Two TV stories were in the news, both sports-themed. First, Chicago-based Tribune Co. reached a transmission fees deal with DirecTV, thus ending a four-day blackout -- and allowing subscribers to watch the first game of the Chicago Cubs season today. New deal is for five years. Next, Spike TV and sports entertainment property TNA Entertainment have agreed on a multi-year extension of their exclusive deal. Which means shows like "TNA's Impact Wrestling" will still be seen only on Spike.

A just-released Q4 Nielsen study finds that many mobile device owners are using that smaller screen while tuned in to the big one: 45% of U.S. tablet users (and 41% of smartphone users) are on their respective devices while also watching TV -- mostly to catch up on email. In other encouraging stats,  30% of smartphone owners actually looked up info for a product advertised on TV. Fifty percent were visiting a social network. Cory Bergman provides more charts and analysis in this post.

By extending David Letterman's contract for his "Late Show" through 2014, CBS gave him a new title: longest-running late-night host, overturning  Johnny Carson's record of 30 years on TV after midnight. CBS also extended "Late Late Show" host Craig Ferguson's contract through 2014.

Exanding its digital strategy, the iconic yet somewhat struggling National Geographic is planning to move away from long-form features to more blogging;  experiment with pricing; and develop tablet and ebook versions, according to CEO John Fahey. "The media mix will be much richer: more photographers, video, better maps," Fahey says. "The magazine was on a once-a-month basis, but what we envision is a magazine that's alive and organic on a day-to-day basis. So, if you have an iPad app subscription, every day you can find out something new and cool that's happening out in the field."

Announcing new and renewed female-targeted video programming,Yahoo and YouTube are going after cable TV's "golden goose": "low-cost reality lifestyle programming aimed at female audiences – from Hoboken cake bakers to pro house flippers," according to Daniel Frankel. New endeavors include two shows on Yahoo starring Cat Deeley from "You Think You Can Dance," and fashion designer Rebecca Minkoff; and on YouTube, Meredith Corp.'s "DIGS, a home- and garden-themed lifestyle channel similar to cable’s DIY Channel," writes Frankel. "For programmers targeting the female lifestyle segment, partnering with video portals like YouTube provides a lower cost barrier to entry than the now largely unionized …

A Netflix for magazines? That's what Nat Ives calls Next Issue Media's launch of a tablet app that will allow users to access monthly and biweekly titles from all the major consumer magazine publishers for just $9.99 a month. Ives analyzes the plusses and minuses of the plan -- limited now to certain Android devices but probably soon branching out onto the iPad -- from both the consumer's and the publisher's perspective. For example, "Next Issue Media's new app also lets consumers read each participating magazine's tablet edition in one place, hopefully eliminating some of the friction that comes with …

The Wall Street Journal's new CIO Journal, only available digitally, will provide technology execs with originally reported stories as well as relevant stories from the WSJ and the Dow Jones newswires. Deloitte Consulting will be the exclusive sponsor of the service. The company also sponsors the CFO Journal, which debuted last year.

Katie Couric and Sarah Palin and Oprah Winfrey, oh my! All dueled on competing TV morning news shows this week, and Alessandra Stanley amusingly recounts Monday's on-air nuances. As guest host all week on ABC's "Good Morning America" opposite her former TV home, the "Today" show, Couric  "and the rest of the show’s co-hosts were as giddy and upbeat as a winning team preparing for its reward on 'The Apprentice.'" Meanwhile, despite an interview with Palin, set to host on Tuesday,  "The 'Today' hosts looked a lot like a losing team putting on a game face en route to Donald …

Magazine execs are "racing to capitalize on Pinterest," headlines this post by Rupal Parekh, which details the strategies of a slew of women's mags (the natural target for the social media site) as well as a few men's lifestyle brands like Men's Health and Esquire. All this urgency creates some amusing sidelights -- like the fact that Elle has developed a group of "'pinterns' to contribute ideas about sorts of boards to create." Or that Lucky readers are going "crazy" over the topics of shoes and nails, according to the mag's contributing digital editor. And did you know that Pinterest …

Conde Nast's Fairchild Fashion Media, home of Women's Wear Daily, Footwear News and other fashion trade pubs,  just sold its book division, Fairchild Books, to the U.S. subsidiary of Bloomsbury Publishing (publisher of the lucrative "Harry Potter" books) for $6.5 million, reports Bill Mickey. Fairchild Books specializes in textbooks and other educational material for fashion, retailing, and interior design students.