in a competitive move to counter the digital's world "making aggressive overtures to Madison Avenue" with the NewFront, cable programmer Discovery Communications bought digital video creator and distributor Revision 3 for about $30 million, according to  Daniel Frankel. Among the deal's benefits: "While Discovery spends about $500,000 – $700,000 to produce an hour of cable TV programming, Revision3 has been able to produce popular shows for a digital scale that’s much less than that," writes Frankel.  Meanwhile, too, Discovery continues to wrestle with its "Oprah problem," as Bloomberg Businessweek puts it. Here's the bottom-line summary: "Discovery Networks invested more …

Women's magazines "do run serious journalism" next to what is arguably fluff, writes Anna North. These pubs also have a part to play in nurturing "a generation of women writers working across a range of issues," according to Katrina vanden Heuvel, editor of The Nation. "I think one wants to subvert" such mags, added vanden Heuvel, or "to criticize some of their messages without ignoring the useful things they do," as North interprets vanden Heuvel's remarks at last night's Hillman Awards. Vanden Heuvel compared women's magazines to HBO's new series "Girls," calling each a pop-cultural "entry point" — "a way …

Amazon is soliciting scripts for new sitcoms and kids' Web video -- shows it intends to actually make and distribute, unlike with its movie effort, according to Peter Kakfa. The caveat: shows "should look and feel like 'real” TV shows, with commensurate production budgets." Thus, "the big news is that Amazon is formally declaring that it’s in the original video business — just like Google, Hulu, Netflix, Yahoo and lots of other tech guys," writes Kafka.

The FCC ruled that Comcast must put Bloomberg Television near other news channels on its cable systems in the U.S.' largest media markets, siding with  Bloomberg LP in a complaint it brought against the cable giant. However, Comcast said it will ask the FCC to overturn its decision. Correction: Yesterday Around the Net incorrectly noted that Dan Wakeford would be leaving his post as editor in chief of  Bauer Publishing's Life & Style to take on that role at In Touch. In fact he will be editor of both publications.

"...Even as the overall economy ticks back, consumers are still couponing, and newspapers are still retrenching. Sundays, when preprinted coupons and circulars hit, have been a notable success for newspapers in the past few years," writes Andrew Beaujon. "Average Sunday circulation is up 5% overall...and coupons are often credited for contributing to those gains." Print coupons have their place even in the days of Groupon and other digital deals, as Beaujon shows by citing a recent New York Times Magazine story "that posits couponing — or, more accurately, economic activity around couponing — as the 'Key to Economic Rebirth.'" …

The editors of Vogue's 19 editions, from Anna Wintour to the editors of China, Mexico and French versions, signed "a six-point agreement focused on promoting a healthy body image in their magazines and the wider fashion industry,"  writes Nina Jones. However, those points seem to fall short. Instead of "Run fashion spreads featuring women larger than a size 2," the editors pledge to "encourage designers to 'consider the consequences of unrealistically small sample sizes,'" according to Jones. We suppose that's a start, since small sample sizes need skinny models to wear them -- but this tack depends on editors' persuasion …

Partly in celebration of its 30th birthday, The Weather Channel is personalizing and adding social elements to its website, with such features as a "social emergency broadcast system. When you see a severe weather alert on the site, you can instantly share it with your social networks to keep friends and family in the loop about your safety," writes Jordan Crook. Weather forecasts -- personalized to one's locale and complete with graphics tied to weather conditions ("grey and rainy" when, yup, it's that way outside) "predict when it’s going to rain, and better yet, when it’s going to stop raining. …

Can a magazine embrace the world that threatens to make it extinct? Arguably, that's the tack print pubs have been taking in moving toward digital technology -- and certainly part of the reason why Lucky magazine hosted FABB, the Fashion and Beauty Blogger conference, "a meeting of old and new media" held most recently in Los Angeles, writes Booth Moore.  The conference was spearheaded by the pub's editor, Brandon Holley, who took over in the fall of 2010 "with a vow to transform Lucky into a 'social shopping experience' by bringing bloggers into the fold,"  according to Moore. "In the magazine, …

USA Today, whose circulation has long been dependent on hotel guests, this fall will roll out a digital portal of news, local and national info and entertainment content such as magazines and games,  available to customers staying in Hilton brand properties worldwide. "Although much of the news will be authored by Gannett and USA Today reporters, the other content will involve partners that have not yet been announced," writes Barbara De Lollis.

Masthead changes at celeb publications ahead, including the following: former People writer Alexis Chiu joins Bauer Publishing to become executive editor of In Touch, where Dan Wakeford will become editor in chief, while continuing in that role as Bauer's smaller-circulation Life & Style.