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Letterman Opens Wallet to Pay Staff Himself (LA Weekly/Deadline Hollywood)
Nikki Finke: David Letterman and his producers announced to his Late Show staff that they will be paid through the end of the year even though the show isn't on the air during the writers strike. "Dave's not doing this to get good press," a source says. "This is really significant because, as opposed to all of the other shows, this money comes out of Dave's own pocket." Variety: Striking writers are winning over the public. AP via USAT: Awards shows could suffer in WGA strike. FBLA: Strike hurts women more than men.

Spy Tomes Win at National Book Awards (NYP)
Two books about espionage — one fiction, one nonfiction — took top prizes at the National Book Awards last night. Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA, by Tim Weiner, was the winner of the award for nonfiction. Tree of Smoke by Denis Johnson, a novel set during the Vietnam War, took top honors in the fiction category. It is published by Farar, Straus and Giroux. WaPo: Sherman Alexie won the award for young people's literature, for The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. GalleyCat: National Book Award gossip

Nightline Benefits From Writers' Strike (USAT)
Now that the Writers Guild strike has forced the late-night competition — NBC's Tonight Show and CBS' Late Show — into reruns, Nightline anchor Terry Moran says that some viewers "who have no idea what we have been doing are going to check us out for the first time." As the strike moves toward its third week, entertainment's loss may be news' gain as networks lean more on newsmags.

Success Set for another Relaunch (Folio:)
In a move the company says it hopes will return the more than 100-year-old magazine to its early publishing roots, Dallas-based VideoPlus has announced plans to relaunch Success. The marketing and communications company acquired the magazine's title, trademarks, and logos, and shuttered the magazine three months ago. MIN: The magazine will be helmed by Darren Hardy, who will be the publisher and editorial director.

FCC May Play a Large Part in Imus' TV Future (NYP)
If RFD-TV, the start-up cable network focused on life in rural America, manages to get carried on systems like Comcast or Time Warner Cable, it more likely will have Federal Communications Commission chairman Kevin Martin to thank rather than recently signed talk-show host Don Imus.

Networks Tighten Purse Strings, Rein in Discretionary Spending (Variety)
In another sign the congloms are readying themselves for a long strike, the networks have started tightening their belts. Fox Broadcasting execs were told to begin reigning in as much discretionary spending as possible on Tuesday. The move followed NBC's decision earlier this week to pull out of the TV Critics Association press tour.

Prime Time for Reading? Survey Looks at Viewers' Plans During Strike (WaPo)
Lisa de Moraes: 42 percent of those surveyed said that if the networks have to resort to reruns to fill their schedules they would read more. Interestingly, the study says, women were more likely than men to pretend, er, answer that they would read more if the TV landscape becomes littered with repeat programming. WebProNews: A recent study indicates that YouTube clips may inspire more TV viewing as clips serve as promotional vehicles for the shows featured in them.

CNN Plans Expansion Overseas (AP via NYT)
The cable news network CNN Worldwide plans to increase its staff of correspondents by 10 percent as part of a multimillion-dollar investment to increase its ability to produce its own reports, the news network said yesterday. CNN Worldwide, a unit of Time Warner, said it would invest almost $10 million to add 15 or 16 correspondents to its staff of 150.

Rudy Giuliani's Ties to Fox News (Salon)
Fox News is often accused of favoring Republicans. In the current presidential election cycle, however, there have also been repeated suggestions, from critics on both the right and the left, that the network prefers Giuliani over the other GOP contenders. Giuliani has several personal and financial connections to News Corp. and Fox News, and those connections seem to have proven mutually beneficial. Muckety: Regan's 70-page complaint also has literary value.

Huffington Posts a Profit (Portfolio)
[Arianna] Huffington knows that the site's greatest asset is its stable of 1,800 bloggers. While none blog for money, she is aware that some sort of remuneration may be in order. To that end, Huffington is toying with a revenue-sharing model that would let her bloggers direct a portion of the site's ad revenue to a charity of their choice.

Blue Collar Comics Get a Home on the Web (LAT)
While the major Hollywood studios claim that the profit outlook for Internet offerings is too sketchy to give writers a percentage, an increasing number of big-media veterans are investing in the Web. The latest example is MyBlueCollar.com, a site that has dozens of professionally made humor videos headlined by stars Jeff Foxworthy, Bill Engvall, and the comic known as Larry the Cable Guy.

Colbert Is 'Comedy Rambo' (Boston Phoenix)
David Bianculli: Misunderestimate Stephen Colbert at your peril. Just because he is an unassuming, bespectacled physical specimen whose business cards may read "TV comedian" is no reason to dismiss him as a lightweight funnyman. Since the very night he launched his own series on Comedy Central in 2005, Colbert has thrown some vicious elbows, and demonstrated a bravura that dares his enemies to, in paraphrasing his ironic hero George W. Bush, bring it on.

Agents 2.0: The New Generation of Dealmakers at UTA Online (LA Weekly)
UTA Online's clients are the Internet's A-list: Jessica Lee Rose, a.k.a. Bree from Lonelygirl15; Big Fantastic; TuFux, the makers of the Obama Girl video; Rednecks TV; Ask a Ninja; Smosh. The challenge for UTA's online agents is greater than that for their film and TV colleagues: With no sure stars yet, who to sign and who not to sign?

Auction Draws $240k for Warhol Painting of Conrad Black (NYP)
A portrait of the dethroned press baron painted by Andy Warhol fetched a higher-than-anticipated $240,000 at an auction at Christie's yesterday. The silver silkscreen was one of a series of four Warhol painted in 1981 when Black, then 37, was just starting to build his newspaper empire. It was expected to garner between $150,000 and $200,000.

British Magazine Awards: Harper's Bazaar Editor Wins Top Honor (Guardian)
The Guardian, the Observer, the Spectator, GQ, and Yours magazine all won prizes at the British Society of Magazine Editors last night — but Lucy Yeomans, of Harper's Bazaar, walked off with the top gong. Yeomans won the editors' editor of the year award, voted on by the full membership of the society, for reinventing Harper's Bazaar and overseeing its change from Harper's & Queen.