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After some effusive praise for CBS’ cost containment and ability to withstand the economic downturn, Sumner Redstone, executive chairman, CBS Corp. (NYSE: CBS), handed the call over to Les Moonves, CEO and president. Before hanging up, Redstone repeated a line he gave when introducing the Viacom (NYSE: VIA) earnings call last week, saying that “Content is always king.” In his opening remarks, Moonves couldn’t resist celebrating the record-breaking Super Bowl viewership of 106.5 million. “In a socially fragmented universe, big events and TV viewership provides the biggest bang for the buck.”

In most cases, online is generally the bright spot on a company’s earnings report. But not in CBS’ case, as the Interactive segment’s 5 percent ad decline offset the 8 percent growth at the TV network and cable. No wonder CBS (NYSE: CBS) Research head Dave Poltrack was so incensed last week at a Forrester survey that suggested marketers regarded TV ads as less effective. Overall, CBS’ total revenues were down only 1 percent, as radio and the lack of political advertising balanced out improved ad sales in general, along with growth in affiliate and subscription fees. Nevertheless, despite continued economic weakness, adjusted net income was up 23 percent.

Playboy (NYSE: PLA) Enterprises’ hopes for a planned sale were dashed during Q4, as its revenue troubles continued as well. As the company’s loss narrowed to $27.8 million from last year’s $146.8 million, combined print and digital revenues fell 14 percent. On its own, digital slid 10.7 percent in Q4.

In a statement, CEO Scott Flanders tried to reassure investors that he had a plan to stabilize the company. One of the major strengths Playboy has is its iconic brand and licensing has been playing a bigger role in the company’s operations. Flanders said Playboy struck a deal with IMG to outsource our Asian licensing business, which along with the November deal to hand off most of the non-editorial functions of Playboy magazine to American Media, is part of Flanders’ program to sharpen the company’s focus.

Playboy (NYSE: PLA) President Alex Vaickus opened up the company’s Q4 earnings call with a big “thank you” to pop singer John Mayer, whose controversial interview in the March 2010 issue has been covered by 1,500 media outlets. But as he and CEO Scott Flanders made clear, executives don’t expect that buzz to reverse the string of losses the magazine has been hit with the past few years. For the most part, the Flanders said his objective not to generate profits from the mag; the title just needs to stop losing money. “Playboy is the core strategic asset,” Flanders said. “We expect it to break even by 2011.” But until that time, this year, Playboy could see a $5 million loss on the magazine expected.

Reed Elsevier (NYSE: RUK) will continue to “re-engineer” its Reed Business Information publisher and its costs, it said as it reported RBI annual operating profits dropped 35 percent in 2009.

“The print advertising markets are structurally challenged and need to reinvent themselves,” new Reed Elsevier CEO Erik Engstrom told analysts this morning. “Online advertising services, however, will continue to see good growth.”

The future for Variety and New Scientist publisher RBI: “Continued restructuring of our advertising-based portfolios – there will, over time, be other asset disposals to come. We’re going to have to realign the cost base with lower expectations from those businesses.”