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

Former Condé Executive Steve Florio Dies (WWD)
Steven T. Florio, former chief executive officer of Condé Nast Publications Inc., died Thursday due to complications from a heart attack. He was 58. Credited with growing Condé Nast and shaping its culture as a personality-driven star system, Florio stepped aside as CEO in January 2004, but remained under contract as vice chairman until last January. NYT: Attuned more to the business end of publishing than to content, Florio helped form a large sales force directed at selling advertisements that were meant to run in all or most of the company's publications. Mediaweek: David Remnick, editor of The New Yorker, noted Florio's hands-off style in the editorial realm. "As an editor, his greatest act of generosity was leaving me free to do our creative and journalistic work," Remnick said. NYP: Throughout his reign, he was famous for his swagger, for quick decisions on the hiring and firing of publishers, and for ongoing feuds with some of the editors.

Bhutto's Book Primed (NYP)
Publisher HarperCollins, which just received the manuscript for Benazir Bhutto's upcoming book, is now moving quickly to get it on the shelves by February following yesterday's assassination of the former Pakistani prime minister. The book, entitled Reconciliation: Islam, Democracy and the West, was part political treatise and part memoir of the first woman elected prime minister of a Muslim nation. B&C: Anchors mobilize to cover Bhutto assassination. TVNewser: Anderson Cooper headed to Pakistan.

Essence Editor Is Leaving Magazine (NYT)
Susan L. Taylor, the longtime editor and driving force behind Essence, the magazine aimed at black women, is leaving the publication after 37 years to devote more time to an organization she founded to help troubled children. Taylor joined Essence in 1970, the year it was first published. She became editor-in-chief in 1981, a post she held until 2000, when she was promoted to publications director.

Time Warner May End Reign as Largest Media Company (Bloomberg)
Jeffrey Bewkes, who takes over as CEO of Time Warner next week, may spin off the cable-television division and sell the AOL Web and Time Inc. magazine units, said Gamco Investors Inc. fund manager Chris Marangi and National City Bank analyst Daniel Poole. The remaining company, anchored by the film studio and cable-TV networks, would resemble Viacom Inc. NYP: Among media companies, Time Warner took the largest broadside from jittery investors this year, with its stock price shedding 23.46 percent of its value.

Writers Threaten Mass Picket of Golden Globes (NYT)
Hollywood's glamour machine has gotten stuck between a promise that the stars will still show up at next month's Golden Globes and a threat that 3,000 picketing writers will chase them away. Thousands of party planners, stars, filmmakers, executives, celebrity hand-holders, and others over the last few days have watched the industry's labor dispute bring its annual movie awards race to a near-halt.

Ad-Libbing Late-Night Shows' Return (WaPo)
Despite going back to work amid a strike by the Writers Guild of America, the late-night hosts, all of whom are WGA members, have agreed to respect work rules set down by the union. That means, in essence, they can't write material that their striking writing staffs would have produced for them. That means no topical monologues, no characters, no skits, or Top 10 lists that typically make up about a third or more of the shows.

Study: Hillary Hit Hardest by Media (CMPA)
TV election news has been hardest on Hillary Clinton this fall, while Barack Obama and Mike Huckabee have been the biggest media favorites, according to a new study by the Center for Media and Public Affairs (CMPA) at George Mason University.

Wal-Mart Cancels Movie Download Service (Reuters)
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. quietly canceled its online video download service less than a year after the site went live, a company spokeswoman said on Thursday. Wal-Mart shut down the download site after Hewlett Packard Co. discontinued the technology that powered it, Walmart.com spokeswoman Amy Colella said in an email. She added that it will not look for another technology partner. NYT: Apple making deals for Web video rentals.

Fox's Feresten Joins Late-night Return (Variety)
Former Seinfeld scribe Spike Feresten returns his Saturday show Talkshow With Spike Feresten to the air on Jan. 12 on Fox. It had halted production in the wake of the WGA strike. With late-night shows on NBC and Comedy Central having announced plans to return next week — and CBS' programs likely to do so as well — staying dark probably didn't make much sense.

MTVN: More Than 1.2B Video Streams From MTV.com, VH1.com, CMT.com (B&C)
MTV Networks Music Group said Thursday that it delivered more than 1.2 billion video streams from MTV.com, VH1.com, and CMT.com in 2007, up 30 percent from 2006. The cable programmer added that music videos accounted for nearly one-half of the streams, as well as driving triple-digit growth for MTV Mobile, VH1 Mobile, and CMT Mobile for the year.

Men Dominate U.K. Newsrooms, Says Survey (Guardian)
The journalists making key editorial decisions at British newspapers and broadcasters are overwhelmingly male, according to a survey published today. The Fawcett Society, which campaigns for equality and published the research, said the media was missing out on a "huge pool" of female talent.

Media PR Christmas Gifts (WWD)
A few media gift-givers were extra creative this year. Time Inc.'s corporate communications department sent out a media sampling selected by their editors. Vanity Fair ensured it would be remembered this year for its Christmas card, an Annie Leibovitz shot of Bono and Graydon Carter, with the latter giving Time Inc.'s Jim Kelly a run for his money in the Santa verisimilitude department.

Why Newsday.com Had a Very Good Month (NYO)
One of the quiet mysteries over the last week is why exactly newsday.com became (1) the fifth-most read news Web site in the country last month and (2) its unique visitors increased by 182 percent in November 2007 versus November 2006. The reason, according to Newsday online editor Jonathan McCarthy, has to do with a political cartoon that went viral.

Discover Tries Nurturing Parents (NYT)
In a bet that managing your finances is like raising your child — trying, but rewarding — the Discover credit card has a new marketing partnership with Parents, the nation's most popular glossy about the world's most demanding job.

NFL Caves to Congress on Patriots-Giants Broadcast (Marketwatch)
Jon Friedman: With this move, the NFL is acting in its own self-interest. It doesn't want to rouse the congressional sleeping giant, which could complicate the league's ability to negotiate billion-dollar television contracts. If the NFL cared so much about its fans, it wouldn't have frozen out so many by launching the NFL network in the first place.