OLBERMANN MAKES IT OFFICIAL, SIGNS WITH MSNBC FOR NEWS SHOW

          Keith Olbermann has "crossed the threshold from sports
     to news," as he has signed with MSNBC to host a one-hour,
     five-night-a-week show, that begins this fall, according to
     Steve Zipay of NEWSDAY.  Olbermann: "I am now, for better or
     worse, a newsman."  He described the program as "news-
     driven, probably of a news and interview format that could
     be funny one night, serious the next and both the third. ...
     [I]t could be on the flurry of Supreme Court decisions to
     more on Hillary to why can't they get the same guy to play
     Batman in every movie."  Olbermann said he expects 5% of the
     show to be on sports (NEWSDAY, 6/24).  In DC, John Carmody
     writes that although Olbermann "probably won't be slotted
     directly" against CNN's "Larry King Live" there are "strong
     hints from MSNBC that the articulate sportscaster-
     interviewer is going to be promoted as [MSNBC's] answer to"
     King.  Olbermann is "believed to have doubled" his ESPN
     salary of around $300,000 a year (WASHINGTON POST, 6/24).