New York is launching a new site (or "channel"), and media reporters got a gander at it today. It has a very impressive technological feature that isn't "It writes itself." Elsewhere, Gossip Girl’s greatest media cameo ever is on the way, while Lena Dunham's New Yorker byline was most certainly more than a cameo. Also, somewhere, a former Times CEO is busy not caring about the fate of About.com because she has more money than any of us. Here are your Wednesday Evening Media Briefs:

Sharp Cut: Media presentation this morning at the New York magazine offices for the launch of its new version/relaunch of The Cut, its shiny fashion channel and women's lifestyle site that will compete with the likes of Jezebel, Double XX, The Hairpin, the Buzzfeed version of those, etc. In the room were New York editor in chief Adam Moss, digital editor Ben Williams and publisher Larry Burstein, along with The Cut's editorial side, including New York's fashion editor Amy Larocca, The Cut's new features editor (and Gawker escapee) Maureen O'Connor and The Cut's creative director Stella Bugbee. They also, as has been noted elsewhere, had City Bakery coffee for the crowd. Which was nice.

The short version: They've been working on it for a year. It's coded in HTML5 and CSS. It's shiny and looks like a sharper version of the current iteration of Vulture (see above). The verticals for the site are "Fashion," "Fame," "Beauty," "Goods," and "Love & War." From what we heard, the "Goods" vertical appears to be the place New York will eventually jump into serious in-house e-commerce business; for now, there's a click-and-buy component that links out. The most impressive technical feature is a zoom-and-scan on enlarged, hi-res images that works on desktop and mobile operating systems pretty seamlessly, and will be used for most of the images on the site in a gallery/slideshow form. Question: where the hell are they storing all that data, and how much is it costing them to do it? Site's set to launch on Monday. Forty posts a day, 11 full-time staffers, seven of whom are new hires (one of whom is Observer alum Kat Stoeffel, who has already started delivering the bloggy goods in typically sharp form). The gathered crowd wasn't let out of the room before they could spit numbers at us: digital ad revenue at New York now makes up 40 percent of their total ad revenue, as opposed to 20 percent in 2008. Moss-ian takeaway quote: "There was always a logical opportunity [in womens' lifestyle content] we never took advantage of." Well, this is that. Again, it launches Monday.

Gossip Folks: Also, speaking of New York: Whoever's writing Gatecrasher these days (before Nate Freeman saves the New York Daily News in fully bylined glory) has a buried item today that Chris Rovzar (formerly of New York and currently of Vanity Fair’s website) and Jessica Pressler (New York) are making a cameo appearance on the final season of Gossip Girl along with The Nation editor Katrina vanden Heuvel. While working together on New York’s Daily Intel, Rovzar and Pressler created the Gossip Girl Reality Index back in 2007 when the show first debuted. The regular feature became a decent hit among Daily Intel readers, Gossip Girl enthusiasts, and the cast and crew of the show. And yet: someone, somehow thought it was a good idea to put Jay McInerney on the show before either of them. [Gatecrasher]

Bylines with Benefits: Girls auteur Lena Dunham recently had a story published in The New Yorker à la Jonah Lehrer (i.e. it had already appeared somewhere else first), and then, we see the debut of The New Yorker’s iPhone app, which features an infomercial starring/written/directed by her too! Or to quote another onlooker: "Getting published 1st time in New Yorker being followed by hosting of 5-minute commercial for New Yorker is what we call 'bad sequencing.'" [@TedNope, Gawker, The New Yorker]

Damnit, Janet Pt. VIII (Or: About About.com): The big news today was that the Times finally managed to get rid of About.com, of which (golden-parachute-lined) former Times CEO Janet Robinson constantly defended until it was worth way less than they paid for it. Whoops! Rather than bore you with unnecessary links or reading on it, WWD reporter Erik Maza helpfully threw a decent history of About.com and the Times together on his Tumblr. Go read it. [Erik Maza]

Old Fresh Produce: People really love the new cover of Newsweek, or they did, when it ran in Harper's Bazaar in 2006. [Eater]

Another Day, Another News Corp Journalist Arrested: This time, for bribery! [The Telegraph]

Journalist Willingly Begins Transformation Into Robot: We always knew Ben Popper was ambitious, but we didn't think the Observer/BetaBeat alumnus and current staffer at The Verge would willingly turn himself into a robot for an employer. At least not this soon. Popper had a magnet implanted in his finger, and it's all on tape. Watch your keys around this guy. [The Verge]

Aaron Sorkin's Ideal Journalist Doesn't Ask Questions About His Ideal Journalists: Would Newsroom showrunner Aaron Sorkin ever lie to a reporter about firing his writer's room, possibly to skirt responsibility for writing such a terrible first season of such a widely anticipated TV show that they had to have an HBO flack individually call critics to apologize for repurposing their quotes so crudely? Probably. But rather than just take a crack at it, Vulture actually went and got proof. [Vulture]

Journatic Jobs Cut: People got laid off from Journatic. Don't act surprised. [Chicago Business]

Donald Trump, Media Critic: Watching Donald Trump dole out media criticism is like seeing Rush Limbaugh start a "Thinspo" Tumblr, but with lesser dividends on the table and more of a nihilism-as-content model in action. Should go well. Looking forward to the full-scale launch soon. [Politico]

GABBY GABBY HEY: "Traffic-obsessed blogs often truck in sensationalistic racism and sexism, or equally sensationalist reports of such, to get hits." Guess which blog this Ebony article is describing and who it is sensationalizing to get it? The answer may not surprise you! [Ebony]

The New York Troll-Lolo Times: Then again, if the New York Times is in on this trolling game—and winning—who isn't? [Jezebel]

Tips? Suggestions? Limeade recipes? Unique ideas for what to do with leftover mason jars? Janet Robinson sightings in Turks and Caicos? Please, by all means, send ’em here.

"A source not connected to Thompson said he had had two meetings in London over the past four weeks about the vacant New York Times Company chief executive role – and that the meetings appeared to be part of a "co-ordinated attempt" by the US newspaper publisher to hire Thompson," they write.

In March, Mr. Thompson, Mr. 54 announced that he would step down from his post atop BBC, one of the highest paid public sector jobs in the U.K., after the summer Olympics in London. His wife, the writer Jane Blumberg, is American.

Last week, one North Carolina man told Off the Record he would like to volunteer as tribute.

Zach Protzko, a 30-year-old commercial real estate investor, publicly announced that he has submitted his résumé to Spencer Stuart, the executive recruitment firm conducting the search for The Times.

“If they haven’t gotten it yet they will shortly,” he told us over the phone.

Mr. Protzko said he was contemplating buying one of his local papers when he heard about the so-called leadership vacuum at The Times.

“I was reading some articles that said they need a new CEO ‘to throw money’ at,” he said. (That’s how one FishbowlNY item alluded to exiting CEO Janet Robinson’s $21 million golden parachute.)

“They shouldn’t be throwing money anywhere,” Mr. Protzko explained earnestly, even offering to do the job for free for one week. “It’s not about money. It’s not about the publicity.”

So … what is it about?

“Being at the core of something,” he replied. “To turn it around and really establish something different. Take that old steam engine and convert it into diesel and then convert diesel into hydrogen.”

Forgive him the automotive metaphor: Before he got into real estate, Mr. Protzko was VP of operations at Uber Precision Manufacturing Inc., where he used his background in coding and networking to synergize the company’s race car manufacturing division with its research and development team.

“I turned the company around and we started selling capability to the Department of Defense,” he said. Credentials noted.

Off the Record asked what his first move as CEO of The New York Times would be.

“I would take down the paywall immediately,” he said. Despite the model’s yielding more than 450,000 new paid subscribers in its first year, Mr. Protzko said people still don’t want to pay for the news. “Nor should they have to,” he added.

Mr. Protzko, who gets most of his news from Mashable, is a firm believer in targeted advertising and branded content.

“With the traffic that The New York Times gets they just need to harness it.”

He added that Gray Lady could “interest more with less” by collecting user data to tailor content for specific audiences.

“The more headlines I like, the more I’m going to read,” he pointed out.

All the news that fits your interests, if you will.

“And if they’re going to be printing news, by god, we want the news,” he went on. “We don’t want opinion.”

But more than any particular strategy, Mr. Protzko said he could offer the Times Co. a “fresh mind” and a “fresh approach.”

“They have what I call an ‘aging culture,’” he said.

Asked to elaborate, Mr. Protzko countered with another question.

“Ask yourself, are they on the cutting edge or are they a clunky, old machine that needs some maintenance?”

The Times has owned some of the Regional newspapers since 1971, when it bought the Lakeland, FL Ledger, Wilmington NC Star-Banner, and Gainesville Sun. Its most recent purchase was the News Chief, in 2008. Halifax is also picking up some prestige with The Sarasota Herald-Tribune, which won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting.

News of this move first leaked out last week, when Halifax accidentally published the news on its website. Media critic Jim Romenesko, who caught the screengrab that spilled the beans, also snagged a memo sent to employees of the Regional Media Group from the Times brass. Main takeaway from the memo? Regional employees should know within 48 hours whether or not Halifax will continue to offer them employment.

This is the first major Times newsroom trim since 2009, when the paper cut 100 jobs through buyouts and layoffs. At that time, all employees received buyout packages in the mail; now staff have been alerted to the availability of the buyouts and can request more information.

Times spokeswoman Eileen Murphy attributed the buyouts to an effort to rebalance the news operations and strategically invest in digital operations, but the company is likely adjusting to a changing bottom line. Last month chief executive Janet Robinson announced the company expected an 8% drop in print advertising revenue for the third quarter, as well as a 2-3% dip for digital advertising.

Mr. Stelter also reported that The Times will eliminate vacant positions and offer a limited number of buyouts on the business side, a change the company has not publicly announced yet.

According to his report, only newsroom employees who are covered under the Newspaper Guild print contract are eligible. Digital contract employees are not. Ms. Abramson also reserved the right to deny buyouts in areas where reporting muscle is still needed.

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."

The company took out the loan from Mr. Slim with 14 perecent interest in January 2009. In that same year, the New York Times Co. suspended its quarterly dividend for the first time in four decades as a publicly traded company to combat a drop in advertising revenue. This January is the earlier time that the loan can be repaid and three years ahead of the loan's final due date.

Mr. Slim made more than $150 million (and probably closer to $175 million) from the loan to The New York Times Co., according to Felix Salmon.

Ms. Robinson told The Telegraph at the end of last week that the company is “intent on bringing debt down as quickly as we can.” She also said that she is currently looking for ways to restore advertising revenue, and she thinks selling advertisements on the iPad will be a great new business for the company.

What exactly does that mean? Will Bill Keller, Arthur Suzlberger, Janet Robinon and Jill Abramson be occupying seats in a suite?

The paper will receive a "certain number of tickets," said a spokeswoman. No doubt they're being handed out to generous advertisers, but what about some high-ranking Times folk?

Sadly: "No, they won't be there," said Diane McNulty, the spokeswoman. Not even the Times' official tennis tweeter--i.e., their Magazine Editor--will be around to participate in the celebration.

So what do we get from Times night? There will be "two giveaways in the stadium -- gift bags that will include a $25 gift card for use at the Open, a six-month weekender subscription to The Times, tickets to TimesTalks, tennis balls," said the spokeswoman. Two fans tonight: you have no idea how good your night is about to be.

Also: "They'll also run a 10-second promo video for The Times on the jumbotron a couple of times," she wrote.

This hopefully will encourage more people to show up at the Times kiosk (see photo) that's near Court 11.

A spokeswoman would not comment when asked if tonight's ceremony would include Kim Clijsters or Andy Roddick burning copies of The Wall Street Journal.

We've asked the Journal how they could tolerate the Times' dominance (market penetration!) at the Open. We'll update when we have a reaction.

Revenue from print advertising continued to decline in the second quarter, but circulation and digital advertising picked up some of the slack. Ms. Robinson said that she did not expect circulation revenues to continue to grow, attributing recent gains to a newsstand price hike at The Globe and The Times.

Revenue from print ads across the company was down 6 percent in the second quarter, a steady continuation of the first quarter's 6.1 percent drop. Revenue from digital ads —  up 21 percent — now represents 26 percent of the company's ad revenue (compared with 22 percent last year).

The mini success story at the company continues to be About.com, which saw a 23.6 percent increase in advertising revenue, bringing in $32 million. The group only costs $18.3 million to run.

The lukewarm earnings report also comes with a major caveat: costs will be "more challenging in the second half of the year, particularly in the third quarter." In the months ahead, the company faces increased prices for paper, the reinstatement of salary cuts implemented last year and costs associated with launching a paywall at the beginning of next year.

CBS C.E.O. Leslie Moonves' pay ($43 million) doubled between 2008 and 2009 and Viacom C.E.O. Phillip P. Dauman ($34 million) saw a 22 percent jump.

The New York Times reports that while the paper's own C.E.O. Janet Robinson and Chairman Arthur Sulzberger both took home more in 2009 than the year before, News Corp.'s Rupert Murdoch and Roger Ailes both took cuts.

At The New York Times, Janet L. Robinson, the chief executive, was paid $4.9 million in 2009, 26 percent more than the year before, and Arthur Sulzberger Jr., the chairman, made $4.8 million, an 171 percent increase.

Both Rupert Murdoch and Roger Ailes at the News Corporation had declines in pay, 40 percent for Mr. Murdoch - to about $18 million - and 21 percent for Mr. Ailes, the head of Fox News, who was paid $14.6 million.

And now that Yahoo is officially a media company, Carol Bartz is making her corner-office colleagues feel poor.