Romenesko

Newark Star-Ledger
A former top Kushner executive says in a lawsuit that one of the biggest commercial real estate deals in New York history was used by developer Charles Kushner to funnel more than $5 million into the money-losing New York Observer. A Kushner spokesman denies the allegation.

Associated Press
During a three-month trial period. the Monitor will exchange copy from its foreign correspondents in New Delhi and Mexico City with stories from McClatchy reporters in Nairobi, Kenya and Caracas, Venezuela.

Hitsville.org
That's what Bill Wyman says. "Roger Ebert's vista is the too-narrow one of daily newspapers. That's an artificial construct that has no resonance to anyone with a computer. And even in that limited sphere film criticism was not a savior. A lot of highly profitable newspapers never had anything but crummy critics covering any arts medium you can think of."

Broward-Palm Beach New Times
"We will not have increases for those top 150 employees who earn $65,000 or over," says a Palm Beach Post memo. Staffers who earn less than $65,000 can expect raises of about 2%.

Editor & Publisher
"A key tenet in the digital media world we now live and do business in is: Be everywhere," writes Steve Outing. "Any newspaper company that thinks that its website or sites (and maybe a few other services like e-mail newsletters, RSS feeds and mobile-phone alerts) is enough is sadly mistaken." PLUS: Ten more suggestions for newspaper execs.

Washington Post
One of departing Washington Post ombud Deborah Howell's ten suggestions: "When newsprint is at a premium -- the two biggest expenses are people and paper -- reporters should learn to engage readers quickly and tell a story faster." || More publisher/ombud columns:
> Zieman: People are surprised to hear KC Star is still profitable
> Hoyt: Reporters shouldn't write opinion about topics they cover
> Raleigh News & Observer bans anonymous blog comments
> "Coarsening of the language is something journalists should reject"
> Shreveport Times makes "painful, but necessary" changes
> Knoxville News Sentinel readers complain about changes

> Kaiser: "Is there any limit to the shamelessness of NBC News?"
> Hartig made V-P's opinion pages more muscular | Related
> Zurawik: Maybe I should quit judging MSNBC as a news channel
> "Creative Loafing is dying due to the avarice of 'more, more, more'"
> Huffington Post plans to use some of $25M on "focused acquisitions"
> Ex-Philadelphia City Paper ME Hickey critical after accident
> Boston Phoenix parent buys Spanish-language weekly El Planeta
> Man wants Eagle-Tribune fined $65K for taking his picture
> Zakaria: My mom's magazine office was the Taj was destroyed
> Collector has saved every Seattle Times and P-I since 1980

Newser.com
He didn't get it. Reviewer Janet Maslin finds Rupert Murdoch simply an unworthy subject, says Michael Wolff. "He's just loathsome -- not least of all, it's fair to assume, because Murdoch is the most likely buyer of the beleaguered Times."

Advertising Age
The newsweekly unseats perennial favorite Cosmo in this year's Anderson Analytics fall survey, which quizzes college students about their favorite brands and activities. CNN.com made it into the top 10 websites for the first time, while sites such as Perez Hilton and CollegeHumor dropped off the list.

The Daily Beast
The NBC show should bump Washington insiders for genuinely informed outsiders, says Tina Brown. "How about bringing in the cool forensic skills of a David Boies? Or the fresh intelligence of a web star like Josh Marshall or Glenn Greenwald? Or the political/policy smarts of a journalistic intellectual like the Guardian’s Michael Tomasky?" THE NEW HOST?: "I say give 'Meet the Press' to Rachel Maddow."

Broadcasting & Cable
The cuts come as CNBC is on track to have another successful year, reports Marisa Guthrie. "The network's business-day block is currently up 66% this quarter compared to fourth quarter 2007," she writes. "But first quarter 2009 could be a harbinger of tough times to come as financial services companies -- CNBC's bread-and-butter advertisers -- are handing out pink slips like Halloween candy."

Boston Globe
The Globe has reached a two-year agreement with nearly 200 union drivers to cut wages 5% and eliminate all 10 of their paid holidays, starting in 2009. A union official says: "The agreement was a difficult one for the membership to ratify but it promises the best possible outcome over the next two years for union members, including the preservation of driver jobs, and the paper." || Read the release.

New York Times
David Carr on Black Friday coverage and the Wal-Mart worker who was killed by a "door-busting" crowd: "Just a few days ago, the same newspaper writers and television anchors who are now wearily shaking their heads at the collective bankruptcy of our mass consumer culture were cheering all of it on. ...The news media have worked steadily and systematically to turn Black Friday into a broad cultural event."

Nieman Watchdog
"I suspect the lack of regard for our profession has something to do with the way we have operated as a business," writes former Los Angeles Times editor James O'Shea. "Newspapers did all sort of things to live up to Wall Street expectations over the years. They cut expenses, cut staff, eliminated sections of the paper and, like the Tribune Company, acquired other more profitable assets such as television stations. Soon Tribune journalists, many only too willingly, started preening for the TV cameras and spouting their opinions and becoming minor celebrities. I really wonder how much that sort of thing, not only at Tribune Company but all over the nation, undermined our most precious asset, the integrity of our news reports."
> Lee Abrams: "It's too competitive to succeed by simply being reliable"

Politico.com | New York Times
In his new book, Michael Wolff claims the Times canceled its series on Rupert Murdoch after hearing from a News Corp. veep. Times managing editor Jill Abramson says that's "nonsense" and that "there were not more than two pieces scheduled to run." || Read the Times' review of Wolff's "star-struck portrait" of Murdoch.
> Murdoch "really contemplates" how he can acquire the Times
> "He may be the greatest newspaperman of all time"

Gannett Blog
Jim Hopkins got that figure from a Gannett internal report, which covers the first three quarters of 2007. "The numbers are startling -- especially now, with Gannett poised to lay off perhaps thousands of newspaper workers [this week] in another bid to boost the company's flagging stock," he writes. "Every [Gannett] newspaper except Detroit's was profitable a year ago -- although some, just barely so."
> Newspaper ad sales dive by a record 18.1% in Q3

New York Times
Editors from about 30 papers are attending this week's "CNN Newspaper Summit" to hear about the news org's plans to provide coverage of big events on a smaller scale and at a lower cost than the Associated Press. AP CEO Tom Curley says: "Breaking news is very, very expensive and if they have the resources to spend on it, we welcome them to the game."

San Diego Union-Tribune
Copley has owned the 2,600-circulation paper since 1954. "It's a really great newspaper to work for because you're covering things that matter to people you see every day," says reporter Maris Brancheau. "That can also be a challenge. If you're writing an obituary or arriving at a car accident scene, there is a 90% chance you know the person you're writing about."

New York Times
Many TV stations have cut costs drastically in the last year, and well-paid veteran anchors seem to be shouldering a disproportionate share of the cutbacks, reports Brian Stelter. One consultant tells him that anchors' salaries now seem "out of sync with the reality" of budgets.