elect of the company. I think Dick will be holding on to the chairman title after even when Jeff is named CEO because the board loves his diplomatic approach to issues. Can't say anything else because thats all I know for now. Any tips sent to Mediawiredaily.com are rumors, hearsay, gossip etc until proven via an official press release or published report. EARLIER: Our mock Businessweek cover with Jeff Bewkes is getting closer to reality, well at least the headline is

Morning Wire: And now this morning's worthy media news...

With the exception of Dow Jones, it looks like every other major newspaper publisher had a sucky Q1, well at least the ones who reported so far [NYT] Hachette Filipacchi Media lands automotive ad firm jumpstart. [NYP] Google's rich just keep getting richer [NYP] Was NBC seeking ratings or giving the public what they want, or both? [Reuters]

Question: Did Liz Spiers kill the "Super Mogul"?

-NEIL YOSHIDA We're big fans of Elizabeth Spiers and like to cruise through her blogs daily. But when we attempted to visit Supermogul.com, we were forwarded to Dealbreaker.com. Did Liz kill the SuperMogul, or is it down for some kind of revamp? Whatever the situation, we're sure it was a business move. This could only mean a bigger and better Dealbreaker, Fashionista and Abovethelaw. UPDATE2: Elizabeth Spiers Leaves Dead Horse Media UPDATE: DealBreaker Acquires SuperMogul: Hostile In A Friendly Way Supermogul.com

Thank Cho Seung-Hui for your traffic spike

-NEIL YOSHIDA We were wondering how long it would have taken for someone to point out how others are benefiting from the Virginia Tech murders. Mediaweek's Mike Shields takes us through how traffic has picked up at major online news portals as the story unfolds. Why do we feel that somewhere at each of the major websites mentioned in Shields' article some sick individual is saying or has said, "If only we could get a story like this every month". But its not geometry, major events brings more traffic and/or newscast viewership. Category leader Yahoo News saw its audience swell 13 percent to more than 8 million uniques on Monday versus the previous week. Meanwhile, MSNBC.com and CNN.com experienced monster gains, as their unique audiences surged by 47 percent and 45 percent respectively. Each site continued to see its total user base grow on Tuesday as more details of the story emerged, with Yahoo and MSNBC’s unique audiences hitting 8.5 and 8.4 million uniques that day. Web Traffic Surges As Virginia Tech Story Unravels [Mediaweek]

The fight for your eyes

-LENN HINDSMANN There is a major race going on among media companies. We all know big media like to compare dick sizes, but the question is who will have the biggest dick of all in the long or short run. Google may have been called idiots for paying $1.6 Billion for Youtube, but perhaps they saw something on the horizon and jumped on it when they got the chance. For years big media has controlled what, when, how, and where you watch your favorite television programs, but with a major shift going on from old to new media, they are now begging you to take the controls. Enter search engine blinkx and other search engines fighting to become thee destination for professionally made online programming. Suranga Chandratillake, founder of video search engine blinkx, likes showing off his new remote control. It can't change programs on TV, but this mouse-controlled tool will help users channel surf the Web. Much like the on-air channel guides on cable and satellite TV, the blinkx tool provides a comprehensive list of network TV programming available on the Web. Then, it lets users call up a show—from virtually anywhere on the Web—with the click of a mouse. The Surfer's Guide to the Web TV Galaxy [Businessweek]

What else will fall at New York Times Co?

-LENN HINDSMANN New York Times’ numbers are in and shareholders can't be happy. Advertising continues to be the source of many revenue declines in the newspaper business as advertisers continue to spend more money online. ARTHUR "Pinch" Sulzberger and company may want to shore up the company's digital business even more by the time Q4 comes around to offset any print ad pot holes. That’s what saved the folks at Wall Street Journal publisher Dow Jones. First-quarter net income was $23.9 million, or 17 cents a share, compared with $32.4 million, or 22 cents a share, in the same quarter a year earlier. Excluding special items, profit from continuing operations was 25 cents a share, unchanged from a year earlier.Analysts, on average, had expected the company to earn 18 cents a share on revenue of $785.2 million, according to Reuters Estimates. New York Times Co. quarterly profit, revenue fall [Reuters]

Hearst's Tower Awards Recap

Who would have thought that some of Hearst's own magazines would have been snubbed at the first ever "Tower Awards". Perhaps Hearst Prexy Cathy Black wanted it to feel like a real awards ceremony or something. Or is this her way of saying good job to the winners and work harder to the losers? Video please! Taking home one award each were Harper's Bazaar for September photography, Popular Mechanics and Town & Country on Katrina-related topics, Good Housekeeping for a makeover package, CosmoGirl for its regular feature on a future female president and Seventeen for "innovation" on its "America's Next Top Model" partnership, a legacy of bygone editor in chief Atoosa Rubenstein. Quick & Simple cracked the ever-elusive code for a cover line with "Why you need to eat chocolate every day!" Favored child O, The Oprah Magazine swept three awards for best special section, the "president's award" for diversity and public service. Pat On The Back... Next In Line.. Hearst Hires [WWD]

Music Wire: You haven't seen the last of Sanjaya Malakar

-NOEL GESSNER Make no mistake about it. I am no fan of Sanjaya Malakar, but we haven't seen the last of him and getting the boot from AI last night is only the beginning of the Sanjayanization of America. Here is a kid who held on for so long due to one thing and one thing only, his hair and looks. OK two things. So what’s next for the skinny kid from Federal Way WA.? How about a record deal for the hell of it? Believe it or not there are young girls and boys out there who would buy a Sanjaya Malakar album, see a Sanjaya Malakar movie and buy Sanjaya Malakar hair products. A perfect fit for this kid would be within the Disney stable, but due to what we're sure is an iron clad contract, Sanjaya may be in the AI, 19 Entertainment circle for a while. There is no denying it, that face could sell some products and there is someone on the side lines waiting to slide in and make it happen. Hey, he could give Disney superstar Corbin Bleu, a run for his money. So for all those who are rejoicing, hold the celebrations? The Sanjayanization of America started last night. EARLIER: We all fuel the Sanjaya Malakar machine

Morning Wire: NBC's package | Clear Channel almost sold | You can’t eat WSJ’s new top Editor and more in this morning's worthy media news...

-NEIL YOSHIDA NBC News may act as if they're not happy they were the ones who got that package from the Virginia Tech Psycho, but we all know the truth don't we? [NYT] The Wall Street Journal finally names a new top man. Marcus W. Brauchli was named managing editor of The Wall Street Journal, succeeding Paul E. Steiger, who has held the top job in the newsroom since 1991. [NYT] Sumner Redstone, always in a giving mood, pledged $105 million to fund cancer and burn research at three major U.S. health care centers. We so understand why at least one of these causes are really important to Sumner [Reuters] Radio monster Clear Channel accepts new bid, may put this thing to bed once and for all [USA Today] Former Disney dictator Michael Eisner must have gotten to someone deep inside sports cards maker Topps because even though they got a higher bid from rival Upper Deck, they still went with Mike's offer [NYP]

Debbie Nathan won’t let you forget about Kurt "Justin Berry" Eichenwald

-LENN HINDSMANN Kurt Eichenwald probably regrets the day he went out of his way to put Justin Berry on the victim’s platform, because as it turns out, the boy kinda really liked his online gig. The full blown story of the Eichenwald/Berry drama has yet to be told in its entirety, according to some. So who will eventually tell it? Will Justin Berry land a book deal and spill the beans? Or will this be turned into some lifetime movie if it hasn't already. One thing’s for sure, this story is getting full blown attention from all over the mediasphere and Kurt Eichenwald can't be too happy about that. The latest in this full blown attention comes from Debbie Nathan, whose article in "Counter Punch" only adds to the boiling lava that is the Eichenwald/Berry connection, and with trials getting off the ground like the one scheduled for next month in Richmond VA, this volcano will soon erupt spewing the known unknowns all over the place. Hysteria, Exploitation and Witch -hunt in the age of internet sex [CounterPunch] PREVIOUSLY: No wonder Portfolio left out Kurt Eichenwald's contribution to their debut issue. This shit just won't go away

Afternoon Wire: But is AOL's customer service still incompetent

-NEIL YOSHIDA AOL may be moving in a more healthy direction as far as their new strategy. But has their customer service improved since the clip below? Do customer service reps still find it difficult to understand a simple request? For former AOL customer Vincent Ferrari he basically had to talk the rep on the other end of the phone line into canceling his account.

Barry Diller's online destination for brown people

-LENN HINDSMANN Internet mogul Barry Diller is seeking some black love and he plans to get it via a new website targeting black Americans and other ethnic minorities online. No name for the new venture has been revealed but plans seem to be in motion being that the launch is set for sometime in January 08. Diller will have to fight to get his footing as other websites targeting the same demo have been dominating for years. Though this is indeed the case, none of the currently dominating sites have done the aggressive marketing IAC sites are known for. We’re sure this launch won’t be one of those under the radar launches and will come full blast with ads via TV, online and print. However we’re shocked Diller didn’t go the acquisition route, buying an already established operation and building on it. Perhaps none caught his eyes. IAC will face heavy competition from other players that have flocked to the space as the number of African-American Internet users -- and advertisers' interest in reaching them -- continues to increase. Time Warner Inc.'s AOL Black Voices offers news, videos and blogs that highlight prominent African-Americans, such as actress Halle Berry or presidential candidate Barack Obama. The site, which attracts about 3 million unique monthly U.S. visitors, according to comScore Networks Inc., also assembles articles on themes likely to resonate with the community. BlackPlanet.com, operated by Community Connect Inc., is a social-networking site that aims to connect African-Americans over common interests and issues, such as the latest trends in black fashion and music. The site includes an online dating service and a job-search engine for employers. IAC Site to Court MinoritiesIn Push Into Growing Sector [WSJ]

When celebrity trash magazines attempt to be serious for a week, they end up being an even bigger joke

-NEIL YOSHIDA We all love our dose of celebrity trash magazines, well unless you read that Perez guy's blog like we do. We also like our dose of real news reporting from titles like Time, Newsweek, The Week and others. But when your celeb trash magazine attempts to walk those grounds, it comes over as a huge "What the fuck?" Well that’s exactly what celeb titles like InTouch Weekly decided to do this week, hopping on the Virginia Tech bandwagon throwing us off track. At the end of the day, it stews down to newsstand sales, and putting the biggest story in the country on your cover which is usually dominated by drunk and drugged celebs, is a shameless attempt to cash in on a tragedy. In Touch editor in chief Richard Spencer was convinced the Virginia story was worth covering in a major way after watching his staff's obsession with the news. "When you see everybody stopping in the office, in horror, you say, ‘Oh, I want to read this,'" said Spencer. "When so many people have died, [it is] hard to be so fixated on how crazy Britney [Spears] is acting." That’s true, but we usually look to more respected titles like the above mentioned for stories like these. So please, please, please leave stories like this to the pros and stick to your coverage of the crazy & drugged up celebrities you cover weekly. Source: WWD

At NBC we would have killed to have AOL: Randy Falco

-LENN HINDSMANN AOL Chief Randy Falco is so confident about the future of the internet giant, he says his bosses at Time Warner would be nuts to dump the company. Falco has settled into his new gig as spokesperson in chief, and according to many, has the company moving in the right direction. But anyone who looks close enough can see Time Warner CEO in waiting Jeff Bewkes's finger prints all over the new strategy "As traditional media struggles with the shift to digital, I think Time Warner is starting to realize that with AOL they have help right there in the field," he said. "I've reached out to them to identify ways we can help and give them an edge in the fight." FALCO'S FETE [NYP]

Music Wire: EMI's money | UMG | Beyonce to Def Jam?....

-NOEL GESSNER EMI's revenues are down 15% but CEO Eric Nicoli isn't worried about it. Nicoli remains typically upbeat, and says the company has made the necessary strategic steps to safeguard its future. "Our industry is changing at an unprecedented pace and we are committed to accelerating the transformation of our business to realise the opportunities before us," Nicoli comments. [Billboard Biz] EU says OK to Universal BMG publishing deal. UMG successfully bid on BMG Music Publishing in an invitation-only auction last year, offering €1.63 billion ($2.5 billion). [Bloomberg] With radio programmers still in the pockets of many of the major record labels, up and coming artist looking for their shine, turn to Television to get their music heard. Do you remember a little band called "Phantom Planet"? When their song "California" was used as the theme song for the popular TV drama "The OC" their popularity went through the roof. Wonder what they're doing now that the show is dead? [Reuters] Will tweens and closeted Sanjaya lovers take the skinny kid with the mop top all the way to Idol's finally? He just may have that much juice, that's if last night's disastrous performance doesn't do him in [AP] Some big guns came out to honor Atlantic Records founder Ahmet Ertegun [E!] Is Beyonce moving to Def Jam to be even closer to her boyfriend, Def Jam chief Shawn Carter? God we hope not [SOHH] Music execs were probably in a serious panic yesterday when they found out their Blackberry service was down. How else would they order the Phantom to pull around to the front of the building? [HDD]

Call her the mayor of iVillage

-LENN HINDSMANN NBC Universal’s digital queen Beth Comstock may have the support of her bosses at GE and NBC but, some colleagues think she is in over her head. In usual GE/NBC practice, Comstock was handed a new title and duties even after an alleged less than stellar performance overseeing the media giant’s digital offerings under former CEO Bob Wright. According to Nielsen reports, iVillage Live, the spin off show of the popular website has fallen flat on its ass. The show is even said to be the subject of laughter among some insiders. Did NBC put the right person in charge of their digital strategy? Comstock comes from a marketing background with no previous digital media experience and is even in charge of NBC’s new $250 million investment fund. "People are beginning to question why she has been given so much responsibility relative to her performance," said one source close to the company. "The show is considered a laughingstock at the station level," said another source. "It's synergy at its worst." "iVillage is a steady build," said an NBC spokesman. "It's generating more revenue now than ever before." COMSTOCK'S LOAD [NYP]

Morning Wire: And now this morning's worthy media news...

-NEIL YOSHIDA Dow Jones boss Dick Zanino was able to save some face when his company reported it's Q1 results yesterday, thanks to cuts and the company's Internet offerings. Dow Jones is the first American newspaper publisher to report quarterly earnings this season. Others due this week include The New York Times Company, the Tribune Company and Gannett. Spread some towels on the floors please. [NYP] With a pending new owner, Tribunites find themselves wondering what the future holds for them. That's easy, think Jason in Friday the 13th [NYP] The Star-Ledger of New Jersey submits revised circulation statements after realizing, they were 15k over. [NYP] New York Times Co Ruler Pinch Sulzberger has a supporter, kinda [NYP] Some advertisers who bailed on the hilarious Don Imus, say they forgive him and would even advertise with him again [Adweek] Bidders for Clear Channel are said to be upping their offer to $19.5 billion in hopes to close a deal soon. We say why not shoot for a cool $20 billion? That would close the deal yesterday. [Reuters]

Yet another review of Conde Nast's Portfolio

-NEIL YOSHIDA Finally some people who know business share their thoughts on Conde Nast's new business magazine Portfolio. First, a word about the cover: Only a company as fat and complacent as Conde Nast would be arrogant enough to launch a new business magazine with a cover that gives the reader no idea that it's a business magazine. There are two possibilities here. (1) Portfolio thinks that newsstand readers will look closely enough to see the subtitle "business intelligence" just below the title, despite all available research indicating that they generally don't read anything in fonts smaller than GIGANTIC, or (2) Portfolio imagines everyone everywhere already knows what they are because they've gotten quite a bit of media trade press and people who work in media tend to think that everyone everywhere pays attention to media news when, in fact, they don’t. (Other things most print media consumers don't pay attention to: bylines. But more on that later.) We know Conde Nast does cover testing for some of their magazines—Vogue, Vanity Fair, etc. We can only assume the $15,000 or so it would have cost to do that for the "Premier" issue was used to pay people to pick lint from Tom Wolfe's trademark white suit. Or maybe to pay for the first 15 words of his piece, which are as follows: "Not bam bam bam bam bam bam but bama bampa barama bam bamity bam bam…" (Here Wolfe exhibits the typical mentality of a Conde Nast freelancer who is paid by the word: why not insert a few extra bams?) It kinda looks like some kind of art magazine or something at first glance doesn't it? Wonder who or what they have lined up for the next cover? Our Big, Fat Portfolio Review: Even Our Pessimism Was Optimistic [Dealbreaker]

Will "Pending Blood Bath" do?

-LENN HINDSMANN Apparently we touched a nerve or two over at Bookspan or Bertie or Direct Group… whatever. It was brought to my attention by our publisher and I felt it was appropriate to issue some calming words. Someone doesn’t like the fact that we refer to the current situation there as a “Blood Bath” and we have to admit that we may have jumped the gun a bit. How can we tag something its not? So with that said, going forward we will refer to it as a “Pending Blood Bath” instead of just “Blood Bath”. This makes it clear that this is something that hasn’t taken place as yet, but is likely to happen as the powers that be at BMG Columbia House & Direct Group decide on how many bodies they plan to bury, because some costs have to be cut from somewhere right? Unless of course Markus Wilhelm was making so much money that his departure hit the cost saving goal.

Should Bob Johnson stick to what he knows?

-LENN HINDSMANN The billionaire founder of Black Entertainment Television, Bob Johnson has made many successful investments over the years, but it looks like the $300 million price he paid for the Charlotte Bobcats may be test for the man who made his name and money via the media industry. Bob has been accused of being too much of a hands off owner in the era of Mark Cubans and rarely makes trips to Charlotte. Some there have even called for him to sell the team to someone who really loves basketball because he isn't in it for the game he is in it for the status and money. But it looks like the money has been slow to come. Perhaps Bob should do what everyone else is doing, drop some money on a hot web start-up or something. "I don't think Bob anticipated it would be this hard. I think someone in the league sold him a bill of goods about how easy it was going to be," said Felix Sabates, a NASCAR team owner and Bobcats minority investor. "I think the NBA, they were pretty anxious to put in a new franchise for $300 million. I don't think the NBA did a very good job of researching the market before they came back in here." The Bobcats' own mistakes made it worse. They were forced to drop ticket prices after fan backlash. A regional television sports network Johnson started folded after one year. And the team is still tied to a deal with Time Warner Cable that prevents satellite dish owners and some cable subscribers from seeing most of the team's games. Unfamiliar territory: Bobcats owner not used to losing games, money [Desert News]

Less cable more net: Exactly what does Dick Parsons have in store for Time Warner?

-LENN HINDSMANN Dick Parsons' contract may be up next year, but based on reports this morning, the Time Warner ruler may be planning to go out with a bang. The WSJ reported that the company may be leaning towards selling off a piece of its cable business so it can dive deeper into the web game. So is the media giant trading traditional TV for web TV? Rumors are also circulating that the company may be eyeing another major internet operation like MSN or recent start up Joost.com. Oh, the irony! The theory behind the strategy, apparently, is that cable will become increasingly commoditized and less relevant in a world with the Internet and Internet TV, etc. It was, of course, exactly this sort of thinking that led to the "transformative" AOL-Time Warner merger in the first place. Without concurring that cable will become less relevant (somebody has to plumb the pipes), this would lend credence to the idea that the AOL-Time Warner merger wasn't a colossal, bubble-headed Time Warner Considers Selling Cable, Investing in Internet [Seeking Alpha]

Afternoon Wire: Mel Karmazin's promise and more in this afternoon's worthy media news....

-NEIL YOSHIDA Sirius CEO Mel Karmazin continues in his efforts to convince himself, the public and U.S. regulators that the consumer will be the winner if they allow his company and XM to merge [Reuters] Guess what? The guy who went on that shooting rampage at Virginia Tech, was a loner. Aren't they always? [AP] Traditional media was just a temporary phenomenon? Who let the guy into the room who said this? [Info Week] Time Warner to go lite on cable TV and heavy on Internet TV. We say don't jump the gun just yet [WSJ] To all you digital media entrepreneurs, get your business plans in order, NBC Universal has $250 Million they are looking to invest in you [Reuters] Analyst Anthony J DiClemente of Lehman Brothers maintains his "equal weight" rating on Viacom Inc [New Ratings]

AOL announces that it will announce web deals today

-LENN HINDSMANN AOL Chief Randy Falco and company are said to be thisclose to announcing five web deals that will hopefully put a smile on the suits at Time Warner. Falco took over to lead the company's efforts in moving to a strictly ad driven operation, away from its outdated subscription Internet access business, and so far according to Falco, it seems to be working. "This is really AOL's coming out party as an advertising-supported broadband online service," AOL Chief Executive Randy Falco said in an interview on Monday. "More people are coming to the free AOL service, more than offsetting the losses on the dial-up service," said Falco. "It's a growth engine." Many are still wondering if Falco is the fix it man brought in to oversee AOL's transition from paid to free before Time Warner sells it off for a sweet sum? AOL to announce five Web broadband deals [Reuters]