• Okay...it's after 5:00pm...: L.A. Times' lede: "The current vote tally among Bancroft family members who control Dow Jones & Co. isn't sufficient for News Corp. to proceed with its plan to buy the publishing giant, officials said Monday."
• As the Bancrofts Dither, Share Value Withers: Dow Closes at $51.56, and Editor and Publisher reports that "Newspaper Stocks Follow Dow Jones Off The Cliff." Investors say: "Bancrofts! Stop trying to do the right thing!"
• Hey, Remember Us?: As the Murdoch/Dow tango draws to a close (or as the Earth collides with the sun in a fiery end of civilization, whichever comes first), the folks at the Financial Times don't want to get lost in the news pages: "We're talking to all sorts of people about different distribution channels," Marjorie Scardino, chief executive of Pearson said today, adding, "Yep. People sure haven't forgotten about ol' Pearson, that's for sure. Have you heard? We're the people behind the Financial Times!"
• "So, in short, we couldn't stop ourselves, even if we wanted to.": Raleigh News-Observer's J. Peder Zane defends the raft of frivolous tonsorial/sartorial stories that clog the news, saying: "Harrumphers who blame the media for these personal stories are shooting the messengers. The media are not creating the demand; they are satisfying it." We'd love to see the numbers on how much "satisfaction" these stories are bringing the consumer.
• Not All Workplace Memoes are Created Equal: ABC News had to remind its employees not to surf "adult" websites, after "Word got out that one of the summer interns had nude pictures online." Gee, way to quash some nascent reportorial instincts, ABC!
• Headline That Hurt Us: July 2007 Winner: Squeaking in just under the wire: "Photoshopping Pauly Shore's Skidmarks." Uhm...ewwwwwww.

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