The Morning Fix: David Simon’s mission statement; Sony and Redbox cut deal; TMZ is TBD
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After the coffee. Before trying to figure out what all these budget cuts mean for your family.
Memo to Sulzberger and Weymouth: Former Baltimore Sun reporter and creator of ‘The Wire’ implores The New York Times and Washington Post to charge online now, writes Simon in the Columbia Journalism Review: ‘Content matters. And you must find a way, in the brave new world of digitization, to make people pay for that content. If you do this, you still have a product and there is still an industry, a calling, and a career known as professional journalism. If you do not find a way to make people pay for your product, then you are—if you choose to remain in this line of work—delusional.’
Boston blues. Boston Globe workers accepted a new deal with New York Times, which owns the paper. A sale may not be far behind.
Rethinking Redbox. Sony has struck a deal to provide its movies to Redbox, the video rental kiosk operator whose success has had some studios seeing, well, red. The Wall Street Journal.
TMZ TBD. As AOL’s new CEO Tim Armstrong starts to figure out life for the portal post Time Warner, one thing that needs to be determined is the fate of gossip site TMZ. Currently jointly owned by AOL and Time Warner’s Telepictures, Armstrong sort of hints in an interview with Reuters that he’d like to own the site 100%.
Min’s time up. Us Magazine editor Janice Min, who took over for Bonnie Fuller and oversaw an era of huge growth for the celebrity gossip magazine, is quitting. ‘I’m 39 and I’d like to have another career. I felt like I’d done every possible thing at Us Weekly to make it successful,’ she told The New York Times.
Conde crunch: Publishing giant Conde Nast has hired consulting McKinsey & Co. to review its operations. The New York Post suggests that this will lead to more cuts at the parent of Vanity Fair and Vogue and even warns that Vogue editor Anna Wintour might have to start doing her own hair.
Jackson standoff: NBC has offered $10 million for a Michael Jackson special but that price tag may be too low for the singer’s estate, says The Hollywood Reporter.
Inside the Los Angeles Times: ESPN’s plans to go local. Shaun Cassidy’s new sitcom about ... a former teen idol in middle age.
-- Joe Flint
