Sundance Channel and Entertainment Weekly magazine are co-producing "The Writer's Room," a six-episode series featuring TV's "top creatives" in assorted scripted dramas and comedies in a "roundtable talk-show format," writes James Hibberd. Um, does that sound too-insidery, self-congratulatiory and meta to you, or is it just us? How about this quote from one of the producers: “We’re television producers ourselves, so we couldn’t be more excited to finally show viewers how some of the best shows on TV get made. And trust us, we’re going to show all of it: the good, the funny, and the sometimes messy process that …

Ken Kurson just took over as new editor in chief of the New York Observer, and at least one staffer's response was that the weekly "as we know it died today." In his first staff meeting, Kurson described a vastly different target audience, aimed at making the "Observer a more accessible read," and indicated that the paper would be run on a tighter editorial budget than previous editors  thought apppropriate.

HBO made a deal with Universal Pictures extending the pay cabler's contract for exclusive rights to Universal's and Focus Feature's films for the next 10 years, winning a "battle in the over-the-top content wars," writes Ingrid Lunden. The move is essentially "a riposte to the exclusive deal Netflix announced with Disney in December.... which propelled Netflix into the content big leagues." Meanwhile, "HBO also has exclusive deals with Fox, Warner Bros, and Summit."

Legacy TV and video media had a lucrative 2012, despite all the dire predictions about "ad skipping, cord cutting and audience flight," writes David Carr. "What is making these dinosaurs dance?" he asks. Among the answers he gets from media analysts: "The companies collectively did not make dumb choices — consider the past acquisitions of AOL and The Wall Street Journal — and they made plenty of smart moves, including long-term deals that locked up content and a steady stream of fees." And: "Between retransmission fees and on-demand viewing, broadcasters are starting to look a lot more like cable channels, …

Time Inc. pubs People and Cooking Light are teaming up for an editorial booklet, "Fresh Step," that "mixes celebrities’ weight-loss stories with healthy eating tips and recipes," to appear in People's annual "Half Their Size" issue Jan. 4, and the cooking mag's January/February issue, writes Emma Bazilian. The booklet, sponsored by Barilla pasta, is the first cross-company collaboration for each pub, and the first celeb content for Cooking Light.

Seventeen magazine's partnership with "The Biggest Loser," the weight-loss reality show that in its latest season will feature teen contestants for the first time, seems to contradict the pub's Body Peace Pledge, which, "signed by almost 90,000 young women to date, invites them to vow to 'know that I'm already beautiful just the way I am' and 'not let my size define me,'" according to Nina Bahadur. Meanwhile, the "Biggest Loser" contestant chosen to blog about her time on the show has her audition tape on the site, which includes less-than-body-loving quotes from her and her mother.

Some sort-of-good, or at least better-than-last-year, economic news about 2012: The media industry -- "a category that includes television, movies, print journalism and music" -- suffered 27% fewer announced layoffs last year than in the year before, writes Paul Bond. That makes 5,641 media job losses in 2012 versus 7,720 in 2011. And of 28 different industries tracked, "only seven of them boasted fewer layoffs than media in 2012."

Sony is in talks with at least two major TV content companies as part of its quiet plans to develop "a multichannel TV service to rival cable" that could launch later this year, writes Andrew Wallenstein. "Sources characterized the ongoing talks as far beyond exploratory and just as advanced as those of Intel Corp., another firm that has attracted a flood of recent speculation about its plans to enter the TV market."

An expanded Aereo? An iRadio, but no Apple television? More VOD? Success for Netflix Originals? These are some of the media predictions from research firm BTIG summarized here. Some surprises (we're not sure about the Netflix forecast, for instance), some not.

Say what you will about the ailing state of newspapers; still, in 2012, "investors still liked what they saw in the newspaper industry last year and bid up share prices accordingly," writes Rick Edmonds. "Six of eight publicly traded companies showed gains for 2012; four of those were up 30 percent or more."