• NYT's James Bennet is The Atlantic's new editor. We have nothing witty to say about this. [NYT]
• ABC anchor Bob Woodruff is making "good" progress in his recovery. No jokes here, either. [Newsday]
• Want to read early handicapping of the Pulitzer Prizes? Nor us. But someone must, right? [E&P]
• Jann Wenner shares a "hunk of meat" with Playboy CEO Christie Hefner and Time Inc. chair Ann Moore. We had no idea Matt Nye was so broadminded. [Mediaweek]
• Diversity Council's report terms Times "a newspaper at risk" on diversity issues. Hey, why should things be different on that issue than everywhere else? [Media Mob/NYO]
• Tuesday night, journalists talked about themselves. Obligatory mah-nishtanah joke here. [WWD (second item)]

• CBS Radio sues Howard Stern for using their air to promote his new Sirius show. So why didn't they just kick him off the air back then? "I'm the one who kept you on the air and I knew I could sue you afterwards," Stern says Les Moonves told him, presumably with an enormous, blindingly white smile. [NYT]
• Boston Globe in talks to print, distribute New York Post in Massachusetts. And finally New Englanders will have their hoped-for chance to play Post Poker. [BG]
• You know Nancy Grace, the crusading anchorwoman on CourtTV and Headline News? Yeah, well, she's kind of full of shit. [NYO]
• Bode Miller was Jim Kelly's second-worst cover decision, the Time editor, whose hindsight checks in at an amazing 20/15, tells Jon Friedman. [MW]
• NYT's Elisabeth Bumiller to write Condi bio; NYT's Steven Weisman, Bumiller's hubby, to get kicked off State Department beat. Such are the compromises of married life. [NYO]

• The New Republic has its first "bloodless transition" of editors in many years, as nebbishy-novelist-brother Franklin Foer takes over for incumbent Peter Beinart, on whose watch the magazine lost 40 percent of its circ. [NYT/NYO]
• Sale of Spin closes today for "well under $5 million." In 1997, it was sold for $42 million. [Ad Age]
• Jack Shafer is bored with Barney Calame now, too. [Slate]
• NBC's Winter Olympics coverage had worst ratings in nearly 20 years. [USAT]
• Online ads are getting more expensive. Which is a trend we can only endorse. [NYP]

• Not New York news, but kind of huge: Former Los Angeles Times publisher Otis Chandler — the guy who made it actually a good paper, then got pissed off when Times Mirror CEO Mark Willes did his best to undo that — died today at 78. [LAT]
• Walter Cronkite thinks CBS should keep Bob Schieffer as Evening News anchor. Which we're sure matters not a whit to CBS execs, who could care less about attracting octogenarians. [SJMN]
• Simon Dumenco is angry, as always, and now he wants apologies, from Graydon Carter, Tom Ford, Carl Icahn, Atoosa Rubenstein, NBC, and others. Good luck with that one, Simey. [Ad Age]
• No one likes White House press briefings. Who knew? [NYT]

• Wireless-entertainment provider Kargo Global sues Cargo magazine for copyright infringement. Also, one imagines, for poor newsstand. [Mediaweek]
• Freelancers often go without health insurance. Who knew? [MetroNY]
• Are Americans getting growing tired of celeb news? God we hope not. [Economist]
• Time Inc. EIC John Huey — who ousted Jim Seymore to install Rick Tetzeli as Entertainment Weekly's editor a few years ago, is now jumping back in to shuffle Tetzeli's top editorial ranks after a crappy 2005. [NYP (second item)]

• Say hello to News Corp.'s new My Network TV, a network for stations orphaned by the UPN-WB deal and what's sure the be the place to turn for shows not quite good enough to make one of those two flailing former networks. [NYT]
• Bob Schieffer is a folksy country doctor who performs with backup singers. [NYT]
• Those office pirates are multitalented: That's Office Pirates creator Mark Remy, former EIC of Giant mag, acting in several of the new Time Inc. humor site's video clips, which were shot by his colleague Mark Golin, former EIC of Maxim. [WWD]

• Dow Jones reorg combines print and online editions of WSJ. [AP via Yahoo]
• New Meredith editorial director Mike Lafavore fires Fitness EIC Emily Listfield and then gives himself the job, at least for now. How very Wennerian. [NYP]
• Carl Icahn's Time Warner breakup plan had a 37-page chapter on why Time Inc. doesn't fit with the rest of the company. How does John Huey react to that? "I didn't find it a very compelling chapter." Of course not. [NYO]
• Jack Shafer prefers his newscasters brunette. [Slate]
• Maxim redesign to remove "a layer of goofiness"; Graydon promises his next car will be a hybrid. [WWD]
• Breaking: Newspapers sometimes create sections as vehicles to attract advertising. [NYO]
• LAT NYC bureau chief to take on book-publishing beat, too. Because there's just not enough going on in the city itself to keep a reporter busy. [LA Observed]
• Eleven mags missed their rate base in the last half of 2005 — and that doesn't even court the half-dozen AMI titles set to miss in the next go-round. [BW]

• Remember how Ad Age told us last week that when the biannual circ numbers came out they'd show the celeb weeklies way up and O, The Oprah Magazine way down? Well, they came out, and they did. [NYT]
• Designer working on WSJ overhaul is urging the paper to consider more fashion and celeb coverage. Dow Jones execs can't wait to catch the celeb-mags circ mojo — and we can't wait for the stipple portrait of Jessica Simpson. [St. Pete Times]
• Nick Kristof raises $727K to send Bill O'Reilly to Darfur. It's amazing how much money you can raise when people will never actually have to fork it over. [E&P]

• Nielsen Media Research finally starts including college students in ratings, which should be good news for young-skewing networks like MTV and Fox. Should also be good news for that sweet "Girls Gone Wild" informercial that's always on and fuckin' kicks ass, dude, and is just — wait, is that the pizza? [NYT]
• This week, Simon Dumenco hates Google. (And again we say: Told you so.) [Ad Age]
• Jason Binn shuffles editors at Gotham and Hamptons. Which makes sense — one can only give blowjobs for so long before the jaw starts to ache. [NYP]
• We cut out a bit early on one Friday, and of course that's the day Jann Wenner fires his RS publisher over the location of the mag's 1,000th-issue party. Only at Wenner Media, kids, only at Wenner Media. [Mediaweek]
• Group of journalism bigwigs signs petition asking annual newspaper conference to look into the industry's willingness to help save refugees during the Holocaust. Because when an industry's future is so secure, it can afford to spend time worrying about things that happened 60 years ago. [NYT]

• Carl Icahn's quixotic attempt to split up Time Warner starts to "falter." As quixotic bids are wont to do. [NYT]
• Is the blog boggle about to burst? One certainly hopes so. [Slate]
• Sixteen months after the last one left, Details names a new executive editor: Bill van Parys, snagged from sister pub Jane. Insert Details-is-gay joke here.[WWD]
• Yahoo News was all Jerry Garcia's fault. Or something like that. [MW]

• Who did the Newsday circ fraud hurt most? The City of Philadelphia, of course, which lost $310k on its Tribune Co. stock. Now it'll never be able to afford that nice place in Cobble Hill, and it might even be forced to move to — oh, wait. [Newsday]
• With fortuitous timing, the GQ teaches of all sorts of interesting things about Dick Cheney, including that a personality test once told him he should become a funeral director. [WWD]
• Carl Icahn to escalate TW fight. Again. [NYT]
• The secret life of Dr. Myra Vanderhood, unmasked. [NYT]

• Mr. Magazine says Domino was the launch of the year. Runners-up include Celebrity Living Weekly and Everyday With Rachel Ray. Which is great, because the world needed more shopping, celeb, and vanity magazines. [MIN]
• The Atlantic is now safely ensconced in Washington, but it still lacks an editor. And might for some time. [NYO]
• Newspapers and magazine want to convince marketers to advertise in them. Also, the sky is still blue. [NYT]
• Diane, Charlie, and Barbara gamely go once more into the breach for God and network. [NYO]
• Viacom chief Sumner Redstone's son sues to break up the family business. Oh, those impetuous little kids. Those impetuous, 55-year-old, little kids. [NYT]

• Mass Appeal mag turns 10 and launches a spinoff, presumably for even masser appeal. [Folio:]
• Emeril says Cindy Adams fabricated a quote from him. Only in New Orleans, kids, only in New Orleans. [Times-Picayune]
• Reporters go out in the snow to tell us it's snowing, and a CNN hero wonders why. [NYT]

• Fighting back against Fox News, whose ratings dwarf CNN's, Jon Klein savors small victories. Which makes sense, because there ain't been a whole lot of big ones. [NYT]
• Conde Nast is running out of ad inventory. [WWD]
• Nick Kristof manages the delicate trick of making Jack Shafer feel a little bit bad for Bill O'Reilly. [Slate]
• Icahn and Wasserstein's TW plans don't don't help thing. [NYT]

• Time Inc.'s young guy-geared humor site, Officepirates.com, helmed by former Maximer Mark Golin, is slated to debut Feb. 22. Given the mag publishers track record with web ventures — Pathfinder, anyone? — we're sure the College Humor boys are terrified about the potential competition. [NYP]
• Who'd have thunk it: Cargo sells best with a hot chick on the cover. [WWD]
• World News Tonight anchor Elizabeth Vargas announces she's pregnant and will deliver in late summer — this ensuring that by the eight-month mark of ABC's latest dual-anchor experiment, neither of the two anchors will be on air. [ABCNews.com]
• At least there's one winner in the recent cartoon-induced global crisis: Newsweek, who people now realize probably didn't singlehandedly incite riots with a poorly sourced sentence. [MW]

• News Corporation made a billion dollars of profit last quarter. [MW]
• Why the New York Press REALLY wouldn't publish the Mohammed cartoons: Because they didn't want to get bombed. (Or, at least, so says the departed EIC.) [The Politicker/NYO]
• Travel Savvy crashes, as parent company closes it and sibling mag after owner's death. [NYP]
• The Media Mob suggests an alternative cover for Page Six: The Magazine. [NYO]

• Icahn and Wasserstein unveil plan to break up Time Warner into four separate companies: Cable systems, entertainment products, AOL, and Time Inc. And if Time Inc. is alone again, maybe they'll even bring back the drinks cart. Please? [NYT]
• Brangelina spawn's baby pix likely to go for up to $4 million. Even our own mother doesn't think ours are worth that much. [NYP]
• More Page Six is coming! More Page Six is coming! Also, David Carr is a quasi-TV star. [NYO]
• God bless the web, which is saving the two non-Murdoch news networks. Also, Dick Cavett thinks Brokaw was drunk. [NYO]
• Why is Brian Williams, not the traditional Katie Couric, Bob Costas' sidekick for the Olympics opening parade? Either because Katie is busy with morning work, as NBC says, or maybe because the peacock doesn't want to build up anchor who's about to bolt. [Chicago Tribune]
• Tom Ford looks like Jeremy Piven, according to VF focus groupers. [WWD]

• Things we never thought we'd say: Iranians have a delightfully level-headed reaction to the Mohammed-cartoons brouhaha; the country's biggest paper will run a contest for best Holocaust cartoon, which is an entirely reasonable response. [Reuters via WP]
• We're not quite sure how we forget this yesterday, but sullen Simon Dumenco is even madder than usual, this time at Bonnie Fuller. Which seems sort of a waste of energy. [Ad Age]
• AOL gossips say Meredith Viera is now the top choice to replace Katie Couric on Today, should Katie take her clickety stilettos to CBS. They also say Today might go to four hours, with Campbell Brown anchoring parts, and that there's a 70 percent chance of a Katie-to-CBS switch. Which seems an really oddly specific. [TMZ]
• Out magazine is so desperate for a new EIC five months after allegedly pro-baseball-player-dating Brandon Lemon left that now it's even considering straight candidates. You should know better, Out: Sure the straight guys will have the drink, and be a little flirty, but it's just too much work to get them to finally put out. [WWD]
• 90.7 million watched the Super Bowl, making it the most watched TV show in ten years. [THR]
• The increasingly touchy-feely WSJ is like "your boss at work — smart, well-connected, highly respected, passing judgment from afar — who suddenly asks you to hang out on the weekend," says Hamilton Nolan. [PR Week]
• AMI adopted new ABC circ rules early, and realized it would miss rate base on half its titles. The other publishers ain't taking the risk. [Ad Age]

• We're shocked shocked that ABC killed the words "cum" and "cock" from Stones songs at the halftime show last night. [AP via WP]
• So how do Time Inc. mags cover the Dick Parsons-Carl Icahn battle of Time Warner? Just like they cover anything else, insists John Huey. [MW]
• Jim Cramer's crazy shtick sells big. [NYT]
• Rupert Murdoch likes Time Warner and Google, doesn't like the video iPod or the Viacom split, and promises a CNBC rival in 2006. Because what the world really needs is more Neil Cavuto. [Newsweek]
• Elle goes green for a month. [WWD]

• Maxim, Sports Illustrated, and Playboy to spend up to $1 million each to host dueling pre-Super Bowl parties. Maybe some of those recently laid off from Time Inc. and Dennis Publishing will be invited. [NYP]
• Brandon Holley digs 20-something smart chicks. [NYT]
• Daily News TV guy Richard Huff still doesn't like Jon Stewart. [NYDN]
• The Observer redesigns its blogs, which now look thoroughly swell (if, sadly, less pink). [The Real Estate/NYO]
• Missed In Style: Celebrity Weddings on ABC Monday night? Then you missed your chance to see highlights from Details editor Dan Peres' wedding. We're sure you're as sad as we are. [WWD]