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111 Staffers at NewsweekTake Buyout (Radar)
The staff of Newsweek will shrink dramatically, after 111 staffers on its news and business sides accepted a buyout last week. Among those leaving are some of the magazine's best-known, most-admired, and longest-service critics, including David Gates, David Ansen, and Cathleen McGuigan. Harold Shain, a former president of the magazine who moved over to Budget Travel, is also departing.

Biggest Ad Revenue Plunge for Newspapers in More Than 50 Years (E&P)
Total print advertising revenue in 2007 plunged 9.4 percent to $42 billion compared to 2006 — the most severe percent decline since the association started measuring advertising expenditures in 1950. The drop-off points to an economic slowdown on top of the secular challenges faced by the industry. The second worst decline in advertising revenue occurred in 2001 when it fell 9.0 percent.

IAC's Diller Wins Court Battle With Liberty (Reuters)
IAC/InterActiveCorp chief Barry Diller on Friday won a bitter legal dispute with Liberty Media Corp's John Malone, paving the way for him to proceed with efforts to spin off four of IAC's largest units. Shares in Internet conglomerate IAC surged more than 8 percent on the Delaware Chancery Court ruling, which blocked Liberty's effort to oust Diller and six other IAC board members.

Kathie Lee Gifford Back to the Mornings (TVNewser)
The big announcement promised by Matt Lauer Friday morning is that Kathie Lee Gifford will be joining the Today show. The announcement will be made during the 7:30 a.m. half hour with Gifford on hand. Starting next Monday, Gifford will be teamed with Hoda Kotb to anchor the network's seven-month-old fourth hour. TVNewser: "I'm eight years older, 10 pounds heavier, and a half inch shorter, and just in time for HD television," Gifford said during this morning's announcement.

Dith Pran, 'Killing Fields' Photographer, Dies at 65 (NYT)
Dith Pran, a photojournalist for The New York Times whose gruesome ordeal in the killing fields of Cambodia was re-created in a 1984 movie that gave him an eminence he tenaciously used to press for his people's rights, died on Sunday at a hospital in New Brunswick, N.J.

Daily News' Zuckerman Prepares Newsday Bid (Newsday)
Rupert Murdoch isn't the only newspaper mogul who is aggressively pursuing a purchase of Newsday, sources said Friday. Daily News owner Mort Zuckerman is still in the game. Two sources close to Zuckerman confirmed that, as of Thursday, he was aggressively preparing a bid for Newsday. His representatives have declined to comment about a potential bid.

Bravo Chief Reaches Out to the Prosperous Urban Woman (NYT)
Bravo is apparently speaking to more and more of America — or at least an upscale, urban part of it, largely female and also including a significant number of gay men. It has risen by about 30 percent in number of viewers and 38 percent among young adult viewers in two years on the strength of an all-reality lineup that includes Project Runway and Top Chef.

Wall St. Journal Makes Politics Its Business (WaPo)
Howard Kurtz: In the four months since Rupert Murdoch took over the nation's leading financial newspaper, the front page has assumed a harder edge, particularly on politics, establishing the Journal as a high-profile player in the presidential campaign. The steady flow of campaign stories on the front page is a departure for a newspaper that built its identity on business coverage.

Yahoo Hopes Women Take a Shine to Site (LAT)
Yahoo Inc. is making a fresh appeal to a key demographic: women. Launching today is Shine, a Yahoo Web site aimed at women ages 25 to 54. It will delve into fashion and beauty, entertainment, parenting, work, and other areas of interest to women. Mediaweek: After jumping to the dot-com world to lead Yahoo's lifestyle-content-building effort, Brandon Holley is reaching back to her magazine past to feed Shine.

CNN's John Roberts Touts a Very Good Morning (TV Guide)
While it's not getting the same ratings boom that the cable network is experiencing the rest of the day, CNN's American Morning's first-quarter audience is up 11 percent from a year ago as former CBS News veteran John Roberts and co-anchor Kiran Chetry offer a more straight-ahead alternative to the entertainment/news hybrids that the broadcast networks and Fox News offer in the morning.

NBC Offers Escape With New Slate (Variety)
Peacock programming chief Ben Silverman will unveil Wednesday his first schedule since taking over the network in June. While the net is keeping a tight lid on specifics, its decision to order projects straight to series, along with the condensed pilot season, makes it possible to outline some broad details of NBC's strategy.

Viacom Gets Vertical (Forbes)
Since being named president of global digital media for Viacom's MTV Networks in late 2006, Mika Salmi has presided over a rapid expansion of the company's online properties. In an interview, Salmi discussed the company's strategy of using its sprawling portfolio of brands to target niche audiences online.

Revolving Door Newsletter: More Job Cuts Across the Media Sphere (mediabistro.com)
It was another typically brutal week for the media business, with layoffs and ugly departures striking magazines, television, deep-pocketed cable news start-ups, and even one of the great dot.com survivors — and The New York Times finally has a new weekend editor, with Alison Mitchell sliding over from the education desk and assuming Marty Gottlieb's old job.

Are Always-Connected Consumers Really Virtual Crackheads? (AdAge)
Simon Dumenco: Media people and marketers increasingly seem to regard consumers as Pavlovian pets whose behavior can be tweaked round the clock, on the fly, by gaming the stimuli that feeds into their always-connected broadband-addicted brains. For those of us making media, the question basically comes down to this: Are we really offering/selling something that serves the needs of "whole people"?

The Love Affair Between McCain and the Press Sprains the Brain of the Liberal Blogosphere (PressThink)
Jay Rosen: The best indications are that McCain is about to throw a wild card into the presidential race. McCain says he is going to continue to open himself to questioning by reporters throughout his run for the White House. You travel with McCain, you get to ask him questions. On the record, with lots of different opportunities, day and night. Can you really run for president like that?