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WSJ to Add Sports, Move to News Corp Midtown HQ (NYT)
The paper that has chronicled business from Lower Manhattan for 119 years is making plans to start a sports page and move to the Midtown offices of its corporate parent, the News Corporation. Seven weeks after taking over the Journal, Rupert Murdoch is making good on his plans to integrate it with his media empire and to broaden the paper's interests and appeal. FishbowlNY: Tina Gaudoin to edit WSJ lifestyle magazine.

LX.TV Acquired BY NBCU (FishbowlNY)
LX.TV, the stylish broadband television network Web site, today announced that it has been acquired by NBC Universal's local media division. "This is a significant investment in our Local Media Division," said John Wallace, president, NBC Local Media Division in the press release.

Liberty Asks for Power to Push Out Diller at IAC (NYT)
Ratcheting up a dispute between two media giants, the Liberty Media Corporation has asked a court for the right to take control of IAC/InterActiveCorp and oust its chief executive, Barry Diller. A battle between Diller and John Malone, chief executive of Liberty Media, has grown increasingly acrimonious, in large part because of Diller's attempt to increase IAC's value by splitting it into five operations. WSJ: IAC might enlist help in splitting off units.

WGA Gives OK for Members to Work on Grammy Awards (AP via USAT)
The Grammy Awards will be in full voice next month, with the striking writers guild agreeing Monday to allow its members to work on the show. The Writers Guild of America gave its blessing last week to a picket-free Grammys. With the board's decision to sign an interim agreement for the Feb. 10 ceremony, the Grammys will escape the fate that befell this month's Golden Globes.

Terry Semel Looking to Get Back Into the Media Biz (LA Weekly/Deadline Hollywood Daily)
Nikki Finke: I'm told that Terry Semel wants back in the movie biz in a big way. His pals know he's been working on something big behind the scenes. "I'm looking at everything," Semel is saying privately. But now I can report that the former Warner Bros co-chairman who failed at Yahoo! is actively considering two possibilities for a Hollywood re-entry via New Line Cinema or MGM.

Writers and Studios Edge Closer (LAT)
Hollywood's striking writers and major studios have moved closer to bridging their divide after a week of talks, raising hopes that a new contract is within reach. The parties have narrowed the gap between them in some key areas, including how much writers should earn when films and TV shows are distributed online, according to people close to the situation who insisted on anonymity. LA Weekly/Deadline Hollywood Daily: The moguls finally want a deal as much as the writers, reports Nikki Finke. Forbes: Writers strike winners and losers.

Hong Kong Banker Settles Dow Jones Insider Trading Charge (AP via NYP)
A prominent Hong Kong banker has tentatively agreed with the Securities and Exchange Commission to pay $8 million to settle an insider trading investigation linked to shares in Dow Jones, news reports said. Details of ongoing negotiations between David Li and the SEC could still change, the Financial Times and The Wall Street Journal reported, citing unidentified people familiar with the situation.

Strike Driving $100 Million in Ads From TV Biz to Big Screen (AdAge)
Buying giant MediaVest is in talks with two cinema-advertising networks to move more than $100 million in prime-time broadcast TV ads to the big screen. A shift by the Publicis Groupe agency, which handles such influential clients as Wal-Mart, Wendy's, Capital One, Kraft Foods, and Procter & Gamble, could deal a significant blow to the already-hurting TV networks.

ABC Show Will Go on, Over Protest by Doctors (NYT)
ABC said on Monday it would include a disclaimer about the plot line of the debut episode of the drama Eli Stone, which links childhood vaccines to autism, and direct viewers to a government Web site that discredits such a link. ABC's decision follows a call by the American Academy of Pediatrics for ABC to cancel the opening episode, which is scheduled to be broadcast at 10 p.m. Thursday.

Most Buyers Pass on Time's Audience Buy (Mediaweek)
A year after Time took the bold step of offering advertisers the option of buying space based on audience instead of circulation, the newsweekly is falling short of its goal to get 20 percent to 30 percent of clients on board, the publisher acknowledged. Time offered advertisers the choice of buying against a guaranteed total readership of 19.5 million, as measured by MRI, or against a 19 percent smaller rate base of 3.25 million copies.

Custom Publishing Gets a Makeover (AdAge)
Custom publishing, the arm of the magazine business that turns out titles such as Jeep and Departures, is being transformed as surely and swiftly as any other feature in the media landscape — to the point that some practitioners even correct you for still calling it custom publishing.

Four Top California Editors Out — More to Come? (E&P)
Joe Strupp: So is this a one-time shake-up at four big west coast papers or signs of a trend? In at least three of the cases, it appears top management wanted someone to either shake things up or do it their way. All four editors are veterans with solid credentials and backgrounds in news. But apparently that is not enough.

Al-Jazeera Journalist Arrested in Egypt (AP)
An Al-Jazeera journalist already appealing one jail sentence was arrested again Monday while filming a documentary, allegedly without a proper license, her lawyer and police said. Egyptian Howaida Taha, 44, a documentary producer for the pan-Arab TV news channel, was filming in a low-income neighborhood in Cairo when police detained her in the morning.

Readers Owe Nothing to Publishers (OJR)
Robert Niles: I think that society benefits when large numbers of people read high-quality, accurate, and insightful news on a daily basis. But those readers have no responsibility to do so. We, as a news industry, must make them want to do so. And wrapping our reporting with spam, pop-ups, take-overs, and irrelevant come-ons is not helping us do that.

Media Super Bowl Parties: Playboy, SI, ESPN, Penthouse, Maxim (MIN)
While America awaits Super Bowl XLII this Sunday in suburban Phoenix with the New England Patriots' thus-far perfect season adding to the suspense (ditto the opposing New York Giants' incredible playoff run), pre-game appetites will be whetted — and wetted — by these men's mags.