• The average person consumed 32.2 hours of TV each week this summer. It's a new record. And it's all thanks to the quality programming that cable channels have been putting on the air the last few months, obviously. [NYP]
• The bad news for newspapers is getting worse: Ad sales dropped by 29% during the second quarter, which means newspapers have $2.8 billion less in their (already empty) pockets than they had at this time last year. [AP]
• Related: Please take the time this weekend to read the massive story about Hurricane Katrina in the New York Times Sunday magazine. It cost the paper and ProPublica a record-setting $400,000 to produce. [CJR]
• Because Nightline feels left out of the war between Conan and Letterman, the show is launching a campaign to remind you that it still exists. [AdAge]

In your finally Friday media column: Army profiles of journalists are a huge waste of money, a special journalists asks for a special job, the New Yorker hires someone expressly to make you jealous, and newspapers lose billions again.

We were disappointed yesterday when the cowardly Wall Street Journal failed to fire faux-trendspotting flack Mark Penn for using his newspaper column to troll for PR clients. But—hearteningly—both Penn and the paper appear increasingly pathetic!

In your recovering Thursday media column: layoffs at the AP, a truly awesome correction, another restaurant critic gets canned, the SPJ conference is good for alkies, and Incisive Media has contest that is fun and tasty!

Yesterday we reported that Microtrend-spouting flack Mark Penn's PR firm was using his Wall Street Journal column to drum up PR business. Penn is ethically compromised. But today, the WSJ tells us they're keeping Penn on as a columnist. Cowards.

The New York Post specializes in faux-outrage (accompanied by plenty of sexy pics of said outrage!), but never more than in the dead news days of August. Below, we rate the shamelessness of the Post's current faux-scandals. We're outraged!

In your tanned Wednesday media column: Maer Roshan is up to something in LA, Portfolio('s picture) gets a new life, the NYT mag has a new, pretentious slogan, and booty skills translate between magazines.

Mark Penn, the strategist who dashed Hillary Clinton's presidential hopes, is the Wall Street Journal's "Microtrend"-spotting columnist. He's also CEO of PR giant Burson-Marsteller. Only a scumbag would abuse the former to drum up business for the latter.

Time for another check-in with media-blogger-turned-journalism-student Hunter Walker. In his second week at Columbia J-School, he's got too much adrenaline rushing from his first forays into metro reporting to think about how he's gonna pay back that $47,000.

On this day in 1835, the New York Sun published the first in a series of articles detailing the wondrous discoveries of life forms and civilization on the moon. It was all downhill for the New York Sun after that.

In your motivated Tuesday media column: Free weed with magazine subscriptions, Incisive Media gets all 'Up With People' and shit, Jason Horowitz gets a new job, and Roger Ebert picks up a chip.

Jared Kushner's New York Observer has always been heavily reliant on real estate advertising. It's been hurt as much as anyone by the collapse of the real estate market. So Kushner is launching a new real estate paper. What?

In your unnerving Monday Media column: The paper of record cannot stop talking about Skye Parrott (??), the Tribune Co. sells a losing team, JPMorgan takes over publishing by accident, and the great political talk show ad debate. No worries!

• Last night's long-delayed premiere of the sixth season of Project Runway—on Lifetime, not Bravo—earned the show its highest ratings ever. [NYT, THR]
• Breathe easy: Anna Wintour's travel itinerary for the fall fashion shows in London, Paris and Milan will not be affected by the recent round of budget cuts at Condé Nast. She'll be staying at the Ritz in Paris, as usual. [NYP]
• The cuts have claimed Condé's supply of coffee stirrers, however. [P6]
• Another member of the Sulzberger clan is joining the New York Times. [NYO]
• News Corp. has been meeting with newspaper publishers to discuss forming some sort of "consortium" to charge people for access to news online. [LAT]
• News Corp. is also in talks to sell its Dow Jones stock market index. [NYT]
• Harvey and Bob Weinstein have a lot riding on the success of Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds. How is the movie expected to perform at the box office this weekend? Not too bad, per early estimates. [THR]

Three! That's how many days Times reporter Geraldine Fabrikant—one half of the duo behind today's sympathy-for-the-rich piece about the decline of the super-wealthy—spent hanging out in New Mexico with deflated multimillionaire John McAfee. Why are newspapers dying, again?

In your sweat-drenched Friday media column: Newser's traffic plunches, Rupert Murdoch's paycheck plunges, the likelihood of Sam Zell staying at the Tribune Co. plunges, and The Progressive's bank account plunges.

OK, maybe Rupert Murdoch really is serious about charging for online newspaper content, after all: The News Corporation chairman has reportedly dispatched his lieutenant to form some kind of newspaper pay-wall gang.

How many fortunate coincidences can one family have? First, three successive generations of Sulzbergers become publishers of the New York Times. Then young A.G. Sulzberger lands a reporting gig there. Now another Sulzberger relatives's joining the paper! Total insanity.

In your desperate Thursday media column: America's toddler journalist has a lesson for Wolf Blitzer, college football wants to muzzle bloggers, newspapers burn, and ESPN magazine is mad cheap!

In your sweaty Wednesday media column: Bruce Wasserstein winning a dubious race, sports columnists are being eaten by Twitter, a Hunter S. Thompson story, and more!