Time Inc. said Thursday it would comply with a court order to deliver the notes of a reporter threatened with jail in the investigation of the leak of an undercover CIA officer's name.

Under pressure from civil rights groups, ABC Television yesterday canceled plans to broadcast a reality show that let the white suburban families living on a Texas cul-de-sac decide which of seven families - including one black, one Asian, one Hispanic and one gay couple - would move into their community. The show, "Welcome to the Neighborhood," was to be a summer replacement for the top-rated "Desperate Housewives," which is set on a fictional cul-de-sac, Wisteria Lane, where no one can keep her nose out of anyone else's business.

Madison Avenue agencies and media companies may be bracing for a slowdown in spending, but at least one group remains a steady buyer of advertising: phone and cable providers. They continue to expand their advertising budgets despite a spate of mergers and bankruptcies in their industries, an economic downturn and price wars that threaten their profitability.

NBC is weighing a plan to put its network news division and its cable channels CNBC and MSNBC under one roof and base the operation in New Jersey, The Post has learned. NBC is searching for an executive to run the combined operation, who would report to Jeff Zucker, president of the NBC Universal Television Group, sources said.

Advertising firm Havas will continue its hunt for a new chief now that its chosen candidate has turned down the job, surprising some in the industry who believed it was a done deal. Jean-Marie Dru, the head of ad agency TBWA, was the top pick of Vincent Bollore, Havas' largest shareholder and the force behind the ouster of longtime chief Alain de Pouzilhac.

The prospect of a television channel entirely devoted to gay programs for gay people may strike some as unnecessary and others as a sign of immoral times. Media giant Viacom thinks there's money in it. Logo, launching on Thursday under the MTV Networks umbrella, is not the first channel to target gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people, but it is the most widely available, on cable boxes in 10 million homes.

Jean-Marie Dru has elected to remain at TBWA Worldwide, where he is chief executive officer, rather than accept an offer to join Havas to replace recently departed CEO and chairman Alain de Pouzilhac, a TBWA representative confirmed on Wednesday.

Interpublic Group of Cos. said the Securities and Exchange Commission has widened its investigation of the embattled advertising firm. And in what has become an annual summer event, Interpublic announced the departure of another chief financial officer.

Media buyer Universal McCann on Wednesday trimmed its 2005 U.S. advertising spending growth forecast, reflecting the increasing conservatism of corporate spending on marketing expenses. Robert Coen, senior vice president for forecasting at the Interpublic Group of Cos. Inc. unit said U.S. advertising spending would rise 5.7 percent to $278.8 billion in 2005, compared with his earlier forecast of 6.4 percent.

"On the Record With Greta Van Susteren" caught fire this month, with the show's focus on the disappearance of an Alabama teenager in the Caribbean nation of Aruba leading it to second place in the ratings behind fellow Fox News Channel show "The O'Reilly Factor."