TUESDAY'S LINKS: Another 'Wash Post' Writer on Kornheiser, Newspapers Trimming Staffs, Murdoch on Competition

By: E&P Staff In today's edition, News Corp. chief Rupert Murdoch talks about competition, AOL makes moves to shore up users' online privacy in the wake of its recent flap, and a CJR writer wonders whether the kidnapping of two Fox journalists isn't getting undercovered.

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Murdoch on Competition
Rupert Murdoch in BusinessWeek: Competition is enjoyable. It's the reason for being in business. You have to like to win. I like to win. My father was more of an editor and publisher. I would have liked to do more of that. But I had to be more concerned with other things, and it dragged me into other businesses. But maybe it's in my genes. When I started, there was a much larger newspaper than us, and we had to compete to survive. You do that with better journalism. And then you have to endure. Stick it out. And we did that.

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Newspapers Trim Work Forces as Advertising Slows
Reuters: The summer of 2006 has brought a rash of notices of job buyouts and layoffs at U.S. newspapers, and experts say more nips and tucks will come as advertising dollars dry up and more readers cancel their subscriptions. Nearly all the recent announcements promise pinpoint reductions rather than deep cuts. The reason publishers prefer a steady trickle, experts say, is that newsrooms are stretched too thin to allow deeper slashing.

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AOL Moves to Increase Privacy on Search Queries
New York Times: AOL announced the resignation of its chief technology officer yesterday, two weeks after the company came under intense criticism from privacy advocates for releasing hundreds of thousands of its customers? Web search queries. AOL, a unit of Time Warner, also said it planned to enhance data-privacy protections, reconsider the length of time that it holds onto the millions of search queries that customers make every day and re-educate its own employees about the sensitivity of personal data.

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Yo, Tony! I'm Talkin' About You
Washington Post: A week ago in this space, The Post's Paul Farhi wrote a negative review of his colleague Tony Kornheiser's debut on "Monday Night Football." Kornheiser responded by calling Farhi "a two-bit weasel slug," whom he would "gladly run over with a Mack truck." This reaction catapulted Farhi to national prominence, as bloggers and sports fans debated his review, and dozens of journalists wrote Farhi to express their support. Saying "I want to get ME some of that," columnist Gene Weingarten asked to review Kornheiser's second show.

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Chinese Court May Rule Soon on 'Times' Researcher
New York Times: A Chinese researcher for The New York Times who has been jailed for nearly two years on charges of leaking state secrets to the newspaper may learn the verdict in his case as soon as Friday, according to one of his lawyers. ?It is very likely that they are going to announce a verdict, but there is nothing definite,? the lawyer, Mo Shaoping, said Monday. The researcher, Zhao Yan, has denied the accusations against him, and The Times has repeatedly denied that he leaked any state secrets to the newspaper. Mr. Zhao, 44, has also said he is innocent of a second, lesser charge of fraud not related to his work for The Times.

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Media Giving Scant Coverage to Kidnapped Fox Journos?
Felix Gillette in CJR Daily: It's been a week now since kidnappers seized Fox News correspondent Steve Centanni and cameraman Olaf Wiig off the streets of Gaza City. And, in recent days, many bloggers have started to wonder why there hasn't been more media attention surrounding the kidnappings.