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Mediaweek: Forecast '08: Digital, network TV, cable TV, print. LAT: Pop culture talking points for 2008. Guardian: New year's media honors list. Guardian: The year in TV. NYP: What to watch in 2008. USAT: The Ads of 2007. USAT: People Will Want to Connect in 2008. NYDN: 25 worst ideas of 2007. Slate: The top science and tech privacy threats of 2007.

Late-night Shows Return, but Will the Stars Come Out? (USAT)
NBC's Jay Leno and Conan O'Brien and ABC's Jimmy Kimmel are returning without writers, prepared monologues, or scripted material. They're depending on guests to fill the void, but they're finding that many A-listers are getting cold feet, fearing they'll be the targets of unwanted publicity for appearing on the shows. LAT: The plot thickens at strike-hit soaps. Variety: Letterman, Ferguson to return with scribes.

Most Networks Scrambled to Get People to Pakistan After Killing (NYT)
ABC and CNN were the only American television networks that had full-time employees in Pakistan when Benazir Bhutto, the former prime minister, was assassinated Thursday. The significant time lag between her death and the arrival of Western correspondents forced the networks to hustle and improvise. NBC, MSNBC, and Fox News Channel relied on phone reports from freelance journalists in Pakistan.

How Newspapers Got Into Such a Fix, and Where They Go From Here (WSJ)
Paul E. Steiger: On Thursday I'll pack my last box and take leave of a place where I've spent 26 of my 41 years in journalism. The Journal's editors have asked me to retrace my experiences of the past four decades in search of insights into how the industry upheaval happened, what may happen next, and the implications of all this change for readers, the nation, and society at large.

Download Uproar: Record Industry Goes After Personal Use (WaPo)
In legal documents in its federal case against Jeffrey Howell, a Scottsdale, Ariz., man who kept a collection of about 2,000 music recordings on his personal computer, the RIAA maintains that it is illegal for someone who has legally purchased a CD to transfer that music into his computer. FT: EMI faces restricted budgets and job cuts.

Google in Search to Sell its Advertising to Newspapers (Sunday Times)
Google is going into the newspaper business. The search engine giant is in talks with several newspaper publishers to sell space in their pages to its online clients. Google Print Ads is an extension of Google AdWords. Instead of an auction, advertisers pick a newspaper online through Google and enter a bid for available advertising space on a given page and day.

Start-up Whiz Takes on New Challenge (LAT)
Six months ago, new father Joe Kraus returned to Google Inc. from a three-week paternity leave to take charge of another fledgling. His assignment: Help run a team that would figure out how to match the runaway popularity of Facebook Inc., which has been stealing Google's spotlight. The company tapped the bespectacled veteran of two start-ups because it figured he could harness the experience and energy needed for a showdown that could determine the course of the Internet's social networking revolution.

In Cincinnati, a 126-Year-Old Paper Goes to Press for the Last Time (NYT)
The Dec. 31 issues of The Cincinnati Post and a companion title, The Kentucky Post, will be the last for both newspapers, which are part of a dying breed of afternoon dailies. Fewer than 10 cities still have two or more daily newspapers, and Cincinnati was the last two-paper town in Ohio. The demise of The Post, which is 126 years old, leaves The Cincinnati Enquirer with far less competition. Cincy Post: A farewell letter from Robert White, the Post's associate editor.

Change the World, One Click at a Time (Boston Globe)
A slew of start-ups are using the tech tools and social dynamics that have become the norm online to tackle real-world problems. The social networks that people maintain online are an ideal environment to share ideals and causes with acquaintances, friends, and peers. They also represent an opportunity to engage people to tackle problems that may seem intractable to a lone individual.

Perez Hilton Shops the Video Services (TV Week)
After a public split with popular video-sharing site YouTube last week, celebrity gossip blogger Perez Hilton said he's rebuffing offers from other video sites and instead is testing out a private-label service from a little-known company called Twistage.

Bill Kristol To Become New York Times Columnist (HuffPo/Eat the Press)
Bill Kristol will become a weekly columnist for The New York Times in 2008. Kristol, a prominent neo-conservative who recently departed Time in what was reported as a "mutual" decision, has close ties to the White House and is a well-known proponent of the war in Iraq. Kristol also is a regular contributor to Fox News' Special Report with Brit Hume. NYT: NYT explains decision. NYO : Krauthammer, Kristol out at Time.

Technological Gadgets Smarten Up (WSJ)
Thanks to improved software and more-powerful chips, devices once considered "dumb" — like the TV remote or personal navigator — are doing more and threatening to eat into sales of other kinds of electronics. Navigation systems makers, handset makers churning out smarter cellphones and television manufacturers are the earliest to show a benefit.

Cable Is Big Victor in NFL Net Simulcast (TV Week)
Marianne Paskowski: The real victors are cable operators who refused to pay the high license fee and have argued that such a big-ticket item belongs on a sports tier, an option the NFL-owned network doesn't cotton to at all. Given this decision, now the NFL doesn't have any bargaining chips when it re-enters negotiations with Comcast Cable and Time Warner Cable, the nation's two largest MSOs, next year. TV Week: Patriots-Giants is season's most-watched program

The Lives They Lived: David Halberstam (NYT)
Neil Sheehan: Yes, David had an ego, quite a large one, and some were irritated by it, particularly in later years as his fame as a journalist and author grew. It never bothered me, because I accepted it as natural to the man, as the catalyst of his creativity. David's ego was like the afterburner on the engine of a jet fighter.

Bloggers Mature, The New York Times Stumbles (Salon)
Joan Walsh: But among Democrats, one thing I'd never have predicted a year ago is the neutrality of so many liberal blogosphere leaders. Much was written in 2007, much of it wrong (I weighed in, perhaps also wrong, here) about the attempt by liberal blogfathers to play Democratic powerbrokers in 2004 and 2006, and it was assumed there would be a 2008 sequel.