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Bloodless Editorial Handover at TNR (NYT)
Franklin Foer, a senior editor with the magazine, is quietly taking over The New Republic next week from the current editor, Peter Beinart, who has a book to promote and ambitions of returning to longer form writing.

Spin Turnover Complete (NYP)
The magazine is expected to finalize its sale today to the McEvoy Group and Hartle Media. Miller Publishing CEO Robert Miller will receive as little as $5 million, a fraction of the $42 million that he paid for the title when he bought it from Bob Guccione Jr. in 1997.

NBC's Olympic Bust (WaPo)
Over its entire run, the Winter Games from Turin averaged about 20 million viewers — down about 20 percent compared with the last overseas Winter Olympics, in Nagano in 1998, and down 33 percent among the 18-to-49-year-olds NBC targets. Mediaweek: Games won't help NBC win sweeps. USAT: Analysts say several factors contributed to the decline: taped coverage for which results were easily available online; a shortage of emerging stars; a record amount of coverage spread among cable networks; and aggressive counterprogramming.

Iraqis Believe Jill Carroll Is Still Alive (Guardian)
The Iraqi government believes the kidnapped journalist Jill Carroll is still alive, despite Sunday's deadline set by her captors for killing her. Interior minister Bayan Jabr said he believed the group holding her had not carried out its threat, but refused to say why. CSM: Jabr told ABC that his ministry knows who arranged Carroll's abduction. "We know his name and address, and we are following up on him as well as the Americans," he said.

Authors Claim Dan Brown Stole Ideas for Da Vinci Code (AP via MSNBC)
It's the latest twist for the mega-selling conspiracy thriller "The Da Vinci Code": a lawsuit against the book's publisher for breach of copyright that could taint the novel and delay the much-anticipated movie version. WaPo: The lawsuit potentially could involve millions of dollars in royalties and profits from the book, which has sold tens of millions of copies worldwide. GalleyCat: Random House and Brown claim that he'd already figured out most of the mystery on his own before discovering Baigent and Leigh's book.

NBC to Adapt Hispanic Telenovelas (Miami Herald)
The TV giant announced it will adapt some of Telemundo's steamy Spanish-language soap operas for English-language viewers to air on NBC and its cable networks Bravo and USA. NBC Universal is the parent company of Telemundo.

ABC Discusses Quicker Circ Reporting (WWD)
The interminable wait for circulation data may soon be a thing of the past. On the agenda for the March 8-11 meeting of the Audit Bureau of Circulations' board is a proposal to allow magazines to report their subscription and single-copy sales figures on a more frequent and rapid basis.

Germany Disputes Times Story About Pre-War Intel (NYT)
The German government today labeled as "false" a report in the paper that agents of the German Intelligence agency obtained Saddam Hussein's plan for the defense of Baghdad before the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, and that the information was passed along to American military intelligence.

61% Get Local News From Newspapers (Baltimore Sun)
A survey by the market research business Outsell Inc. determined that 61 percent of consumers look to their newspapers as an essential source for local news, events and sports, followed by television (58 percent) and radio (35 percent). About 6 percent turn to the major Internet search engines.

CBS Radio Stations Missing Stern (Radio and Records)
The first batch of winter 2006 Phase One Arbitrends was released Monday by Arbitron, and, based on the results, CBS Radio's WFNY/New York and KLSX/Los Angeles have a difficult challenge ahead in attracting morning drive listeners to slots once dominated by Howard Stern. NYDN: Stern isn't even heard on most radios since he moved to Sirius Satellite last month, but he's still the No. 1 talk-radio host in America, according to the trade magazine Talkers.

Ex-Spook to Press: Don't Get Fooled Again (Nieman Watchdog)
Paul Pillar, the former CIA official who coordinated U.S. intelligence on the Middle East until last year, writes that the press was insufficiently questioning both in the run-up to war and in its coverage of the 9/11 Commission. He proposes questions reporters should ask about the use and abuse of intelligence by policymakers.

Internet Ad Rates Up Across the Board in '05 (NYP)
Despite years of astronomical growth, a flood of deep-pocketed advertisers is fueling another run-up in Internet advertising prices. The ad price tags have gotten so big, in fact, that small businesses are eating through their budgets, and even some big companies are starting to experience sticker shock. Guardian: One newspaper reader is worth up to 100 online users in ad revenue.

—David S. Hirschman