paidContent: NPR is gearing up to launch its ambitious local news project this summer with the hiring of key staffers: USA Today vet Joel Sucherman as project director and editorial project manager Matt Thompson from the Knight Foundation.

New York Post: Golf Digest has suspended Tiger Woods‘ monthly column in the magazine while the embattled golfer is taking a leave from the sport.

Boston Phoenix: 30 embarrassing moments for the media this year.

With a blizzard keeping us from joining our families this weekend, and this year’s almost-total dissolution of media jobs and funds, is there anything we can sit down and be grateful for once we finally gather around the hearth this holiday?

The New York Times‘ resident media guru David Carr seems to think so. Not only did online news orgs come into their own this year — with Twitter becoming a powerful, if flawed, tool for politics and journalism; Gawker hiring real journos for full-time jobs with benefits; and TheWrap.com breaking the biggest media merger story of the year with the Comcast-NBC deal — but, as the columnist wrote, “…black moved a lot of units this year. Just try to imagine this past year in media without President Obama, Michael Jackson and Tiger Woods.”

Sure, maybe the last example isn’t the most positive example of an African American in the national spotlight, but Carr’s point is that 2009 may have been the first year the MSM has focused its eye on more than the goings-on of rich, white men. Small steps, but as the end of this year approaches, we’ll take what we can get.

Read More: After a Year of Ruin, Some Hope –New York Times

Previously: Gawker Offers Writers Full-Time Employment, It’s Official: Comcast Acquires NBCU Stake

Here at FishbowlNY, we stick to covering stories that affect the media. But it’s the media’s job to cover the biggest stories in the world today. Here, we take a look back at the news stories that left New York and the world riveted in 2009, covered faithfully by our local newspapers and the other pubs that are based here.

Tiger Woods scandal
The intrigue of this domestic-dispute-turned-sex-scandal started Thanksgiving weekend, and continues today — nearly a month later. Tiger’s escapades provided cover fodder for local tabloid The New York Post for three straight weeks, holding the attention of Post editors even longer than 9/11. And beyond the cover of our local papers and tabloid magazines, Tiger also caused some questions for Golf Digest, which has a close relationship with the golfer and, with some serious bad timing, put him on the January cover with President Obama. Men’s Fitness also got mixed up in the whole mess, reportedly striking a deal with Tiger for a cover story in return for covering up the scandal two years ago.

More after the jump

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What was the most iconic New York Post cover of the 00′s? Was it a photo of a smoking World Trade Tower, a practically naked Ashley Dupre or Martha Stewart in prison stripes?

And who can forget any of those punny headlines that the Post is so famous for, from “Stray-Rod” to Eliot Spitzer‘s “Ho No!” to the recent Tiger Woods scandal headline “I’m A Cheetah,” there are so many witty taglines to choose from.

And choose you can. The Post has launched a poll that let’s you vote for your favorite out of 50 chosen covers from the past 10 years. Will Bernie Madoff, Saddam Hussein, Paris Hilton or Michael Jackson rule supreme?

We like the simplest covers: a photo of New York City fireman erecting a flag at Ground Zero and former New Jersey governor Jim McGreevey‘s cover that proclaims, with double entendre brilliance, “I’m Out,” are our favorites. What are yours?

Vote here: Vote For Your Favorite Front Page –New York Post

• Fox News‘ holiday cards are back! And as always, taking swipes at their competitors during this festive season. -FishbowlDC

• An even better holiday card, though, is the one where you ask your friends for a job while wishing them a Merry Christmas. -MediaJobsDaily

• Charlie Gibson was honored by ABC last night for his dedicated news hosting over the last 35 years. -TVNewser

• Billy Dee Williams is hawking commemorative Tiger Woods plates for a Jimmy Kimmel sketch. We would totally buy these for Christmas, if they were real. -AgencySpy

CNN: Watch The Daily Beast‘s Tina Brown and her husband, Sir Harold Evans, this Sunday on Christiane Amanpour‘s CNN show.

Wall Street Journal: Media scandal of the day: The Wall Street Journal published a story today about Tiger Woods‘ shady deal with Men’s Fitness publisher American Media Inc. without giving any credit to New York Post columnist Keith Kelly, who broke the story two weeks ago.

WWD: Hearst Magazines‘ Chuck Cordray promises a new digital vertical to launch next year “is not one you’d expect from us.” Also, Hearst is planning to relaunch its teen network over the summer.

Huffington Post: Editor & Publisher editor Greg Mitchell blogs about the demise of his magazine, and says there is a “decent chance” that it will be resurrected.

Los Angeles Times: James Rainey profiles The Huffington Post and the challenge of making money on the Web.

The New York Post didn’t need to look much further than its own front pages to find its latest advice columnist.

Just over a week after sounding off on the the Tiger Woods sex scandal — and telling all the mistresses coming out of the woodwork to keep their mouths shut — Ashley Dupre, the woman who rose to tabloid fame last year amidst former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer‘s sex scandal, debuted her first column in the Post yesterday. In her new weekly column, Ask Ashley, Dupre will answer readers’ questions about love, sex and relationships.

“Sure, she’s made some mistakes,” the introduction to her very first column explained. “But now Ashley Dupre…is sharing what she’s learned…”

Although the questions range from whether women like porn to how to know if your husband is unhappy, we think the most important thing that Dupre has “learned” since the Spitzer scandal broke is clear: staying in the spotlight requires coming up with something new and different every few months to keep you there. The Post is all too happy to help out.

After the jump, Dupre introduces her new column in an exclusive Post video

Ask Ashley –New York Post

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Mark Soltau is a contributing editor to Golf Digest, but that isn’t enough to pay the bills these days. In addition, he also serves as the editor of Tiger Woods‘ Web site, TigerWoods.com, a role that is now causing some whispers in light of the enormous boom on Woods’ Web site following his admission of marital infidelities.

Says Golf Digest editor in chief Jerry Tarde, “Mark Soltau is a contributing editor to Golf Digest, not a staff writer. Mark does not write feature articles for the magazine, so I don’t consider his work for TigerWoods.com a conflict.”

It seems that Mark would only edit pieces for Golf Digest that were bylined by Woods himself, which seems a little disingenuous on Golf Digest‘s part. With parent company Condé Nast making so many staff cuts, they somehow still have room to keep Tiger Woods’ personal editor on the pay roll. Even more bad luck: Digest this month features a front-page picture of Woods and President Barack Obama, an unfortunate case of bad timing that serves to highlight just how out of sync the monthly magazine world can be with current events.

Read More: Web Site for Woods Is Drawing Attention –New York Times

The Tiger Woods car crash and scandal was the biggest news on today’s mediabistro.com Morning Media Menu podcast. Hosts Jason Boog of GalleyCat and AgencySpy‘s Matt Van Hoven were shocked by the amount of coverage the event has received since the weekend, noting that CNN quoted The National Enquirer about the story, a nod to the shift of the national conversation on the subject.

“There’s a certain glee that the media has when someone who is big and perfect like Tiger Woods falls,” Jason said. “They pounce ten times harder than they would if say, Britney Spears would have had the same thing happen to her over the weekend.”

“If you’re an important or famous person today, you just can’t have an affair,” Matt said. “It just can’t happen. You’re going to get busted…Shame on Tiger, who seems like a smart guy.”

Also discussed: Jim Lehrer‘s plans to leave PBS‘s “NewsHour” and Barnes & Nobles’ Nook e-readers selling for high prices on eBay.

You can listen to all the past podcasts at BlogTalkRadio.com/mediabistro and call in at 646-929-0321.

Fresh off of CBS Sports‘ March Madness success comes news that coverage of last week’s The Masters (that’s golf, people) scored the highest ratings for the tournament in eight years.

An estimated 42 million people saw at least some portion of Saturday and Sunday’s coverage. Interestingly, viewership was down on the latter day, most likely because Tiger Woods — a ratings draws — was perceived to be out of the hunt when the day started. Huge ratings on Saturday, however, helped push the numbers up six percent over last year.

In 2001, 47.9 million saw Woods win his second green jacket.