CBS Sports president Sean McManus has been named president of CBS News, and will now head both divisions of the network. His selection ends months of speculation over who would succeed current CBS News president Andrew Heyward with the mission of revamping the news division. Heyward will stay on until the end of the year, when his current contract expires.

Samsung is moving the portion of its $200 million global branding assignment handled by WPP Group's Berlin Cameron and JWT to Publicis Groupe's Leo Burnett Worldwide without a review, according to executives familiar with the matter. The move comes less than one year after Samsung Electronics moved the global branding assignment to WPP Group.

In the middle of a Tuesday conference call announcing Infinity Broadcasting's plans to replace Howard Stern, a familiar voice appeared: Beetlejuice, the diminutive, snaggle-toothed fixture from the shock jock's nationally syndicated morning show. He was quickly cut off, leaving Infinity Broadcasting Corp.'s chairman and CEO Joel Hollander to explain how the prank only demonstrated the significance of the company's plans for a post-Stern existence a radio world where rocker David Lee Roth and comedian Adam Carolla will take over 12 of Stern's 27 Infinity markets. "Infinity will have no 24-hour channels of farting," said Hollander.

Elmer "Len" Dresslar Jr., who extolled vegetables to generations of TV watchers as the booming voice of the Jolly Green Giant, has died. He was 80. Ad jingles were the most consistent part of his career, and he landed roles for Rice Krispies cereal, Marlboro cigarettes, Amoco oil and Dinty Moore canned beef stew. He periodically re-recorded the "Ho, Ho, Ho" for Jolly Green Giant commercials, most recently about 10 years ago.

NBC Universal Chief Executive Officer Bob Wright said the NBC television network is "desperate," and rebuilding its program schedule will take more than one season. "We are definitely a desperate network right now," Wright said yesterday. "It's going to take a few years to get back to where we were," he said of NBC's previous first-place ranking.

Cable, satellite and telephone operators -- chasing interactive consumers with bundled video, voice and data services -- are about to enter the twilight zone, or a competitive dimension in which things aren't always what they seem or as expected. It is already evident in changing business models, strategies and growth forecasts that were solid just a year ago -- none of which, of course, will help boost lagging stock prices.

One of ANA's most important functions is to protect our members from absurd and restrictive government legislation and rulemaking that can affect their company's marketing, communications and economic well being. Take note - because we are about to collide headlong with one of the most savage pieces of rulemaking that we've seen in recent years. And we must win - or watch out.

Viacom Chairman Sumner Redstone said he plans to play a role in key decision making after his media company is divided in two. "I never said I would take my hands off the wheel," Redstone, 82 said in an interview at his home in Beverly Hills, California. "I said I would share the wheel" with the two companies' chief executive officers, Tom Freston and Leslie Moonves.

A deal between Time Warner Cable and NBC Universal will for the first time allow NBC's prime-time network programming to be available through a restricted form of video on demand. Viewers who miss the beginning of The West Wing, ER or The Tonight Show will be able to use a new Time Warner Cable service, Start Over, to air the show from the beginning. All ads and programming following one of those shows will remain intact, so viewers in effect can choose when they want to start watching a night of prime time.

The long wait for Howard Stern's replacement on 27 stations owned by Infinity Broadcasting ended today. Splitting its morning strategy by regions, former Van Halen frontman David Lee Roth will take over Stern's slot in New York on WXRK-FM and other East Coast markets, while TV personality Adam Carolla will host mornings in Los Angeles on KLSX-FM.