Viacom co-president and CBS chairman Leslie Moonves has announced the creation of a new marketing group and named CBS marketing chief George Schweitzer its president.

Those sassy gals from "Desperate House wives" are back on ABC Sports just a month after whipping up a frenzy on "Monday Night Football." Teri Hatcher, Marcia Cross, Felicity Huffman, Eva Longoria and Nicollette Sheridan taped an NBA-themed spot on the "Housewives" set Wednesday, according to a report that first appeared on TV Guide Online.

Howard Stern, the notorious shock jock/best-selling author/movie star, has been known to bellow at anyone who will listen that he is "The King of All Media." That hyperbolic rant from the King of All Self-Promoters aside, Stern, 50, is Media Web's selection as the Media Newsmaker of the Year because of his resounding one-man October Surprise. Stern bellowed that he'll leave Viacom's Infinity radio unit when his contract expires and join Sirius Satellite Radio in January 2006.

Feeling under siege and underappreciated by advertisers, the magazine industry is taking on its chief rival, television. In a rare show of unity, magazine publishers are coming together to argue that print weeklies and monthlies offer advertisers a better return for their money than television. Publishers assert that as the number of television channels multiplies and personal video recorders proliferate, TV doesn't reach consumers as effectively as it once did.

The long search for a successor to Brendan Ryan as the leader of Foote Cone & Belding is ending with a familiar face. Steven Blamer, who last year turned down a bid to join Foote Cone in a senior post to remain at Grey Worldwide in New York, said late yesterday that he would leave Grey, where he has most recently been chief executive for North America, to join Foote Cone in New York as the president and chief executive.

NBC officials said yesterday that Dick Ebersol, the chairman of NBC Universal Sports, who was injured in a plane crash Nov. 28, was continuing to recuperate from what the officials said were more serious injuries than originally reported.

The newest faux holiday that companies are using to make a buck this season is "Chrismukkah," a mishmash of Christmas and Hanukkah.

CBS on Wednesday said it ordered two more installments its top-10 reality series "Survivor," and would scheduled the show's 11th and 12th editions for the 2005-2006 broadcast season.

A campaign encouraging tourists to come to the United States starts this week in Britain, part of a Commerce Department effort begun after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. The $4 million campaign, by the Los Angeles office of the British agency M&C Saatchi, plays heavily on the British love of American movies, as illustrated by the theme "You've seen the films, now visit the set." Print, television and billboard ads will feature clips from films like "Thelma and Louise," "Sweet Home Alabama" and "L.A. Story" (but presumably not "Deliverance" or "The Ice Storm").

The Chicago Tribune Co. announced yesterday that it started a brand advertising campaign incorporating animation and graphics into messages that show how someone's day was made better by interacting with the Chicago Tribune. The effort's television, print, outdoor, digital and direct marketing components were created by the newspaper's new advertising agency, DDB Chicago, which the company selected as its ad agency in May. The Tribune has a daily readership of more than 2 million and nearly 3 million on Sundays.