Brian Stelter at TVNewser has the video of Chris Matthews being attacked on-air by a protestor tonight on MSNBC.

Chicagobusiness.com has details about the announcement of Roland S. Martin as the executive editor of the Chicago Defender. Some highlights of Martin's career include his time as founding editor of BlackAmericaWeb.com and having a column on Creators Syndicate.

On Sunday, Variety posted an article about the amount of eyeballs that saw the first Swift Boat Veterans advertisement - and how they far outnumbered the viewers that exist within the seven markets they were paid for to run in. The article cites a report from the Nielsen Monitor-Plus and the University of Wisconsin Advertising Project, which found that while the ads ran only 739 times, as opposed to the 501,259 airings of ads by Bush, Kerry, or their supporters, it got much, much more play than what was paid for.

So let's digest this for a second - have you discussed ANY political advertisement this year with your colleagues at work....other than the Swift Boat ad? Now - do you live in Charleston, Dayton, Green Bay, LaCrosse, Toledo, Wassau, and Youngstown or receive television programming from those cities? Well, 6.5 million people live there, but there are almost 280 million more people in the U.S. that don't live there - and significantly more than 6.5 million of those remaining Americans surely saw the advertisement, from FOX News to MSNBC to their network news. So figure they at least doubled their viewership, all because what they had to say was newsworthy.

Check out the full report here.

[Props to Matt Sheffield for the tip]

Well, if having a fantastic food-fest on Saturday night wasn't enough, Tuesday brings a report from the Washington Post's Howard Kurtz, who writes that the spa treatment currently being offered to media members covering the Republican National Convention is "all free of charge, a fact that seems to cause few ethical concerns."

[via Lost Remote]

On Tuesday, online content provider Audible announced that they had teamed up with Verlagsgruppe Random House and holtzbrinck networXs to create Audible.de. This joint venture will provide both German speaking individuals and residents of the country with audiobooks and other spoken-word media for downloading.

The website, Audible.de, is tentatively scheduled to go live in Q4/2004, and will have much of the same "feel" and all the functionality of the U.S.-based Audible.com. Along with German content, all of the material currently available on the parent website will be available for download.

[update: 9:29pm ET] This evening, I checked in with Audible on this, and unfortunately, it does not look as if current customers of the company will be able to use their accounts on the Audible.de website - though this is not finalized as of yet.

Matt Sheffield informed me this morning via IM that Media Tenor has an analysis of Al Jazeera's coverage from March 12 through May 5 of 2004 in a formal report. While the report is subscription based, you can get a sneak peek at the high-level facts regarding the breakdown of network broadcasts, including geographical and topical focus on the website.

Putin.ru has the details on the newly named Editor-in-Chief of Forbes Russia, Maxim Kashulinsky. The publication announced his hiring on Monday, a little bit less than two months after the previous editor, Paul Klebnikov, was shot and killed.

In addition to the public service awards, the Associated Press Managing Editors commended both Alabama's Anniston Star and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel with the International Perspective Award. The Star won for its category of publications under 50,000 circulation, with the AP citing the publication's "ongoing commitment to bringing news from abroad home to local readers."

Editor & Publisher has the details on Miami Herald editor Tom Fielder's latest announcement to the paper's staffers - according to the article, he has "banned his reporters from buying tickets to the upcoming wave of partisan political concerts."

Jerry Finch, the Ombudsman at the Richmond Times-Dispatch has an interesting fact in this week's column. According to MediaMark Research, most readers check out the main news section of their paper first, followed by the sports section if they're male, and the food section if they're female.

Definitely interesting, especially if you're wondering where to advertise towards certain portions of a readership. Explains those betting and "gentleman's club" ads in the sports section, though.

Newsday picks up an item about the Associated Press Managing Editors Award for Public Service on Monday, who announced that Gannett's New Jersey publications, including the Asbury Park Press, had won an award for an investigation into corruption in the state. Also receiving an award for quality reporting was The Sedalia Democrat from Missouri, which was in a category for publications under 50,000 circulation.

Thanks to Steve Rubel for pointing out that Newsday has a blog set up to cover the Republican National Convention. Plus, it takes comments from readers.

Jessica Coen writes in today's Gawker "Top Story" about one media member's reaction to Saturday night's New York City Host Committee party at the Time Warner Center, where members of the press wined, dined, and were given a batch of discounts at shops in the building. The column in question was written by the Chicago Tribune's Mary Schmich, who concludes that the worst thing that happened was, speaking as a journalist who attended, "our refusal to see it as a problem." While it's definitely amusing to talk about, I think there could absolutely be some questions about this.

The press who had come to NYC in order to cover the Republican National Convention and the surrounding events were all invited - and by all reports spanned from on-air news talent to staffers from any out-of-town pub - to this shindig hosted by Mayor Bloomberg...as a way to welcome them all to the city for the week. But the question is, is this any different than hitting the press buffet at a sporting event? Obviously the scale isn't even on the same yardstick, but you catch my drift. Are the press that buyable that a hot (and temperature is where I'm going with this) party with quality food and schmoozing could create favorable coverage for Republicans? Or is it just the illusion cast upon journalists in a case like this enough for it to look bad. All kidding aside, is it cool to go to something like this before a political convention - and if it isn't, then why is it different than attending a party at, say, the Cannes Film Festival?

Tyler Cowen at Marginal Revolution has the scoop on the mentions of brands in rap songs so far in 2004. Some interesting statistics there, definitely worth a read. Cowen didn't have a link to a story about it, but the stats are from Agenda, Inc. and it was also discussed in this article by Russell Scott Smith in the New York Post.

[via Cal Ulmann]

Over at DMNews.com, Mickey Alam Khan covers the recent changes at BusinessWeek Online, which may help the site attract more readers. According to Khan, not only has clutter been straightened out and overall navigation been changed, but more focus is being put on the fact that the site has plenty of regularly updated news stories - not just content related to the weekly magazine.

At least in this country, the media isn't being paid for how it covers politicians....

(Though I assume there are people who would debate that...)

The Los Angeles Times' Chris Kraul writes that in some sections of Mexico, not paying off the local press pretty much guarantees they won't talk about you - unless there is something negative to say, of course.

The New York Times has an article Monday by David Carr about Vitals, a new men's magazine put out by Fairchild Publications. According to Carr, you can contact the magazine about certain items that are featured - the premiere issue has 25 - and Vitals' "helpful shopping sprites" will find the items at local shops and order them for you, if you wish. Because who needs to go out and take a walk at lunchtime, anyway.

So I'm watching the pre-show for the MTV Video Music Awards, and I just saw an interview with Good Charlotte marred by the presence of Paris Hilton, who didn't seem to understand what a producer was on an album, and thought she could laugh it off.

Who was that under the white towel with Lizzie Grubman? What the hell is she doing at the VMAs, anyway?

~Ashlee Simpson. Now that's talent.

~Oh, the pairs get better. P.Diddy is with Bruce Willis on his yacht.

~John Norris has now lost all street cred in my book. WHAT is he wearing?

~The 16-year old white girl patrol is in full effect, cheering everyone as they walk up the red carpet like they were the bleacher creatures at Yankee Stadium or something.

~John Norris' gear is really starting to bother me. Is there a way we can ban nepotism in the music industry, btw?

~I hope the "Billie Jean" video director got some sort of revenue for the stage lightup thing that J. Lo just walked over.

~"Confessions Part II" - that's the way to get the party started...

~You apparently can't say "bend over" on television.

~That Will Smith, he's hot these days. Ummm, yeah.

~Excellent move having Shaq...Though we never said MTV wasn't good at marketing.

~First Award - can't hear it. NICE. Oh, it's No Doubt's "It's My Life"

~Kanye West's rendition of "Jesus Walks" - fantastic.

Patterico comments on this morning's "Reliable Sources" show, wherein Debra Saunders from the San Francisco Chronicle states "I think that most journalists support John Kerry" in response to host Howard Kurtz' questions about the "double standard" that Kerry seems to be receiving with regard to 527 ads. President Bush has been asked by the public to denounce these ads, and for the most part, Kerry has not.

David Broder at the Washington Post writes in a column Sunday about the political ads put together by groups "supporting" one candidate/party or the other. He makes a great point - these organizations have very different standards than what the candidates themselves will usually stoop to in advertisements. That said, he calls on candidates to "tell their supporters when they have crossed the line."

Over at Adrants, Steve Hall has an item about tonight's MTV Video Music Awards, with a link to the rumor that Britney Spears may just get married to fiancee Kevin Federline at the event.

Newsday's James Madore writes Sunday that the media outlets covering the Republican National Convention in New York City are "pulling out the stops to woo audiences and impress some of the country's top politicians." They sure are - TVNewser has been reporting on CNN's use of the Tick Tock Diner, and Madore informs about a daily four-pager being put out by weekly magazine New York - just two examples of not business-as-usual methods that will be seen this week.

Roxanne points out that alternative newsweeklies will be covering the RNC in New York City this week. The Village Voice, Boston Phoenix, and, as discussed on Thursday, LA Weekly are among the publications that will have a presence.

The Arkansas News Bureau covers the newly announced partnership between CenturyTel and EchoStar, the parent company of DISH Network. According to Wesley Brown's article, CenturyTel will now offer a bundled package to its customers by the end of 2004.

It looks as if the distribution method that is the Internet has forced some concerns on the part of XM's lawyers. Reuters reports that Scott MacLean, a Canadian XM radio subscriber, has created a software package called TimeTrax that allows for the recording and saving of any music off of the satellite radio service.

Australia's Herald Sun has the details on two French journalists that were kidnapped in Iraq on Saturday by the Islamic Army in Iraq group, which was responsible for killing an Italian journalist earlier this week. According to the article, this capture has a different motive than the previous ones - the kidnappers don't want troops out of Iraq, they want a change to the treatment of Islamic students in France, who are not permitted to wear traditional headscarves in schools.

The Associated Press reported Friday that Belo Corp., owner of the Dallas Morning News and multiple other publications, is being sued in "at least four lawsuits" from shareholders of the company. The reason: nondisclosure of circulation overstatements.

It's time for the Friday Saturday Random Ten. Check out more here at Rox Populi.

1. "Acetate Prophets" - Jurassic 5
2. "Feels So Good" - Lina Santiago
3. "Flipside" - Freeway
4. "Pushing Me Away" - Linkin Park
5. "About Last Night" - Vitamin C
6. "Can't You See" - Total
7. "Nobody Move" - Eazy E
8. "Dreams" - The Cranberries
9. "Damn" - Fabolous
10. "Thuggish Ruggish Bone" - Bone Thugs 'N' Harmony

So flip on your iPod or MP3 software and put up your random ten.

The Orlando Business Journal [via MSNBC] covers an announcement by World Publications Inc. about the launch of Florida Travel & Life. The new magazine will hit newsstands in January of 2005 and will focus on lifestyle topics of Floridians.

James Joyner over at Outside the Beltway leads us to an announcement by the Dallas Cowboys and Comcast to provide the team's fans with the ability to watch - hold on to your seats - the Dallas Cowboys Channel. You have to live in in Texas, Little Rock, Arkansas, New Mexico, Tucson, Arizona, and Los Angeles and have Comcast cable to catch the 'boys all year round, but the release states that this amounts to more than 1.3 million cable customers.

CNN/Money's Chris Isidore writes about the powerful impact that tennis star Maria Sharapova has made on advertising and marketing of the game. The 17-year old has garnered sponsorships and tons of attention, having appeared on numerous television programs. But, as Pilot Pen Tennis director Anne Worcester points out in the article, "no tournament should center all of publicity around one player." Which should be a lesson for the upcoming U.S. Open in Flushing, New York.

The Lexington Herald-Leader picks up a Washington Post article from a few days ago, where Leslie Walker covered Vogue's September issue - all 832 pages of it. More specifically, that the issue will be "shoppable" - meaning that 480 of the advertisers have a section on shopseptembervogue.com.

On that site, visitors can search up by advertiser, type of product, store, etc. in order to figure out how to make the purchase of that item they just saw. Click the product you're interested in, give it your ZIP code, and watch the site pull up stores near you that carry the product. This strategy is quite interesting, and one that has surely been tried before, though possibly not to this level of effectiveness.

The Contra Costa Times has a piece Friday about the death of 81-year old Helen Copley, who was at one time the chairwoman of the Copley newspaper group and publisher of the San Diego Union-Tribune.

The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel's Bob Wolfley points out that NBC's Olympic primetime coverage has taken some viewership away from the NFL's preseason games. As Wolfley states - it is preseason - but nabbing almost 20% of viewers from games, preseason or not, is still a big deal in my book.

Reuters AlertNet informs that Italian athletes will add black arm bands to their uniforms while participating in Olympic events on Friday. The arm bands will be in memory of Enzo Baldoni, the journalist killed yesterday in Iraq.

The Washington Post's Patricia Sullivan remembers Diane Granat Yalowitz, editor and writer at Washingtonian magazine. Yalowitz had worked for 18 years at the publication covering immigration, medicine, and issues important to those in the D.C. area.

On Wednesday, the AP reported that Steve Coll, managing editor at the Washington Post for six years, has resigned from that role. Coll will stay on to write and edit - the reasons he had become a journalist in the first place.

Media Life's Marisa Hoheb has more.

Indystar.com's Randall Mell shares some details on the way the recent PGA Championship television ratings were displayed. According to Mell, the ratings were up 4% from the prior year. Unfortunately, the prior year was down over 40% from 2002's ratings, when Tiger Woods was in the hunt for the win.

So let alone the impact Woods has had on Americans (and, I suspect, people across the globe) picking up a set of sticks and hacking away, he obviously was a welcome addition to golf coverage on television. So it's just like a lot of other sporting events' ticket sales - if the team is good, the fans show up - if they aren't, the seats are empty.

BBC News Online's Patrick Jackson declares 2004 a "Black year for journalists" in an article on Thursday. The article reports that 75 journalists are recorded as being killed this year, unfortunately on track to exceed the total of 83 for the full year 2003.

Newsday's Jennie Yabroff writes a review/interview with ex-Maxim employee Dave Itzkoff, whose new book, "Lads: A Memoir of Manhood," comes out September 7. Itzkoff describes how the alleged "target" reader for Maxim doesn't really exist, how his life has changed since leaving the publication, and his hopes for the future of magazines.

Daniel Drezner comments on Kevin Canfield's Journal-News column about bloggers' influence on politics. Canfield has a few quotes from bloggers commenting on their impact to drive stories, most of which state that blogs don't necessarily drive news. Sure, that's all well and good, but getting bloggers to say that their readership is made up of "a small group of people who share common interests and occupations," meaning to say that blogs are preaching to the choir, is shortsighted. Perhaps it's somewhat true, but if you've noticed a trend in many blogs over the last 18-24 months, it's that they've become focused - on purpose. Some blogs cover politics, others cover gadgets, some (like TMD) cover the media. People are interested in reading what these sites have to say, link to, or break stories about. Who does Canfield think is reading most op-ed columns? Well, it's one of two groups - people who are backers of what the columnist has to say, or people who are just looking for an opportunity to counter what the writings cover, whether through a letter to the editor or via their blog. Hell, Maureen Dowd has hundreds - if not thousands - of people who read her works just because they can't wait to go after her on every single point. On top of this, there are tons of people who never even look at the op-ed section of the paper, because they're only interested in hard news. So what's his point?

I beg to differ that blogging isn't driving something in the political process - look at the donations that have come about from blogs? There are numerous stories of campaigns "getting back their investment" in blog advertising in a matter of hours by choosing the right places to pitch their wares. And for someone who, from a quick Google search, makes a living on op-ed and entertainment/media reviews/columns, saying that "blogs have driven a small number of news stories" is kind of strange. Goes along with the usual dismissal of blogs as purely reactionary and full of opinion and commentary. Pot, meet kettle.

The point isn't to be an immediate influence - it's to get a voice heard that hasn't been. A voice that's quickly becoming louder, more clear, and well spoken.

If Google had been around in 1960, perhaps it would have operated like this.

[via CyberJournalist.net]

The Miami Herald has an AP item about promotions near the top of the St. Petersburg Times. Marty Petty, currently executive vice president, moves up to the publisher's role. Neil Brown, holding both managing editor and vice president positions, takes on the executive editor position.

The AP has details on the latest publication in the E.W. Scripps Co. family, Blount Today. The weekly newspaper will focus on Blount County, and will be distributed for free in the market. Also launched was a complementary website, BlountToday.com, which will have more frequently updated content.

In a press release Thursday, LA Weekly disclosed that Marc Cooper, Harold Meyerson, Joshuah Bearman, Ben Ehrenreich, Steven Mikulan and John Powers will be blogging the Republican National Convention from New York next week. Between the protests and the politicians, the publication plans to offer details on all angles. Their coverage will be found both on laweekly.com and reprinted in the paper.

Both Reuters and the Associated Press (via Fox News) are reporting that Italian journalist Enzo Baldoni, kidnapped in Iraq a few days ago, has been killed. Both services state that Al-Jazeera has received a video showing his murder, but the network has not aired it.

After a tumultuous year or two in the world of journalism - specifically newspapers - some publications are doing their best to strengthen their standards from within. Editors at the Daytona Beach News-Journal publicly announced their policies and processes that are being used in order to stay on top of errors and fairness. Some highlights: randomly surveying individuals quoted in the paper, making corrections in a timely manner, and the creation of "Newsroom Policies and Professional Standards," a formal set of rules for staffers to follow.

A few days earlier, the Portland Press Herald / Maine Sunday Telegram had brought to light ways the publications are looking to improve their accuracy and ethics. They report that a suggestion box has been put in place for "ethics suggestions" and that certain members of the staff are available to talk about various issues within the newsroom.

Readers should be pleased to see that their newspapers aren't just standing pat, and are absolutely trying to make sure their publications are held in high regard.

India's Mid-Day covers the stabbing on August 24 of Sajid Rashid, editor of Mahanagar, a Hindi-language publication. According to the article, Rashid was stabbed twice in the abdomen shortly after leaving his office on Tuesday evening. Later reports stated that no further details were available, but there is the potential that the attacker(s) took issue with something Rashid had written about in the past.

BusinessWeek's Amy Tsao gives a review of XM's overall situation vs. that of SIRIUS. While SIRIUS has been doing a great job at teaming up with car manufacturers to get their products included in stock vehicles, their cost of business is much higher than their competitor. The article reports that XM's cost to acquire a customer is just $101 - SIRIUS' is $234 as of Q2/2004.

In early August, sandwich restaurant Quiznos reportedly removed advertising from "urban" radio stations, causing a bit of a stir. On Thursday, blackenterprise.com has an article by K. Terrell Reed that describes how this might change. According to the piece, Quiznos and Radio One, owner of 69 stations in 22 urban markets, are discussing the possibility of the restaurant running advertising over the radio network.

Media Networks Inc. (known as MNI by most folks who buy media) announced Wednesday that they had expanded their relationship with Hearst Magazines, adding six of the publisher's magazines to its portfolio, DMNews reports. MNI already does advertising in Esquire, a Hearst pub. If you're not familiar with MNI, it's pretty recognizable, especially if you get certain magazines in the mail. If you've ever received an advertisement for your local hospital inside Sports Illustrated or the tire retailer in Time, then MNI has reached you. It allows advertisers to hone down to the ZIP code distribution level in publications, so a smaller advertiser has the opportunity to expand their marketing efforts into a larger publication which they wouldn't normally be able to get into - because their ad would be irrelevant to 95% of the readers and way too costly.

Over at RatherBiased.com, they finally have the opportunity to write about some new Rather-related stuff. Dan Rather has returned from vacation, and he's covering the Swift Boat Veterans situation, which went big while he was off the air.

Later on this week, MediaChannel.org and Media for Democracy will be formally releasing their "Unofficial Media Guide" to the Republican National Convention in New York City. Tim Karr, MediaChannel's executive director, says in a press release that "The guide provides [the journalists] with contacts to alternative sources and New York-based experts who have agreed to provide comment on a range of social, economic and political issues. We also provide information on the many protests occurring citywide, including contact info for each group's spokesperson." Plus, it includes blogs!

Bob Liodice, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Association of National Advertisers (ANA), writes Wednesday about the advent of Ad-ID, and how it will impact advertisers. Not only will it help streamline the distribution of ads to various broadcasters, but it'll help billing and tracking of advertisements as well. For marketers, this is a really big deal, because part of the reason marketing is one of the first two departments to get slashed when times are tough (along with finance) is that companies aren't able to successfully track their advertisements or marketing campaigns.