"It’s a good moment for a new dean, with a new set of ideas, to come in. I have had a wonderful time leading this institution, and it’s hard to express how grateful I am to the many people who have helped along the way," Mr. Lemann wrote in an email to friends, colleagues and students. 

The search for a new dean will be led by Columbia University President Lee Bollinger.

"Nick has been a terrific dean and will leave a permanent stamp on the school – not just through the many infrastructure improvements he brought, but through the talented new faculty and changes to the curricula he initiated and led. He also raised record amounts of money in a tough economic climate. It's going to be tough to fill his shoes," said Sree Sreenivasan, Dean of Student Affairs & digital media professor at Columbia.

Full email below:

Dear Friends,

I am writing with the news that this year, my tenth as dean, will be my last. I plan to step down at the end of this academic year, take next year off as a sabbatical, and then return to the Journalism School as a faculty member.

Deans at Columbia serve in five-year increments, so for me this was a decision not to ask President Bollinger for reappointment to a third term. Most significant efforts at a place like this take several years to develop, so there’s never a moment when all loose ends are neatly tied up. But the ten-year mark feels to me like about as good a break point as I could find. We will have finished our fundraising campaign and our centennial celebration, and the new initiatives of the past few years are moving along well. It’s a good moment for a new dean, with a new set of ideas, to come in. I have had a wonderful time leading this institution, and it’s hard to express how grateful I am to the many people who have helped along the way. A first-rate professional school at a great university is the furthest thing from a command-and control operation. It is a community of people from a wide variety of backgrounds, with a wide variety of abilities, who have come together because they share a commitment to a set of values and because they like and trust each other. In our case the shared commitment is to the full, glorious extent of journalism’s potential for good. It is our coherence as a community that has enabled us to become an ever stronger institution, at a time when many of the established news organizations have been severely challenged. I hope all of you will see the end of my term as dean as an opportunity to continue, and to enhance further, the vital role that Columbia Journalism School plays in the profession worldwide, and in so many individual lives.

President Bollinger will chair the committee that conducts the search for my successor; right away, he will appoint its members and begin to hold meetings. The committee will certainly want to hear the Journalism School community’s suggestions about candidates for the job.

Sincerely,

Nick Lemann

We can only assume this is part of the application process for a job at Ben Smith's "Now With 100% More Reporting!" BuzzFeed.

Sample lyric:

Split infinitive
Never definitive
Sounds unintelligent
Dumb and inelegant.
Just say it like you meant
Always write with intent
Each word precious
Like Benjamin’s that you spent.

(Commas must have been omitted because there is no interruption to their flow.)

These skills and probably more can be yours for $52,707 in tuition and fees.

Or $9.95. Plus shipping.

The Elements of Style from Jake Heller on Vimeo.

Yet at last night's discussion at the Columbia Journalism School, entitled 'The Future of Media, Publishing and Paid Content', the audience just couldn't shake the silly habit of using the p-word. The conversation was moderated by Dean of Academic Affairs Bill Grueskin, who began the interview with his own questions and then asked those submitted by the audience.

What do Sulzberger and Robinson make of those resourceful folks who find HTML codes for beating the paywall system? "It's called theft," Sulzberger translated. "We recognize that there are going to be ways of getting around the gate, of gaining access to the content in ways that are, at best, immoral. If I were to run down Broadway, I could probably pass a newsstand and grab a copy of The New York Times and keep running. I could do that right now."

Robinson was quick to tack on the fact that the Times would be policing their web traffic for such treachery.

Who had the most influence in the paywall decision, Google or Apple? "It's neither. This is a decision we made," Sulzberger maintained. He acknowledged that there would certainly be a need to customize the reader experience and adapt an increasingly app-friendly product, "as the digital moves from 'search' to 'social.'"

Yet, Sulzberger rebuked the notion that Apple's stronghold as a news distributor is worrisome, or even new, for the Times. "It's not any different from when people buy The New York Times from a newspaper stand. We don't know who you are. You can have The New York Times delivered by us, or you can have it delivered by someone else. We've had such partnerships for a hundred and fifty years."

Sulzberger seemed big on this idea that just as the paywall shouldn't be called a paywall, the unfamiliar and complex shouldn't really be considered unfamiliar or complex. NYT digital subscriptions encompass several pay plans, including smartphone, iPad and full web access--yet any confusion about the value of each plan, the relationship to the print subscription, or the user interface is all psychological.

“Let's talk about complexity," Sulzberger indulged. "If you want to get home delivery of the Times in print, there’s one plan that’s seven days. There’s another plan that’s Sunday only. Then there’s a third plan, that's called ‘The Weekender.’ I know this is sounding complex, but bear with me, ok? So you have three different print plans that you can choose from. And sometimes, on top of that, you can even go outside and--”, then gesturing like he was buying a paper, Sulzberger finished his thorough illustration of how Times readers are so much smarter than they think they are. "It's new. Let it breathe before you judge."

When it came to the audience question of how low-income readers would access The New York Times, Grueskin stepped in to provide some context--"This is the Columbia Journalism School, hotbed of Bolshevik thought."

Following a contemplative pause, Sulzberger drew the parallel to print newspapers again, conceding that it will most likely cost more to access web content if that content actually costs money. Robinson made the more substantive point that students from low-income families will still be able to access the Times through their teachers, who receive special deals for education.

In the end, Sulzberger and Robinson's chief message seemed to be that the paywall serves to create a new revenue stream for the Times, and to do the noble work of protecting quality journalism. As Grueskin re-quoted from The Onion, "To ask NYTimes.com's 33 million unique monthly visitors to switch to a cash-for-manufactured-goods-based model from the standard everything-online-should-be-free-for-reasons-nobody-can-really-explain-based model is pretty fearless. It's almost as if The New York Times is equating itself with a business trying to function in a capitalistic society. In a statement released last Thursday, the newspaper's publisher Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, Jr. said, 'If this fails, I'd honestly rather The New York Times not exist in a world where people are unwilling to pay the price of a fucking movie ticket for a monthly online subscription.'"

And to this Sulzberger admitted, "it's the first time they're quoting me accurately."

"There's no doubt to me that the business of practically giving away the magazine to jack up circulation has no future," Remnick said. "Forty-two bucks for 47 issues. I think you can pay more than a buck for the magazine."

The New Yorker's current subcription rate (47 issues/$39.95) is "actually 85 cents per issue," as Observer alum Gillian Reagan points out.

And it's a bargain! Really:

When the consulting firm McKinsey was brought in last summer to do a study of business practices at Condé Nast, Remnick and the rest of his editorial staff were left out of the cost cutting, according to reporting by The New York Observer.

For Remnick, the reason is simple.

"I think there is a future for The New Yorker," he said. "With the expansion of the Internet, there's more speed, more reach, and more information. But are there more Sy [Seymour] Hershes? Jane Meyers? I think there's arguably less."

"The person may come from professional practice or may come from an academic institution," J-school academic dean William Grueskin told the Columbia Spectator. "It could be someone working in New York City or in Mumbai."

The Spectator also offers more details on the workings of the Tow Center, which the school anticipates will run much of Columbia's Stabile Center for Investigative Journalism or the Delacorte Center for Magazine Journalism. But there's also the possibilty of a more interdisciplinary approach: Dean Nicholas Lemann said "there is a collaborative degree with the School of Engineering and Applied Science also in the works, which would combine computer science and digital media."

UPDATE: The full job description, from a tipster.

Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism (www.journalism.columbia.edu) invites applications for the Director of the Tow Center for the Internet and Digital Media, who shall also be appointed as a professor of Journalism (rank and track to be determined).

The successful candidate will serve as Director of the newly created Tow Center for the Internet and New Media Innovation, with responsibility for helping to create a new academic center dedicated to the teaching of journalism with innovative applications online and research into emerging uses of digital media in journalism.

We envision this Center bringing visibility to the School's contributions to this field of endeavor and study, seeking opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration with other Columbia schools and with external agencies and organizations.

In that light, the Director will be involved in executing and overseeing original scholarly research; collaborating with and studying news organizations, new and old; developing and testing new models for creating and delivering information, along with business innovations to support those models; and advising how to raise additional funds through research and program grants.

S/he will also be responsible for working closely with the Journalism School's Dean, Dean of Academic Affairs and faculty to ensure the development of an enhanced curriculum in digital media. In this role, the incumbent will develop and teach digital media courses, explore the best methods of reporting and journalistic presentation for the Internet, supervise master's projects and theses, and advise students.

Qualifications

Qualified applicants are pioneers and leaders in digital journalism, from anywhere in the world, who are able to demonstrate scholarly and/or professional accomplishments worthy of appointment to a faculty position. A bachelor's degree is required; advanced degree preferred.

Preference will be given to candidates who have both experience in working with digital media, along with an understanding of curriculum planning and academic program development. A bachelor's degree is required; advanced degree preferred.

Among those who won journalism's top honors were The New York Times' David Barstow for Investigative Reporting, The Times' Staff for Breaking News Reporting, and Eugene Robinson of The Washington Post for Commentary.

Newsweek's Jon Meacham also won for his biography of Andrew Jackson

The New York Times was the big winner with five awards (which included criticism and feature photography). Bill Keller, The New York Times' executive editor, has gathered his team on the third floor of the New York Times Building to celebrate the news. Last year, Mr. Keller sounded a less-than-triumphant note about the whole notion of prizes, telling Times staffers, “Prizes are not why we do what we do, and prizes are not how we measure what we do. ... Prize juries are human. They can be arbitrary. They can be political. They can be sentimental. They can miss the point. There are countless examples of truly great reporters who will not have a Pulitzer in the lede of their obituaries—and of profoundly important work that never gets a trophy.”

We're assuming this year he sounds a little different.

The breaking-news-reporting prize went to the paper for the story that brought down the former New York governor and this week's Newsweek cover boy, Eliot Spitzer. (So, it's a good and bad week for Mr. Spitzer!) The international reporting prize was for coverage of Afghanistan and Pakistan. Damon Winter was awarded his feature photography prize for his coverage of the Obama campaign, and Holland Cotter won his criticism prize for his art writing.

News of The Times' good day was widely leaked on Niemanlab's Twitter feed, as well as Editor & Publisher's E&P Pub blog and Gawker.

Here's the list, courtesy of the official Pulitzer site:

JOURNALISM:

Public Service - Las Vegas Sun

Breaking News Reporting - The New York Times Staff

Investigative Reporting - David Barstow of The New York Times

Explanatory Reporting - Bettina Boxall and Julie Cart of the Los Angeles Times

Local Reporting -

Detroit Free Press Staff and

Ryan Gabrielson and Paul Giblin of the East Valley Tribune, Mesa, AZ

National Reporting - St. Petersburg Times Staff

International Reporting - The New York Times Staff

Feature Writing - Lane DeGregory of the St. Petersburg Times

Commentary - Eugene Robinson of The Washington Post

Criticism - Holland Cotter of The New York Times

Editorial Writing - Mark Mahoney of The Post-Star, Glens Falls, NY

Editorial Cartooning - Steve Breen of The San Diego Union-Tribune

Breaking News Photography - Patrick Farrell of The Miami Herald

Feature Photography - Damon Winter of The New York Times

LETTERS, DRAMA and MUSIC:

Fiction - Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout (Random House)

Drama - Ruined by Lynn Nottage

History - The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family by Annette Gordon-Reed (W.W. Norton & Company)

Biography - American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House by Jon Meacham (Random House)

Poetry - The Shadow of Sirius by W.S. Merwin (Copper Canyon Press)

General Nonfiction - Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II by Douglas A. Blackmon (Doubleday)

Music - Double Sextet by Steve Reich, premiered March 26, 2008 in Richmond, VA (Boosey & Hawkes)

The Details editor didn't offer too many, well, details, leading some to wonder if perhaps his magazine might be going the way of Condé Nast siblings Domino or Men's Vogue—after all, it was only one day after its competitor Best Life folded. Had some new calamity befallen 4 Times Square taking another glossy—and all those jobs—with it?

Hadn’t these j-schoolers suffered enough?

In fact, Mr. Peres did all he could to buoy the crowd’s spirit. He called a neighbor in Westchester an “asshole” after the man wondered aloud why anyone would pay j-school tuition. (See: Is It Time to Move to the Suburbs?) “We’ll be around a lot longer than his investment bank will,” said Mr. Peres.

Mr. Peres also talked about how blogs might kill newspapers, but they won’t kill magazines, and he claimed mobile devices like the Kindle pose “more of an immediate threat to book-publishing.” (See: The Playboys of Tech.)

Of particular interest to the students, Mr. Peres shared some of his own travails finding a job after he graduated NYU in 1993. After being rejected by nearly every media outlet in the city—including Details—Mr. Peres was hired by DNR (a November Condé Nast casualty) as—wait for it—Associate Knitwear Editor. “Sweaters, basically,” he deadpanned. “I covered sweaters.” (See Sweater Weather.)

He went on to describe his ascension to editor in chief of Details, at the age of 28, as the result of being in the right place at the right time. “Everyone in charge of giving me the job at Details made a really bizarre call,” he said. (See: Why You Should Be Networking.)

During his post-speech Q&A, several students questioned how the magazine treats homosexuality. (See: Does Everyone Think You're Gay?) Mr. Peres personally apologized for a 2004 “Gay or Asian” installment of the former “Gay or ____” feature which angered both gays and Asians. But the editor defended himself against charges that the magazine suffers from a latent homophobia, saying the magazine attacks stereotypes of all kinds, and that Details is for a particular type of reader who appreciates that approach. (See: I Said I'm Not Gay.)

“I don’t think we are making fun of gay men,” (see: Would You Really Be Okay With a Gay Baby?) said Mr. Peres. “And if we do, it’s no more or less than we make fun of straight men." (See: Is Straight the New Square?).

"Looking at cultural stereotypes in this country within the realm of masculinity is what we do, and it’s what we do well,” he continued. (See: Is Being Well Hung the Key to Happiness?)

Mr. Peres admitted it took him some time to adjust to the editor’s desk (See: You're The Boss, Not a Buddy), but he insisted Details has developed a distinct point of view since he replaced a carousel of editors that many felt had diluted the title. (See: Welcome to the Age of Self-Promotion.)

“We’re not a magazine for every guy. In fact, we’re not a magazine for most guys. It’s just a certain guy—both gay and straight—who is going to like what we do," he told the crowd (See: Mavericks). That narrow focus has made Details one of the smallest Condé Nast titles, but that does not seem to bother Mr. Peres. “I have the great fortune of working for a company and a man who is not all about scale... They’re still patient with us as a smaller title. And they’re nurturing us, and we’re healthy. I wouldn’t say robust, but we’re healthy.” (See: How Far Would You Go To Get Taller?)

So what was all this about a difficult day?

Late in his speech, Mr. Peres divulged what had disturbed him that afternoon. “I looked up on the wall where the papers get mini’ed… and I don’t really like the way the May issue is shaping up,” he told the crowd. (See: The Love Doctor.)

A May issue, you say? Shaping up? Sounds like the day could have gone much, much worse. (See: The New Status Guilt.)

Sounds scintillating, no?

The graduate school's associate dean for communications sent out the following email today to give both the camera-wary and the hams among the student body a heads up:

Grousing about the tuition will probably work, too.

“Let’s get the murder thing out of the way,” he said in his refined British accent, alluding to his outrageous, and subsequently retracted claim in The Times of London on April 2 that he had killed a man 25 years ago.

“What they didn’t notice was the date that this front page London Times article came out. It was the same day The Guardian made a front page that had pictures of penguins flying from Antarctica to South America. It was also the same day another newspaper in Britain had a wonderful front page story that President Sarkozy of France was undergoing daily stretching on a rack so that he could become as tall as his new wife." (Those stories actually ran the previous day, and it was The Daily Mirror and The Daily Telegraph that carried the penguins story, but point taken.)

“I have a lot of books to sell, do you understand?” he said. Mr. Dennis recently published Island of Dreams, his fourth collection of poetry. “Anybody who thinks that story is real needs a sense of humor check.”

And in fact that's just what Mr. Dennis delivered to the J-school's ongoing Thursday evening magazine lecture series, which are sometimes tedious affairs, with speakers who muse wistfully on their long hard journeys to the tops of prestigious publications, and then offer seemingly canned advice to the journalism students seeking reassurance that their pricey degrees will eventually pay off. Mr. Dennis slayed the audience—which included a bevy of suit-clad Dennis Publishing employees, among them William Falk, the Pulitzer-winning editor-in-chief of the company’s weekly news aggregate, The Week—with his witty and theatrical speech that drew frequent bursts of laughter.

In one exchange, a student cited a passage from Mr. Dennis’ 2006 bestseller, How To Get Rich, in which he writes about how money vastly improved his sex life.

“Is there any hope for those of us who aspire only to be poor journalists?” the student, a fellow Brit, asked.

“Yeah, because you’re young, and so you’re hung like a horse,” Mr. Dennis replied, to the crowd's roaring amusement. “For those of us who are old, fat and bald with glasses, wealth is the only way.”

Perhaps the highlight of the evening was when Mr. Dennis took a swipe at Newsweek editor Jon Meacham, who at the J-school in February, lamented the fact that the young journos in the audience preferred The Economist to his own publication.

“I hear there is a certain person, whose name I will not repeat, that was here recently bleating on about how upset he was that not one of the 100 aught students in attendance read his magazine,” Mr. Dennis said. “Here’s my plea. Until you are earning a decent salary, can I please ask you NOT TO SUBSCRIBE TO THE WEEK!?”

And then he started offering the bribe:

“However, should you wish to receive a free year’s trial subscription, just give me your name and address after this lecture and I’ll take care of it ... I look forward to seeing every one of your names in print real soon, at the top of the masthead.”