FRIDAY'S LINKS: Plame Book Bids, Bono to Guest-Edit Brit Paper, Jayson Blair Epilogue

By: E&P Staff In today's links, bidders have begun to surface for a book by ex-CIA agent Valerie Plame, more traders are selling Times Co. stock short, and U2 frontman Bono will guest-edit a British newspaper to raise money for AIDS in Africa.


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Publishers Lining Up to Bid on Plame Book
AT least four publishers are vying for the memoir of outed CIA agent Valerie Plame - and the bidding has reached seven figures, publishing sources told Media Ink. Plame, of course, is the career agent who was working undercover -- until her name was leaked to reporters, triggering a full-blown scandal in Washington, D.C., in the hunt for the leaker.


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Traders Selling Shares of New York Times Co. Short
Investors are increasing their bets that the slumping New York Times Co. stock, which has plunged 25 percent in the past year, won't bounce back anytime soon. Short sellers, who profit when a stock's price falls, increased their positions to 14.6 million shares in April. Short sellers held 14 million shares in March and just 6.4 million shares last April.


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U2 Frontman Bono to Guest-Edit 'Independent' to Raise Money for AIDS
The singer will guest-edit the May 16 issue of the paper as part of a media tie-up to raise money for Red, the singer's initiative to tackle Aids in Africa. The newspaper has also agreed to donate half of its revenues for the issue to the Product Red cause.


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Jayson Blair, Three Years Later
In 2003, The New York Times was brought to its knees. A 27-year-old reporter, one of the newsroom's brightest stars, was exposed as a plagiarist who fabricated stories and concocted quotes. The fall-out was epic: the editor quit, staff mutinied and the paper's reputation was left in tatters. But what became of the young pretender?


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Ballmer: In 10 Years, Most Reading Will Be Digital
In a speech yesterday, Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer made several projections about the future, including the forecast that, in 10 years, Americans would read most of their books and periodicals on a digital screen. So far, the technology industry hasn't made a digital screen that is as good as paper, he said. That will change.


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What's the Morning Glory Story, 'Wash Post'?
"In its recent coverage of illicit drugs, the Washington Post has oscillated between reefer madness and the cluelessness of a phys-ed instructor giving an anti-drug speech," writes Jack Shafer. "The Post extended its losing streak on the drug beat yesterday with a naive and poorly sourced piece about the psychedelic properties of morning glory seeds."


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Newspapers in India See Rapid Growth in Readership
Indians have always been avid newspaper readers. The almost 300 dailies published here generally cost less than five rupees (11 cents) a copy. But the last few years have seen fast readership growth and unprecedented competition between established titles and upstarts eager to get in on the action. Newspaper and magazine readership in 2005 hit 200 million across the country, an increase of 12% over 2003. Analysts expect the trend to continue for the next few years, as more young Indians join the ranks of readers. Almost a quarter of the 730 million Indians over the age of 15 read a newspaper last year, up from 21% in 1999.


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Does New York Times Co. Investment in Red Sox Compromise 'Boston Globe'?
"We've got a problem here at Daddy Globe," writes Dan Shaughnessy. "Those of you not living in caves know by now that the New York Times Co. owns us, and also owns 17 percent of the Red Sox. This conflict of interest taints everything we do on these pages and the Globe looks especially compromised on days like yesterday when we ran a Page 1 story entitled, 'Hit the road with the Sox and get . . .'"


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New Owner and New Future
Contra Costa Times Editorial: "MediaNews CEO Dean Singleton has a passion for local news and community involvement, and he has considerable knowledge of the Bay Area, where he has operated for more than two decades as owner of newspapers in Oakland, Hayward, Fremont and the Tri-Valley. His vision and knowledge are a good match for the locally focused strategies that have allowed this newspaper to grow."