Here & there
Washington Times editor steps down
By Louisa Ada Seltzer
Nov 13, 2009 - 1:01:25 AM

Washington Times editor steps down
There's at least one answer in the ongoing mystery at the Washington Times, and that answer is no. The question: Will John Solomon stay on as executive editor? Yesterday the newspaper released a curt statement saying that Solomon had resigned on Nov. 6, two days before three top-level executives at the Unification Church-owned paper were purged. The newsroom had been buzzing for days over Solomon's unexplained absence, following the exits of president and publisher Thomas P. McDevitt, the chief financial officer Keith Cooperrider and chairman Dong Moon Joo. The shakeup was attributed to the economy, but in recent days it's become clear that something more is going on at the paper; what it is isn't exactly clear. There are rumors of tension between family members of the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, head of the church, or financial woes that could send the paper online-only or out of business. Armed guards were even posted in the paper's headquarters as the new CFO went through the paper's financial records. Solomon has not commented on his resignation. The newsroom will be overseen by managing editors David Jones and Jeff Birnbaum.

Study: Lopez tops other new late-night hosts
While Conan O’Brien and David Letterman fight it out for the title “King of Late Night,” it looks like George Lopez can claim the title of prince. Viewers are most interested in watching Lopez among the three new late-night entrants. In a study conducted this week by HCD Research, 286 people viewed a news clip featuring Fox’s “The Wanda Sykes Show,” BET’s “The Mo'Nique Show” and TBS’s “Lopez Tonight,” with 60 percent saying they’re most likely to watch “Lopez.” “Sykes” (29 percent) came in second, followed by “Mo'Nique” (11 percent). But viewers think all look palatable. Forty-six percent predicted all three shows would be just as good as older talk shows already on the air, while 27 percent thought they would be better and 26 percent thought they’d be worse. Among all talkers, NBC’s “The Jay Leno Show” is the most popular. When asked which shows they watch (with the ability to select more than one), “Leno” came out on top with 44 percent, followed by CBS's “Late Show with David Letterman” (39 percent), NBC's “The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien” (25 percent), ABC's “Jimmy Kimmel Live” (18 percent), and CBS's “Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson” and “Sykes” (14 percent each). Thirty percent said they don’t watch late night TV talk shows.

NBC's Fallon falls behind Ferguson and Kimmel
Speaking of late-night shows, ABC and CBS celebrated milestones of sorts this week, though those milestones probably say more about NBC than about the other two networks. For the first time, ABC's "Jimmy Kimmel Live" and CBS's "Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson" bettered NBC's "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon" among adults 18-49 for a full week. "Late Late" finished first with a 0.6 rating, 0.1 ahead of Kimmel and Fallon, which both averaged a 0.5. Kimmel edged Fallon slightly among actual 18-49 viewers, however, with 720,000 to 712,000. It marked Ferguson's first-ever full-week victory in the demo. While Ferguson and Kimmel have remained steady, their edge is due mostly to the fact that Fallon has been slipping over recent months. Back in March, when he'd just taken over for Conan O'Brien, Fallon was averaging a 0.8 in 18-49s. But with O'Brien inheriting "The Tonight Show," and his ratings down by double-digit percentages from predecessor Jay Leno, Fallon's audience has fallen too.

Alloy: Students' buying power rises in recession
Perhaps the recession hasn't hit college students as hard as it's hit the rest of us. Students have $250 billion in spending power this year, up 6 percent from 2008, while discretionary spending is at $56 billion, up 37 percent from just four years ago, according to a study from Alloy Media + Marketing and Harris Interactive. The study found that college students are as high-tech as ever and that there are also more students than ever before. This year there are 13.8 million college students ages 18-30 on campus, the most ever, and that group will spend a record $6.5 billion annually on tech products. Overall, about 75 percent of students own a laptop computer, compared to just 46 percent who own a desktop, while 74 percent own an MP3 player and another 74 percent own a digital camera. Students this year are spending about 12 hours a day with some sort of media, including 9.5 hours with technology such as computers, mobile phones, MP3 players and video games, and about 2.5 hours with TV.



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