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For Whom Zell Tolls: 120 Newsday Staffers Axed (NYP)
Tribune owner Sam Zell yesterday struck Newsday with a vengeance, whacking 120 jobs, including 25 unionized editorial people in the newsroom and about 10 top editors, including the paper's entire national desk. The cost-cutting moves are at least the sixth major downsizing at the paper since it closed its New York Newsday edition in 1995. Newsday: "My foremost responsibility is to ensure that we are a healthy organization equipped and motivated to succeed in this rapidly changing and challenging marketplace," publisher Tim Knight said in a memo to the staff. "Though we all know we will not grow by cutting, we have no choice but to respond to the revenue decline and make cost adjustments now."

NBC: Bush Kept Off Network to Promote MSNBC (AP via USAT)
NBC News said it was a desire to promote MSNBC as a news destination that led to its decision Thursday not to carry President Bush's news conference on NBC. The call to keep Bush off the broadcast network was noteworthy not just because ABC and CBS pre-empted regularly scheduled programming to cover the president, but because NBC was airing another news division program at the time — the fourth hour of Today. B&C: The future of NBC News is not on the broadcast network, but at MSNBC and online, said Jeff Zucker, president of CEO of NBC Universal.

Viacom CEO Talks Up Q4, Spielberg (Hollywood Reporter)
"I've been spending a lot of time with Steven Spielberg," Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman said during a conference call to discuss the company's financial results. Analysts have been concerned that Spielberg, DreamWorks CEO Stacey Snider, and other top talent will leave Paramount ever since a rift between Viacom chief Sumner Redstone and DreamWorks co-founders Spielberg and David Geffen developed last year.

NBC Punting Quarterlife to Cable (Silicon Alley Insider)
NBCU is about to announce that it's moving the Web-to-TV series to its Bravo cable network. This makes sense: On Wednesday night, the drama drew a cable-sized audience of 3.1 million viewers. And while we don't know what NBC paid for the show, it certainly wasn't as much as it would normally spend on a broadcast drama, since MySpace has already footed some of the bill. Portfolio: The show's ratings were particularly poor given the prime placement of Quarterlife after the popular The Biggest Loser, which gets an estimated 7.4 million viewers a week.

They Didn't Even Watch The Oscars on The Web (WWD)
If media watchers were sobered by the fact that this year's Academy Awards telecast drew the lowest television ratings on record, the news gets even worse: The Web didn't fare a whole lot better. Celebrity-focused Web sites reported an increase in traffic, but those who reported news from the event (Gary Busey's rabid attack on Jennifer Garner) fared better than sites that simply uploaded red-carpet photos. AdAge: Looking for a smart, opinionated Oscars crowd online? Good luck, writes Larry Dubrow.

Matt Drudge: World's Most Powerful Journalist? (Telegraph)
Toby Harnden: Ten years ago, he was a reclusive, pasty-faced 31-year-old who, bashing away on his laptop in his grungy Hollywood apartment, shot to prominence when he threatened to bring down Bill Clinton's presidency by breaking news of the Monica Lewinsky scandal. He remains an elusive, mysterious figure but the Internet pioneer is arguably the single most powerful journalist in the world.

Job Cuts at Papers Shrink Coverage (LAT)
Experts say the American appetite for news is as strong as ever. Even big-city papers that have suffered sharp declines in print circulation in recent years have seen their total audiences grow, when viewers of their Internet sites are included. The problem is that few news organizations have yet found a way to make the kind of money online that they had generated from print. E&P: While Wall Street analysts predict a future for newspapers in ever more apocalyptic terms, the fact is: Many small-market papers are not just surviving, but thriving.

ESPN Eyes More Web-Exclusive Video (Forbes)
ESPN posts lots of video content on its Web site, mostly in the form of brief clips featuring breaking news, game highlights, and wrap-ups. But the Disney subsidiary is planning to get more ambitious in its use of Internet video later this year, with more Web-exclusive content and long-form video possibly part of the mix, says Ed Erhardt, president of customer marketing and sales for ESPN and ABC Sports.

Lorne Michaels Defends Casting Of Non-Black Obama (WaPo)
When Barack Obama announced his candidacy for president last year, some observers questioned whether the senator from Illinois was "black enough" to embody the hopes and aspirations of African Americans. Now a variation on that theme has emerged: Is Fred Armisen, who is not African American, "black enough" to embody Obama on Saturday Night Live?

O'Reilly Won't Back Off Huffington/Nazi Comparison (Portfolio/Mixed Media)
Bill O'Reilly may have stepped over the line when he said there's no moral difference between Arianna Huffington and a Nazi, but he's not backing down just yet, even after receiving a letter from a viewer who writes, "I lost many members of my family to the Holocaust and the meaning of their deaths means more than a comparison to a meaningless blog."

City Hall Reporters in New York Send Flowers to Bloomberg's Presidential Campaign Planner (NYO/Politicker)
Reporters in City Hall, who were charged with documenting Michael Bloomberg's presidential non-bid — and felt the mayor's wrath at times for peppering him with questions about it — sent flowers and a message of condolence to the architect of Bloomberg's presidential campaign, Kevin Sheekey.

CBS Puts Mixed Martial Arts in Primetime (TV Week)
CBS has signed a multiyear deal with ProElite to broadcast mixed martial arts events on Saturdays during primetime. Under the terms of the deal, CBS will broadcast four events each year, the first time mixed martial arts will be broadcast by a major network during primetime.

Behind the Scenes of PageSix.com's Serial In-Fighting (Jossip)
While we imagine Richard Johnson and Paula Froelich sometimes raise their voices at each other in between telling off publicists, Page Six's really enjoyable infighting is happening at their struggling dot com. The three-month-old PageSix.com just ousted Sean Borg, the "'mover and shaker' on the London social scene," as he calls himself on his Web site, and all-around opportunist.

Requiem for Old-Time Radio (BusinessWeek)
Jon Fine: As with newspapers, small-market radio stations have been insulated from their bigger brethren's woes. And radio still boasts the odd trump card, formats that make up in uniqueness what it has lost in monopolized distribution: morning zoo DJs, rush-hour drive time, the Limbaughs of the world, and local talk. But of all major consumer media, radio is the least suited to an online transition.

Economist Beating the Odds in the U.S. (Marketwatch)
Jon Friedman: The Economist is thriving in the U.S. because it frequently succeeds in being different from the American media. The mag is decisive, but not shrill. Its stories have a sense of urgency, but don't reek of hype. "Among the reasons I love the Economist and consider it to be the best-reporting general-interest magazine is that it's unpredictable," said Ken Auletta. mediabistro.com: Economist EIC John Micklethwait explains how his newsweekly increased sales by 107 percent over seven years.