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.

The subtext of the Times story is that Obama is classless, and that he snubbed the GOP in his first state dinner. Even though he did actually invite Minority Leaders John Boehner and Mitch McConnell, both of whom snubbed Obama by declining to attend. (He also invited Republican governor Bobby Jindal, who did attend. And Dick Lugar was there, for some reason. And Eric Cantor, who wasn't invited to the dinner, was invited to the pre-dinner reception.)

So it doesn't look like much of a snub to us, at all. But whatever—it is fair game for a basically openly conservative paper to publish a news story with a partisan premise, so long as it's factually accurate, which this one is.

Then, of course, Fox picks up on this breaking news. Suddenly, the headline switches from "Top Republican lawmakers not attending State Dinner" to "Top Republican Lawmakers Not Invited to Obama's First State Dinner."

"Top Republican lawmakers," taken literally, means Boehner and McConnell, who were invited, and chose not to attend.

But Fox doesn't even acknowledge that.

House Minority Leader John A. Boehner won't be there; he's on Thanksgiving break and home in Ohio. His deputy, Rep. Eric Cantor of Virginia, also didn't get an invitation to the dinner.

Cantor also didn't get an invitation? That's a weird word choice, considering that the guy named in the previous sentence did get an invite. But that fact is, weirdly, edited out.

This is why Fox is way more successful than the Moonie Times: a grown-up could read that Times story and, based on the facts presented in that story, end up disagreeing with its premise. In order to preclude that possibility, Fox just makes up the facts to suit the premise.

(Thanks to readers Ronald and James Allen for alerting us to this very instructional case-study in modern journalism.)

The Washington City Paper broke the story, and has the full internal memo on the bureau closures. Key graf:

At a time of limited resources and increased competitive pressure, it's necessary to concentrate our journalistic firepower on our central mission of covering Washington and the news, trends and ideas that shape both the region and the country's politics, policies and government.

Total economic move. The Post is smart to protect its core competency, but this is pretty...sudden. But they may look smart for it, eventually, by not sucking themselves dry covering shit WaPo readers can get elsewhere, better, if they actually want it at all. The NYT, meanwhile, recently expanded its coverage in San Francisco and Chicago, so we have a nice little dichotomy to see which strategy looks smarter a couple years from now.

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.

1. Andrea Peyser confronts the mom of a 16 year-old shooting suspect about why she is such a bad mom that her kid would shoot somebody. Answer: Because she is selfish and she lets her son hang out with his relatives thugs. Black people! Why can't they raise kids the right way? "There do exist real fathers. Take Federico Grullon. He won't allow his three kids to leave the house."
Black kids should be shackled at all times.

2. Did you know there is a soup kitchen now for orothodox Jews? And other Jews are facing foreclosure? But Jews are the ones with all the money!

So — shhh! — The United Jewish Appeal has started Connect to Care, which already has given more than 8,000 needy Jews financial services, job help and mental-health counseling to get through unfamiliar territory.
Just don't expect anyone to admit it.

3. "If Johnny Depp is the Sexiest Man Alive, I'm swearing off men." That one wasn't totally unexpected.

For example, the charmers at my hometown paper, the Las Vegas Review Journal, saw an increase in circulation this year by 6.6%. Which is awesome! Except: strange. Because Vegas' economy is in the toilet, having been crippled by foreclosures and joblessness. Why wouldn't these people just go online and get that shit for free? Funny you'd ask, because weekday sales dropped by 12,000 copies.

So. About that increase in circulation. Is the mob fixing numbers in Vegas again, or what? So old-school. Here's how this works: back in April, the Audit Bureau of Circulations changed their rules to let numbers look better to people who look at circulation rates, like ad buyers (and media reporters). The standard-change was bad. Like, disingenuous. Which is how the Review-Journal went up in circulation this year.

The change happened because the price the newspaper was charging for the online replica — it costs print customers an extra 50 cents per week — hadn't been high enough to qualify as paid circulation until the ABC's April change. That let newspapers define their paying readers as anyone who spends at least a penny for a copy. Previously, a newspaper copy had to sell for at least 25 percent of the basic price to qualify as paid circulation.

Right, so, by that logic, $1 could potentially equal 100 copies, and $100 equals 10,000 copies. Here's where I'd write that that's five times the amount of copies of the LVRJ distributed in Vegas, but I can't, because we have no idea how many copies are actually distributed! Fun. How do advertisers feel about this runaround? Raging mad, right? Um, kind of. One advertiser thinks the numbers are "less credible."

You really have to do your homework now and ask newspapers about how much double counting is going on,'' said Allison Howald, U.S. director of print investment at PHD Media.

The rage doesn't come across quite like I was expecting it to.

Hopefully, "less credible" is a kind euphemism for "complete bullshit," or some advertisers are going to wake up one day and start asking questions about why the 200,000 eyes they were promised on their quarter-page actually only amounts to a third-grade arts class making paper machete hats. You'd think these sketchy practices are limited to sleazy gambling towns like Vegas, though, right? WRONG again. Wall Street Journal, you guys will be transparent, right?

Nope. WSJ spokesman Robert Christie wouldn't respond to the AP's questions for quote on the new rules, including whether or not their numbers included digital subscriptions.

Including the print side, the Journal's total circulation edged up by just 0.6 percent to 2.02 million. ''We followed the ABC's rules and methodology,'' Christie said

Right, so, newspapers: more fucked than previously statistically "proven."

I'm forgetting where I read about the guy who used to steal ATM receipts of trashcans to impress dates with his huge bank account. This reminds me of that.

The lofty rhetoric surrounding the launch of outfits like the CNC, a MacArthur Foundation-funded news organization run by former Chicago Tribune staffers, is based on the notion that genuine public-service journalism—the expensive boring stuff that results in legislation—is at risk as for-profit newspapers crater. In the words of CNC founder and former Trib editor Jim O'Shea:

At a time of declining resources in newsrooms across the nation, journalists must adapt to new technologies and devise some creative, innovative ways to fulfill our obligations so we can hold our government accountable to citizens and restore to our journalism the standards desperately needed in these troubled times.

Newspapers can't afford to live up to those obligations anymore, so nonprofit-funded outlets like the CNC need to step into the gap. So what sort of hard-hitting "accountability journalism" can we expect from these new creatures? The CNC has contracted with the New York Times to produce an insert for the paper's Chicago editions purporting to bring Chicago readers the sort of shoe-leather that the bankrupt Chicago Tribune can't afford to produce anymore. It debuted today, so lets have a look.

• The lead story, by former Trib reporter Dan Mihalopoulos, is precisely in line with what news alarmists say will be missing if and when we lose newspapers: Internal documents from the company that the city of Chicago sold its parking meter business to last year show that it is making boatloads of money, and that the city would have done better just to keep the meters for itself. Bravo!

Now for the rest:

• A trip to the Art Institute of Chicago, where we learn that "young people (under 30) tend to enjoy modern art."
• A 195-word story about a stay-at-home dad who tried to join a play-group for his infant son, but couldn't because it was for moms only.
• A 156-word story about the Chicago Bulls' "circus trip," an annual tour that the item doesn't really explain but has something to do with Ringling Bros. and the Bulls losing. Here's a Sun-Times blog entry on the matter, published two days ago.
• A column from Jim Warren wherein he visits a food pantry.

Some of this is perfectly useful, but is it going to save journalism? Does a recitation of the Bulls' woes count as holding "our government accountable to citizens"? Is the MacArthur Foundation fulfilling its mission of creating a "more just, verdant, and peaceful world" by subsidizing stories about dads getting barred from mommies' groups? Is this what all the fuss is about?

The problem is that yes, newspapers underwrite important, expensive journalism that in many cases falls through the cracks in the pageview-obsessed, run-and-gun environment of online publishing. But that's perhaps five percent of what the average paper does. Maybe ten or fifteen. But it's a fraction. The rest of it is rewriting press releases, spouting opinions, reviewing things, and telling people what's on television and when—things the internet is exceptionally good at. CNC has loudly proclaimed that it is going to take up the slack and "restore" journalism's "true values," but, to judge by its first outing, all it's doing is creating a mini-newspaper—one solid story surrounded by a bunch of fluff that you could get anywhere. That's not to say that there's anything wrong with fluff, it's just that no one is raising alarms about the lack of quality writing about art museums and sports and opinions about poor people as newspapers decline.

If the idea of nonprofit journalism and innovative ways of paying for and distributing important reporting is going to succeed, it's going to have to actually produce important reporting. And if former newspapermen are going to lay claim to journalism's future by launching projects aimed at restoring its values, they ought to come up with something better than one good muni story.

UPDATE: Jim Schachter, editor of digital initiatives for the Times, writes in to make a good point that we hadn't considered—the Times asked CNC to provide a mix of serious and fluffy stories. So it was the Times, and not CNC, that wanted the mini-newspaper. We still don't understand why the MacArthur Foundation has to step in to help pay for the fluff the Times is asking for, or where that fluff fits into the CNC's journalism-saving rhetoric. But good point nonetheless:

Perhaps your dart is a bit misaimed. We asked the Chicago News Cooperative to give us a mix of content, because we're trying to come up with a formula for adding local news to The Times that prompts people to keep their subscriptions or start one if they're not buying our paper now. The tough story at the center of today's report, about the parking meter deal, is representative of what CNC means to be about. And, to be fair, so is Jim Warren's humane and pointed column.

I'm expecting to see a lot more afflicting of the comfortable and comforting of the afflicted from Jim O'Shea and his crew over the coming months.

In this manner, the listicle is not a depressing instance of pandering but a nourishing expression of a natural and elemental part of human culture. Or at least that's what you can put on your Maggies entry. Here's how Eco (pictured) put it in Der Spiegel:

The list is the origin of culture... What does culture want? To make infinity comprehensible. It also wants to create order — not always, but often. And how, as a human being, does one face infinity? How does one attempt to grasp the incomprehensible? Through lists, through catalogs, through collections in museums and through encyclopedias and dictionaries.

Making "infinity comprehensible" means, basically, facing up to our own mortality:

We have a limit, a very discouraging, humiliating limit: death. That's why we like all the things that we assume have no limits and, therefore, no end. It's a way of escaping thoughts about death. We like lists because we don't want to die.

This is why lists have been popular from "primitive cultures" to the Middle Ages to the Renaissance, Baroque and postmodern periods.

So, to summarize:

• Lists connect us with our ancestors.
  
• Lists connect us with culture.
  
• Lists make infinity comprehensible.
  
• Lists help us ignore death.
  
• Buy cranberries.
  
• Order turkey.
  
• Take out the garbage.

Sorry, got immortaldistracted there for a second.

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.

[Here, Roger Clark prepares to bowl by drinking beer, while Alex Pareene types Communist messages.]

[Note: All info is based on tips and is not verified by the AP. In some cases it's impossible to tell whether multiple tips refer to the same people, but we've synthesized as much as possible.]

New York City
Reported layoffs: One business editor, one business reporter, five multimedia staffers, one sports editor, several writers on the national desk.

Upstate New York
One correspondent and one editorial assistant reportedly gone.

Boston
Four staffers reportedly laid off.

Washington, DC
Reported layoffs: One business reporter, one research staffer, an "enterprise team" reporter (Rita Beamish), an assignment desk staffer, three broadcast staffers.

Pittsburgh
Reported layoffs: One business reporter.

Dallas
One reported layoff.

Jacksonville
Longtime AP reporter Ron Word reportedly laid off and bureau closing. [I remember Ron Word's byline from forever when I was growing up near there, very sad. Shout out to Ron Word!]

Kentucky
Reported layoffs: One news editor in Louisville, one editorial assistant, one state capitol reporter.

Central Wisconsin
One reporter laid off and bureau reportedly closed.

Oklahoma
News editing duties reportedly outsourced to Little Rock.

Michigan
Reported layoffs: One state government reporter, the only Grand Rapids correspondent (bureau reportedly closing), and one editorial assistant.

Dayton, OH
Reported layoffs: One correspondent and one editorial assistant, which means the entire bureau.

Berkeley, CA
One correspondent reportedly laid off and bureau closing.

Roanoke, VA
The only correspondent reportedly laid off.

Bismarck, ND
Only correspondent reportedly laid off.

Santa Fe, NM
One of two correspondents reportedly laid off.

National Staffers
Reported layoffs: A "high percentage" of all editorial assistants across the country, a national photo editor, as many as eight photographers, the AP liaison/executive director of the Associated Press Managing Editors (APME), a national writer, an investigative reporter/ computer-assisted reporting guru (Pulitzer winner Frank Bass),

San Juan/ Caribbean Bureau
Nine staffers reportedly laid off and bureau slated to close.

The Middle East
Reported layoffs: At least three newspeople. One reporter in Jerusalem.

Vietnam
One photographer reportedly laid off.

Beijing
Reported layoffs: One reporter and one other staffer.

View The AP Layoff Map in a larger map

You of course remember that time during the presidential campaign when Sarah Palin spent $150,000 in McCain campaign funds on fancy pieces of fabric to drape over her and her family's shamefully naked bodies. (Which the Times dubs "wordrobegate". Sigh.) Now, reporter Lauren Lipton has tracked down Palin's stylist, Lisa A. Klein Kline(!), for a piece that is composed mostly of recycled reporting and an excruciating blow-by-blow of the Day Lisa Kline Dressed Sarah.

Late on Tuesday, Ms. Kline said she was asked to provide clothes for the entire Palin family, including the candidate's husband, Todd; their sons Track and Trig, the infant; and daughters Bristol, who was pregnant, Willow and Piper. Levi Johnston, Bristol's then-boyfriend, was also included.

"The campaign advisers realized the kids, everybody, needed to be dressed," Ms. Kline said. "This was a family that was about to stand before the world, and they just came with their everyday-life clothes."

With less than 24 hours before the Palins' national debut on the tarmac, it was decided that the luxury retailer Neiman Marcus, which has a store in Minneapolis, offered the best available selection for the circumstances. Arrangements were made for a private early-morning trip.

Will she be able to buy all those clothes in time!? Media moguls, start your bidding war for the rights to the Lisa Kline Story!

A key aspect of Peak Palin is that, as the more desirable stories about Sarah Palin are exploited even as demand grows exponentially, journalists will begin squabbling over the few, hard-to-reach reserves of Palin remaining. Thus we can expect a spiral-shaped pattern of journalists attempting to extract rich Palin reserves located in ever more remote regions of the Palin story: First the stylist, then the fans who are buying Palin's book, and the bloggers who are weirdly obsessed with it.

Unfortunately, this unsustainable pattern can only continue for so long. Humanity now faces two choices: Come to grips with a world in which our children will grow up without reading even a single story about Sarah Palin, or develop alternative sources of Palin. (We have been making progress.) Please, think of the children.

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.

The New York Times reported that Kennedy's office demanded prior review of the Dalton student paper's story about Kennedy's talk there, a brave story that Bill Keller greenlighted despite a clear and present danger to his candidacy for Dalton's Favorite Dad. Now, Kennedy tells the rival WSJ his side of the story:

In an interview Tuesday, Justice Kennedy said he never asked to clear the copy before publication. He said the request came from a new employee who misunderstood his longtime rule for classroom visits: no outside media, but campus reporters are welcome.

Also he says he loves student reporters and seeks to protect them from professional reporters, who are professionally obligated to mock their stupid, stupid nerd idiot questions they always ask a Supreme Court Justice, like "How are you going to vote on this case?" God, shut up, stupid high school reporters. You are seriously retardo. If you go snitching to the Supreme Court again I swear. You'll get something a lot worse than prior review.
[Pic: Getty]

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."

• From a tipster: "At least one business news staffer let go today." [Not in NYC]. More from the same tipster: "Make that at least two biz news staffers, including NYC editor. Also likely a 3rd biz reporter in NYC." And the latest tally: "Here's the damage: 3 biz reporters (nyc, dc and pittsburgh) Also 1 nyc biz ed. A slew of ea's nationwide, some photogs and 2 national writers.)"
• From a tipster: One staffer laid off in Dallas; and, "one of the news editors (a specific AP title — a supervisory position) in either Kentucky or Tennessee, so there will be one editor for two states."
• From Erin Carlson: Five layoffs in the multimedia department in the Manhattan headquarters, "and one staffer is crying in the bathroom."
• From Michael Calderone: One layoff in the Washington, DC research department.
• From a tipster in DC: The word in the DC office is that there will be three layoffs today, and three more later in the week. UPDATE: Our tipster says the DC layoffs include a business reporter, a DC "enterprise team" reporter, and an assignment desk staffer. Three more layoffs there could be coming as early as this afternoon.
• From a tipster: "I was one of the editorial assistants let go. I was told it was a business decision to let go nearly all editorial assistants. Some in cities of regional desks will be reassigned to handle EA workload there."
• From a tipster: They hear that "a high percentage" of the editorial assistants nationwide are being let go, as well as a National Photo Editor. In all, they hear, the layoffs will total 80-90 people.
• From a tipster: "There were at least three layoffs in the Middle East. As far as I know, all were newspeople."
• From a tipster: "The news editor in Kentucky and an editorial assistant in Ky. were let go. One more cut possible in Ky. today."
• From a tipster: "Closed bureau in central Wisconsin, laid off its only reporter."
• From a tipster: "The AP liaison/executive director of the Associated Press Managing Editors (APME), an AP employee, was let go."
• From a tipster: "The Little Rock news editor will now be overseeing Oklahoma, too."
• From a photographer tipster: "I've heard 9 in photo nationwide, (1 editor and the shooters, all part-timers) got the ax."
• From a tipster: "Nine in Caribbean bureau in San juan. More reorg to come. Bureau expected to close."
• From a tipster: "3 gone in [Kentucky]. EA, news ed and one in state capitol."
• From a tipster: "The Jacksonville, FL AP bureau was closed and the correspondent of 30+ years there was laid off."
• From a tipster: Layoffs allegedly include national writer Todd Lewan and two photographers from Boston.
• From a tipster: "The fired AP photographers were Harry Cabluck in Austin Texas, Donna McWilliams in Dallas, Al Grillo in Anchorage, Mary Ann Chastain in Columbia SC, and Winslow Townsend and Lisa Poole both of Boston. The senior photo editor was Victor Vaughan, the #2 management person in the department at NY headquarters."
• From a tipster: "They laid off the photographer in Vietnam."
• From Bloomberg: Yesterday's AP layoffs totaled 33 reporters, 19 editorial assistants and 5 photographers. [Clarification: this only covers union members].
• From a tipster: "The Sports Editor - Broadcast/OnLine Video based in NYC just got laid off."
• From a tipster: Frank Bass, a Pulitzer winner, investigative reporter, and the AP's computer-assisted reporting guru, has been laid off. He tells us, indeed, "'I'm quite unemployed at the moment."
• From a tipster: "I just heard they laid off the longtime correspondent in Dayton, OH, this morning. That's a single-person bureau."
• From a tipster: More details on what appears to be widespread closure of smaller AP bureaus: "Layoffs include Ron Word, the correspondent in Jacksonville who has witnessed some ungodly number of executions for AP. That one-person bureau is being closed. The one person bureau in Mobile, Ala. is being closed - but it was vacant anyway - the last staffer there took a buy out a while back. Same thing for Albany, Ga. [UPDATE: Elliott Minor emails us, "The list includes information that the Albany, Ga., correspondent took a buyout. That's not correct. I was the correspondent. I retired in April, 2007 with 35 years of AP service. I was not replaced, so essentially the office was closed, although I don't think AP ever said so officially."] The news editor in Louisville, Ky. was let go."
• From a tipster: One of the DC layoffs was enterprise reporter Rita Beamish. "She covered the White House during Bush I and was a complete holy terror on economic stories. They're going to miss her enormously."
• From a tipster: One editorial assistant was cut in Los Angeles yesterday, and "broader cuts" are expected there today.
• From a tipster: "Michelle Locke, Berkeley, Calif., correspondent with 24 years in at AP, laid off Tuesday, and Berkeley bureau closed. Also, AP named a handful of 'interim' regional photo editors to fill in the gaps."
• From a tipster: "AP broadcast lost three yesterday in Washington and one today in New York."
• From a tipster: "An EA and a correspondent (a 25-year veteran of AP) are gone in upstate New York."
• From a tipster: "From the NY/Nat.Desk: Mark Kennedy, Polly Anderson, Yvette Blackman and state buro PHOs around the country, Lisa Poole, Mary Ann Chastain, Al Grillo and Donna McWilliams."
• From a tipster: "Sue Lindsey, Roanoke correspondent who covered the Virginia Tech shootings, was laid off Wednesday. Another one-person shop. Phyllis Mensing, longtime correspondent in Bismarck, N.D., was laid off." UPDATE, from an AP tipster: "Can confirm the correspondent in Bismarck was laid off, but that isn't the 'only' person there. Three other staffers remain in that city. Laid off correspondent was management."
• From a tipster: "A couple of people from the Boston bureau were let go on Friday, then two more today (Wednesday) - a woman named Nancy who was there for 20 years and a man named John who was there for 40 years. Layoffs made by new bureau chief Bill Kole."
• From a tipster: "I know AP fired a text reporter in Beijing last week and at least one other person from the bureau as well."
• From a tipster: "The AP correspondent in Dayton, OH was indeed laid off. His name is James Hannah. He had 29 years in with the AP, including about 20 years as the Dayton correspondent. He was relieved of duty by the AP on
  Wednesday, Nov. 18. The prior day (Tuesday), the same AP executives laid off Mark Riffle, an editorial assistant in the Columbus, OH, bureau. Mark also had 29 years in with the AP. Mark and Jim are both really good guys. I've worked with them both."
• From Joe Monahan: Deborah Baker, one half of the AP's Santa Fe, NM bureau, was laid off.
• From a tipster: "I also know from AP Jerusalem that they laid off reporter [Steve Weitzman]."
• From a tipster: "Michigan lost an editorial assistant in Detroit, a state government reporter in the state Capitol (Lansing) and the correspondent in Grand Rapids (AP closed that one-person bureau I believe)."
• From a tipster: "One of the two Syracuse correspondents was terminated Weds."
• From a tipster: "New Mexico also lost an editorial assistant in Albuquerque."
• From multiple tipsters: "This may have been the final one. [Knoxville], Tennessee Correspondent Duncan Mansfield, minutes before AP story moved about the layoffs."
• From a tipster: One editorial assistant gone in Miami.
• From a tipster: "The national desk was simply eliminated. Among the national editors laid off were veterans Marty Steinberg, Polly Anderson and Yvette Blackman. Mark Kennedy, a writer/editor in the entertainment department also let go." These staffers were based in various cities in the US and abroad, reportedly.
• From a tipster: "The Boston layoffs were two part-time photogs, an editorial assistant and an office assistant (answered phones, went through newspapers, picked stuff up from courthouses and shuttled things to the statehouse bureau)."
• From a tipster: "Missouri: Betsy Taylor, a reporter in St. Louis; Brian Charlton, the editorial assistant in Kansas City and a buyout has been offered to cut one more Kansas City reporter."
• From a tipster: "News editor in Richmond, Va., is leaving. The news editor (a supervisory position) in Charleston, W.Va., will oversee the news report in both Virginias."
• From a tipster: "A few days before the other cuts were announced AP closed the Spanish-language News desk in Puerto Rico and let go a technician there, eliminating eight jobs. Four new Spanish-language jobs are being created elsewhere."
• From a tipster: "Both of the editorial assistants in Dallas, who helped to serve the entire state of Texas, were laid off."
• From a tipster: "AP-Hartford News Editor Patrick Sanders let go about an hour ago...He was told Wednesday by the New England topguy that the AP was cutting out the news ed job and they were opening up the Boston news ed post to either him or Karen (she's the Boston news ed)....She won! Also in Hartford, a biz writer reassigned to the local desk (one more cut in the biz dept that they kept ramping up over the last five years, sted the techno new media beats)..."
• From a tipster: This memo went out Thursday afternoon to New England AP staffers.

  From: Kole, Bill
  Sent: Thursday, November 19, 2009 3:35 PM
  To: All Southern New England Staff; All Northern New England Staff
  Subject: New England News Editor
  Importance: High

  ALL

  I want to let you know about an important change in our news
  management team for New England.

  As part of AP's reorganization to trim payroll expenses and streamline
  operations, a business decision has been made to consolidate the two
  news editor jobs in Boston and Hartford into a single position
  overseeing all six New England states.

  I'm pleased to announce that Karen Testa will shift into this
  important new role.

  Patrick Sanders will stay on as Connecticut news editor until Dec. 4,
  when Karen will take over. Patrick will be working with Karen in the
  meantime on the handover. Please join me in wishing him all the very
  best in his career and next steps.

  We'll have more to say about this change, but suffice it to say that
  as AP's regional desks take on more editing, the news editors in newly
  consolidated territories will have more time to direct beats,
  front-load stories with reporters — and ensure we're targeting
  stories that will set AP apart and make us essential.

  That's exciting, and Karen and I look forward to working with all of you.

  Best

  Bill