Balloon Boy|HuffPo Passes WaPo In Unique Views|Redstone To Sell $1B In CBS, Viacom Shares|MPA Conference Snap Shot|Tina Brown

TVNewser: The saga of a six-year-old boy in a hot air balloon (or not) captivated the network news channels this afternoon.

Editor & Publisher: The Huffington Post has surpassed WashingtonPost.com in terms of unique visitors for last month, according to numbers tracked by Nielsen Online.

New York Times: Sumner Redstone will sell nearly $1 billion in Viacom and CBS shares in order to pay down debt.

The Wrap: Some choice soundbites from the Magazine Publishers of America‘s Magazine Innovation Summit this week. Our favorite came from Condé Nast group president David Carey: “We could sell the movie rights to the McKinsey study.”

Financial Times: A profile of The Daily Beast and founder Tina Brown, one year after its launch. “The Daily Beast was, from the start, in part an experiment to find a better class of online advertising in a market where infinite supply has dragged down rates. In an effort to charge premium prices, the site has targeted upmarket brands with the promise of customised packages that could reach a sought-after audience of affluent, educated and engaged readers.”

Create a social media strategy, launch your campaign, and track the results in our Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting February 16. The online event and workshop will feature speakers including The Onion‘s Baratunde Thurston (left), Facebook’s Morin Oluwole, and bitly’s Tim Devane. Register now.