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ABC Taps Woodruff/Vargas Anchor Team for Evening Newscast (NYT)
Elizabeth Vargas and Bob Woodruff will succeed the late Peter Jennings as anchors of World News Tonight, but only after the network failed to reach agreement with one of its biggest stars, Charles Gibson of Good Morning America. NYDN: ABC also revealed its plans to shake up and reach beyond the standard evening newscast, by offering additional live feeds in other time zones and stressing access via other high-tech delivery systems. WaPo: Vargas, who was raised by a Puerto Rican father and an Irish American mother, said that she brings a different mix of views to the job because "I'm a woman, I'm a working mother, I'm a minority." LAT: "What we are trying to do in this is revolutionary," said executive producer Jon Banner.

New Times, They Are a-Changin' (VV)
Don Forst resigned as editor-in-chief of the Village Voice after nine years at the helm, during which time the paper won a Pulitzer Prize for international reporting and announced two changes in ownership. NYT: Forst said it was premature to comment on his next job, but he said he hoped to continue as an editor. NYP: Doug Simmons, the managing editor, will be running the paper on an interim basis.

LAT Will Slash Staff, Close Printing Plant (Dow Jones via WSJ)
Tribune Co.'s Los Angeles Times newspaper will cut about 110 positions from across its production facilities as part of a consolidation of three facilities and the closure of one plant. Crain's Chicago Business: MoveOn.org mobilizing to stop cuts at Tribune papers.

TW Rethinking Stake Sale in AOL Deal? (NYT)
Time Warner is still in negotiations with Microsoft and Google over a variety of potential deals involving its AOL unit. But most of the possibilities under discussion do not reportedly involve either company buying a stake in AOL. FT: Time ticks away towards decision on AOL. Bloomberg via NYP: Time Warner Cable may be interested in buying Cablevision.

Jann With the Wind? (WWD)
There is an external search for a CEO going on at Wenner Media, and the direction it's taking has sparked furious speculation about the company's future. There are strong suggestions that Jann Wenner intends to explore a sale of his firm in the near future.

Martha Stewart Living Doubles Ad Pages (Bloomberg via NYP)
"We wooed advertisers back on the merits of the company," Chief Executive Susan Lyne said at a media conference in New York. The company expects advertising growth will continue next year.

Ford Bends to Religious Right, Pulls Ads From Gay Mags (Advocate)
A spokesman confirmed that the company will stop advertising its Jaguar and Land Rover brands in gay publications but insisted it was strictly a business decision.

Katie Too Much of a Lightweight? (NYDN)
Richard Huff: Before they sign the undoubtedly massive contract with Katie Couric, CBS News executives might want to think about this: There are folks who think she has a credibility problem. Forbes: If CBS News went the Daily Show route. WSJ: While CBS needs a successor for Dan Rather, it is equally important for the network to undermine NBC's Today by snagging Couric.

Rummy: Glass Half Full, Sky Not Falling, Hakuna Matata (NYT)
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said that news media organizations were focusing too much on casualties and mistakes by the military in Iraq and were failing to provide a full picture of the progress toward stabilizing the country.

Most Sources Won't Let Pincus Testify on Wen Ho Lee (WaPo)
Washington Post reporter Walter Pincus, held in contempt of court last month for refusing to identify anonymous government sources, told a federal judge that all but one of them had declined to waive confidentiality pledges he made.

Flack to Sue Over Regan Smear? (Radar)
Publishing seductress Judith Regan has gotten away with her vindictive tantrums in the past, but sources say she may have chosen the wrong foe in attacking her former PR director, Paul Crichton.

'Woodstein' Discuss Source Battle (BoGlo)
Watergate-era reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein offered a spirited defense of anonymous journalistic sources, at a Harvard forum that explored the parallels between the Nixon administration they covered as young reporters and the current Bush presidency. LAT: Valerie Plame to leave CIA.

Feeling Playboy Up (Banterist)
Most likely you are surprised that such a thing exists, but when I discovered Playboy in Braille years ago, it was in a box in an abandoned building. I found myself in a state of disbelief. The kind you feel when you're being chased by a leprechaun with a crossbow.

CNN to Offer Paid VOD (Mediaweek)
CNN.com is launching a paid on demand video service called CNN Pipeline, which will allow web users to assemble and view multiple news clips for a monthly or yearly fee.

Caution on Ad Spending This Year, but Web Spared (NYT)
Leading forecasters of advertising spending have turned cautious in their predictions for most media, except—not surprisingly—the Internet.

New Episode in Chappelle Saga (WaPo)
Comedy Central suits have fired off a popgun in an effort to frighten Dave Chappelle back to the table, announcing that sometime in the second quarter of '06 it will telecast the sketches he shot before dropping out.

Mag: Give Me Your Wound-Tight Mum (Salon)
Rebecca Traister: A new magazine, Total 180, is targeted at moms who have "opted out." But its pages are full of despairing screams, no sex, and women who are "let out" weekly by husbands.

Good Grief: $1.2B (LAT)
Charles M. Schulz's A Charlie Brown Christmas—the animated television special about love conquering materialism that airs tonight on ABC—now fuels a $1.2-billion-a-year global publishing, merchandising and marketing machine. USAT: Last year, 13.6 million people watched the show, making it the 18th-most-popular program on television the week it aired.

'Bibulous, Cynical and Slothful' (Guardian)
Christopher Hitchens: I do not think that there will again be a major novel, flattering or unflattering, in which a reporter is the protagonist. Or if there is, he or she will be a blogger or some other species of cyber-artist, working from home and conjuring the big story from the vastness of electronic space.

Media Guy Kills Overkill (AdAge)
Simon Dumenco: In the spirit of the ever-more self-flagellating, doubt-plagued, soul-searching media world, I decided that some new guidelines were in order.

Robbie Williams Wins Libel Suit Over Outing (Guardian)
The People newspaper and two celebrity magazines issued formal apologies and paid "substantial" libel damages to the pop singer over untrue stories that he was a secret homosexual.

Taibbi One On (WaPo)
Peter Carlson: Rolling Stone has a new political reporter with the gonzo spirit that made Hunter Thompson and P. J. O'Rourke so much fun. His name is Matt Taibbi

—David S. Hirschman