A front-page story in The New York Times on Thursday was striking in several regards. It reported a "sobering new assessment" of the U.S. war effort in Iraq. It thus contradicted the tone of much of the same paper's coverage from Iraq this year (until recently). And, in a week when the use of anonymous sources is drawing unprecedented scrutiny and criticism, it was based mainly on just those kinds of sources.

Through merchandise and TV, Disney hopes Muppets reel in $300 million in retail sales by 2009.

Bill Gates, the co-founder and chairman of Microsoft Corp., is planning to write another book on how new technology will affect people and companies. Gates, whose last book, "Business @ at the Speed of Thought," was published in 1996, is still in the early stages of planning and no date has been set yet for the book's release, Microsoft spokesman John Pinette said.

This week's presentations by the six main broadcast networks to advertisers attending the so-called upfront market in Manhattan will conclude today, when Fox and UPN detail their fall schedules. Fox, seeking to prove that it can create hit shows beyond "American Idol," "24," and "House," will introduce four new dramas and four comedies, according to interviews with a talent agent, a studio executive and a network official, each of whom had been told about at least part of the schedule but none of whom would agree to be identified.

Monster, the online job search site, confirmed it is moving creative chores on its account from Interpublic Group agency Deutsch, though the shop here is keeping media buying and planning chores.

Internet marketing company aQuantive will offer a new set of tools to measure video on demand (VOD) advertising in a move from the Web to digital television, the company said on Thursday.

ABC has clawed its way back into the ratings game, but the Disney unit continues to ski uphill in the advertising race. At television's upfront ad show this week, much noise is being made of a primetime ratings decline at General Electric's NBC. The perennial No. 1 network was caught flat-footed this season without replacements for hit shows like Friends and Frasier.

On television, Gap's new pitchwoman caresses a microphone and croons "The Right Time," an old Ray Charles ballad. Dressed in a tank top, beads and white jeans, she radiates a neo-hippie charm. She is Joss Stone, the 18-year-old soul singer from Devon, England, who has a best-selling CD and three Grammy nominations under her paisley silk belt. Now Gap is about to find out whether her youthful appeal will play to a broader market. It has signed the lissome Ms. Stone to replace its previous "it" girl, Sarah Jessica Parker, whose nine-month stint as the face of the company coincided …

It was like a kissing booth at a county fair: eager men, demure women, a big white tent. Only this tent stood outside Lincoln Center, where a reception followed ABC's upfront presentation at Avery Fisher Hall yesterday. The upfront was a chance to consolidate the gains of a big year for ABC, which has showed "the largest season-to-season adult 18-49 audience growth for any major network in at least 25 years," as publicity materials boasted.

Eight months after broadcasting a report critical of President Bush that was later disavowed, CBS said today that it had canceled the Wednesday edition of "60 Minutes."