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Divas Duel at Dawn (NY Mag)
Diane Sawyer and Good Morning America have all but closed the ratings gap with Katie Couric and Today, as the former Ice Queen has left America's Sweetheart in a meltdown. NYT: For decades, the two shows have gone at each other like the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox. But lately, GMA has been displaying an aggressive feistiness.

ABC, CBS Ahead in Upfronts (Reuters via WaPo)
The two television networks got a head start on booking early commitments for commercial time from advertisers, with both securing price increases of close to 5 percent.

Condoms to Primetime (NYP)
A new campaign for Trojan condoms will begin airing at 9 p.m., starting today, after two major TV networks agreed to run the spots. Until now, condom ads have been relegated to late nights when children were assumed to be asleep.

Ombuds Rebuff CPBers (NYT)
An association of news ombudsmen has rejected an attempt by two ombudsmen from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to join their organization as full-fledged members. LAT: There's a "nuclear option" for PBS' woes as well, writes David Shaw.

CNN Turns 25 (NYDN)
Twenty-five years ago today, the country's first all-news, 24-hour cable channel was launched. And although Cable News Network (CNN) was initially derided as the "Chicken Noodle Network," it grew into a powerful, global news organization.

Reporter Held by Beijing, Accused of Spying (Bloomberg)
A Hong Kong-based reporter for Singapore's largest English language daily has been held in China for over a month for allegedly obtaining state secrets. Reuters via Guardian: Beijing has banned TV stars from advertising health products, claiming they mislead the public.

Radar, No Love (NY Mag)
Kurt Andersen: The new magazine seeks to be one of those "rare titles" that "define a cultural moment by getting there first." But if that's the goal, shouldn't it be more original?

Reports of Newspapers' Death Greatly Exaggerated? (BBC)
At the world's biggest annual print media gathering, organized by the World Association of Newspapers (WAN), speakers were upbeat about the prospects for print, but acknowledged the industry still faces many challenges from new media.

Viewers: Que Pasa? (WaPo)
Vehix.com, a one-stop shop for car buyers, is using the Washington area—home to an affluent, diverse, growing Latino community—to conduct an experiment: running a Spanish-speaking commercial on cable channels such as Spike, Nick at Nite, FX, and Sci Fi, to name a few.

CNBC Boss Plays By Different Rules (NYT)
The network has allowed its chairwoman to work as a director of a pharmaceutical company and accept stock options despite a policy that forbids its managers and news staff from owning shares in individual companies.

'Faith-Based' Journalism on the Rise (CJR)
Evangelicals are creating an alternative universe of faith-based news, and believers can now choose to have only Christian programs piped into their homes. One of the nation's three direct-broadcast satellite network carries 36 channels of Christian radio and television—and nothing else.

Green Bay Bye-Bye (Green Bay News-Chronicle)
Ellen Leifeld, Midwest Group vice-president for Gannett and publisher of the News-Chronicle, said the closing was "a business decision" based on the paper's economic performance.

Unclear Channel (NYT)
What appeared to be a consumer campaign taking potshots stations owned by Clear Channel Communications turned out to be a campaign by the company itself to promote a change in format at one of its stations.

Addictive Brit Newspaper Puzzle Hits NYC (NY Mag)
Rupert Murdoch's Post is wielding ordnance that he's battle-tested abroad: Su Doku, a game that has overtaken the British dailies, spawned a best-selling book, and made one obsessive man an international puzzle star. CSM: Forget crosswords. Britons now like their puzzles with numbers.

Business Mags, Bad Business (NYT)
Business publications, long the ugly cousins of mainstream media, were transformed into prom queens when the Web took off. After the market bust, the herd was winnowed and publications returned to earth, but something funny happened when it came to touch bottom: There was none.

Judge Judy Salary: $25 Million (Slate)
As the first court show to launch after the O.J. trial, Judge Judy capitalized on a renewed interest in legal showdowns. But it also benefited from the backing of producer Larry Lyttle, an Aaron Spelling disciple with good connections and smart ideas about how to reinvent the genre.

British TV Export Revenues Soar (Guardian)
Two cooking shows, Jamie's Kitchen and Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares, contributed to another good year for British TV exports, which grew in value by 6 percent in 2004 to hit £534 million (over $1 billion) in total.

MTV's Culture-by-Culture Customization (Newsweek)
MTV offers a high-end case study in how to export what seems, at first glance, to be a uniquely American brand. For 24 years, it's tapped into, and shaped, the genes of the irreverent, trendsetting, exuberant "MTV Generation.'' But it turns out to be an attitude without borders.

TV, Radio Give Legal Advice to Immigrants (LAT)
For many Mexican and Central American immigrants living in California, Spanish-language radio and television are their primary sources of information on immigration law.

Da Vinci Code to Paperback? (NYT)
The book has remained near the top of nearly every national best-seller list for more than two years. Nevertheless, it now appears to be losing momentum.

Webb Caught Up (AJR)
Hard-charging investigative reporter Gary Webb's career imploded in the wake of his much-criticized Dark Alliance series about the CIA and crack cocaine. But while Webb overreached, some key findings in were on target—and important. Last December Webb committed suicide.

Epoch Marks (Boston Globe)
Having debuted only five years ago with a Chinese-language version, The Epoch Times is a rapidly expanding enterprise now available in 30 countries and eight languages. Since last summer it has rolled out English-language weeklies in eight major U.S. cities.

We're All Reporters (Time)
An English-language edition of OhMyNews.com was launched last year and draws on more than 300 "world citizen reporters." The site's creator, Oh Yeon Ho, wants to have 10,000 by next year. He's getting ready to launch OhMyNews in Japanese this year and is eyeing a Chinese version.

Bee Cool (Salon)
Gavin McNett: Why did three new books just come out about bees? Is the publishing world taking secret orders from the Discovery Channel? And should writers who refer to "my recommended daily allowance of magic and wonder" be stung to death?

—David S. Hirschman