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FCC Reshapes Rules Regulating Media Industry (NYT)
The FCC approved two new rules yesterday that are likely to reshape the nation's media landscape by setting new parameters for the size and scope of the largest news and cable companies. One rule would tighten the reins on the cable television industry, whle the other gives owners of newspapers more leeway to buy radio and television stations in the largest cities. TV Week: Congress vows to fight FCC on new regulations.

New York Times in Iraq: 'Blackwater Shot Our Dog' (Reuters)
The U.S. embassy in Iraq is investigating another deadly shooting incident involving its Blackwater bodyguards — this time of The New York Times's dog. Staff at the newspaper's Baghdad bureau said Blackwater bodyguards shot "Hentish" dead last week before a visit by a U.S. diplomat to the Times compound.

Writers Strike Plucks a Political Nerve (LAT)
The personal is political, as they say, and at times of labor unrest, the professional becomes even more so. In this roiling tempest of competing interests that is the six-week-old writers strike, the combatants have increasingly taken on the surgical rhetoric and hardball strategies of rival political campaigns. USAT: Poll finds that viewers side with striking writers. Variety: WGA to picket at Golden Globes. Hollywood Reporter: Awards shows scramble as writers play hardball with waivers.

Jimmy Kimmel to Go Back on Air Despite Strike (AP via USAT)
Jimmy Kimmel will join NBC's late-night hosts in returning with new shows Jan. 2 in the midst of the Hollywood writers strike, ABC said Tuesday. Kimmel, along with Jay Leno, Conan O'Brien, and other hosts, had honored the strike that began Nov. 5. He said it was a difficult decision to resume work without writers, but he wants to save the jobs of other staffers on the show.

MTV, Bruckheimer to Launch Video Game Studio (Reuters)
MTV and award-winning television and film producer Jerry Bruckheimer will launch a video game development studio. Bruckheimer, producer of Walt Disney Co.'s wildly successful Pirates of the Caribbean film franchise among a long list of film and TV hits like CSI, said he plans to do for video games what he has done for other well-defined genres of content. NYT: As its audience has grown more interested in video games, MTV is trying to follow them.

CNN's Jonathan Klein on Campbell Brown, Couch Potatoes, and Plans for 2008 (NYO)
In recent days, Jonathan Klein signed a four-year contract extension to remain as president of CNN/U.S. Accordingly, Klein was in a good mood as he addressed staffers during a quarterly Q&A session at the Time Warner Center on Dec. 17. CNN Worldwide, he told the troops, was enjoying its fourth straight year of double-digit profit growth.

Tribune CEO Is Expected to Resign (LAT)
Tribune Co. chairman and chief executive Dennis J. FitzSimons is expected to announce his resignation as early as today, a person close to the company said Tuesday. The resignation would be the first departure of a top Tribune executive as the company prepares to go private under the leadership of Chicago businessman Sam Zell.

Clinton's Camp Insists That the Press Holds Her to a Tougher Standard (WaPo)
Howard Kurtz: Hillary Clinton's senior advisers have grown convinced that the media deck is stacked against them, that their candidate is drawing far harsher scrutiny than Barack Obama. And at least some journalists agree. "She's just held to a different standard in every respect," says Mark Halperin, Time's editor-at-large. "It's not a level playing field."

Newsday, Hoy Will Pay Feds $15 Million In Circ Fraud — And Avoid Criminal Charges (E&P)
Tribune Co. will pay $15 million to settle a federal criminal fraud investigation into a five-year scheme to artificially inflate the circulations of Newsday and the New York edition of the Spanish-language daily Hoy, U.S. prosecutors in Long Island announced late yesterday.

Outlook for Campaign Ad Revenue 2008 (E&P)
Will 2008 be a winning campaign year for ... newspapers? For the first time since John Kennedy beat Richard Nixon in a presidential race that, by a landslide, anointed television as the medium of choice for political advertising, newspapers are daring to believe they and their Web sites will get more than their usual minuscule share of candidates' media buys.

NY Post Names New City Editor (NYO)
Last week, the New York Post's deputy metro editor Michelle Gotthelf was on vacation. Meanwhile, metro editor Dan Colarusso unexpectedly quit, leaving a team of assistant editors to fill in on the fly. And so, on her first day back to work on Monday, Dec. 17, Gotthelf hastily met with editor-in-chief Col Allan, who named her the new metro editor. Portfolio: NY Post's business section bleeding talent.

No 'Juice' for Baseball Steroid Books (NYP)
The baseball steroid scandal so far hasn't translated into much of a book bonanza. Jose Canseco, an admitted early steroid user-turned-whistleblower, was meeting with publishers last week after the Mitchell Report was released in order to drum up interest in his latest book effort, which is entitled Vindicated. So far, however, there is no buyer. Marketwatch: Jon Friedman on how Jose Canseco embarrassed sportswriters.

Foodie Mag Editors Shift (WWD)
The publisher shuffle in the epicurean category seems to have settled for now, with the appointment at Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia of Amy Wilkins as publisher of Everyday Food. That magazine had lost publisher Anne Balaban to Everyday With Rachael Ray, whose publisher, Christine Guilfoyle, had decamped for WWD in the fall. AdAge: Wilkins joined MSLO in February 2007 from Meredith Corp., where she was publisher of Country Home and, before that, Better Homes and Gardens.

Match.com Tries to Attract Facebook Users (Guardian)
Dating Web site Match.com hopes to attract new customers by becoming the first big matchmaker to partner with the social networking site Facebook. It is offering a "Little Black Book" application to Facebook users from next week, which helps them find potential partners.

Laugh at the Web Clips, Then Buy the Gel (NYT)
The United States consumer products division of L'Oréal is starting an online campaign — viral, because consumers are meant to pass it along — that sends up the concept of sponsors insinuating products into television shows, movies, and video games. The humorous campaign includes a Web site, video clips, and a blog.