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For Whom Bell Toils: Today (NYT)
NBC News named Jim Bell as the executive producer of Today, promising to reinvigorate what some network executives conceded had become a stale program. LAT: Harsh wake-up call for Today staffers. Philly Inky: Bell confident he'll make big strides, writes Gail Shister. USAT: "Today was painting by numbers," NBC Universal President Jeff Zucker said. "It's our belief that the show needed a kick start. It had nothing to do with Katie or Matt."

Schieffer Leads New Era at CBS (Boston Globe)
68-year-old Bob Schieffer is clearly enjoying an unexpected late moment in the spotlight. In an industry trying to cater to a younger demographic profile, Schieffer is a graying journalistic warhorse. But suddenly, there's some buzz that perhaps Schieffer could stick around. Hartford Courant: CBS should gamble on new Evening News format, writes Paul Janensch. TV Guide: The changes on Schieffer's CBS Evening News are getting attention, but when will ratings follow?

Dow as We Say, Not as We Do (Slate)
Dow Jones invented financial journalism and still dominates it. But while the Wall Street Journal is a national treasure, the company and its stock have been turkeys for the last several years. AP via Yahoo!: Dow Jones on "collision course" with employees?

Saving the Herald (Boston Phoenix)
Dan Kennedy: Boston can maintain its status as one of the few cities in the country with two daily newspapers, but only if the Herald offers readers something they want that they can't find in the Globe. Boston Globe: Guild leaders call for OK of Herald contract.

New Celeb Mags Launch Today (USAT)
Inside TV, the product of focus groups and sample reader surveys, will be competing with American Media's five-week test-balloon Celebrity Living, also launching today.

Zuckerman Slashes NYDN Severence (NYP)
Notice of the new restrictive severance agreement at the paper, which offers up to two weeks' pay for each year of service but caps out at just 13 weeks' total pay, comes after an old agreement with the Newspaper Guild that expired on March 31.

Many Starting Mags Despite Odds (NYT)
A hardy band of entrepreneurs have started magazines, often aimed at niche markets. While any new venture is a gamble, magazines are especially risky.

Economist Deputy Quits to Become Columnist (Guardian)
Clive Crook will move to Washington to write for the Atlantic Monthly and the National Journal after 22 years at the British newsweekly.

Analysts: Web Siphoning Newspaper Ad Revenue (Ad Age)
Newspapers' classified ads business has already eroded noticeably and could ultimately cost newspapers about 9 percent of its total ad revenues by 2007, according to two executives from consulting giant McKinsey & Co.

Study: Young People Abandoning Newspapers (E&P)
A new generation of technology-savvy young people is getting their news in ways that threaten the very viability of newspapers and other traditional news media, according to a study commissioned by the Carnegie Corporation of New York.

Black Bows Out (Boston Globe)
Media tycoon Conrad Black and longtime business partner David Radler have resigned as officers and directors of Ravelston Corp., the private holding company behind the troubled Hollinger media empire.

Coulter Profiler Addresses Critics (CJR Daily)
John Cloud, who wrote about righty vamp Ann Coulter for this week's Time magazine cover story, says that there is no truth to allegations that the publication is kissing up to conservatives.

Friedman's Book 'Middlebrow Horseshit' Writes Pope Joker (NY Press)
Matt Taibbi: Like George Bush, Thomas Friedman's in the reality-making business. Argument is no longer a two-way street for people like the president and the country's most important columnist. You no longer have to worry about actually convincing anyone; the process ends when you make the case.

JSF, Illuminated (LA Weekly)
"I am probably the most hated writer in America," says Jonathan Safran Foer, who claims to be a regular punching bag for envious literati on the Internet.

New Pulitzer Head to Push Diversity (E&P)
Henry Louis Gates Jr., the newly appointed chair of the Pulitzer Prize Board, said he would like to see the board appoint its first Hispanic member soon. He'll also push for more diversity on the juries that pick finalists in the letters and drama categories.

Smith-to-Smith (Texas Monthly)
Evan Smith: 82-year-old syndicated newspaper columnist Liz Smith on politics versus gossip, the trouble with young Hollywood, and the one magazine that can make or break a star.

Bulletproof Vests for Mexican Media (Dallas Morning News via KC Star)
Mexico's journalists are under siege from organized criminals who are targeting them for assassination and kidnappings, threatening their families and employers, and trying to silence them.

Maxim=Morale (Stars and Stripes)
Maxim magazine is sending 20,000 copies of the popular men's magazine to service members in Iraq.

—David S. Hirschman