Media

Get ready for more comedy and another run of The Voice on NBC this fall as the ratings-starved Peacock network reveals its fall TV schedule as it tries to give its prime time TV fortunes a jolt. Given how far the network's Nielsen ratings have fallen, even a modest improvement will be cause for celebration.

NBC Entertainment Chairman Bob Greenblatt must find some traction somewhere. For that, he's turning to The Voice, which is NBC's top-rated show. Now it will have a fall run in addition to its spring season outing. That makes sense, because not only will it get the fall season off to a better start, it will be a good platform for NBC to use to promote its other programs.

Greenblatt, who is one of the 10 media people to watch in 2012, will still have to be careful not to overplay The Voice as a short-term fix. Remember when ABC took its ratings-smash Who Wants to be a Millionaire and played it on so many nights that the novelty quickly wore off. Read More...

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is used to getting news coverage because of her statements and actions. But now she's grabbing media attention because she's decided to appear publicly without makeup.

As you'd expect with everything she does, opinions are mixed. An article in the U.K.'s Daily Mail gives readers a before-and-after look and points out that former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher would never step into public without her face all done up.

After decades in the public eye, Clinton is keenly aware that news media outlets would notice and start asking questions. In an interview on CNN, she calmy says that she's at the point of her life that she's going to look the way she wants. Read More...

TV news icon CNN is in ratings trouble. A new report on April's ratings show CNN had its lowest-rated month in more than ten years. That's despite the presidential race, which usually gives CNN a boost.

It's no longer news that CNN loses big to Fox News Channel, or that it's now struggling to compete in some time slots with MSNBC. The headline is that after all the shakeups, with Piers Morgan replacing Larry King and an overhaul of the morning schedule, CNN executives appear to be no better off. In fact, the New York Times reports on the behind the scenes worries about which remedies are left to try.

CNN founder Ted Turner appeared on Piers Morgan Tonight to say he wants CNN to be the New York Times of cable TV news. That's just how Turner's channel appeared during its heyday. Read More...

The investigation into Rupert Murdoch and his vast media empire has taken a dramatic turn in the wake of the phone-hacking scandal that forced him to shut down the British newspaper News of the World last year. A group of British lawmakers say Murdoch is simply not fit to run an international media company.

This wasn't an off-the-cuff comment made at an emotionally-charged news conference, like would be typical in the U.S. Instead, this was in a report from a parliamentary committee looking into the scandal and how Murdoch and his executives at News Corp. handled it.

Remember, Murdoch's media holdings are vast, including the Fox broadcast and cable channels, the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post. Anything that happens to him in the U.K. will likely have ripple effects in the U.S. While most Americans may not be following the phone-hacking scandal, they are very familiar with News Corp.'s U.S. brands. Read More...

This month, media careers are the focus. In this highly-competitive field, you will be more successful if you match your skills to the jobs that are available to you.

For people who want to get a job in news, preparation is the key. Make sure you're ready from the time you submit your application through the job interview process.

If you're one of the many people who want to work in a TV newsroom, you should know more about what's required of some key positions. A TV news anchor job may pay a lot, but it also requires special abilities both on-air and behind the scenes. A TV news reporter has to know when to be aggressive or when compassion will bring home the story, while a TV news producer must be ready to manage people and content in order to get a newscast on the air. Read More...

If you work in media, here's a question to ponder as you eat your drive-through lunch at your desk while trying to meet another impossible deadline -- are media jobs really that bad in comparison to other careers? A new survey says yes.

For the first time, CareerCast.com has two media positions on its list of the 10 worst jobs of 2012. Newspaper reporter ranked as the fifth-worst job to have, while broadcaster came in at number ten.

This is the first time either job made the list. CareerCast noted that changing technology puts both positions in decline, while low pay and high stress make them less appealing pursuits. Read More...

One of the most widespread myths and misconceptions about news coverage is that it has a liberal political bias. But a new study on the 2012 race for president appears to refute that common criticism.

The study of campaign coverage by the Project for Excellence in Journalism shows that Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has enjoyed much more favorable news coverage than President Obama, at least so far in the race. The study looked at more than 50 news organizations -- broadcast, print and online -- in determining its findings.

According to The Daily Beast, Romney's coverage was 39% positive, compared to 18% positive for the president. So Romney enjoyed more than twice the good news stories on his candidacy. Read More...

The media industry has lost another icon. Dick Clark has died at the age of 82.

Clark died of a massive heart attack at a hospital in Santa Monica, California, where he'd been admitted for a medical procedure. Most of his fans were well aware of the stroke he suffered in 2004 that took a toll on his speech, but didn't affect his upbeat demeanor when he'd make his brief appearances on the annual Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve, which had its 40th anniversary this year.

Long before Oprah Winfrey turned her on-air popularity into a business empire, Clark paved the way for personalities to build their own media businesses. As CBS News points out, during the 1980s, Clark appeared on all three networks. That's when he hosted the Pyramid game shows on CBS, American Bandstand on ABC and served as co-host with Ed McMahon on TV's Bloopers and Practical Jokes on NBC. That's a feat that Oprah hasn't matched. Read More...

Last week, all eyes were on Katie Couric, to see whether her week of substituting as co-host on ABC's Good Morning America would knock NBC's Today from its top spot among the network morning shows. Instead, we should have been focusing on Today host Matt Lauer, whose value to NBC has just gone up considerably.

Lauer has signed a new contract, which TV Guide says could earn him $100 million, according to sources. He could even be part of an expansion of the program to five hours.

No doubt, his deal was already in the works before Couric began her hyped week at rival GMA. According to the latest Nielsen ratings reports, ABC won on Wednesday morning, the two networks were tied on Friday and the rest of the time, NBC won, including for the week as a whole. Read More...

The television news industry has lost both a pioneer and a giant. CBS News icon Mike Wallace has died at the age of 93.

He is best known for his decades of work on the CBS newsmagazine 60 Minutes, which will dedicate its April 15 broadcast to his career. He was part of the original team when the program launched in 1968, and was a regular until his final appearance in 2008.

What made Wallace such a legend was his incredible interviewing style. He knew when to be aggressive in order to get controversial figures to open up and provide details that no other journalist could get. Wallace had a unique gift for phrasing a question so that it was nearly impossible for a reluctant interviewee to avoid answering it. A person Wallace would interview would sometimes provide body language -- a nervous laugh, a wince -- that would add even more to an answer. Read More...