Big editorial shake up at Ad Age: Top editor Jonah Bloom is leaving to become CEO and editor in chief of Breaking Media, the blog network that publishes Above The Law, DealBreaker, and others. Ad Age senior editor Matt Creamer is going with him, to become a top editor at Breaking Media. Ad Age's new executive editor is Abby Klaassen, who was digital editor.


Mediaititititie had a party. A fancy party! At The Plaza! Look at all these pictures of the party. There are many famous people there. The less famous people there are attractive! It sure ain't our party. But as we always tell ourselves, "Unattractive people make up for it by being smarter, that's what my mom said."


Nieman Journalism Lab writes an entire article about what journalists will be "fighting about in 2010" and leaves off the most obvious thing: scraps of bread.


Amazon has dropped the price of Sarah Palin's book to a mere $7.99. The liberal media is trying to spin this as another battle in the "Book Price Wars," but plainly Sarah Palin wants to be able to tell her readers that her book is now only half the cost of Lowrey's Bacon Curls Microwave Pork Rinds. (Their favorite food because they're so dumb). (Not classist).

Nepotism-enhanced sweat-prone young journalist Luke Russert reportedly went around handing out candy canes to fellow reporters to try to drum up support for his election to some board, but—whoa now!—he targeted the wrong reporters with his sugary bribes, laying low his political efforts. You have much to learn, Luke.


Apparently the NYT's holiday gift guide featured a page called "Of Color/ Stylish Gifts," just for the black people? Ah yes! Here it is, full of all types of black people, and things they might like to buy, who knows? One suggestion: Baby Jamz, "an interactive hip-hop and rhythm-based toy line [that] includes a Mix Master Music Chair that allows children to be their own D.J.'s, a Move 'n Groove dance mat, a Jammin' Microphone and other items." Hip to the hop, black Santa Claus baby!


Lachlan Murdoch is selling off News Corp. stock just as fast as he can , apparently in order to raise cash for all those trade magazines he just bought. We don't know about "business" matters but somehow this seems dumb.


Time Magazine has a listicle of the year issue, featuring the "10 Best Magazine Covers," among many other listicles, and here is the NY Mag cover they say is best. Since these things are intended to start arguments, we'll refrain from arguing. But we will point out that this is one of the Top Ten Reasons Time Magazine Is Perilously Close to Turning Into US News & World Report.



The new Gatecrasher gossip columnist at the NY Daily News: Carson Griffith, a contributing reporter at hellblog Guest of a Guest. She replaces the departed Laura Schreffler. Have fun doing that job, etc., Carson.

PR Man and Mediaite overlord Dan Abrams is taking a page from Gawker Media's weird website naming book, launching three new sites: Styleite, Geekosystem, and Sportsgrid, covering (guess!). Abrams tells us: "Mediaite will be connected to the other three sites in that they will share content and staff. Abrams Research is, and will remain, a distinct and separate business (much the same way so many other media companies have content arms separate from other parts of their businesses.)" We welcome new competition from Dan Abrams, because it gives us an undeserved feeling of virtue by comparison!


Uh oh: A new CPJ report finds that "At least 68 bloggers, Web-based reporters, and online editors are imprisoned, constituting half of all journalists now in jail." God damn bloggers already stole the hard work and the jobs from real journalists. Now they steal the imprisonment glory, too?


Some PR people were canned in the latest round of Conde Nast layoffs, but now the company has a job listing on Mediabistro for a PR director for the Fairchild Fashion Group and its CEO. Semi-related: We've heard from some recently laid-off Conde people that a contract clause says that if they're offered an "equivalent" job at the company and they refuse, they're out of their severance pay. So you could be enjoying a job at a great Conde mag one day, then be more or less ordered to go work on a different mag there that you hate. Not that they would ever do that! Anyhow, send us Conde Nast gossip, come on.


The New York Times Co. today said that they "currently project print advertising revenues to decrease approximately 25 percent in the fourth quarter," and that online ad revenue is projected to rise 10%, and severance costs to tally $50 million in the quarter. Also, the company is going to hang onto its paper in Worcester, MA, probably because nobody wanted to pay a decent price for it.

The founders of Twitter are the 2009 "Media Person of the Year," according to IWantMedia.com. Their primary accomplishment: inspiring the Twitter song. Congrats, fellas!

Here is a plan to save newspapers, from the German publisher of the biggest daily paper in Europe: You can see links for free, but you pay for all the news content you read on the internet, either per-story or a flat subscription rate. Is not a bad idea! Now just put it into place and make it work before you go bankrupt. That's the trick.


This, then, is the only thing left of Conde Nast's $100 million investment in Portfolio: a repurposed Portfolio.com, with more news you can use, and an owner who "wants it to be a must-read site for small- and medium-size business owners." How declassé!


Last week the Chicago Sun-Times lost a sports columnist to the Chicago Tribune. This week, the Chicago Tribune lost a sports columnist to the Chicago Tribune. Next week, both papers will still be going broke, and all the Chicago sports teams will still be mediocre.

"A local reporter attempting to cover President Obama's speech at West Point this week was not allowed in when he told security officials he had a hunting gun in the trunk of his car." And people try to criticize the Secret Service!


Monday is the deadline for the latest round of voluntary buyouts at the New York Times. Keith Kelly says only about 50 people will go voluntarily, which probably means about another 50 will have to be laid off. Happy holidays.


Ha, the Dallas Morning News has essentially taken itself out of the "journalism" business by having section editors report to the business side of the paper. The publisher dismisses the uproar: "I guess at the end of the day the only way I'll convince people is to tell them to check back in 90 days, 180 days, 365 days and see if anything has changed." Yea, you'd like that, wouldn't you? But we'd rather just never read you again, on principle.


A Nov. 10 "New Global Indian" online column [in the WSJ] by New York City freelance writer Mona Sarika has been found to contain information that was plagiarized from several publications, including the Washington Post, Little India, India Today and San Francisco magazine. At least, that's how I'd put this item, in my own words.

Great Magazine Die-Off marches on: National Geographic Adventure is folding. NatGeo tried to sell the mag, but apparently didn't get any good offers. The spinoff lasted ten years in print, and it'll continue on the web. The closure comes with 17 layoffs.


A tipster tells us that there were more layoffs at ALM yesterday—"one third to one quarter" of the staff in the real estate group was canned, our tipster says, taking the division down to around 20 people total. If you know more, email us.


Slight change at the Dallas Morning News: The editors of the sports, entertainment, real estate, automotive, travel, and other sections will now directly report to sales managers! Well. So much for that paper.


Attention ladies and fellas: Town & Country is getting "sexier." Not only is there a lady showing off her legs on the new cover, but WWD reports that the editor "plans on running more provocative travel pieces (the January issue has a story on Marrakech)," where there are lots and lots of prostitutes.

We were alerted to this item by NPR's public relations department, and we relay it to you with all deliberate speed: Justin Timberlake was photographed wearing an NPR t-shirt. Carl Kasell was then photographed wearing an 'N Sync t-shirt.


Keith Kelly has news about our favorite unnerving British ex-flack/ ex-celeb mag editor, Rob Shuter, former executive editor of OK!, is hooking up with the AOL pop culture site Popeater as a new Hollywood columnist. His column, Naughty and Nice, is slated to appear Tuesday through Friday." Rob Shuter has the evolutionary persistence of the cockroach!


News-and-museum combo The Newseum is laying off 13% of its staff, the second round of job cuts since the place opened just in time for the total collapse of the newspaper industry. These are the most predictable museum layoffs since...whatever is the auto industry museum. They probably had layoffs recently, too. [Related: the Miami Herald is down to a church bulletin.]


Rupert Murdoch is keeping busy: News Corp just finalized a deal to buy a 10% stake in Rotana, a Middle Eastern media conglomerate owned by Saudi Prince Waleed. Pay no attention the Australian behind the curtain, Middle Easterners! I guess this makes MSNBC and Al-Jazeera spiritual cousins.

And today in Mediabistro news:

If only we had news of an old white man in the media (THEME)... Hello, Lewis Lapham! The NYT checks in on him, just because, and finds him still wearing nice suits and putting out Lapham's Quarterly, which is still a going concern. Here is pretty much everything about Lewis Lapham in one single anecdote, in which, fresh out of Yale, he interviews for a job with the CIA:

The first question he was asked in the interview was, "When standing on the 13th tee at the National Golf Links in Southampton, which club does one take from the bag?"

"They wanted to make sure you were the right sort," Mr. Lapham recalled. He found the question off-putting and dropped his spy ambitions for journalistic ones (although he points out that he knew the right answer - a 7-iron).

What the hell is Lou Dobbs doing now? He is reportedly talking to CNBC, about maybe having a show there? Lou Dobbs and Sheriff Joe in 2012!


And speaking of old TV guys doing things: Charlie Rose is going to be writing a column for the new Bloomberg-ed BusinessWeek! Strange, since they canned Maria Bartiromo and all her famous cronies already. Anyhow Charlie's column will "offer insights into and takeaways from" things, which is how he hits you from two angles.


More college kids out of control, when it comes to journalism! The Arizona State J-School invited Sheriff Joe "Crazy Racist Xenophobic Joe" Arpaio to come talk, but he "was cut short Monday night when a group of protestors broke into song." Hopefully that song was Reggaeton.


And finally: National Geographic Adventure is for sale.

"Twitter" is very allegedly the "Top Word of 2009." Runners-up were "Obama, H1N1, Stimulus, and Vampire." The thing all these alleged "Top Word" have in common is that they are not the actual top word for 2009 years running now, "Naked."


Jim Lehrer is getting old. PBS is taking his name out of the title of his news show and changing it to the generic "PBS News Hour." Other newspersons will get more air time on the show, though Lehrer's not retiring yet. This has been your Jim Lehrer news update.


Christine Daniels, the transgendered LA Times sportswriter who committed suicide last weekend, is being remembered mainly as Mike Penner, male, in obituaries. Penner switched his name and byline to 'Christine Daniels' after he became a woman two years ago; last year, he switched his byline back to 'Mike Penner.' I plead ignorance as to the proper etiquette here (though I would imagine it's "Whatever name you want"). Experts, please comment.


Hey, it's a TVNewser holiday party and everyone is invited! And it's at the "Galway Hooker Pub" (code word)? Usually we keep those things a secret. But okay!

POLITICO EXPOZAY: Our archnemesis Martha Stewart('s magazine, Martha Stewart Living, along with several other home decorating magazines) is involved in a scheme to "decorate" various rooms in the US State Department building. In bed with the warmongers, eh Martha? Why don't you just go over to Afghanistan and start kicking over mud huts one by one, yourself? Eh? We dare you to respond. Dare you!


Hey, that breakthrough new "iTunes for magazines" online magazine store thing that the world has been waiting for is close to happening, and Conde Nast, Hearst, and Time Inc. will all put their magazines in there, so you can buy them, on the internet. I am "going rogue" and saying that not too many people outside the magazine industry will care about this, at all.


Keith Kelly has this short week's layoff tallies, so far: 25 at Time Inc., some of whom we mentioned yesterday, and the prospect of up to 100 layoffs coming to Playboy following their deal to outsource non-editorial duties to AMI. Also, nearly 80 edit layoffs at the Toronto Star. This holiday season is shaping up to be just as merry as last year's, for the media!


The Denver Post and the Dallas Morning News are reportedly considering joining the Search Engine Media Wars and pulling their content off of Google. This would have an even more minimal impact than if News Corp. does it, so no biggie.

A tipster tells us that three assistant managing editors have been laid off at Fortune magazine, presumably as part of the ongoing companywide Time Inc. layoffs. Mediaite confirms that the company did do a round of layoffs today. If you have more details, email us.
UPDATE: We hear five staffers were laid off at SI.com: Two associate producers, a copy editor, a producer, and a production editor, according to our tipster.


Gary Weiss got a peek at a BusinessWeek corporate post-layoff memo, in which the people not fired are referred to as "Individuals ineligible or not selected for inclusion in the restructuring program." Well. How Bloombergian.


Dave Eggers continues to save print! This time by producing a $16, 300-page "newspaper" with content "ranging from Stephen King's reporting on the World Series to explanatory graphics on subjects as diverse as the conflict in eastern Congo and how to make the perfect bowl of ramen." The whole thing sounds great. Except, of course, this six-month long niche literary project has absolutely nothing to do with newspapers or with the continued viability of print, which is dying as a mass medium, naturally, due to its obvious limitations.


From Roy Greenslade: "Twelve journalists were among 46 people murdered yesterday in the Philippines in what is thought to be the greatest loss of life by news media in a single day. Several of the victims were beheaded or mutilated in the massacre carried out by a huge force of gunmen."

Carl Kasell, the NPR newscaster known for saying things in that voice of his, is retiring from the morning newscast (but continuing to appear on Wait Wait Don't Tell Me). "The biggest change in his life may be not having to wake up at 1:05 in the morning in order to be ready for the network's 5 a.m. ET newscast." NPR has been literally trying to kill beloved newscaster Carl Kasell, all these years.


Not to get back on this subject again (please), but a tipster tells us there are still more AP layoffs going down, today: "one biz writer in nyc who was on vacation last week. two people in los angeles," our tipster says. We are hoping and assuming these are just leftovers that didn't get done last week.


James O'Shea was a Chicago Tribune editor who got pushed out as the entire company went to hell. Now he's starting up a rival Chicago news organization. But when the NYT asks him about all the BEEF he must have he says, "No, I don't have any interest in any of that." Ridiculous! On the internet, "news" is just a code word for BEEF. You will learn this soon enough, Mr. O'Shea.


What's this, one guy writing in True Slant defends the continued existence on earth and in our daily newspapers of NYT nature writer and most annoying essayist in the US of A Verlyn Klinkenborg? No. He is indefensible.

A "long-standing editorial feud" between a left-wing German paper and the right-wing paper Bild has culminated in the left-wing paper commissioning a huge artwork on the side of a building showing "Bild boss Kai Diekmann spreading his legs as his mighty manhood stretches across five storeys before the tip turns into a rearing cobra." If this isn't an idea that would suit Col Allan, we don't know what is. [Sexxxy pics]


A high school paper outside of Chicago wanted to publish some stories about students smokin and drinkin' and makin' babies, so the school spiked the issue, and now it's national news. The takeaway here is that the only thing dumber than school papers (I served on two!) is the reaction of school administrators to school papers.


Chris Roush has the latest updates on who's staying and who's going at BusinessWeek.


TVNewser says that Good Morning America staffers are wondering whether potential new GMA host George Stephanopoulos has the morning chops to pull of the big fluff interviews that would go along with job. Or will he be worried that it will undermine his fancy (alleged) "credibility" on his Sunday show? Let's be honest: With that hair, George Stephanopoulos was made for fluff. Also he is not a "journalist," so who cares?

We have two separate (unconfirmed) staff change rumors today, from tipsters. First, at SI:

At the ever-shrinking Sports Illustrated, the magazine's #2, exec ed. Mike Bevans, has privately announced that he'll be among the staffers taking a buyout. This marks the second Time Inc. purge in a row that M.E. Terry [McDonell]. has lost his aide de camp: last year it was David Bauer.

Second, we hear that the New York Post has replaced veteran police reporter Phil Messing with relative rookie Kirsten Fleming. Indeed, Messing's byline does not show up in a search since last month. Out tipster says, "The fear, of course, is that the writing is on the wall for Phil who is one of the more reliable and experienced police reporters in the city. He's old school. But the Post is rumored to be wanting to get rid of 10 to 15 reporters so everyone over there is worrying that their heads are on the chopping block." If you know more, email us.
UPDATE: Actually, another search for just Messing's last name turns up lots of recent bylines, so he's still hard at work, for now.


Oh Anthony Kennedy went on and on about how his office's demand to pre-approve his quotes in a school paper was misunderstood, but now the WSJ says he did the same thing once at GWU. Whatever. Just don't outlaw abortion.


There used to be a dozen analysts covering newspaper companies for Wall Street. How many are there now? Not so many! Now it's just Rick Edmonds, a dude who works for Poynter, trying to figure out how bad the newspaper apocalypse is. "My conservative estimate is that there is $1.6 billion newspapers used to spend annually on reporting and editing that they don't anymore." Journalism! Related: An incredible graph about magazines, and the money they are no longer making.


BusinessWeek media reporter Jon Fine (a good reporter!), currently on a months-long round-the-world vacation with his wealthy wife Laurel Touby, announces on Twitter that new BW owners Bloomberg have laid him off. One thing he can take solace in: His months-long, round-the-world vacation.

Ha, the fake Onion News Network has hired yet another real TV journalist, Suzanne Sena of Fox News (joke). Laugh now; they could totally get Lou Dobbs, if they tried.


Keith Kelly says the bulk of Time Inc's editorial layoffs could come next week—as many as 90 at the company's biggest magazines, to make up for the non-outpouring of buyout volunteers. So next week should be as sunny as this week, in media land!


A new study "finds that 74% of adults — nearly 171 million — in the United States read a newspaper in print or online during the past week." This is presented as a positive sign for newspapers. Left unsaid is the fact that 68% of those readers were reading "Family Circus."


Popular hero NY1 newsman Pat Kiernan informs us of this breaking trivia-related development:

For almost two years now, fans of World Series of Pop Culture have been asking me "when is the show coming back?" Since VH1 has set its priorities elsewhere, the short term answer is "I don't know." I'll keep trying.

In the meantime, my love of Pop Culture trivia can be suppressed no longer. Each weekday at 11:30 am ET I'll tweet a question at @patkiernan. I'll post it on the website at the same time at www.patspapers.com/trivia

It's tough to run a true trivia competition online because everybody can just Google the answers. But for those who respond with the correct answer I'll award a prize at random from time to time. Mostly it's just about writing some fun questions and creating a place for WSOPC fans to gather.

He tells us this week's prize is a $25 gift certificate and adds, "I'm taking the first 10 responses in the "Comments" section and choosing one at random, hoping to take away the incentive to obsessively press refresh and then google the answer." Don't fuck around with Pat Kiernan's contest rules.


Also in layoff news: We've been updating our AP Layoff List throughout the day, and tips keep coming in. Check it again if you haven't lately, it's long. And we hear BusinessWeek staffers are finding out about their own layoffs right now. Email us with info.

Richard Miniter, the editorial page editor of the Moonie Washington Times, is suing the paper for "being forced to attend a Unification Church mass wedding," and also because he says they made him work while he was sick, even though, according to TPM, "During a health scare earlier this year, Miniter was brought out of the newsroom on a stretcher." Who would have expected this at the Moonie Washington Times, of all places?


The (unprofitable) New York Daily News is investing $150 million in a new printing press . Buyers of print ads in the Daily News love it; everyone else thinks it is stupid.


Hey, Lou Dobbs is very interested in Bill O'Reilly's offer of a "semi-regular contributor" position on O'Reilly's show. Bill O'Reilly and Lou Dobbs, together, on the same show. That would be something. Something evil.


Ah, here's a fourth item on this day of layoffs and only layoffs, as far as media "news" is concerned: Samir "Mr. Magazine" Husni has named Hearst's Food Network Magazines as the Most Notable Launch of 2009. Americans can no longer tolerate any aspect of their daily reality that is unconnected to television. What an apocalyptic future we all face. Thanks, "Mr. Magazine."

Ha, New Yorker media man Ken Auletta moderated some panel about "The Future of Funny," which of course sounds the opposite of funny, but it turned out to be funny mostly because of Judd Apatow mocking Ken Auletta's questions. Be warned: Anything about funny things should be funny or it will be made funny at the expense of the least funny person. And that person will inevitably be you.


Houston Chronicle reporter Moises Mendoza: "I'm not on death row. Stop with the e-mails, the dirty looks and the questions. I'm not Moises Sandoval Mendoza. I'm a different Moises Mendoza - a law-abiding one." Yea right, Mendoza. Google don't lie.


About half of cheap-ass Americans say they're willing to pay for online news content, and those who would pay said they're only willing to pay an average of $3 a month. This means that half of America will soon stop reading newspapers online, and the other half will pay just enough to ensure newspapers go broke.


"Is Playboy's Print Future In Jeopardy?" Yes.

At a Time Magazine panel last night designed to hype speculation over who the stupid "Person of the Year" will be, two distinct, stupid favorites emerged: Twitter, and The Economy. Neither of which is a person. Christ. Even "You" was technically a person, despite being the stupidest choice ever. How about "Americans Who Are Getting Stupider," as a dark horse candidate?


It looks like money issues could finally force Hugh Hefner to sell Playboy. The company's stock went erect yesterday amid reports that it's in discussions with Iconix, which specializes in turning around brands that have fallen off. If you listen to wild blogosphere estimates, Playboy is now worth significantly less than Gawker Media. That's when all the models disappear.


Optimistic words are flowing forth from the mouths of fashion magazine executives! Conde Nast's Tom Florio says Vogue's profits will double next year! Other fashion mag publishers are equally gung-ho about next year! That's the benefit of getting to compare your profits to the worst year ever, in history. They will be better than that.


CNN had been pouring lots and lots of greenback$$$ into producing an entire online-only, all-day newscast on its website, for some reason. Now they're laying off four of their online anchors and cutting way back on that whole project, because they remembered, hey, we have a whole channel on TV, already. Always thinking!

Fairfield University has charged its own student paper with "harassment" and is threatening to pull its funding, all because of a remarkably stupid column about the "walk of shame" that the paper published from some still-drunk tool (pictured). Allow us to quote from it extensively!

There is nothing worse than the awkward wake up next to a girl, who is not as hot as you thought she was when you were 12 deep the night before.

Chris Surette, you cad! Tell us more.

Second, even though you might feel like the man for doing it, make sure you don't raw dog it...
Trust me, you don't want that hood rat giving you a venereal disease. Not because half are not curable, but the next time you try to bang and that little cutie sees that rash around your genitals, she's going to be running for the fences.

We're fairly confident that the fact that Chris Surette will not get laid for the remainder of his time at Fairfield University and, probably, well into his post-college life is punishment enough for his journalistic transgressions.


The Hartford Courant is now making its employees pay for home delivery of the paper. This will have the twin benefits of raising close to $63 in revenue for the beleaguered publication, and ensuring that reporters don't read their own work.


Declarative, worthless sports columnist STEPHEN A. SMITH twits that he's returning to the Philadelphia Inquirer as a sports columnist. An uninsightful, self-absorbed, phone-it-in, overpaid sports columnist at a financially crippled newspaper. Congratulations, Philly.


The world waits and wonders: Who would Katie Couric pick as the "Seven most powerful people in media?" Find out by clicking on this link right here! None of them are supercool, though. Fair warning.

What's this? Keith Kelly says that Hearst is sitting on a $1 billion "war chest," and that the company "is said to have revenues over $7 billion and to be profitable — as well as debt-free." Hey Hearst, Conde Nast is calling—they want to know what your secret is! For making money! Haha! Man. Somebody should definitely have the Hearst CEO repeat that one to Si Newhouse at some point. At a party or something. Just slide right over and lay it on him. That would be so funny.


Current TV is laying off 80 staffers, about a fifth of its work force. Interesting quote from them! "This re-organization was not the result of a need to cut costs. Current Media will have its most profitable year." That's a new sort of explanation, for this type of thing. Our condolences to the departed.


Conde Nast is doing something related to the internet! Says here Conde is "embracing magazine Web sites more as enhanced platforms for the titles' editorial missions rather than simply as companions to the print product." Does that mean they will have good magazine websites instead of not so good ones? Time will tell!


The Ombudsman of PBS is now forced to write columns on the topic of whether Sesame Street characters are biased against Fox News. People are stupid.