Wal-mart and the web? Well, yeah, OK.

• CNN's changes had nothing to do with getting rid of Brown; that was just a coincidence. "He's really a doll to work with," says CNN chief. [NYT]
• Of course, ol' Aaron had been a "drag" on CNN's ratings. [NYP]
• Knight Ridder sale could spark industry consolidation. You know, because there are too many independently owned papers left these days. [WSJ]
• S&S EIC Micahel Korda to step down, after 938 years in job. [WP]
• Comedy Central ups Colbert Report order to a full year, ensure 11 more months of a show we sort of feel like we should be watching but also don't enjoy as we'd hoped to when we do. [E! Online]
• Jack McCoy's flannel suits too boring for your TV-crimefighting tastes? Rejoice, then, in Sleuth, NBC Universal's new cable net featuring old crime shows from The A-Team to Miami Vice. [B&C]
• Russ Smith doesn't like Arthur Sulzberger. We're shocked. [NY Press]

After five years, the national press has finally discovered it can stand up to the Bush White House. So when the journalists are getting all uppity, and when Scott McClellan's stonewalling just won't keep them in place anymore, what's a desperate administration to do? Biological warfare, of course. Or at least so a conspiracy theorist could be, from the evidence presented by a high-ranking editor at one of the nation's major news organizations in an IM conversation with a Gawker Operative last night:

• Major investor in Knight Ridder newspaper chain demands the chain be sold "to increase shareholder value." Because 20 percent profit margins at KR papers — or whatever astronomincal number the company demands — clearly aren't enough. [NYT]
• CBS News's new Roone Arledge learned at the feet — literally — of the old Roone Arledge. [TV Guide]
• More tsuris for the hip-hop bible: The Source is $156K behind in rent. [Radar]
• Unsurprisingly, Fox & Friends, the Fox News morning show, is obnoxious — and successful. [NYO]
• After last year's bout of excitement, bloggers have not overtaken the White House briefing room. One imagines because bloggers chose not to waste their time being stonewalled and lied to. [E&P]
• Mother Nature for Time's Person of the Year, campaigns Jon Friedman, who is clearly hoping his weekend place — if he has one — will be spared when the next Nor'eastern hits. [MW]

Apparently it's been raining a lot. We had no idea, until the Times told us:

A shocked reader sent us a link to this Los Angeles Times article, adding the following:

• Gannett's profits have "slumped." To blame: newsprint, lack of political ads, oppressively high reading level of USA Today. [Yahoo]
• Newspaper readership is down! Again! And average reader age is up! Again! [Strib]
• Is Yahoo Public Enemy No. 1 For Big Media? [MediaChannel]
• Related: Will Google Kill News Media? [PC World]
• Jack Shafer on how no possible good can come of this Plame business. [Slate]
• That Freilich — what a card! [Romenesko Letters]

More intrepid journalism from the Daily News:

Flush from the stunning success of the weekend edition, the Wall Street Journal has decided to tear the guts out of anachronistic print-media fans by shrinking their paper:

The Post reports:

• Screw TomKat, Lohan, and Jessica Simpson — Judy Miller is America's Sweetheart, and she continues to be the recipient of all of the media's ink whilst spilling none of it herself. [NYO]
• You know what "Nightline" is missing? Idiots with cardboard signs outside the studio. Thankfully, once Koppel's outta there, that's what it'll be getting. [NYO]
• Recipe for a totally fun night: Invite the Nation of Islam to a screening of your movie debunking the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. [NYO]
• When it comes to terror attacks, always — always — differentiate between a "plotter" and an "applauder." [Northwestern]
• Jay Rosen doesn't care about the Times anymore (does he miss Circuits too?). We also hear he's a spitter. [PressThink]

Whether you think the Times writing about itself is more like "O.J. promising to hunt down the real killers" or "like reading Pravda about the Kremlin 20 years ago", there's something for everyone in Kit Seelye's Party Crash: Judy Is Elected Homecoming Queen by the New York Times. Watch the video, the outtakes from which are sure to be an office Christmas party favorite!

Have you noticed, lately, that there's been a lot less mocking of Times columnists and a lot more mocking of Times reviewers? How long before they put Alessandra Stanley behind a pay wall, do you think?

• Stories like the Katrina aftermath are much better in print, so long as print's still around to tell them, says print reporter David Carr. [NYT]
• Moss's mistake wasn't doing the blow. It was getting into a fight with a London tab in the first place. [IHT]
• More Dumenican yuks about the fall media offerings. Such as: In wake of TimesSelect, "the Times starts a program offering to pay online readers $49.95 a year to skim 'Metropolitan Diary items about the adorable stuff that Manhattan tots say and do on city buses to amuse the elderly and infirm. (Anticipated revenue stream: Google AdSense ads for Depends and Ensure.)" [Ad Age]
• Forthcoming Dylan documentary by Martin Scorsese shows, sadly but unsurprisingly, that reporters can be humorless nitwits. [E&P]
• Even NYT ombudsman Barney Calame says Geraldo's right and Alessandra's wrong. Big surprise. [NYT]
• It's odd, jack, to see meathead brother Oddjack in a Q&A that does not involve him insulting anyone. [PR Week]

Speaking of the de-rigueur explanations for anonymous quotes — the most obnoxious trend in post-Jayson Blair journalism — we love that reporters are now getting a little subversive about it.

We were sleepily browsing last night's Publishers Lunch deal report early this morning, disappointed to see that nothing in it got us particularly excited. Then we happened across this entry, which at least intrigued us:

It's day two of asap, the AP's new "younger audience service," and we think we now understand it: Younger audiences like brief, totally inconsequential and news-free items on ridiculously overexposed "young" "celebrities."

A 12-step program for coming to terms with TimesSelect.

It's been a day of dissatisfaction with our two most Respectable Newspapers over here. While we take a break from the TimesSelect (exclusive) outrage, here are a couple of your responses to the new Wall Street Journal weekend edition:

"Plans are in the works for some Op-Ed columnists to produce weblogs."
-New York Times press release, September 19, 2005