Internet and political maven Arianna Huffington is venturing into TV producing in a partnership with "How I Met Your Mother" executive producer Greg Malins. A comedy that they are working on has landed at ABC and is being produced by 20th Century Fox TV. The project centers on the friendship of three freshman members of Congress -- two men and a woman -- who live together in D.C. It will draw inspiration from real-life Washington figures. Malins will write the script and executive produce it with Huffington and Huffington Post founding editor Roy Sekoff. Recently, the broadcast …

Roger Ailes, the former media consultant for Ronald Reagan who runs Fox News and other News Corp. TV properties, collected almost $24 million last year in salary, bonuses, stock grants and benefits. That's nearly $2 million more than his boss CEO Rupert Murdoch, per a company proxy statement. Ailes is crucial to News Corp. because he has created a money-generating machine out of Fox News, which is the third-most-watched cable channel during prime time. Last year, the channel's cash flow spiked about 65% to $502.6 million. That included big hikes in the fees that cable and satellite operators …

About three dozen of the nation's top universities will start feeding news about their scientific discoveries directly to top news sites on the Internet, rather than going through traditional media outlets. Princeton, Yale, Duke, the University of Chicago, Stanford and UC-Berkeley are among the schools that are participating. The universities have essentially formed their own nonprofit wire service, called Futurity, to provide articles to Web sites such as Yahoo News, Google News, MySpace and Twitter. Yahoo will include Futurity content with other news items from sources like The Associated Press, New York Times and San Jose Mercury News. …

Today, The Wall Street Journal is unveiling The News Hub, a live video series, which will be streamed every weekday at 8:30 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. It will run across the company's digital network, including WSJ.com, Barrons.com, Marketwatch.com, Dow Jones Newswires and AllThingsD.com. The morning edition of the video series is being hosted by Journal economic reporter Kelly Evans and focuses on the day's key economic news. The afternoon edition is hosted by Dow Jones Newswires columnist Simon Constable and WSJ.com staffer Kelsey Hubbard and covers business news. The Journal is competing for online eyeballs with CNBC …

Unionized workers in the Chicago Sun-Times' newsroom have rejected demands for three-year, 15% pay cuts and elimination of seniority rules. The move puts at risk a planned sale of the struggling newspaper to an investment group. Chicago banker Jim Tyree says that without concessions from the paper's 18 unions, he will not bid for the paper in a bankruptcy auction. The paper's owner Sun-Times Media Group has told employees that nonunion workers will take a steep pay cut and that union members should agree to similar cuts. Sun-Times Media Chairman Jeremy Halbreich has told union workers that a …

Private equity firms Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., Thomas H. Lee Partners, and Providence Equity are bidding separately for Cox Enterprises' Travel Channel. They join media companies Scripps Networks Interactive and News Corp. in the auction, which is expected to fetch $600 million to $700 million, say insiders. NBC Universal is no longer participating. At least two of the private equity firms are in discussions with Discovery Communications to use it for services such as selling advertising and negotiating network-carry fees should they win control of Travel Channel. Privately held Cox is selling a 65% stake in …

Clear Channel Communications will donate $1 million worth of free advertising space to the winners of the American Association of Advertising Agencies' O'Toole Awards. The company will donate the ad space across its radio, digital and outdoor platforms. Clear Channel's media platform reaches more than 150 million consumers each day on its AM/FM radio broadcasts, online and mobile streams, in-vehicle navigation systems, digital video billboards, taxi media, transit shelters and other outdoor displays.

Applebee's has moved its $150 million-plus media planning and buying account to Universal McCann without a review. The business was previously handled by Starcom. Applebee's already works with Universal McCann sibling McCann Erickson on the creative side. The company is consolidating its media and creative responsibilities to capitalize on opportunities in the market while creating more cost efficiencies, says a rep for Dine Equity, parent company to Applebee's and IHOP, which also works with Universal McCann. The representative states that pricing was not a factor in the company's decision. IHOP purchased Applebee's for $2.1 billion in July …

The list of suitors for BusinessWeek got a little shorter yesterday, with Bruce Wasserstein deciding against making a final bid for the magazine. Wasserstein, the CEO of financial giant Lazard, owns the business weekly The Deal and a substantial stake in business publisher Penton Media. He also owns New York magazine, which he bought in 2003. Wasserstein's exit places Bloomberg LP as perhaps the candidate to beat. Final bids for BusinessWeek were due yesterday, although some insiders suggest that that deadline may be somewhat porous. The other companies known to have made preliminary, nonbinding bids and which thus …

The New York Times has named Jon Landman, the deputy managing editor who has been running online for the last few years, as the paper's new culture editor. He replaces Sam Sifton, who was appointed the paper's new restaurant critic. In announcing the change yesterday, Times' executive editor Bill Keller noted that Landman's appointment has broad implications for the newsroom. "After more than four years overseeing the integration of the print and Web newsrooms, Jon has a keen appreciation of what culture journalism can be on the Web. This [shift in personnel] will complete the integration of the newsroom …