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Microsoft Vows Yahoo Fight (LAT)
Just hours after Yahoo Inc. spurned its unsolicited takeover offer, Microsoft Corp. on Monday set the stage for a fight by pledging to clinch the technology mega-deal by any means necessary. The world's largest software maker, versed in the art of hardball negotiations and confident it could close the deal, made clear that it did not plan to back off the cornered Yahoo. San Jose Mercury News: In the coming weeks, Microsoft will try to raise the pressure on Yahoo. It has indicated it is prepared for a nasty takeover battle that could include nominating its own slate to Yahoo's board of directors or making its offer directly to Yahoo's shareholders. CNet: Without a competing suitor on the horizon, Yahoo has little leverage in pushing Microsoft to up its bid. NYP: Sources said that Microsoft has hired proxy solicitation firm Innisfree in anticipation of a proxy battle to replace Yahoo's board. BusinessWeek: Yahoo's high-stakes "no thanks."

CBS News Journalist, Iraqi Translator Abducted in Basra (LAT)
A Western journalist and his Iraqi interpreter working for CBS News were missing Monday after being abducted. According to an Iraqi police report, the two had been missing since Sunday evening. It said eight SUVs arrived at their hotel earlier in the day and their occupants asked to see the guest list. Later, when the journalists left the hotel, two SUVs were waiting for them and took them away. WaPo: "All efforts are underway to find them," CBS News said in a three-sentence statement.

On the Air or Up in the Air: The Post-Strike Landscape (WaPo)
Lisa de Moraes: Executives at all the broadcast nets huddled yesterday to figure out which scripted series could produce more new episodes in what's left of this TV season, which shows should produce new episodes, which shows still have unaired original episodes, which shows to scrap, and which shows it makes the most sense to concede the season and relaunch in the fall. LAT: Private overtures led to strike breakthrough. NYT: David Carr looks at who won from the writers' strike. Slate: Kim Masters writes that no one won the strike. Mediaweek: CW to bring back fresh episodes of six shows. Variety: TV shows start to learn their fate. Forbes: The Web is the winner.

Agencies See a Window to Alter the Business of Television (NYT)
Madison Avenue, assessing the aftermath of the writers' strike, is optimistic that there is plenty of opportunity to start fresh in the post-strike era, particularly in the areas where agency executives would most like to see change. For one, they would welcome the adoption of a year-round television season rather than the September-to-May schedule now followed by the broadcasters.

Chairman Sam: It Was for Your Own Good (LA Observed)
Sam Zell apparently got enough feedback about his boorish (at best) remarks at the Times and Orlando Sentinel last week that he sent out a mea culpa posing as a lesson from the master. Meanwhile, the publisher and editor of the Orlando Sentinel politely called BS on the new boss's explanation for dropping the f-bomb on a photographer. Chicago Tribune: Zell replaces Tribune interactive chief.

Book From Simpson's Former Agent: How I Helped O.J. Get Away With Murder (NYO)
Mike Gilbert, who served as O.J. Simpson's sports agent for a reported 18 years, is writing a book for Regnery Publishing. According to a brief announcement, the book will "detail O.J.'s late-night confession" and offer new evidence showing that Simpson did kill his ex-wife Nicole Brown and her boyfriend Ron Goldman. GalleyCat: The book will also contain "information on Gilbert's crucial role in obtaining the not guilty verdict and why he stayed silent for so long."

Mags Take a Hit at the Newsstand (Folio:)
According to the latest figures from the Audit Bureau of Circulations, a number of high profile consumer magazines took a big hit in overall circulation while others saw a precipitous drop at the newsstand. Time (-17.57 percent), Playboy (-10.04 percent), and Reader's Digest (-7.64 percent) all showed significant drops in overall circulation. NYT: Sales of US Weekly and OK! climbed sharply in the second half of 2007, even as a round of price increases contributed to an unusual drop in overall sales of celebrity magazines. MIN: In the November 2007 mag boxscores, food sites always have something to be thankful for.

ABC Affiliates Defend NYPD Blue Nude Scene (B&C)
The 50 ABC affiliates hit with indecency fines over a February 2003 episode of NYPD Blue have filed an appeal with the FCC. The stations argued that the bare female behind that prompted those fines — which totaled about $1.4 million — was a "simple depiction of nonsexual nudity," and that mere nudity is not indecent either as a matter of law or as a matter of community standards.

CBS' Apocalyptic Jericho Rises From Its Ashes (USAT)
Jericho has survived a nuclear apocalypse and slumping ratings. Tonight, the CBS drama returns to fight for survival as Jericho begins a shortened, seven-episode season in a time slot where it no longer faces top-rated American Idol. CBS resurrected the canceled first-season series after an intense campaign by impassioned fans.

Hillary Slams MSNBC ... Praises Fox?!? (FishbowlDC)
Politico's John Harris asked Clinton for her thoughts on the MSNBC "pimped out" situation during an interview that aired on Washington, D.C.'s local ABC affiliate WJLA. Clinton said that her staff had sent her "some independent study" "which seemed to suggest that" "in terms of the fairness of the coverage," Fox News Channel has treated her campaign more fairly than MSNBC. HuffPo: Barbara Walters tells Hillary to "drop it already."

Alpha Media Names Rosenbloom President (NYP)
Maxim owner Alpha Media yesterday named Glenn Rosenbloom as president, after earlier ousting Maxim publisher Rob Gregory. Rosenbloom joins Alpha, formerly known as Dennis Publishing, from Walt Disney Co.'s magazine group, Buena Vista Publishing. It is a new position at Alpha, whose titles also include music mag Blender.

Authors of New Anna Nicole Smith Book Sue Their Own Publisher (NYDN)
In a bizarre twist to the latest book on Anna Nicole Smith, its authors are now suing their own publisher. Jody (Babydol) Gibson, a former Hollywood "super madam," is selling Anna Nicole Smith: Portrait of an Icon online through her imprint, Corona. But authors Pol' Atteu and Patrik Simpson say they backed out of their arrangement with Gibson and are selling a separate "signature edition" through publisher Kings Road.

FCC's Copps Wants His Media Smaller, Newsier — and Less Cluttered With Ads (AdAge)
So far, as one of only two Democratic commissioners — outvoted at practically every turn by three Republicans — Michael Copps has had little ability to actually push his vision of "media democracy" and has instead been limited to writing scathing dissents and firing up activists outside the Beltway. But it's been an effective strategy nonetheless.

The Ombudsman: Journalism's Last Line of Defense (Salon)
Jeffrey Dvorkin: Over the past five years, a significant number of American news organizations have looked around their newsrooms and decided that having an ombudsman was a luxury the paper just couldn't afford. I think this is shortsighted and wrong.

Pentagon Papers Redux? (Slate)
Timothy Noah: A Page One story in the Feb. 11 New York Times, "Army Buried Study Faulting Iraq Planning," has a familiar ring to it: Government commissions multivolume study about conduct of unpopular war ... study's frankness about lives lost due to tragic misjudgments and political posturing prompts government to conceal study ... New York Times acquires study and spills beans.