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Cable in a Family Way (LAT)
Under pressure from federal lawmakers, Time Warner Inc., Comcast Corp., and four other cable operators are planning to offer subscribers a lineup of family-friendly channels as an alternative to ones featuring racy shows. Salon: Cable companies may offer a "family-choice" package, but will anyone pay for TV without South Park and Sex and the City, wonders Michael Scherer. NYT: Cable companies say they expect to introduce packages of family-friendly channels as early as the first quarter of 2006. WaPo: The numbers on WB's broadcast of the Seventh Annual Family Television Awards are not pretty. AdAge: If FCC commissioner Kevin Martin really is serious about wanting to extend the agency's powers of censorship over cable, there'd be one upside: He won't have to hire nearly as many censors to monitor the ever dwindling number of cable offerings, writes Simon Dumenco. Reuters: TV biz's family focus derails smut bills.

Paparazzi Off Their Game? (WWD)
Newsstand sales of People, Us Weekly, In Touch, and Star all are down in the fourth quarter from their previous year-to-date average. Us has seen the steepest drop-off, with fourth-quarter sales down 15 percent. Radar: Insiders at David Pecker's checkout-aisle empire say execs there have been working with a Hollywood producer to create a reality TV series chronicling the professional—and personal—lives of AMI staffers.

Gray Lady Staffers 'Shell-Shocked' Over Articles (NYP)
"There's a sense that The New Yorker piece is fairly accurate, that Pinch is tone deaf and not the brightest bulb," said the insider, speaking about Ken Auletta's article published this week.

Daily Show Dark Monday After Staffer's Suicide (Reuters)
Bill Clarey, an employee of the Comedy Central program, took his own life over the weekend, leading the network to suspend production of last night's episode of the program.

M. Diddy's Daytime Show Renewed (AP via USAT)
NBC Universal Domestic Television said Martha Stewart's home-oriented talk show, produced by famed reality honcho Mark Burnett, will be back next fall. The company said the show had improved the time-slot ratings in 17 of the top 20 markets in the country.

Stephanopoulos Becomes ABC's Chief D.C. Correspondent (B&C)
ABC News host/reporter/analyst George Stephanopoulos has been named chief Washington correspondent, a new post. The former top Clinton staffer has already been contributing news and analysis for election and other Washington stories to various ABC broadcasts.

Bush, Rice Condemn Killing of Lebanese Journalist (AP via SF Chron)
President Bush said Gibran Tueni was a brave advocate of Lebanese independence and that his murder, "is yet another act of violence aimed at subjugating Lebanon to Syrian domination and silencing the Lebanese press."

HarperCollins to Create Digital Library (NYT)
The publisher's decision to put all of its book and audio content online is the latest move in the battle between publishers and search engines.

USAT to Combine Print, Online Newsrooms (Reuters)
USA Today executives said the newspaper would combine its Web site newsroom and print newsroom into a single operation as it targets growing demand for news on the Internet.

Radio Station Sells Naming Rights (Guardian)
WIBA in Wisconsin, which is part of the 1,200-strong Clear Channel radio group, has raised concerns about the impartiality of its coverage after it sold the naming rights to its newsroom to Amcore Bank.

80-Plus Editorial Cartoonists Protest Staff Cuts (E&P)
The Association of American Editorial Cartoonists' "Black Ink Monday" came in response to the Tribune Company's recent elimination of editorial cartooning positions, and was also "a commentary on newspapers everywhere who have lost sight of the value of having a staff editorial cartoonist."

The Web Turns 15 (CNN)
In 1990, Tim Berners-Lee launched the World Wide Web, a multimedia branch of the Internet. With Berners-Lee's "http protocol," computer jockeys the world over began making the Net easier to use with point-and-click programs.

Condé SVP to Keep Audit Bureau Seat (Folio:)
Peter Armour, senior vice president of consumer marketing at Advance Magazine Group and vice chairman of the 36-member Audit Bureau of Circulations board, held off Ziff Davis Media's David Rock in a member-wide vote and will keep his seat on the board.

End Nears for Windy City Wire Service (NYT)
The demise of City News Service, which opened in 1890 as a cooperative deal among Chicago newspapers, signals the end of many eras.

TV Writers Must Sell, Sell, Sell (Wired)
TV networks are turning to product placements to fight back against ad-skipping technologies like TiVo, but now some writers are putting up a fight, demanding more pay in exchange for scripting product plugs into their shows.

Butcher of the Beltway (Slate)
Bryan Curtis: In New York, Times columnist Frank Rich is a local hero. Part of it is that the critical voice Rich honed on the theater beat, and now uses in his column, is perfectly tuned to the voice of Manhattan liberalism.

High-End Mag in the Works for Harvard Alums (Boston Globe)
Even as he is dismantling one magazine in Boston—The Atlantic—publisher David Bradley is building another publication in its place: a glossy Vanity Fair-like alumni magazine for Harvard graduates dubbed 02138.

Schieffer Pulling for Katie (Philly Inky)
In today's installment of "As Katie Couric Turns," Bob Schieffer, "interim" anchor of CBS Evening News since March, says he would do a happy dance if the network signed Couric as his successor when her NBC contract expires in May.

Kliger's Activism as MPA Chair Has Begun (MIN)
The Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S. president/CEO has long been outspoken about "reforming" magazine business practices, but since Kliger's October election to a two-year-term as chairman of the Magazine Publishers of America board of directors, his clout has been enhanced.

Hauslaib Abdicates Jossip Throne (Jossip)
Corynne Steindler will now be handling most of Jossip's day-to-day, while current editor David Hauslaib "will be spending the next few weeks wiping the names of Jessica Simpson, Judith Miller and Jon Friedman from his mind." Gawker: Hauslaib is on his way to assist Ben Widdicombe at the New York Daily News.

Muppets Got Game (Reuters)
Cablevision Systems Corp. and Sesame Workshop has announced the launch of Sesame Street Games, a subscription service featuring Elmo, Grover, Zoe, and other well-known Muppet denizens of the famous urban neighborhood.

Comcast Creates Online Media Division (AP via BizWeek)
The nation's largest cable company will form a new business division to develop and grow the company's Internet operations, including the Comcast.net portal.

—David S. Hirschman