The EPpy Awards, which honor the best web sites offered by newspapers,television, magazine and radio companies were announced last night. Perhaps not surprisingly, the New York Times walked away the big winner scooping up "Best Business Blog" for Dealbook (congrats to Andrew Ross Sorkin), as well as "Best News Web Site" and "Best Overall Newspaper-Affiliated Web Site." Or, as we sometimes like to call it: all the news, everywhere, all the time, with links.

Other winners include USA Today for "Best Entertainment Blog" (Pop Candy) and "Best Sports Web Site." CNN.com received the Knight News Innovation EPpy, for John King's Magic Wall. Just kidding. Actually, they were awarded it for "finding new ways to gather and disseminate news and information," in particular for iReport.com which they called the network's first "uncensored, unfiltered, unedited, user-generated online community." Certainly sounds impressive. The rest of the winners after the jump.

continued...

The Senate voted late last night to invalidate the FCC's controversial December decision to loosen the newspaper broadcast cross-ownership rule. Senator Byron Dorgan sponsored the resolution and says he thinks he has the votes to get the bill through both the Senate and the House despite the fact President has threatened to veto it.

You may recall it was Senator Dorgan who just a few weeks ago specifically criticized Rupert Murdoch's then plan to purchase Newsday. No word yet on whether this current resolution will effect Cablevision's takeover of the paper. Meanwhile, one imagines news of any strengthening of local media will be welcomed by tornado watchers everywhere.

Time Inc. is re-launching a new health and well-being website in conjunction with their newly redesigned Health magazine. Health.com will launch on May 19 and aims to help users "take control of their own health experiences," beyond, we have to assume, the usual self-medicating with whiskey and chocolate.

The centerpiece of the new site will be something called Health "Journeys," which sadly has nothing to do with us relocating to spas in exotic places. The "Journeys" section, however, will map out "visually as a series of steps" the most commonly searched health conditions. Hypochondriacs, have at it!

Regular readers will know that here at FishbowlNY we are big fans of the Twitter — we like to think of it as a pocket-sized version of us you can take with you wherever you go.

Well the folks at Business Week have taken it a step further. Their recent story about Twitter was actually written in conjunction with Twitter readers. A rep from the magazine tells us that senior writer Stephen Baker "posted the first 140 characters of his article via his Twitter stream last week, allowing people to correct his chunks or write what they thought should be the next one." (Puts a whole new spin on user-generated content.)

The resulting article queries whether the micro-blogging platform, which has grown "far beyond its circles of bleeding-edge tech enthusiasts and hard-core social networkers," will soon be in the position to challenge online networking titans like Facebook and MySpace. In the meantime, you can find us here, and TVNewser here.

Robert Novak writes today that his column is celebrating forty-five years in syndication, it's the nation's current longest-running syndicated political column(a title previously held by William F. Buckley Jr, whose column preceded Novak's by thirteen months.) We suppose forty-five years at anything would give one a level view of things, though this struck a tad too level. Says Novak:

My most notorious leak was the 2003 revelation that the wife of Bush critic Joseph Wilson worked for the CIA and arranged his intelligence mission to Africa. While this disclosure was far less important than many the column has made, the vituperativeness of the reaction to it was unmatched.

Over at Portfolio Jeff Bercovici is handicapping the search for the next Wall St. Journal editor. It seems that this time around Rupe is being quite tight lipped on the process, despite having told the Observer last week that he planned to hire a new managing editor within "a couple weeks, maybe three." Whatever Rupert Murdoch is looking for he may not be able to find within the walls of the Journal; according to a source for the article "The senior people would all be surprised if it's an insider." (Take note Newsday staffers).

It's got to be somebody that Murdoch's dead-bang comfortable with. He wants to get the Murdoch mind-meld going, and for that he needs someone who will do the things he wants before he even thinks of them.

The New York Times expose on the Pentagon's use of military analysts on network television is a story that refuses to die. Sort of. Since the story's publication on April 20 it has continued to make waves in the blogsphere (MediaMatters does the analyst/network math here), however the networks have been noticeably silent. Howard Kurtz on this week's Reliable Sources noted that "the networks continued to ignore that New York Times story about TV's military analysts." Meanwhile according to Politico the mainstream media silence has been "deafening," and that out of "approximately 1,300 news stories, only two touched on the Pentagon analysts scoop — both airing on PBS's "NewsHour."

Over at HuffPo Rachel Sklar has a far different take, arguing that were one to look a little closer (and she does) the 7,600-word article doesn't actually make a viable case against the military analysts it name drops or, by extension, the networks:

They proved their case against the Pentagon, hands down. But they did not prove their case against the generals and other military men whom they name-dropped in that story. Which means they did not necessarily prove their case against the networks.

continued...

Another hour, another report of a Washington Post departure; it's starting to feel like a game of Ten Little Indians over there. Earlier this week WaPo White House correspondent Peter Baker announced he was decamping to the NYT's magazine, then earlier today came word that Tony Kornheiser had taken a buyout. And now rumors are flying that executive editor Len Downie may also accept a deal. Politico has an overview and, as always, FishbowlDC has the play by play. We haven't heard much as far as possible replacements, though word has it Bonnie Fuller may be looking for work. We know, we know, that's almost as crazy as Rupe running the WSJ.

The nice way to frame this would be to say that "great minds think alike." The less nice way would be to say that someone at the Time or New Republic offices should be checking the phones for bugs. Via Portfolio comes word that for the second time in as many months the two magazines are sporting strikingly similar covers. This week's New Republic Obama paint-by-number cover appears eerily similar to a cover Time ran of Howard Dean four years ago (FishbowlNY leaves you to draw your own metaphor). Coincidence? Apparently. Says TNR editor Franklin Foer: "Nobody here has any recollection of seeing that cover. Maybe we should get a subscription to Time."

For those concerned that the Newsday sale to Cablevision was a bit of a strange fit, possibly not that well thought out, particularly for a father and son team who've not had the best relationship with the press via The New York Knicks, it looks like their fears may not have been un-founded.

The Observer is reporting that since acquiring the paper on Sunday the Dolan family is not playing so nice with the reporters they now employ. They apparently screamed at the Newsday business desk for sending a reporter to their house, and the proceeded to take the breaking story of the paper's sale to Cablevision owned News 12 Channel. Not the best way to make a good first impression, also, one might add, not the best way to make money.

For their part Cablevision says it's just following company policy in terms of the press. Though, as Koblin pointed out, this may have been as good a time as any for an exception; at least Rupe had the good sense to give the WSJ the inside line on his negotiations. Speaking of Rupe, says one staffer: "They're the only owners who could make you wish for Murdoch."

Hmm, perhaps the staff of the WSJ and Newsday may want to consider some group therapy.