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

Anti-Semitic Remarks in Phone Call Preceded Firing of Judith Regan (NYT)
Rupert Murdoch personally ordered the dismissal of Judith Regan, the publisher of a widely criticized O.J. Simpson book, after he heard reports of a heated conversation Regan had with a company lawyer on Friday that included comments that were deemed anti-Semitic, according to two people familiar with the News Corporation's account of the firing. NYT: HarperCollins CEO Jane Friedman has long had a strained relationship with Regan. Publishers Weekly: Friedman named PW's Publishing Person of the Year last week. NY Sun: It's difficult to avoid the conclusion that Regan was fired not for her legendarily difficult personality but for her repeated affronts to the bland conformity of New York publishing. Galleycat: Inside the Regan reorganization. Galleycat: After a month of scandal, incessant news coverage, eaten costs and global humiliation, HarperCollins struck back in the iciest, most brilliant way. NYT: News Corp. had profited handsomely from Regan's tendency to shoot from the hip, but when she started firing inside the corral, well then, that was another matter, writes David Carr. Variety: Rumors that Regan is already making the rounds looking for a TV job counterbalanced by the feeling that she would like to keep a foot in the book world. WSJ: Regan's attorney vows "war."

Time Mag 'Person of the Year': YOU (Time)
2006 is a story about community and collaboration on a scale never seen before. It's about Wikipedia and YouTube and MySpace. For seizing the reins of the global media, for founding and framing the new digital democracy, for working for nothing and beating the pros at their own game, Time's Person of the Year for 2006 is you. HuffPo: Nora Ephron on being Time's person of the year. LAT: Ten moments the Web shook the world in 2006. Lost Remote: The wussification of the Time "Person of the Year." FishbowlNY: Brian Williams called it.

YouTube Creators Were Inspired By HotOrNot.com, Have Not Seen Google Money Yet (Time)
Turning YouTube from a sensational rumpus to a profitable corporation will require Chad Hurley and Steve Chen to thread the company through legal disputes, negotiate with the biggest ad and media companies in the world, maintain their unique identity without getting swallowed up by Google, please shareholders, manage PR, and flawlessly execute tasks that far more experienced execs have flubbed. NYT: New YouTube-like site to be launched by consoritium of media companies would face huge obstacles. NYT: Fighting crime using YouTube. CSM: The YouTube world opens an untamed frontier for copyright law.

$7.6 Million Suit Against Perez Hilton Puts Copyright Infringement in Spotlight (LAT)
The owners of one L.A. photo agency are so frustrated with what they consider to be blatant theft by self-styled "gossip gangsta" Perez Hilton that they've decided to make a federal case of it. X17 Inc., known for the aggressive pursuit of celebrity prey, has filed a federal copyright infringement lawsuit against Hilton, alleging that he has used 51 photos without permission, payment or credit.

Time's Richard Stengel Signs Big-Name Journos as Contributors (WaPo)
Howard Kurtz: Michael Kinsley, the former editor of Slate and the New Republic, will write a biweekly column. Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol will be a part-time columnist, and former Time managing editor Walter Isaacson will contribute essays on foreign affairs. David Von Drehle, a longtime Washington Post reporter and editor, will be a political correspondent.

Olbermann Seeking a Huge Raise From MSNBC (B&C)
Keith Olbermann and MSNBC are knocking heads over a new contract. The controversial host of Countdown With Keith Olbermann is said to be seeking "north of $4 million" a year to re-up on his pact that comes due in April. That would represent roughly a four-fold increase over his current deal, believed to be in the $1 million-per-year range.

U.S. Reporters in Iraq Face a New Realm of Difficulty (USAT)
Reporting from Iraq is always dicey. Dozens of journalists have been kidnapped, injured or killed since the U.S. invasion almost four years ago. But network and cable news reporters say the escalation in sectarian violence, coupled with uncertainty about the future U.S. role in Iraq, have prompted Iraqis to be more wary of them and have made an already dangerous assignment even more perilous.

Wintour Agrees to Vogue Documentary (WWD)
After Vogue editor Anna Wintour's recent appearance on 20/20, she now has agreed to open the doors to a documentary about the putting together of the magazine's telephone-book-sized September issue. But the deal immediately raised questions about how much access the film crew would get to the famously private Wintour.

Tribune Execs, Family Said to Plan Rival Bids (LAT)
Nearly three months after the Chandlers forced Tribune to explore a possible sale or breakup, several prospective buyers have come forward — so far only to express preliminary interest. Now the Chandlers and Tribune's management appear to be preparing to fill the void themselves by considering making competing bids for all or parts of the company.

Steven Spielberg Takes a Shot at Reality TV (Newsweek)
Spielberg and reality TV guru Mark Burnett conceived of On the Lot earlier this year while discussing another project in Spielberg's backyard. The new Fox reality series pits 16 young film directors against each other for a shot at a $1 million development deal with Spielberg's studio, DreamWorks. "It's a fairly simple concept," Burnett says. "Most good things are fairly simple."

Maxim Raids VF for Writers (Page Six)
The Dennis Publishing title has been quietly dipping into Vanity Fair's talent stable. Maxim has an essay in its January issue titled "A Life of Living Dangerously" by Vanity Fair columnist Christopher Hitchens. Elsewhere in the issue, sometime VF writer George Gurley interviews Val Kilmer. And VF bloodhound John Connolly has penned a piece for Maxim's February issue.

Katie: Anchor Job Is 'A Little Harder Than I Thought It Would Be' (Esquire)
Katie Couric: I felt a lot of pressure on Election Night. Some people out there are rooting for me to fail. But going in, I thought, I can do this, and when I finished, I thought, you know, I was right. It's a job. It's an important job, but it's a job. And I try to keep it in its proper place. Other days I feel like it's consuming me and kind of taking over my very being.

Why Did Cable Networks Put Holocaust Denier and Ex-Klansman David Duke on TV? (Marketwatch)
Jon Friedman: Why did CNN and MSNBC give airtime to David Duke? What purpose did it serve the viewers? Does American cable television news have ANY standards any more? Duke and his divisive rhetoric don't belong on American TV. He only says these things so people will pay attention to him. And it is the networks that make him seem "newsy" at all.

After Bankruptcy Filing, Recriminations Fly at Air America (NYT)
In recent weeks, Air America, which has its headquarters in New York and reaches about 2.4 million listeners weekly, has suffered the defection of a handful of its more than 80 affiliated stations and soon faces the likely departure of its most visible host, Al Franken, even as it cobbles together a plan to emerge from Chapter 11.

Business 2.0 Editor Challenges Wired's Anderson on Open-Reporting Ideas (Netly News)
Josh Quittner: Wired's radical transparency would help me — radically — [as a competitor] when I make strategic decisions about how to put my magazine together. What Chris [Anderson] is describing might indeed be wonderful online media. But I bet the paper product would have a much smaller audience than it does now — and would be creamed by the competition.