Rock Fails to Woo More to Oscars (USAT)
The 77th annual Academy Awards averaged 41.5 million viewers Sunday, a 5 percent drop from last year. And aside from the record-low turnout of 33 million in 2002, this year marked the least-watched Oscars since 1997.

FCC: 'Private Ryan' Not Indecent (Mediaweek)
Federal regulators on Monday decided the Veterans' Day broadcast of the movie Saving Private Ryan on ABC did not violate decency standards, despite the liberal use of the F-word and other expletives.

Missing Journo in Iraq Pleads for Life (AP via Boston Globe)
French journalist Florence Aubenas, a veteran war correspondent for the Liberation newspaper, looked pale and distraught as she appealed for help on a video Tuesday, her first appearance since she went missing in Iraq on January 5th.

Dan Signs Off on Critics (NYDN)
Richard Huff: Dan Rather won't fire back at critics inside CBS News—some labeled friends in a report in this week's New Yorker magazine—who say they're not watching his CBS Evening News.

View From the Briefing Room (WaPo)
Former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer's book, Taking Heat, is out today, and while his style isn't to smack people around, he is the first Bush administration insider to offer a sustained indictment of the media. NYT: After years of taking heat, Fleischer takes potshots, writes Michiko Kakutani.

Global TV Ad Spending Healthy (Guardian)
Despite the continuing threat from the Internet, new figures from media buying agency Initiative show TV advertising's proportion of global ad spend has risen in the past five years—albeit by a modest 4 percent.

CNN Goes Boozy (NYT)
The station is to become the first national cable television news network to accept commercials for distilled spirits, by running a spot for Grey Goose vodka.

King Novel Lifts Pulp Publisher (NYDN)
A New York publishing startup, bent on reviving the kind of dark pulp fiction popular in the '40s and '50s, has taken a giant step forward by adding Stephen King to its catalogue.

Primedia Profits Up Sharply (Bloomberg via NYP)
The publisher of magazines including Motor Trend and Soap Opera Digest said fourth-quarter profit rose 50 percent as costs fell.

Trying for the 'Newspaper Experience' on the Web (USAT)
This week, in a 10-week experiment designed to mix the best that print and the Web have to offer, the University of Missouri's daily subscription newspaper, The Missourian, will unveil a weekly electronic media version, or EmPrint.

Get Me Rewrite (PR Week)
Veteran New York Daily News writer Corky Siemaszko may be one of the only people ever who claims to have entered journalism "for the money."

Clarke Talks About his NYT Column (E&P)
With surprisingly little fanfare, Richard A. Clarke, the former antiterror chief for the Clinton and Bush Administrations, has become a regular columnist for The New York Times Magazine.

Pyromarketing Mania (AdAge)
One of the nation's most successful religious book publishers has gained wide attention in national book distribution circles with The Purpose-Driven Life, a title which sold over 21 million copies since its release in October of 2002.

News With Feelings (LAT)
CNN's sister network launches new shows that feature celebrities, emotion, and a newsmagazine feel.

Novak on a Mission (WaPo)
He's been known for 40 years as Washington's journalistic "prince of darkness," but cranky, arch-conservative pundit Bob Novak believes he's doing God's work. [Third item.]

Anonymice Infestation (Slate)
Jack Shafer: Anonymous sources continue to multiply in the pages of the top dailies. This proliferation comes despite the public promises made by some newspapers to stamp out, or at least reduce, the number of anonymous sources quoted.

Inside Dow Jones' MarketWatch Buy (S.F. Business Times)
Dow Jones' $528 million acquisition of San Francisco financial news website MarketWatch began, one could argue, close to two decades ago.

Can Citizens' Journalism Resuscitate the Media? (Mediachannel)
Danny Schechter: The prospects of alternative media outlets in this climate has never been more promising, but little of it has an economic foundation.

All the News That's Kid-Friendly (CSM)
Paris-based newspaper Mon Quotidien is aimed at 10- to 14-year-old readers, and marks its 10th anniversary this month.

—David S. Hirschman