• George Stephanopoulos will probably replace Diane Sawyer on GMA. [TDB]
• Now that Bloomberg LP is talking over BusinessWeek, columnists Maria Bartiromo and Jack Welch are both parting ways with the mag. [NYP]
• CNN is laying off four of its web anchors since it no longer plans to produce live video on CNN.com. The good news? With Lou Dobbs no longer on the payroll, it should save $9 million over the next few years. [NYT, [NYP]
• Euna Lee, one of the two CurrentTV reporters who was imprisoned in North Korea earlier this year, has scored herself a six-figure book deal. [NYT]
• Shares of Playboy jumped yesterday after it was reported the apparel conglomerate Iconix was in talks to acquire the (struggling) company. [NYP]
• Another senior Observer editor is bidding goodbye to the paper. [Politico]
• Fashion mags are expecting their fortunes to improve in 2010. [WWD]
• Is the Fox Business Channel a lost cause at this point? [VF]
• Television is more getting more and more obscene, supposedly. [NYT]

• John King will be replacing Lou Dobbs at 7pm on CNN. [WP, NYT]
• CNN execs had been looking to part ways with Dobbs for many months now, although CNN president Jon Klein is denying that all the anti-Dobbs fervor had anything to do with his leaving. Meanwhile, Dobbs' departure is expected to leave up to 30 people without jobs. [TDB, NYT, AP]
• Dobbs' first post-CNN interview will be with Bill O'Reilly. Naturally. [DF]
• Iconix, the apparel company that owns Candie's, Badgley Mischka, and Rocawear, among other brands, is in talks to buy Playboy Enterprises. [BN]
• Bloomberg LP is ducking out of paying severance to BW staffers. [AdAge]
• A dozen staffers were laid off at Newsweek today. [Gawker]
• Martin Scorsese will receive the DeMille award at the Golden Globes. [LAT]
• Katie Couric is assembling media power lists now, apparently. [Forbes]

"Urbanwear" designer Marc Ecko has been on the brink of ruin for many months now. He had to sell off parts of his company to stay afloat, he put his ridiculously over-the-top office/gymnasium in Chelsea up for lease, and his 30,000-square-foot castle in New Jersey was hit with several liens after he had trouble coming up with the cash to finish $21 million worth of renovations. But Ecko has been tossed a life preserver. The apparel company Iconix has announced it's taking a majority stake in Ecko's company. He won't have to worry about going bust any longer, and his line of streetwear will finally be united with its spiritual cousin, Rocawear. Everyone wins! [Crain's]

• Tom Ford is expanding. (Or hoping to, at least.) The designer is reportedly looking to raise $50 million in financing to expand into womenswear. [Reuters]
• Rents along Fifth Avenue have been falling, of course. But the situation appears to be particularly bleak at the empty shopping mall (or "retail collection") at the Plaza Hotel. [Bloomberg, NYP]
• The downside of diffusion: According to a new survey, consumers say luxury products are too accessible these days and have become a commodity. [WWD]