With Google becoming more of a destination site than a portal, companies like Hearst need to compete online by offering a robust destination site of their own. Hearst is poised to do just that with the addition of Answerology, which allows users to post questions anonymously and select specific demographics in which to seek answers from.

"Service journalism is all about helping people find answers to their questions, from trusted experts. That's what we do in our magazines and on our magazine-branded web sites every day. Answerology offers us a new type of service journalism, using a 'wisdom of the masses' model built on the expertise of users who are like you," said Chris Johnson, VP, content and business development, Hearst Magazines Digital Media.

All the layoffs - about 4.4 percent of CNet's work force - will involve employees in the U.S., according to a document CNet filed Wednesday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

CNet's suite of popular websites commands a huge worldwide audience, but its investors have long complained the company's profits haven't kept pace with the growth of Internet advertising.

The company indicated in the filing that the layoffs would be effective immediately and cost at least $3.8-million in severance pay, outplacement and other expenses.

Glenn Nelson, founder of the site, and Chris Hansen, national director of scouting for women's basketball, will both continue to manage and write the site.

"ESPN's acquisition of HoopGurlz represents our continued commitment to providing our core fans with compelling high-school-sports content," said James Brown, senior vice president of new program development, in a statement announcing the acquisition. "The site showcases the kind of student-athletes we strive to serve and will help us continue to grow our 12- to 17-year-old audience."

Hoopgurlz.com's founders hope the acquisition will lead to more coverage of girls' and women's basketball on the ESPN networks.

"ESPN is built upon a foundation of the highest journalistic standards, the same that HoopGurlz has used in covering girls' basketball," Nelson said in a statement. "HoopGurlz is excited to expand and improve ESPN’s coverage of one of the fastest-growing sports in the world, as well as to complement the site's coverage of women's basketball."

As a high-quality magazine it will target people with personal assets of more than £1 million on top of the value of their property and will cover asset allocation, new and exotic investment products, real estate, emerging markets and investment alternatives including art and wine.

Advertising director EMEA and global display Dominic Good said FT Wealth is "designed for a unique audience, making it the ideal advertising proposition for our wealth management banking clients. FT Wealth will be read by the top 1% of the population in terms of wealth, an audience which no other publication can claim to reach."

FT Wealth will also include issues such philanthropy, succession and family planning, education, matrimonial, security and social issues.

We sold plenty of subscriptions to both magazines, but I found that I was continually explaining to new subscribers some real genealogy basics - steering them to Cyndi's List and other places that listed beginner's courses. These people were smart enough; they just needed something more basic than what we were selling. It was sobering to realize that there might be a big market for a genealogy magazine that dealt with the basics.

Nick plans to use those acquisitions to establish a parents-centric ad network anchored by ParentsConnect.com, a community site the company launched in 2006. As part of the venture, the company will sell ads on a handful of smaller, non-Nick-owned sites, including ParentPreviews.com and Smartmomma.com, mirroring a recent trend wherein traditional media players aim to sell ads across the Web's long tail.

At the heart of Nick's parent trap is a revamped ParentsConnect.com, a site MTVN created as a Facebook-like environment for moms and dads. The new version of the site retains community elements but now offers more portal-esque navigation and editorial with a distinct Nick voice. The site's tagline is "We're not perfect, we're parents."

Steve Youngwood, executive vp, Nickelodeon/MTVN Kids & Family Group, said that since ParentsConnect.com went live, the company found that facilitating community was not enough to keep parents engaged: "We learned that content is the spark to build community." The site features polls designed to start a dialogue between parents, with questions ranging from "Were you raised to respect different races?" to "What would you do if your partner got you a blender for Valentine's Day?"

The company, which owns the LexisNexis information service and the medical journal, The Lancet, is understood to be preparing to cut the jobs over the next couple of years as it centralises functions such as procurement, human resources and IT across the group. Analysts expect the job cuts - the majority of which will take place outside Britain - to contribute to a restructuring that will shed as much as £100m from Reed's annual costs bill. It is unclear whether the cuts will be acknowledged formally in its annual results announcement on Wednesday.

Reed, which is listed in London and Amsterdam, employs nearly 37,000 people around the world. The proposed job reductions are thought to be focused on functions that have previously operated separately across the disparate parts of Reed's empire, which includes units specialising in science and medical, legal, and business publishing, the last of which includes a large exhibitions division.

Sir Crispin Davis, Reed's chief executive, told analysts last July that the cost cuts would be "fairly spread" across the group and that the efficiency programme, dubbed "One Company", would continue for the next two to three years. He said at the time: "We've taken the low and mid-hanging fruit. It's why we put in [train] this programme and I think it's been very effective in identifying new areas. Over the last six months we've taken that a step further... with the objective of continuing to deliver meaningful cost reductions across the business."

Tribune Chief Executive Sam Zell broke the news in one of his frequent "Talk to Sam" e-mails to all employees. The job cuts are focused on the corporate staff and the company's nine newspapers. Besides The Times, they include the Chicago Tribune, Newsday in New York, the Orlando (Fla.) Sentinel, the Baltimore Sun and the Hartford (Conn.) Courant.

The decision was reached in meetings of senior executives Monday and Tuesday at Tribune's Chicago headquarters, said Hiller, who was among them.

For now, Tribune's broadcast division, consisting of nearly two dozen stations around the country, including KTLA-TV Channel 5 in Los Angeles, will be spared. Fox TV veteran Ed Wilson, hired last week to run the broadcast operation, will be given time to evaluate his business and make his own personnel decisions later, according to a Tribune executive familiar with the situation.

The job cuts will come swiftly. Hiller said all the people affected would be out of the company by the end of March. The Times has 3,544 employees, 887 of them in the newsroom.

Features in the preview edition of The New West include "From Rubble to Riches," an in-depth look at how Western communities are turning old industrial sites into vibrant neighborhoods, and "The LEED Shade of Green," which examines the mounting controversy over sustainable building standards. Regular departments of the publication include Project Watch, which spotlights notable new developments; Design Showcase, which features innovative design solutions; and Metrics, a fascinating compendium of development-related data.

"Ever since we launched NewWest.Net back in 2005, our community has been asking us for a print magazine," said Jonathan Weber, founder and CEO of New West Publishing. "The New West, with its tight focus on the big story of growth and development in the region, is a logical complement to both NewWest.Net and our growing conference series."

New West produces the annual Real Estate and Development in the Northern Rockies conference, which takes places in the fall in Missoula. The company recently announced its second major conference, Designing the New West, which is scheduled for April 25 in Bozeman, MT.

NewWest.Net, a local and regional online publication, covers the culture, economy, politics and lifestyle of the Rocky Mountain West. With a wide range of writers from around the region and an active community of commenters and contributors, NewWest.Net was the winner of the 2006 Online News Association award for general excellence. “Wild Bill” Schneider, NewWest.Net‘s outdoors columnist, was honored with the 2007 Online Journalism Award for best commentary.

The Federal Communications Commission on Friday said it plans to fine the Walt Disney Co's ABC network $1.4 million for airing an episode of "NYPD Blue" in 2003 that showed a woman's nude buttocks.

The company said it opposes the fine and plans to appeal.

In a notice filed on Friday, the agency said 52 television ABC stations in the Central and Mountain time zones had aired the scene at 9 p.m. in violation of federal restrictions against broadcasting "obscene material" between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m.

The agency said it received "numerous complaints" about the scene, in which a young boy walks in on a nude woman about to take a shower.

Stations in the Eastern and Pacific time zones were exempt because they broadcast the February 25, 2003, episode at 10 p.m. local time.

ABC - which unsuccessfully argued against the FCC's contention that buttocks are a "sexual organ" - has responded to the ruling by noting that NYPD Blue came with parental warnings, was V-chip-enabled, and because it had been on the air for a decade at the time, "the realistic nature of its storylines was well-known to the viewing public."

"ABC feels strongly that the FCC's finding is inconsistent with prior precedent," says the network in a statement, "and we intend to oppose the proposed fine."

Mansueto Ventures-Inc. and Fast Company parent company-seems to think so. It is working on a new magazine, aptly titled Upstart, aimed at entrepreneurs, sources there confirmed. Publisher of the new title is Adam Platzner, who has held sales positions at music Web site SpiralFrog.com and the defunct Cargo, published by Conde Nast. Heading up the editorial side is Scott Medintz, product development editor, who was formerly a senior editor at Time Inc.'s Money.

Once scheduled for a May newsstand debut, the title's launch date is undetermined. Mansueto, which bought Inc. and Fast Company in 2005 from G+J USA, has also been spending money to build up its digital offerings. It announced plans for FastCompany.tv, an online video network, to go live in March.

Politweets rose up from all the great publicity twittertale got (and is still getting). We knew we had to take the same technology and use it for something a little more practical. Dan Croak of thoughtbot reached out with an idea to track the presidential election. This was one of the many ideas we had come up with but now that people were asking for it, we put it on top of the priority list. There was a definite need and I wanted to be the one to help provide that solution to the twitter users. Dan also offered his rail's expertise to help us get it out the door quickly (in time for the New hampshire primary). In three short days we came up with the concept, designed and delivered a product that we are all very proud of. This evening we made some minor tweaks, one being a better iphone experience (in case any one out on the trail needs up to date info), another in preparation for next steps/features.

The quarterly magazine-printed on a blend of recycled paper-is Connecticut's first definitive consumer guide dedicated to eco-friendly living. "Connecticut has the potential to be a leader in guiding the world toward solutions for a better planet," says editorial director Heather Burns-DeMelo. "There is a buzz in the air. From universities to government to corporations to small businesses and nonprofit organizations, there isn't a sector that's not bubbling up with innovative green initiatives. AllGreen Magazine aims to be a galvanizing force and to bring eco-friendly living into the mainstream."

The inaugural (Winter) edition of the magazine is currently being distributed to homes and businesses throughout Connecticut. Subsequent editions will appear in the spring, summer and fall, with a total circulation of approximately 100,000 copies per issue, and an estimated readership of 250,000 per issue. The Web site, currently in its beta version, will officially launch in the coming weeks.

AllGreen Group LLC's publisher is Michael J. Guinan, managing partner, who is also the principal of Hartford-based Marketing Resource Consultants (MRC), co-publisher of Hartford Magazine and publisher of CT Business Magazine, Home Living CT and The Greater Hartford Charitable Events Guide. AllGreen's senior editor is Carol A. Latter, who also serves as editor of CT Business Magazine and oversees several of MRC's other publications. AllGreen's creative director is David E. Frith, who heads up creative for MRC.

The new eco-friendly magazine is produced and published under the direction of MRC, and will be mailed quarterly with Hartford Magazine and CT Business Magazine. It will also be distributed to government officials, legislators, town chambers, hotels and eco-friendly businesses statewide, and will be available at prominent consumer events, including Sun WineFest, the Original Connecticut Home & Remodeling Show and two AllGreen-sponsored expos, scheduled for 2008 in Hartford and Fairfield County.

"It's so early, I don't know what to make of them," FBC anchor Neil Cavuto said. "We're just coming out of the gate. Going in, I had so low expectations."

Cavuto said the numbers reminded him of 11 years ago, when he joined the then fledgling Fox News Channel. "For years after I left CNBC, it was as if I had entered the witness protection program," he said.

It took FNC several years to make a dent in the ratings and more than five years to beat CNN.

The FBC's audience peaks at 27,000 viewers at 8 p.m. weeknights, the data show. Another high point has been 2 p.m. weekdays, when 17,000 check in.

"I'm not a stranger to this sort of thing," Cavuto said. "I'm a realist. These things take time. It's tough to rate this kind of thing with an audience so small."

The sale of the Weather Channel, once written off as a dull network for weather buffs, could become especially heated as it is one of the few remaining basic cable channels available for sale. One potential suitor approached by Landmark described the Weather Channel as "beachfront property."

Its audience has mushroomed as the channel has expanded its coverage of hurricanes and others storms around the world and created programming about climate change, taking an aggressive and sometimes controversial role in the global warming debate.

The channel is also a godsend for advertisers. Like live sports, it is largely immune from TiVos and other digital video recorders. The channel has 800 employees; 125 are meteorologists.

Perhaps more appealing for some big media companies may be the Weather Channel's Web business, which was started in 1995. Weather.com ranks as the nation's 18th-largest media site by traffic, with more than 32 million unique users in November, according to Nielsen/NetRatings. That is bigger than CNN and Facebook.

Think Secret, an Apple rumor site that's sat at the center of a controversy over Apple product plans since 2005, is going to cease publication, according to a statement published on the site. The decision is part of a settlement that Think Secret reached with Apple.

"Apple and Think Secret have settled their lawsuit, reaching an agreement that results in a positive solution for both sides," reads a press release posted on the site. "As part of the confidential settlement, no sources were revealed and Think Secret will no longer be published. Nick Ciarelli, Think Secret's publisher, said 'I'm pleased to have reached this amicable settlement, and will now be able to move forward with my college studies and broader journalistic pursuits.'"

There were 389 new magazines launched in 2007. There were also 636 magazines launched in 2007.

Exactly how many depends on who's doing the counting.

"We only count magazines that we have physical copies of," says University of Mississippi professor Samir "Mr. Magazine" Husni, who tracks launches monthly on his Web site. "That is, no announcement or wishful thinking that we are launching."

Through November, there were 636 magazine launches by Husni's count, including 221 published four times or more and 363 special issues that may or may not come out with a second.

BusinessWeek laid off a dozen editorial and business employees amid new integration of its digital and print editorial operations. The new structure will be phased in this month.

"For the past three years, we've been moving progressively toward integrating our print and digital operations -- by increasing reporters' contributions to BusinessWeek.com, combining our overseas bureaus and copy-desk teams and seating together everyone within a given coverage area," said Editor in Chief Stephen J. Adler in an internal memo that was posted on Talking Biz News. "Today we complete this vital transformation by creating a single editorial organization for BusinessWeek. The new structure will enable us to collaborate more effectively, take greater advantage of everyone's abilities, learn new skills and serve our readers and web users better."

1. War in Iraq
2. US 2008 presidential elections
3. Iran nuclear threat
4. War on Taliban
5. Blair's exit from office
6. Virginia Tech shootings
7. Harry Potter, the final book
8. French general elections
9. G8 summit
10. Execution of Saddam Hussein
11. iPhone launch
12. Madeleine McCann's disappearance
13. Paris Hilton in jail
14. Mattel recalls toys
15. Madonna's adoption problems

If this strike lasts longer than three months, an entire season of television will end this December. No dramas. No comedies. No "Daily Show." The strike will also prevent any pilots from being shot in the spring, so even if the strike is settled by then, you won't see any new shows until the following January. As in 2009. Both the guild and the studios we are negotiating with do agree on one thing: this situation would be brutal.

I will probably be dragged through the streets and burned in effigy if fans have to wait another year for "Lost" to come back. And who could blame them? Public sentiment may have swung toward the guild for now, but once the viewing audience has spent a month or so subsisting on "America's Next Hottest Cop" and "Celebrity Eating Contest," I have little doubt that the tide will turn against us. Which brings me to the second stage of grief: anger.

Obama Girl has found a new friend in Herb Scannell, whose online video startup Next New Networks has acquired BarelyPolitical.com, the site behind the viral-video hit.

BarelyPolitical was founded in June by Ben Relles and quickly rose to prominence thanks to the 2008 presidential election sendup, "I Got a Crush on Obama," which has been viewed millions of times and featured on news shows on networks from ABC to al-Jazeera. The site followed up with other politically focused music videos.

"Having BarelyPolitical as part of the group is kind of a feather in the cap," said Scannell, the CEO and co-founder of Next, which runs 14 other niche channels. "We're excited about this as a pretty big slice in the world of micronetworks."

Ten hours of bargaining presided over by a federal mediator failed to close a deal before a strike deadline set last Friday by the Writers Guild of America, which has sought a greater share of DVD and Internet revenues for its members.

The initial impact of a strike for most of the public will be felt on television. Popular late-night talk shows such as NBC's "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno" and CBS' "Late Show With David Letterman," which are produced on a day-to-day basis and depend on a steady supply of topical jokes and sketches, were expected to go into immediate reruns.

Prime-time comedies such as the CBS hit "Two and a Half Men" and Kelsey Grammer's new Fox sitcom "Back to You" also are expected to be knocked out of production because they depend on a substantial amount of last-minute script rewrites.

The effect on movies will be less obvious since the major studios' screenplay pipeline is well-stocked through 2008.

A strike would destabilize Southern California's signature industry and mark the first time in two decades that writers had walked off the job.

Thursday night's rally of more than 2,000 film and TV writers occurred a day after talks on a new three-year contract with their employers broke down amid disputes over DVD residuals and pay for shows distributed over the Internet.

The union's board of directors will formally ratify the strike plans at a meeting Friday at 10 a.m. at the guild's West Coast headquarters in the Fairfax district.

We have a social network of interactions between people, and we want to select a small set of people to monitor, so that any disease outbreak can be detected early, when very few people are infected.

For example, instapundit.com is the best blog when optimizing PA, but it has 4,593 posts. Interestingly, most of the blogs among the top 10 are politics blogs: instapundit.com, michellemalkin. com, blogometer.nationaljournal.com, and sciencepolitics.blogspot.com. Some popular aggregators of interesting things and trends on the blogosphere are also selected: boingboing. net, themodulator.org and bloggersblog.com. The top 10 PA blogs had more than 21,000 thousand posts in 2006. They account for 0.2% of all posts, 3.5% of all in-links, 1.7% of outlinks inside the dataset, and 0.37% of all out-links.

Returning to the original question, we performed the following experiment: given a budget of 1000 posts, what is the best day of the week to read posts (optimizing PA)? We found that Friday is the best day to read blogs. The value of PA for Friday is 0.20, while it is 0.13 for the rest of the week. We consider this surprising, since the activity of the blogosphere (number of posts and links created) drops towards the end of the week, and especially over the weekend.

FCC Chairman Kevin Martin's proposal would allow for public comment on the proposed rules in mid-November and a commission vote on Dec. 18.

Among the rules that are potentially on the chopping block is a ban on one company owning a newspaper and broadcast station in the same market. The rule is of particular interest to Tribune Co., which is the subject of a pending buyout led by real estate magnate Sam Zell.

Tribune has waivers that allow the company to own both newspaper and broadcast properties in New York, Los Angles, Chicago, Hartford/New Haven and Miami/Fort Lauderdale. The waivers will not transfer to the new owners.

But if the FCC agrees to Martin's schedule, and then votes to eliminate the cross-ownership ban, it becomes a moot point, and allows the company to close on the transaction by year's end, as it had hoped.

As of last Monday, Newsarama officially became part of the Imaginova Network (you may already know some of Imaginova's sites like LiveScience and Space.com). In the coming days, you'll learn more about Imaginova and its mission to provide news and content for the intellectually curious - a great fit for us. Newsarama will serve as Imaginova's eyes and ears in the world of genre entertainment. We will continue to provide and improve upon our market-leading coverage of the comic book industry. Everything you've come to know and expect from Newsarama is going to get better.

And that's really the story of this day ...what you have come to expect from Newsarama -won't be changing. We will continue to guide and grow the site editorially as we have since Day 1 and the writers you have come to know and trust will come along with us for this exciting ride.

Starting now, however, we'll be armed with the resources to begin phasing in additional content and introducing new media to improve site design, functionality, and dependability, and ultimately to expand our brand of coverage to other entertainment genres you're all already interested in.

According to people who have been approached by IDG about the magazine, IDG has hired San Francisco PR firm Porter Novelli to assist with the hunt for an editor-in-chief. Solicitations to interview for the job, along with the requisite non-disclosure agreement, are currently going out to Bay Area journalists with a technology background.

Those people who have who have spoken with IDG said the company plans to start the relaunch with a Web site, which will include a predictive market like the Hollywood Stock Exchange, presumably to let people track startups and technologies and place bets on which will succeed.

Trump magazine is a men's luxury glossy that captures the "essence" of the Donald Trump experience, and reflects the entrepreneurial passion and drive that have made the Trump name equally synonymous with opulence and business savvy. Trump is a dynamic publication, one without rival in its competitive set-targeted to a discerning readership of upwardly mobile, intelligent men who appreciate the best out of life.

Trump celebrates life's risks and rewards in the same manner as the magazine's namesake-the challenges of a real estate deal, the thrill of launching a new business venture, a round of golf on an award-winning course, a jaunt to a five-star resort-this is Trump's world! A quarterly magazine which chronicles the people and places that shape its readers' lives from the perspective of a 21st Century business and pop-culture icon, Donald Trump.

Beginning next year, The Wall Street Journal will begin publishing a monthly glossy titled Pursuits, which covers the lifestyles of the rich and famous. According to The New York Times, which first reported the news, WSJ columnist and blogger Robert Frank is the most likely candidate to become editor.

The magazine will be distributed in September 2008 as an insert in the paper's Saturday edition that is delivered to subscribers. Their magazine will also have a branded presence on the WSJ Web site. News Corporation is said to have approved the concept.

Also on Monday, the New York Post announced plans to launch a new weekly Page Six Magazine inserted in the paper's Sunday edition, beginning next weekend. As the title indicates, the magazine will include an expanded version of the newspaper's popular "Page Six" gossip column. The magazine, with a staff of about 20, will be edited by Margi Conklin. Conklin was formerly editor of Harper's Bazaar and New Woman. The new magazine may also feature writing by two other well-known Post gossip columnists: Cindy Adams and Liz Smith.

Now available on news-stands in both Britain and continental Europe at 7.50 euros, the 124-page magazine published at 175,000 copies aims to write about areas from travel to food, philanthropy to health, to fashion, design and the arts.

There were two reasons for the launch, editor Edward Carr told AFP, one commercial, the other editorial.

The editorial reason was that "The Economist takes on a whole set of big forces that shape the world, but there's a whole area of the reader's life we can't address in that format."

On the commercial front, the British weekly founded in 1843 believed the new magazine "could offer a more suitable environment for advertisers," he said.

We're giving people related to a story the chance to directly respond to it. Their comments are linked alongside the normal media coverage of the story. We want to make the full spectrum of views and information on a story available to all Google News users. We think this feature will help us do that without sacrificing quality of our coverage. These comments will provide you with additional insight; they come from individuals with information related to a story, who otherwise may not have an outlet to present it. As a result, each story will only display a few comments.

Numis Securities analyst Lorna Tilbian said any move by Murdoch to make wsj.com free has to put pressure on Pearson, while Dresdner Kleinwort's Usman Ghazi estimates a potential hit of up to six percent on earnings per share.

"You can resist if you don't want growth," Tilbian said.

Wsj.com is one of the Web's most successful subscription businesses with a $99 (49 pounds) annual charge and making it free would be aimed at lifting online ads from an anticipated jump in readers.

The New York Times Co. plans to stop charging Internet users for access to its columnists and Op-Ed pieces on a section of its Web site known as TimesSelect, The New York Post reported on Tuesday.

The Post, citing a source briefed on the matter, said a decision had been made by top Times executives. The timing of when the service would become free depends on technical issues, including revamping the software surrounding that section of the NYTimes.com site, according to the Post report.

A Times spokesman would not comment on the report, but said: "We continue to evaluate the best approach for NYTimes.com."

TimesSelect Web-only subscribers rose to more than 224,500 in June, the last month for which the company had data, from about 220,000 in April. Subscribers to the print edition of The New York Times also have access to the service.

While this outage was not at all heat related there was a serious heat wave in California last year that took MySpace offline. With global warming creating more intense and longer lasting heat waves these power outage problems will escalate. Web companies and data centers need to find ways to combat this potential problem. Making sure backup generators are working is obviously essential.

UGO is up against some pretty tough competitors, including ESPN, Maxim, MTV and IGN. Moses and McCracken knew they would be unable to survive against such heavily financed media outlets. "The media business is all about size and leverage," said Moses in an interview a few months ago. "We can't make it on our own. When the Web was about words and statistics, we were able to compete. But now it's about video. And for video, you need more money."

Moses has been trying to sell his company for more than two years. Just about every media giant out there has taken a look at the deal, and then taken a pass. The nine-year-old company has 82 employees and brings in some $30 million in revenue and an estimated $6 million in EBITDA. A nice little company, to be sure, but let's put that into context. MySpace, which aims for a similar audience, is expected to bring in $1 billion in revenue this year. And it's three-and-a-half years old.

For a company like Hearst, which has multiple media properties including Lifetime Television, The Houston Chronicle, Esquire and Cosmopolitan, UGO brings nine years' worth of Internet experience.

Kenneth Bronfin, president of Hearst Interactive Media, said he plans to retain both Moses and McCracken, and allow them to run the company as a separate entity. Bronfin will also consider more acquisitions to help build out the UGO property. Areas for growth include user-generated content (UGO still gets all its content from full-time employees and paid freelancers) and video.

That's one difference between Snakes and Paul: The congressman's fans really do want him to do as well as possible in the polls. But victory isn't the only thing on their minds. For many of them it isn't even the topmost thing on their minds. Like those Snakes on a Plane spoofs, the grassroots activity around Paul's campaign is interesting and valuable in itself. Here are three reasons why:

It's transpartisan. Paul's fan base stretches all the way from Howard Phillips to Alexander Cockburn. His libertarian message has resonance, as you'd expect, among free-marketeers dismayed by the GOP's love affair with federal spending. It is also attractive, as you'd expect, to lefties who like his opposition to the Iraq war and the post-9/11 incursions on our civil liberties. But the race has no shortage of anti-spending conservatives and antiwar liberals. Paul is especially appealing to people who don't fit the narrow stereotypes of Blue and Red: to decentralist Democrats, anti-imperialist Republicans, and a rainbow of independents.

The Internet makes it easier for such dispersed minorities to find each other, and the congressman's candidacy has given them a new reason to seek each other out. When Pittsburgh's Paul backers gathered via the MeetUp site, which arranges get-togethers for users who share a common interest, the blogger Mike Tennant attended. He found at least one Democrat, at least one anarchist, several disillusioned Bush supporters, a member of the Libertarian Party, a member of the right-wing Constitution Party, "and a whole roomful of folks disillusioned with the two-party duopoly... The one thing that unites us all is a desire to have a president who actually believes in liberty and has a record to match his rhetoric." Paul fans have been arguing forcefully for their candidate at both the conservative Web hub FreeRepublic and its liberal counterpart, Daily Kos-where, to be sure, they are met by angry opposition from more conventional Republicans and Democrats.

In fact, most teenagers and adults 30 and younger are not following the news closely at all, the report, titled "Young People and News," concluded. It is based on a national sample of 1,800 Americans that included teenagers, young adults aged 18 to 30 and older adults.

Thomas Patterson, a professor of government and the press at Harvard who conducted the survey, said that young people today do not make an appointment with news every day the way older adults do.

"We found that most young adults don't have an ingrained news habit," he said. "Most children today, when watching television, are not watching the same TV set that their parents are watching. So even if their parents are watching the news every day, the children are likely to be in another room watching something else and aren't acquiring the news habit."

The survey went a step further to see what the respondents meant when they said that they did pay attention to the news. Those results, especially among the younger groups, were equally discouraging for the news industry, said Alex S. Jones, the director of the Shorenstein Center.

A landmark audience of viewers from around the world has united at www.LiveEarth.MSN.com to experience the excitement of today's Live Earth concerts and to confront the threat of global warming. As of 3:00 p.m. EDT, MSN had received a total of more than 10 million video streams and has the most simultaneous viewers of any online concert ever.

Viewers worldwide have already watched the Live Earth concerts via the live webcast, and the LiveEarth.MSN.com audience will only increase. On-demand footage of all performances, along with artist interviews, backstage footage, easy searching capabilities for specific songs, artists and more, will be available from all eight official concerts at LiveEarth.MSN.com for the next several weeks.

"History is being made today," said Joanne Bradford, corporate vice president and chief media officer of MSN. "Millions of people around the world have joined together to fight the climate crisis. The over 10 million streams MSN has delivered so far today represent a milestone in live Internet broadcasting. We expect to see an even greater number of streams after the concerts are over as people return to watch their favorite performances or enjoy them for the first time if they missed the concerts live."

Rupert Murdoch has succeeded with his $5 billion bid for Dow Jones, owners of the Wall Street Journal, according to sources acting for the Dow Jones board. Negotiations have been completed and the board is confident the terms of the deal will be accepted by the Bancroft family, which controls a majority of voting shares in Dow Jones, over the next few days. A formal announcement is expected next week.

Murdoch's News Corporation will take over America's most prestigious financial publisher at the price he originally offered on April 17, when he proposed $60 a share when the