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Marty Peretz Sells Last New Republic Share (NYO)
"It feels like a burden has been lifted from me," Martin Peretz said. For the first time in three decades, Peretz no longer owns a stake in The New Republic, having sold his 25 percent share to Canadian media conglomerate CanWest Global Communications, which now takes full ownership of the 93-year-old political and cultural magazine. NYT: Peretz is to remain as the magazine's editor-in-chief.

Academy Threatens YouTube Over Oscar Clips (Variety)
Web surfers will no longer be reliving the magical moments of the 2007 Oscars via YouTube. The online video site has complied with a Tuesday request from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences to remove all unauthorized clips of the broadcast. Several segments of the show had been among YouTube's most-viewed content this week.

Martha Eyes Expansion Into Asia (NYP)
Martha Stewart aims to find out if China has enough people in its burgeoning middle class to embrace the meticulous taste mistress' home entertainment magazines and spin-off products. Plans are still very hush-hush, but sources say that Stewart, along with Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia CEO Susan Lyne, is hoping to embark on a fact-finding tour of China in the very near future. FishbowlNY: Martha Stewart execs can take their bonuses in extra stock.

$19.6M? NBC Bends To Beckhams (B&C)
NBC is close to a signing a reality TV show deal with Victoria Beckham. The show would focus on Beckham's move to Los Angeles with husband David Beckham, who will play for Major League Soccer's Los Angeles Galaxy this summer. The Daily Mail says the deal is worth $19.6 million. The pending deal was reportedly brokered by Simon Fuller, who is behind Fox's smash hit American Idol.

They Won't Always Have Paris: AP Goes Cold Turkey on Hilton (NYO)
On Feb. 13, the Associated Press declared its plans to boldly go where few wire services would dare to go: the no-Paris Hilton zone. "Next week," entertainment editor Jesse Washington wrote in an email, "the print team is planning an unconventional experiment: We are NOT going to cover Paris Hilton. Barring any major, major news, we are not going to put a single word about Paris on the wire."

Stars, Models Exposed to Hepatitis at Sports Illustrated Party (Reuters via Yahoo)
A bash for SI's annual swimsuit issue has turned into a health scare for stars in Hollywood after a caterer working for celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck may have exposed them to acute Hepatitis A. The Los Angeles County health department recommended that anyone who ate uncooked food at the sports magazine's party on February 14 get treatment by today.

MPA Digital: Mag Web Sites of Future Will Reflect Users (Mediaweek)
User-driven content and video will take on a greater role at magazines' Web sites as they seek to make the most of the Internet's unique properties. That was the message publishing execs sent from the Magazine Publishers of America's annual digital conference in New York. FBNY: Dwell gets it wrong — then right? FBNY: MPA's first-ever digital awards: "F'ing awesome!"

A CBS Take on the YouTube Madness (NYT)
With March coming in tomorrow, the March Madness days of college basketball are not far away. A division of CBS is hoping to intensify the mania by offering students and other fans a chance to create exuberant, exhortatory video clips and share them with friends, family and strangers — and use them, not incidentally, to taunt anyone who roots for opposing teams.

Op-Out: Varadarajan Hurdles Journal's News-Editorial Divide (NYO)
On March 1, Tunku Varadarajan is due to join the Wall Street Journal's newsroom as an assistant managing editor, after more than six years in the paper's staunchly conservative opinion department, a major move at the paper. "He writes opinionated, right-wing columns," one Journal staffer said. "It's hard to see how the news pages benefit from someone like that."

Bush Administration FOIA Report Card Hits New Low (E&P)
The Coalition of Journalists for Open Government says a 2005 Bush order for faster processing of Freedom of Information Act requests didn't produce a "surge" in response time. Waiting time is up, and so are the number of backlogged requests. Overall, the groups said, FOIA performance remains at the lowest point since agency reporting began in 1998.

Televisa to Sell Stake in Univision (AP via Forbes)
Mexican media conglomerate Grupo Televisa yesterday confirmed its intention to sell its shares in the U.S. Spanish-language broadcaster Univision Communications Inc., after Univision's new owners named the company's next chief executive. Broadcasting Media Partners Inc., the investor group that is buying Univision, said that Joe Uva will become chief executive of Univision.

Oscar Ceremony Gave Welcome Shout Outs to the Writers (LAT)
Jay Fernandez: Conventional wisdom holds that The Departed, by winning four Oscars, including best picture and director, was the big winner Sunday night at the Academy Awards. But for my money, the evening's truly triumphant were the screenwriters.

Static on Christian Radio Network (LAT)
Amid accusations over sex, money and control, Pastor Chuck Smith, founder of the worldwide Calvary Chapel movement, is about to surrender much of the evangelical radio empire he built to one of his proteges, Mike Kestler, whom he calls morally unfit for ministry.

The Novelist Who Was Afraid of Publishing (Salon)
Cary Tennis: You don't have to publish. It's perfectly OK to write simply as a personal discipline; writing is fulfilling as a practice, like gardening. You may like to garden but not every gardener enters contests. I like to garden but I don't dream of making a living at it or showing my garden to people for their review and criticism. ... The garden shows me to myself. Writing shows you to yourself.