Don Fitzpatrick, a TV news talent agent who started the well-read newsletter ShopTalk and the Web site TVSpy, died Monday at his home in Alexandria, La. He was 56.

George Donald Fitzpatrick Jr. was born in Pittsburgh. From 1982 to 2000 he owned Don Fitzpatrick Associates in San Francisco. His clients included CBS News, CBS Sports, ABC News, NBC News, CNN and ESPN. According to The Vault, talent Mr. Fitzpatrick helped discover include Jim Nantz, Meredith Vieira, Leeza Gibbons, Randall Pinkston and John Tesh.

In 1983 he started ShopTalk, which became on of the earliest e-mailed newsletters. He later started the online TVSpy Watercooler, where news industry staffers expressed opinions and gripes about the business. He closed his agency to concentrate on ShopTalk and TV Spy.

Mr. Fitzpatrick sold TVSpy to Vault Inc. in 2001.

Services will be held Friday in Our Lady of Prompt Succor Catholic Church in Alexandria.