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TV Guide Prez Changes Channels (NYP)
Only weeks before the magazine's planned relaunch, the company has lost top publishing executive John Loughlin to Hearst Corp.

AMI Paid To Suppress Schwarzenegger Sex Tape (Page Six)
American Media's David Pecker—who made a deal two years ago with the California governor worth up to $8.1 million—has been spending additional cash to suppress potential embarrassments.

Neck of MSNBC Boss in the Guillotine? (NYP)
After being passed over for a chance to replace NBC News chief Neal Shapiro, Rick Kaplan's job is in jeopardy. Sources say he may be out as the network's head by the end of the year.

Penthouse raises $48M to Battle Playboy (Financial Express)
Penthouse Media Group Inc. has raised the money in part to fund an adult entertainment broadcast network that would compete with Playboy Enterprises Inc.'s Spice and New Frontier Media Inc.'s Erotic. Folio: Penthouse seeks to "compete directly" with the other porn titles.

Time to Merge Biz Mag Brands Online (Folio:)
Time Inc. and CNN announced that they would merge existing business Web sites into the singularly branded CNNMoney.com.

Geraldo: There's No 'I' in 'Katrina'...Um (E&P)
Geraldo Rivera wants an apology from the Times for saying he showboated during his Katrina coverage, and has accused TV critic Alessandra Stanley of being "Jayson Blair in a cocktail dress." Media Matters: Conservative radio host calls Katrina survivors "scumbags." MIN: National Geographic's Katrina issue will be a single-copy first. [Second item.]

Icahn Steps Up Time Warner Fight (NYT)
The financier filed a document with securities regulators that amounts to a marketing brochure for his planned putsch against Time Warner.

Viacom, Comcast Plan Joint Venture (NYP)
The media conglomerate and the cable giant plan to unveil a wide-ranging venture that will create several new cable networks. It will be jointly owned by Comcast and Viacom's MTV Networks.

New Martha Comes in Like a Lamb (WaPo)
Martha Stewart made her triumphant return to television yesterday morning, debuting her new syndicated series Martha, from reality series impresario Mark Burnett. USAT: Martha still chilly in debut of show.

Bush Learns That PR Only Goes So Far (Ad Age)
Simon Dumenco: Bush's problem post-Katrina is that, unlike Iraq—where journalists are no longer in the thick of things—New Orleans had real journalists showing us the reality behind the rhetoric.

CBS Launches 'Public Eye' Ombud Blog (CBS)
Mission: Public Eye's most fundamental mission is to bring unprecedented transparency to the editorial operations of CBS News. It is a forum to help our audience and observers hold CBS News more publicly accountable.

Clueless Teenage Boys To Furtively Buy Seventeen (WWD)
The October issue included a graphic health story "Vagina 101" with the subheading "Owner's Manual: Your vulva has a lot of parts—check out where they are and what they do."

We Hate It, But We Watch It (Guardian)
The reality TV bubble may have finally burst now that four-fifths of viewers in the U.S. complained that there was too much of it on television.

PETA Again Takes Aim at Wintour (Rush and Molloy)
The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals are again on the march against the fur-loving Vogue editrix—led by Heather Mills McCartney.

Bernstein's VF Article Touches on Wide Range of Press Issues (E&P)
In a massive article in the October issue of the magazine, Watergate sleuth Carl Bernstein reveals in detail what transpired behind the scenes at The Washington Post.

Conflict Revolution: Q&A With Kevin Sites (Radar)
I would also e-mail all my friends, and it got to some friends that were connected to the blog world and they said, "Why don't you blog?" And I said, "Great! What's a blog?"

Clear Channel Will Push New Music (WSJ)
Clear Channel Communications is launching a program that will use its radio stations' Web sites to highlight the work of little-known and unsigned musicians across a variety of genres.

'Embedded' With the Times-Pic (CJR Daily)
Paul McLeary: A group of weary reporters remain dedicated for days on end to recounting to the world the struggle of their own embattled city to rise from its fetid, watery grave.

Investing Carefully in News (B&C)
Max Robins: Why should television executives exercise extreme care when contemplating an overhaul of their news operations? Consider the coverage of Katrina's nightmarish aftermath.

Remember Cracked? No? Well, It's Back. (The Black Table)
Monty Sarhan: I think people lost track of the magazine as they grew older, but the reality is that Cracked has been continuously published for almost 50 years, much like our lesser-known competitors Time and Newsweek.

Men's Vogue an Oxymoron? (WaPo)
Peter Carlson: Were men and teenagers besieging the Condé Nast building, wearing Armani suits and chanting, "We want our own Vogues," while pumping their meticulously manicured fists into the air?

—David S. Hirschman

IN YESTERDAY'S MB BLOGS:

Roberts Hearings: A Fascinating Moment [TVNewser]
Until today, Americans had only listened to brief comments from Judge John Roberts, Brit Hume pointed out on FNC this afternoon. "We have no real sense of the man from what we've been able to see. Today we'll have a much more extended version of his thinking. He'll introduce himself to us, really, for the first time."

Zealously Guarded Criticisms [FishbowlDC]
Dan Froomkin, an astute observer of the White House press corps if there ever was one, wonders about the change in tone about how the press has been portraying the President.

AMI assists Arnold, brokers Brazil butt-grab buyout [FishbowlLA]
Thus spoketh our governor: "I can absolutely understand why Brazil is totally devoted to my favorite body part: the ass." That's from a 1983 Playboy video he appears in called 'Carnival in Rio', which American Media tried to suppress in yet another instance of Schwarzenegger/AMI unacceptable backscratching.

Graydon Carter loves hirsute men, does not speak for all Canadians [FishbowlNY]
In The Daily's Steve Florio interview, Graydon Carter goes on the record as favoring Steve's formerly trademark moustache. "Being Canadian, I always feel more at home around men with facial hair," says Graydon in a rare revelatory moment.

Staking Out the Territory [Galleycat]
I don't know if there's an exact parallel in publishing to the film studio practice of moving your blockbusters around so they don't compete with somebody else's blockbusters, but in this fall's chick-lit sweepstakes, Candace Bushnell's one-month headstart on Lauren Weisberger is certainly noticeable.

This Guy's Stuff Sent Us Into A Philosophical Tailspin And We'd Like Some Of His Shiny Things To Help Us Get Out [UnBeige]
We're working on something for yet another iteration of The Man today, and have got ourselves into such a philosophical frenzy--what is a table? what is a lamp?--that we just have to share.

Let's Get It On [mbToolbox]
Tee hee! Girls don't like to talk about...you know...S-E-X. Okay, that's not true at all. But talking about sex and writing about sex are two very different animals. Stephanie Lehmann is the author of Are You in the Mood?, Thoughts While Having Sex, and The Art of Undressing. Her plays have been produced off off Broadway, and she is a contributor to Salon. And, she is the teacher of mediabistro's Chicklit: How to Write It, How to Get It Published course. Among the many things you'd learn in her course is how to put a bit of the blue in your pink book. If you choose to include a sex scene in your chicklit novel, these are some things to keep in mind: