Click here to receive mediabistro.com's Daily Newsfeed via email.

CBS' Bob Schieffer Plans Retirement (AP)
Veteran CBS Washington hand Bob Schieffer, who has anchored Face the Nation since 1991, said Tuesday he plans to step down from the Sunday morning political talk show with the inauguration of a new president. The start of a new administration next January provides a natural transition, he said. "That's when I'll stop doing what I'm doing now," Schieffer said. NYT: For all the time he spent on Face the Nation querying presidents, senators, and cabinet members, Schieffer's most prominent assignment was arguably the 18 months he served as interim anchor of the CBS Evening News, from March 2005 until late August 2006.

NBC's Zucker Calls for Change (B&C)
The writers strike's most lasting legacy will likely be the way it finally pushed the broadcast networks to reinvent their businesses, said Jeff Zucker, president and CEO of NBC Universal. "Maybe what we are going through now is our industry's version of a forest fire. We didn't ask for it, and it is unfortunate to live through. But if we are lucky, it may very well leave behind fertile soil, clear ground, and the opportunity for robust growth." FBLA: When (not if) the WGA strike is resolved, will there be a replay of the NBA strike, when players came back too fat and too lazy? We asked around.

Strike Takes Toll on Network Ratings (Variety)
The effects of the writers strike are starting to show up in year-to-year ratings comparisons: In a week when Fox dominated thanks to American Idol and to a good start for lie-detector reality series Moment of Truth, the broadcast industry as a whole limped across the finish line. This week makes for a clean year-to-year comparison, since it features no football.

Time Out New York Editor Leaves for Web Startup (Folio:)
Brian Farnham, editor-in-chief of Time Out New York, is leaving to join an as-yet-unnamed Internet startup company, Time Out New York president and group publisher Alison Tocci announced. Farnham, who joined TONY in 2006 after working at Details, will be replaced by deputy editor Michael Friedson.

Bill Clinton Gets More Campaign Coverage Than Any Republican (PEJ)
Barack Obama edged Hillary Clinton by the narrowest of margins in South Carolina. But her surrogate and husband — whose aggressive attacks on Obama and increasingly conspicuous role have been manna for political pundits — was the third-most prominent newsmaker in the race for President last week, January 21 through 27.

Fortune International Editor Out (NYP)
[Second item.] Robert Friedman, the editor of Fortune International, has been ousted. "I'm leaving at the end of the month," Friedman confirmed, before declining further comment. Friedman's departure appears to mark a major stripping away of the autonomy once enjoyed by Fortune's overseas editions, which in the past frequently ran different cover stories and somewhat different stories inside.

Yahoo's 4th-quarter Profit Drops 23% (LAT)
A lackluster fourth-quarter financial performance, including a 23 percent drop in profit, and a sober forecast for the coming year put even more pressure on the Internet giant. Yahoo shares fell 10 percent in after-hours trading after chief executive Jerry Yang acknowledged that the company might have a tough 2008 as it attempts to mount a comeback that could take years.

CBS News Radio, TV Employees Ratify WGA Contract (AP via USAT)
Unionized CBS News staffers who are members of the Writers Guild of America have overwhelmingly ratified a new contract with the network. The contract covers 500 employees who work in New York, Los Angeles, Washington, and Chicago, in both TV and radio. Positions covered by the contract range from desk assistant to producer, with average base salary between $20,000 and $70,000.

Times Co. Denies Report That It Wants to Sell About.com (NYT/Dealbook)
Speculation emerged Tuesday afternoon that The New York Times Company had put About.com up for sale. A report from Silicon Alley Insider said The Times Co. had hired an unnamed bank and was shopping the digital unit, which it estimated was worth as much as $600 million. However, people close to the company flatly denied the report.

WSJ Moves Uptown, Staffers Shrug (NYO)
The world was ready for cries of "What fresh hell is this!" from The Wall Street Journal, but there seems to be little sentiment to spare at The Journal for its namesake neighborhood, where in 1882, Charles Henry Dow, Edward Davis Jones, and Charles Milford Bergstresser first began sending messengers out to local businesses with copies of a handwritten daily bulletin. NYO: Financial District also shrugs at loss of Journal.

Glamour's Wackermann Is Condé's Publisher of the Year (WWD)
Glamour vice president and publisher William Wackermann was given the Publisher of the Year award from Condé Nast Publications chief executive officer Chuck Townsend said Tuesday night during dinner at the annual publishers' meeting. Wackermann had been passed over for the top honors two years in a row, losing out to Vogue publishing director Tom Florio and Lucky vice president and publisher Gina Sanders.

TV Showman, Once Exiled, Returns With Video Site (NYT)
Stephen Chao — who was fired from a top position at the News Corporation after, in separate incidents, hiring a male stripper to disrobe at a company meeting and nearly drowning Rupert Murdoch's dog at a party — plans to announce on Wednesday the formation of a Web video company that he hopes to build into an educational alternative to YouTube.

Striking Writer Heads to Ukraine for Work (LAT)
Billy Frolick, a 48-year-old screenwriter from the animation trenches (Madagascar) who may have the most ridiculously smile-inducing story of the strike. As he says, "No example of professional screenwriting's emotional undulations could be more vivid or surreal than my last two months." WaPo: Striking television writers have different story lines but none of them knows how this chapter will end.

Why Major News Outlets Are Giving Up on Charging for Online Content (AJR)
Barb Palser: Over the years, the old "why-pay-when-you-can-get-it-online-for-free" argument has furnished many newspaper managers with a convenient but false excuse for avoiding more sobering truths about their product and its relevance to today's consumers. For one thing, it's a leap to assume that most young readers would pay for standard newspaper fare online if it weren't free.

Fox News in For a Rough 2008? (Media Matters)
Eric Boehlert: Fox News years ago made an obvious decision to appeal almost exclusively to Republican viewers. The good news then for Fox News was that it succeeded. The bad news now for Fox News is that it succeeded. The problem for Fox News is that it's the Democratic race that's creating most of the excitement, yet Fox News has been forced to mostly watch the race from the sidelines.