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CBS Sending Couric to Iraq, Syria (Variety)
One year into Katie Couric's big money CBS experiment, the Evening News anchor is embarking on a high-risk tour of Iraq and Syria in an effort to revive the broadcast. The announcement comes just days after an Iraqi translator working for CBS was killed in Baghdad. AP: "You can't help but get a very detached perspective when you're not there and you're not witnessing things firsthand," Couric said Tuesday. "I'm curious about very basic questions regarding living conditions, about how much fear there is in the street, about how the soldiers really are doing." LAT: It will be Couric's first visit to both countries, and the network plans to devote substantial air time to her coverage, with 16 stories by the anchor and chief foreign correspondent Lara Logan slated to run over four days. WaPo: "I don't like frivolous anchor trips of any kind," Rick Kaplan, the broadcast's executive producer, said in an interview. "I wouldn't do this if it wasn't a timely and important thing. We didn't spend two seconds pushing her or coercing her."

Claim: Kid Nation Crew Was Overworked, Underpaid (TV Week)
The Writers Guild of America is wading into the Kid Nation debate, with President Patric Verrone condemning the working arrangements on the much-discussed New Mexico production. "This is a story that is incomplete, because it's not only the kids for whom conditions were deplorable but the entire crew," Verrone said. LAT: CBS' new reality venture has become a flash point in a television genre actors and writers have long blamed for taking jobs from them.

WSJ to Rename Leisure Section for Weekends (NYT)
The Wall Street Journal will rechristen Pursuits, its Saturday leisure section, as Weekend Journal, the same name as the Friday section. The change would mean the newspaper will put out a Weekend Journal section on both Friday and Saturday and a Personal Journal section on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

How Did News Outlets Miss Idaho Senator's Arrest for Nearly 3 Months? (E&P)
The revelation late Monday that Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) was arrested nearly three months ago for allegedly making sexual advances in a men's room raises the issue of how such an action could occur without the press reporting it. Even Roll Call reporter John McArdle, who broke the story late Monday, admits he only received word of the arrest and subsequent guilty plea via a tip last week. CJR: New evidence brings old reporting out of the closet.

Elle Cans Owen Wilson Interview Following Suicide Attempt (WWD)
Roberta Myers, Elle's editor-in-chief, confirmed the Q&A slated for its December issue was killed. "Obviously the circumstances have changed significantly," said Myers. "When we were to be on the newsstand with the story, it would have been quite dated. Obviously, he's not going to update it for us. Out of respect for his privacy and anything he is going through, we're not going to run the piece."

Google Lands CNN as Exclusive Adsense User (TechCrunch)
CNN.com and Google have announced an agreement that will see Google's AdSense become the exclusive text link advertising provider on CNN.com. The deal will also open up the extensive inventory on CNN.com to Adwords' advertisers.

MTV on High School Paper Trail (Hollywood Reporter)
MTV has greenlighted The Paper, a series that follows students working on their high school newspaper. The network is set to launch eight episodes in early 2008. The show, set at Cypress Bay High School in Weston, Fla., will go behind the scenes at the highly regarded Circuit, spotlighting students early in their journalism careers.

Alive in Baghdad: Can Citizen Journalism Done Right Pay the Bills? (NewTeeVee)
Alive in Baghdad is arguably the best-positioned citizen news video outfit in the world. It boasts not only an on-the-ground team shooting unfiltered interviews in a highly relevant place like Iraq, but constructive goodwill from videobloggers and video startups like blip.tv and Next New Networks, and even acknowledgment from the mainstream media. But attracting regular viewers and financial backers to anti-soundbite journalism is not an easy task.

ABC Enlists Mag Editors to Help Promote Fall Lineup (AdAge)
The network has made three different half-hour specials available to affiliates that offer looks at new fall programming and also feature editors from Entertainment Weekly, TV Guide and People. The editorial staffers offer insight or comments on the programs being presented.

Lesser-Known CNBC 'Honeys' on Warpath (Page Six)
Female reporters at the network, including Melissa Francis, who covers energy, have complained to CNBC suits that while they get zip, Bartiromo and Burnett are treated like princesses "The catfight that started with Maria being jealous of Erin's rise has spread down the line. Now all of the other female reporters are getting p---ed off," an insider said.

Nightly News: New Anchors Away! (USAT)
Peter Johnson: Ask ABC World News anchor Charles Gibson why he has become the nation's most-watched TV news anchor, and he grins. "Unbridled sex appeal," he says. After the tumultuous year since the Tom Brokaw/Peter Jennings/Dan Rather era ended, his reason might be as good as any as to why the race among him, NBC's Brian Williams and CBS' Katie Couric has played out the way it has.

Protest Over New Muhammad Cartoon in Sweden (Guardian)
Iran has summoned a senior Swedish diplomat to protest against the publication in a local newspaper of a drawing of Muhammad showing his head on a dog's body, calling it "an insult against the prophet". The Swedish chargé d'affaires, Gunilla von Bahr, was summoned to the Iranian foreign ministry yesterday.

How the Washington Post Failed in Radio (Washingtonian)
Harry Jaffe: To the very end, the relationship between the Washington Post newspaper and Bonneville International radio was mired in misunderstanding and dysfunction. Which helps explain why the Post's golden opportunity to expand its brand and its reporting to radio has failed.

How to Eat (and Read) Close to Home (NYT)
What began five years ago as one publication that tried to tell the citizens of Ojai, Calif., everything they ever wanted to know about the food and wine in their community has turned into a network of 33 Edible magazines across the country. Each of them offers readers culinary news tailored to where they live.

Red Faces at MSNBC Over Fishy Michael Vick Web Story (NYP)
Keith Kelly: In a story that MSNBC.com ran last Friday on how the legal troubles of disgraced NFL star Michael Vick are dividing African Americans, Web site editors apparently fell hook, line and sinker for a parody Web site that made up a quote from the Rev. Al Sharpton.