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Crunch Time for Time Warner (Daily Beast)
Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes predicts that people will soon become accustomed to using a variety of technologies, both paid and free, to view movies, read magazines and newspapers, watch television and otherwise consume their favorite media.

Foreign Journalists Arrested in Tehran Crackdown (Times of London)
The Iranian regime has responded to mass protests in Tehran this week by implementing a crackdown on foreign journalists. Two Canadian, one Japanese and one Danish journalist are thought to have been arrested for "unauthorized reporting" on demonstrations Wednesday.

Must-Read TV: Ex-NBC Chief Warren Littlefield Penning Memoirs (The Wrap)
Former NBC Entertainment chief Warren Littlefield -- one of the architects of Must-See TV-- is writing his memoirs. Doubleday has bought the rights to the untitled tome, which Littlefield will pen with author/screenwriter T.R. Pearson. It's scheduled to be published in 2011.

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Oprah Giving Up Syndicated Talk Show, Moving It To Her Cable Network In 2011 (Deadline Hollywood Daily)
In the coming days Oprah Winfrey and Discovery will announce OWN's on-air launch for the start of 2011. And, in several weeks, Oprah will tell the public that she's ending her syndicated daytime talk show when her current deal runs out and moving it to OWN, probably as soon as mid-2011. NYT: Winfrey is "nearing a decision," and also negotiating with syndicators other than CBS. Forbes: Adding Winfrey's chat-fest to OWN's schedule would likely improve the network's (and her own) bottom line. AP: Winfrey says she's keeping singer BeBe Winans off her show until domestic violence charges against him are resolved.

Kyle Pope Is the Next Editor of Observer (NYO)
Kyle Pope, formerly the number two editor at Condé Nast Portfolio, is the next editor of The New York Observer. Current editor Tom McGeveran, who will be leaving the paper at the end of the year, introduced Pope to the editorial staff at a meeting yesterday afternoon.

30 Years Later: Ted Koppel on Nightline's Evolution (TVNewser)
Nightline debuted March 24, 1980, with Ted Koppel at the helm -- but only, he says, after both Dan Rather and Tom Brokaw declined offers to anchor the new program. Koppel, of course, became synonymous with Nightline, anchoring until his retirement from the program in 2005. He talks with TVNewser 30 years after it all began.

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Scripps Buys Travel Channel in $975 Million Deal (AllThingsDigital)
Scripps Networks Interactive has won the Travel Channel auction. In a deal that values the channel at $975 million, Scripps will will acquire a majority interest in the property while current owner Cox retains a 35 percent stake.

Oprah Winfrey Network Names Lisa Erspamer as Creative Chief (LAT)
The highly anticipated but delayed OWN: the Oprah Winfrey Network will soon have a chief creative executive. Lisa Erspamer, who will join the Los Angeles operation in January, has something that executives who preceded her lacked: experience working directly for the demanding Winfrey as co-executive producer of Oprah's daytime talk show.

50 Papers Rescind Associated Press Cancellation Notices (E&P)
Some 50 newspapers that had given notice of cancellation to the Associated Press in the past two years have rescinded those notices in recent months, according to Paul Colford, the AP's director of media relations.

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Wall Street Journal Launches SF Edition Today (BayNewser)
The Wall Street Journal's much anticipated Bay Area edition launches today, the newspaper said in an announcement. The newspaper will fold Bay Area-specific news into the A-section of the print edition every Thursday and has also created a Bay Area-specific section of its Web site.

News Corp Says MySpace's $900 Million Google Deal at Risk (FT)
MySpace, once the centerpiece of Rupert Murdoch's digital strategy, has fallen "significantly" short of expectations and is jeopardizing a critical $900 million Internet search agreement with Google. Weaker traffic means the News Corp division is now expected to receive about $100 million less from the deal. LAT: Emphasizing a major shift in strategy, News Corp. all but conceded that MySpace is no longer competitive with Facebook or Twitter and will seek to rebuild the site around entertainment.

Marie Claire Publisher Plagemann Jumps to Vogue, Florio's Role Expanded (FishbowlNY)
Susan Plagemann, the publisher at Hearst's Marie Claire since 2004, has been named publisher of Vogue. Plagemann will report to Thomas Florio, who formerly held the role of publisher at Vogue. His role has now been expanded to oversee Vogue and Teen Vogue, Bon Appétit and Condé Nast Traveler.

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Bloomberg LP Considers Charging for Certain Material on Web Site (WSJ)
Bloomberg LP is considering a charge of as much as $1,000 per year for access to certain material on its Web site, Bloomberg.com. Such a move would be the latest in a succession of steps by the financial data giant to expand its business beyond subscriptions to its Bloomberg Professional service.

U.K. Prime Minister Brown: Murdoch's Sun Trying to Become Political Party (Guardian)
Gordon Brown has criticized Rupert Murdoch's Sun newspaper, accusing it of trying to "become a political party" and saying it "made a terrible mistake" when it decided to back the Conservative party last month. "It's not personal about Rupert, he's always been very friendly to me," Brown said.

The New York Times, the Press and Spitzer (Gawker)
The New York Times broke the story of Eliot Spitzer's hooker habit last year, launching a PR storm of epic proportions. But according to email traffic, the Times showed Spitzer's flacks extraordinary deference as the scandal unfolded.

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Time Inc. Layoffs Begin at Sports Illustrated (NYT/Media Decoder)
Layoffs have begun at Time Inc. Approximately 15 to 20 sales and marketing employees were dismissed last night, largely from Sports Illustrated, according to a Time Inc. executive. The executive estimated the total number of layoffs as being between 400 and 500 people. DailyFinance: Sources at Time Inc. say executives have asked for an emergency meeting with representatives of the Newspaper Guild to discuss job eliminations. Gawker: Time Inc. will offer those who accept buyouts an additional 13 weeks of pay -- three months! -- in addition to two weeks of pay for every year of service.

Wall Street Journal to Add a New York Report (NYT)
The Wall Street Journal plans to assemble a local news staff in New York, continuing to expand beyond its historic focus on business news by adding traditional city desk beats like courthouses, City Hall and the state capital. NYO: The Journal has reportedly hired John Seeley, the former deputy managing editor of The New York Sun, to lead the project.

Bloomberg to Build Out BusinessWeek, Set Web Strategy (Mediaweek)
Signaling strong confidence in the print medium, Bloomberg LP executives said they planned to make BusinessWeek bigger, glossier and more international, while exploring a strategy to charge for content on their own Web site.

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TheAtlantic.com to Ring Up 103 Percent Revenue Growth This Year (Folio:)
TheAtlantic.com is expected to report 103 percent growth in digital revenue in 2009. Even while most publishers are ramping up online, The Atlantic's Web site has added channels including business, politics and food; launched the Atlantic Wire, an opinion news aggregator; and has plans for a business site.

Texas Tribune Launches (Texas Tribune)
Editor-in-chief Evan Smith: "What we intend to accomplish with the Trib -- what we mean to do on an ongoing basis -- is right there in our stated mission: to promote civic engagement and discourse on public policy, politics, government, and other matters of statewide concern." FishbowlNY: Four questions for Evan Smith.

E! to Launch Asian Version of Flagship News Show (AP)
One of America's best-known entertainment news shows is launching an Asian edition. Los Angeles-based E! Entertainment Television will launch a weekly half-hour edition in Asia that combines both Hollywood and regional entertainment news in the second quarter of 2010

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Apple's iTunes Pitch: TV for $30 a Month (AllThingsDigital)
Would you pay $30 a month to watch TV via iTunes? That's the pitch Apple has been making to TV networks in recent weeks. The company is trying to round up support for a monthly subscription service that would deliver TV programs via its multimedia software, according to multiple sources.

Tribune Co. Newspapers Won't Use AP Next Week (Chicago Tribune)
The Chicago Tribune and other Tribune Co. newspapers plan to utilize as little content from The Associated Press as practical during the week of Nov. 8. The goal is to see whether severing ties with the news cooperative next fall is a viable option, the media company confirmed Monday.

Punches Thrown in WaPo Newsroom! (FishbowlDC)
The Washington Post's Henry Allen threw a punch at Manuel Roig-Franzia in the newsroom last Friday. That punch landed on Franzia's face, and executive editor Marcus Brauchli was forced to intervene.

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Lou Dobbs Takes Flak From Many Directions, Fires Back (CSM)
CNN's Lou Dobbs is a man with a mission: Keep hammering on immigration in the United States. He's been at it for years, warning that immigrants (illegal and sometimes legal) are a threat to the country's economic and social well-being. Naturally (and no doubt intentionally) he's raised the ire of critics.

Magazines See Fatter December Issues (AdAge)
The holidays are delivering at least one present everyone in magazines wanted: ad pages. "Advertisers still aren't going deep, but they're definitely spending more than they had been in the first few quarters of the year," said Steve Sachs, president of the lifestyle division at Time Inc.

Mobile's Unanswered Call To Service (min)
Steve Smith: Ultimately, the lessons publishers learn from their mobile iterations about what their users really want from the content will instruct and improve what we do on the Web and perhaps even in print. Mobile is the platform where the user is in absolute control of the experience (or should be) and will not tolerate irrelevance.

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Comcast Said to Be Close to Gaining NBC Universal (NYT)
General Electric and the cable giant Comcast have moved closer to a deal giving control of NBC Universal to Comcast, and a formal announcement could be made sometime next week, people briefed on the talks said Sunday.

Senators Say White House Agrees To Deal On Media-Shield Bill (WSJ)
The White House has reached a compromise with lawmakers on legislation that would give legal protections to journalists who want to protect their confidential sources, according to Senate sponsors of the bill.

What Could Have Been: BusinessWeek's Grim Non-Bloomberg Scenario (AllThingsDigital/Media Memo)
Here's the worst-case scenario BusinessWeek employees would be facing had they been purchased by private equity firm ZelnickMedia. The short version: Almost everybody gets fired. The longer version of the plan is a chilling one for anybody who draws a paycheck at BusinessWeek. FishbowlNY: BusinessWeek president Keith Fox is stepping down from the magazine but will remain at McGraw-Hill.

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