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Recent Moves by Guild Leaders Rattle Writers' Talks (NYT)
Promising closed-door talks aimed at settling Hollywood's three-month-old strike by movie and television writers have been jolted in the last few days by the actions of some prominent guild leaders. Phil Alden Robinson, best known as the writer and director of Field of Dreams and a member of the governing board of the WGA West, has publicly called for a toughened bargaining position. LAT: Writers take eye off CBS. AP via USAT: Two back-up Oscar shows reportedly planned.

Google Content Partnerships Chief: We Won't Become a Media Company (IWantMedia)
David Eun: What we do is point people to where they can find content. And we make a business by putting relevant ads next to it. Our strength is in understanding what's out there and then putting ads around it, as opposed to trying to guess what kind of content people would like and trying to sell that content ourselves.

Montel Williams Calls It Quits (Variety)
Montel Williams is calling it a wrap after 17 years in daytime. CBS TV Distribution confirmed Wednesday it will end production on the syndicated talk show at the end of this season. CBS plans to offer stations a "Best of Montel" package for the fall that will feature segments from throughout the show's run.

This Year's Super Bowl Ads to Be Gentle and Sweet (NYT)
Most commercials that Fox Broadcasting will run during the game — for which sponsors are paying record prices or close to it — will be taking a milder, sweeter approach. There will be cute animals, at least one talking baby, an appeal to help fight AIDS, a talent contest, light-hearted parodies, and enough celebrities to fill several seasons of Dancing With the Stars. LAT: Advertisers are jostling for attention for their spots like never before, posting them online in advance of Sunday's kick-off, unveiling them at news conferences, screening them at cocktail parties, and releasing behind-the-scenes videos about the ads' production. Mediaweek: Fox is expected to take in a total of $225 million in advertising revenue on Super Bowl Sunday.

MPA Honors Tina and Jack (FishbowlNY)
Highlights at yesterday's Magazine Lifetime Achievement Awards Luncheon at Manhattan's Gotham Hall included Barry Diller's presentation of the award for Tina Brown, the Magazine Editors' Hall of Fame inductee. Diller touted Brown's "remarkable sui generis career," pointing out that hers was "not a career of conformism and positioning," given all the editorial chances she took to birth the melding of celebrity coverage and in-depth reporting that the magazine industry widely considers her imprimatur. Jack Kliger, recipient of the Henry Johnson Fisher Award, likened magazine readers to so many zoo animals, telling attendees that the core of the magazine industry's objectives was the "care and feeding of readers." AdAge: In welcoming Brown to the Magazine Editors' Hall of Fame, Diller recalled that Jamaica Kincaid used to refer to her as "Stalin in high heels."

Fox Finds a Loophole, Will Use WSJ Reporters On-Air (Silicon Alley Insider)
When News Corp. bought Dow Jones, part of the rationale was that Rupert Murdoch could use the WSJ's reporters to help bolster Fox Businesss Network — but not for a while. That's because the WSJ and CNBC had already signed a contract that gives the network exclusive rights to the Journal's talent through 2012. Or not. Fox Business now looks set on exploiting what it says is a loophole in the CNBC deal.

Out Mag EIC Aaron Hicklin Named PlanetOut Editorial Director (Queerty)
In an effort to save its seemingly sinking brand, PlanetOut appointed Out EIC Aaron Hicklin as the company's editorial director. In addition to working with other editors under the media umbrella, Hicklin will "play an integral role in the development of the digital media aspects of Gay.com 2.0 and will serve as the creative visionary behind the re-launch of PlanetOut.com," says an internal email.

How Much Are Baby Pics Worth to Celeb Mags? (Gawker)
People has secured the first pictures of Nicole Richie's baby, Harlow. The winning bid: $1m. Richie's take is impressive, but not as rich a price as that being offered for first photographic evidence of the baby boy born to Christina Aguilera, the singer, earlier this month. We hear that bidding between People and OK!, which bid $1m earlier this month, has now reached $1.5m.

TV Repeats a Turn-Off (NYP)
TV viewers are getting a growing sense of deja vu. For the first time since the writers' strike began in November, fans are facing a sea of repeats when they would normally get fresh episodes of their favorite shows. There are signs that viewers are already sick of watching the same thing. Last week, ABC and CBS — the two broadcast networks that depend the most on original scripted fare — took a beating.

Wikipedia and Journalism (AJR)
It's unclear if many newsrooms have formal policies banning Wikipedia attribution in their stories, but many have informal ones. At the Philadelphia Inquirer, which cited Wikipedia in an article about the death of television personality Tom Snyder last July, managing editor Mike Leary recently sent an email to staff members reminding them they are never to use Wikipedia "to verify facts or to augment information in a story."

Smaller Distributors Make News With Big Deals at NATPE (Variety)
The action at this year's NATPE confab made it clear that there's an independence movement afoot in the syndie TV biz. A handful of indie distributors generated as much, if not more, action during the confab as the majors. Sales news out of the majors on Wednesday included NBC Universal Domestic TV's confirmation that The Steve Wilkos Show is good to go for a second season in more than 85 percent of the country.

AZN Cable Network Folds (FishbowlNY)
Another cable network has kicked the dust. AZN Television, a network aimed at Asian-Americans in their 20s and 30s, has just announced they are closing up shop. The Comcast-affiliated network airs on Channel 581 on Time Warner Cable New York and tried to be all things to all people — Chinese, Japanese, Korean, South Asian, and Southeast Asian-targeted programming all regularly air on AZN.

The Tabloid Excesses of CNN.com, MSNBC.com, and FoxNews.com (Slate)
Jack Shafer: In their craven pursuit of clicks, the editors at CNN.com, MSNBC.com, and Foxnews.com turn their sites into virtual tabloids by peppering their home pages with the most sordid and bizarre stories that can be culled from the world's news wires. Although any story featuring sex, violence, death, or dismemberment can qualify a news story for heavy promotion on a cable channel Web site, nothing satisfies the sites like an endangered baby.

Al-Jazeera English in 'Staffing Crisis' (Guardian)
Al-Jazeera's troubled English language news channel is facing a "serious staffing crisis" after scores of journalists left or have not had contracts renewed amid claims of a revolt over working conditions. Staff at the Doha-based 24-hour news channel speak of a series of issues including the removal of benefits and a lack of pay rises which have led many to resign or look to leave.

New Hires At CITY Mag (FishbowlNY)
Design/style mag City has picked up some new faces, including a legendary Fader vet. OG Fader creative director Eddie Brannan, who has also worked for BlackBook and Big, has been named as the mag's new creative director. Meanwhile, Julie Ragolia, who has done extensive previous work for international editions of W, Vogue, Interview, and Vanity Fair, is the mag's new fashion editor.