Click here to receive mediabistro.com's Daily Newsfeed via email.

Fox's Shep Smith Edges Into the Big Pay Leagues (NYT)
Roger Ailes, the chairman of the Fox News Channel, calls Shepard Smith his "go-to guy," the person he wants leading the channel's coverage any time news breaks. Ailes has put his network's money where he wants its chief voice to be. Last week, Smith signed a new contract that will take him into financial territory usually occupied only by network news anchors with a salary of $7 million to $8 million a year.

MTV Looks to Conquer Middle East Market (AP)
MTV is hoping hip-hop and reality television tailored and sanitized for a more conservative Middle East will draw young Arabs away from dozens of locally produced music video channels. MTV Arabia, which launched over the weekend, will feature 60 percent international music and 40 percent Arabic music, along with local adaptations of the channel's popular non-music shows.

Hollywood Writers and Studios to Resume Negotiations on November 26 (AP via USAT)
Hollywood film and TV writers who've been on strike nearly two weeks will return to contract negotiations on Nov. 26, their union and producers said Friday. In a joint statement, the Writers Guild of America, West, and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers said both sides had agreed to return to formal negotiations. AdAge: Buyers look beyond TV as strike rolls on. AdAge: Magazines and newspapers may benefit from writers strike. LAT: The writers union says it won't be shortchanged on new media as it was with DVDs. But no one's sure of future dollars. NYP: Strike puts next fall's television schedule in peril. Mediaweek: Buyers worried writers strike will hurt midseason ratings. Variety: NBC cuts SNL staff due to strike.

Discontented, DreamWorks Is in Talks to Join NBCU (NYT)
Seeking a way out of an acrimonious relationship at Paramount, the DreamWorks principals — two Hollywood heavyweights, David Geffen and Steven Spielberg — have been negotiating to move their operation to NBC Universal, according to people close to the talks. But negotiations have hit a wall over financing. Vanity Fair: Hollywood is transfixed by the messy Dreamworks/Viacom breakup.

Murdoch's Plan to Tear Down WSJ.com Pay Wall Could Be Costly for Dow Jones (Reuters)
Rupert Murdoch's plan to stop charging for access to The Wall Street Journal's Web site looks certain to increase online profits but could hurt other parts of Dow Jones & Co. Inc.'s business. The plan could undercut Dow Jones' Internet news archive Factiva and its Dow Jones Newswires, which offer WSJ content that is unavailable anywhere else, Dow Jones spokeswoman Christine Mohan said.

Iraq Is 'The Most Dangerous War in the History of Journalism' (Independent)
The Iraq conflict has become the deadliest by far for the media trying to cover it, with more than 200 journalists killed to date. To put this in perspective, two were killed in the First World War, 68 in the Second, 77 in Vietnam, and 36 in the Balkans. And the toll in Iraq shows no sign of declining. It is, if anything, rising. Five journalists were killed in separate attacks in just one day last month.

NY1 Anchor Quits After Calling a Show on the Station Under a False Name (NYT)
Gary Anthony Ramsay, a longtime reporter and a weekend anchor for NY1 News, left the station last week, days after calling in to one of the channel's live shows under a false name and commenting on a news story, a lapse in judgment that Ramsay described as "a flash moment of frustration."

Bad Reviews Pile Up for FCC Chief's Media Ownership Plan (LAT)
The last time federal regulators tried to change the rules on how many media outlets companies could own, the effort bombed like a bad movie. The sequel appears to be headed for the same fate. Activist groups have risen up in protest and some members of Congress are complaining about what they call the agency's flawed and rushed effort to help media giants at the expense of average Americans.

Kidnapped BBC Reporter Alan Johnston Gives First Interview Since Release in Gaza (Guardian)
The night Alan Johnston was taken hostage in Gaza, the kidnappers' leader told him he would one day go free. "And," the masked figure in robes told the BBC reporter, "you will write a book about it, and get married." 114 days later, on July 4, to Johnston's inexpressible relief, the first of these three predictions came true. And now, possibly to his slight surprise, the second is coming true too.

NBC Will Broadcast Web Series Quarterlife (LAT)
The money, ambition, and Hollywood pedigrees behind the Web-only dramatic video series Quarterlife brought the effort accolades even before its debut this month. Now that three eight-minute episodes have aired, it appears that Quarterlife was too good to stay confined to the Web — at least at a time when the networks are looking at a season that could be starved for content by the Writers Guild of America strike.

The East Hampton Star's Man in Iraq (New Yorker)
In Iraq, the newspaper's photographer Ralph Dayton will follow a local story: Conlon Carabine, a 33-year-old Marine major from East Hampton (angle: the Carabine family's campaign, back home, to buy things like pencils and soccer balls for Iraqi children). Dayton has been exchanging emails with Carabine, whose name he found through the local Catholic church's prayer list.

A Guerrilla Video Site Meets MTV (NYT)
On VBS.tv, the video Web site that Vice runs and Viacom finances, viewers can find short videos about independent music, extreme sports and, of course, some nudity. But there are also a surprising number of ambitious news reports, like an interview with Hezbollah's self-proclaimed "mayor of Beirut," investigations of environmental abuse, and a story about a Colombian date-rape drug.

Italy Cracks Down on Gossip in Media (Hollywood Reporter)
An Italian circuit court ruled Friday that reporting gossip in Italy will be illegal unless it helps make a larger point about the figure in question. The case is part of a wider effort to improve standards on Italian television. Upon announcing the ruling, the Rome court said it would "remove gossip that exists only for gossip's sake."

Nielsen Business Media Promotes Farrar to Head Division (Hollywood Reporter)
Greg Farrar has been promoted to the position of president of Nielsen Business Media, the Nielsen Co. said Friday. Farrar had been in charge of the unit since March, when CEO Robert L. Krakoff died. Farrar, a 20-year veteran of the company, was COO. Farrar will continue to report to David Calhoun, chairman and CEO of the Nielsen Co. MIN: Farrar is a Nielsen lifer.

Doing Good vs. Doing Well at Si TV (Marketwatch)
Jon Friedman: Si TV bills itself in a press release as "America's first media company to reach the millions of 18-34-year-old Latinos who prefer their content in English and seek it across all platforms." The question is: Can it do the right thing for its Hispanic audience starving for smart and entertaining programming while doing well for its demanding corporate buddies?