The Breakfast Meeting: Random House-Penguin Merger, and Romney\'s Straight Face

The publishers Random House and Penguin plan to merge, their respective owners, Bertelsmann and Pearson, confirmed on Monday, Eric Pfanner reported. Under the merger the parent companies would share executive control, with Markus Dohle of Random House serving as chief executive and John Makinson of Penguin becoming the chairman. Still, Bertelsmann would control 53 percent of the merged publishers, in an attempt to avoid the complications of an even split. The combined company would have around 25 percent of the consumer publishing business in markets like the United States; as a result lawyers for both companies are already strategizing how to navigate regulatory approval.

• The move came after it was reported that News Corporation was considering making a bid for Penguin.

The pop star Paul Gadd - better known as Garry Glitter - was arrested over the weekend as part of the expanding investigation into sexual-abuse scandal surrounding the late BBC TV ho st Jimmy Savile, Nicholas Kulish reported. As many as 300 people have come forward to describe sexual abuse at the hands of Mr. Savile; they also have described a depraved environment in Mr. Savile's dressing room at the BBC studios where teenage girls were molested by Mr. Savile and others, including Mr. Gadd, a convicted pedophile.

• The BBC on Monday said it had begun an inquiry into the “culture and practices” at the corporation behind the sexual abuse scandal that will be led by a former senior court judge.

As the presidential election winds down, both candidates are shaking the trees for votes, but there is one clear strategic difference: President Obama is agreeing to sit on the couch with late-night hosts, and Mitt Romney is not. Lately, Mr. Obama has been on “The Daily Show” with Jon Stewart, the “Tonight” show with Jay Leno, as well as MTV and NBC News, which was given two days of access to the president during his campaign tour las t week, Bill Carter writes. Mr. Romney's campaign didn't explain its reasoning, but producers of shows like David Letterman's or Jon Stewart's said Mr. Romney has a standing invitation to appear. And Lorne Michaels of “Saturday Night Live” says he holds out hope that in a close election, Mr. Romney will make a cameo appearance.

• For all the money raised by “super PACs” supporting Mr. Romney, President Obama has managed to maintain an edge in the number of political ads airing, Jeremy W. Peters, Nicholas Confessore and Sarah Cohen reported. The explanations can be technical, related to how different kinds of donations can be spent, but the lack of a Romney advantage in political advertising is still surprising, they write, “because Mr. Romney and conservatives have been spending more money.” (Total Republican ad spending for the presidential campaign is about $500 million, versus $400 million for the Democrats.)

The Spanish-language Univision is beginning its first digital network, UVideos, Tanzina Vega reports, offering 1,500 hours of long-form programming and about 200 short clips a day free to users. Notably, Univision is going to make the content and the user interface for its digital network available in English, with subtitles on many of its shows.

Lance Armstrong's long-time-in-coming fall from grace - from cancer-surviving cycling legend to disgraced former champion accused of doping his way to victory - is an example of how hard it can be to dislodge a compelling narrative, David Carr writes. Even cynical-by-nature journalists get swept up in the tale, he writes, and it was a few journalists who promoted a counter-narrative, aided by a fringe of doubters who used blogs and social media to keep raising questions about Mr. Amstrong. One important blog was NYVelocity, he writes, which acted a clearinghouse for information implicating Mr. Armstrong.

Hollywood's recent concerns may have their roo ts in practical commercial questions (why did box office returns shrink last year to their lowest level since 1995?) but they also have an existential dimension, Michael Cieply writes. In a video-clip, small-screen age, do movies still matter? And if they matter less to the younger public, what can be done about it? Several industry groups, including Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which awards the Oscars, and the nonprofit American Film Institute, which supports cinema, are brainstorming about starting public campaigns to promote the idea of movies, he writes.

Noam Cohen edits and writes for the Media Decoder blog. Follow @noamcohen on Twitter.