Judge upholds
Letterman blackmail case
Other shorts: Outsell: Pay walls won't solve papers' $ woes
By Louisa Ada Seltzer
Jan 20, 2010
Judge upholds Letterman blackmail case
Looks like David Letterman's alleged blackmailer will get his day in court, much to his chagrin. Yesterday a judge denied a motion by Robert Joel Halderman to throw out the charges against him, deeming the case "a classic example of an issue that is best left for a trial jury to decide." Halderman is accused of trying to extort $2 million from the CBS "Late Show" host after threatening to expose Letterman's affairs with female staffers on his show. Halderman has claimed that he did not try to get any money out of Letterman. Letterman cooperated with a police sting to ensnare Halderman and later confessed to the dalliances on his show, effectively preempting any public fallout and maintaining his No. 1 spot in the ratings as well. Halderman, a producer for CBS's "48 Hours," will head to court again in March. He has pleaded not guilty to the charge of attempted grand larceny and faces up to 15 years in jail if convicted.
Outsell: Pay walls won't solve newspapers' $ woes
Sorry, New York Times, but charging for your web content may not be an effective strategy. Amid reports earlier this week that the Times is headed in that direction, a report released yesterday by Outsell, a publishing research company, states that "newspapers that see paid online content as a panacea [for advertising and circulation declines] are in for a rude awakening." Just 10 percent of news users say they would pay for a print newspaper subscription to gain online access, according to Outsell. Seventy-five percent say they would look for a different local news source if their newspaper began charging. In other words, NYTimes.com readers could soon be seeking out the free New York Post or Daily News sites instead. The report's other findings touched on circulation, predicting a compound annual decline of 3.5 percent for daily and Sunday papers, and the impact of Google News, with 31 percent of respondents saying they are most likely to turn to an aggregator for news rather than a newspaper site (8 percent).
Study: Media usage tied to poor grades for kids
Attention parents: You may want to make sure your kids’ homework is done before they turn on the TV, computer, video games, iPod, cell phone—well, you get the point. According to a new study from the Kaiser Family Foundation, 47 percent of kids 8-18 who are heavy media users say they usually get fair or poor grades (mostly Cs or lower), compared to 23 percent of light media users. On average, kids 8-18 spend seven hours and 38 minutes a day with entertainment media, which works out to more than 53 hours each week. When you factor in media multitasking that daily number jumps to 10 hours and 45 minutes. That’s a lot of consumption, yet it appears many parents don’t do much to monitor it. The study found that just 28 percent of kids say they have rules about how much time they can spend watching TV, while 30 percent have limits on video games and 36 percent have computer usage rules. Children with media limits consume an average of two hours and 52 minutes less media per day than those with no rules at all.
Record ratings for MNTV's 'Smackdown'
MyNetworkTV's latest in a long line of revamps seems to be providing some ratings traction, albeit on a much, much smaller scale than the other broadcast networks. Last Friday night’s episode of “WWE SmackDown” averaged a 2.6 metered-market Nielsen household rating, giving MNT its highest-rated Friday night ever. The network then delivered its highest-rated Monday ever two days ago, averaging a 2.0 metered market household rating for a night of “Law & Order: Criminal Intent” reruns, or about what the CW averaged the same night and barely a quarter of Fox's average. That comes five months after MNTV rebranded again, for the third time in its short history. It launched in September 2006 with English-language telenovelas, basically soaps that aired five nights a week. In fall 2008 the network decided to go a cheaper route with reality shows such as “Jail,” “Street Patrol” and “World’s Funniest Moments,” before last fall moving to a new model that relies syndicated programs and movies, along with wrestling.
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