Wendi Deng and Rupert Murdoch in 2007. (Patrick McMullan)

Rupert Murdoch’s decision to divorce Wendi Deng Murdoch makes official the long-rumored breakdown of their relationship.

But it was not always that way. Years ago, when I was invited to visit their imposing loft apartment, I was struck by the atmosphere of domestic bliss that the titanically powerful couple had created.

I was meeting Rupert’s daughter, Elisabeth Murdoch, head of the UK-based production company Shine. We were discussing a possible television adaptation of Chic Happens, a fashion gossip column I was co-writing at the time with Horacio Silva, who spent ten years at the New York Times’ T magazine.

Arriving at the Prince Street address, I realized with alarm that we didn’t know the Murdochs’ apartment number.

“Just hit the top buzzer,” Horacio suggested and…well, duh.

Ms. Murdoch was slightly surprised when we ascended to her father’s triplex penthouse in the freight elevator. In my nervousness, I had assumed the cage-doored contraption in the lobby was a charming nod to the bohemian-billionaire SoHo vibe?

But no, we had just taken the wrong elevator.

The loft was warm and blended Australian and Chinese décor. Murdoch pere renounced his native citizenship in 1985, but his birth country dominated the space, from oil paintings of outback scenes to shelves of Australian-themed books. Even the muted color scheme seemed to be drawn from the dun hues of the parched Australian countryside.

Striking Chinese jade sculptures popped against this backdrop of gray and brown. A fold-up stroller, stowed under the baby grand piano, added another homey touch. The Murdochs' daughter, Grace, was barely one at the time, and in the guest bathroom was a gag New York Post cover of Rupert holding the baby with a headline implying he’d kidnapped her.

It was a remarkably harmonious environment, which suggested the presence of people who loved each other.

Then Elisabeth asked what we’d like to drink, and things started to go south.

“White wine,” we said, and kicked each other under the table when she called her father to ask where he kept the grog.

Elisabeth retrieved a warm and rather grand-looking bottle of white Burgundy from a cupboard and asked me to open it. Walking into the kitchen, I noticed how perfectly the Empire State Building was framed in the window above the sink. I don’t imagine Wendi spent much time wearing rubber gloves, but it would have been a very pleasant sink at which to do so.

It took me a couple of minutes to find a corkscrew, during which I could hear Horacio keeping up his end of the conversation. And then, disaster.

The ancient cork disintegrated at the first touch of the screw, crumbling into the bottle. I was already on edge from having arrived in the rickety service elevator like I was delivering a donkey, and now I’d ruined Rupert’s bottle of wine. I started to panic.

Frantically I rifled through cabinets until I found a glass pitcher. Over that I placed a paper towel, and was attempting to filter the wine through it when Elisabeth walked into the kitchen to see what was taking so long.

I can’t remember what she said—something gracious, no doubt—but the look on her face was as if she’d just found me standing in front of an open bird cage, eating her budgerigars.

The rest of the afternoon is a bit of a blur. She made us gin and tonics instead, which I knocked back in one and was immediately drunk.

After another hour Rupert himself showed up, and not via the freight elevator. I shook his hand and was struck by the softness of his skin—it was like squeezing the face of a baby.

Wendi was not with him, but we took his arrival as our cue to leave, and tumbled back onto Prince Street, trying to wait at least half a block before collapsing with laughter.

P.S.—we didn’t get the show.

It was balmy: 60 degrees and sunny. The holiday decorations felt out of place in the mild breeze. But the frost was creeping in—media winter (as foreshadowed in October by the fall of Newsweek) was in full swing by 9 a.m. on the first Monday in December.

First came the announcement that The Daily, Rupert Murdoch’s foray into iPad journalism, was being shuttered after less than two years and many millions of dollars. The news wasn't wholly unexpected. A third of the staff had been laid off over the summer, and a sense of doom and gloom had hung over the ninth floor of News Corp. HQ ever since. It was a matter of when, not if, the tablet app would disband. But, as with any death watch, just because it’s expected doesn't make it any less humbling.

The Daily debuted to great fanfare in 2011. It was heralded as Rupert’s pet project and named after Clark Kent’s Daily Planet. But just as Superman recently lost interest in journalism, so too apparently did The Daily’s readers. The app amassed only 100,000 subscribers.
There was small solace in the official memo—some of The Daily’s 100 or so remaining staffers would join editor in chief Jesse Angelo over at The New York Post, where he will take over as the tabloid’s publisher. “Technology and other assets from The Daily, including some staff, will be folded into The Post,” said the News Corp. press release.
Richard Johnson, The New York Post’s former Page Six czar, was one such enfolded asset. Mr. Johnson made the high-profile jump out West to head up The Daily’s Los Angeles bureau back in 2011. “The Daily, the newspaper for the iPad we launched nearly two years ago, will stop publishing Dec. 15. I am now working for the New York Post,” Mr. Johnson explained on his Facebook page. There was no word on whether Mr. Johnson would return to Page Six, although a spokesperson said the scribe would stay in L.A.
But there were precious few announcements from such survivors. Most Daily staffers found themselves with spare time on their hands. Fortunately they got to keep their office iPads.
Then, even before the morning lines had died down at Starbucks, The New York Times announced that it was trimming the newsroom fat.
“As we all know, these are financially challenging times,” publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. wrote in an icy staff email. “While our digital subscription plan has been successful, the advertising climate remains volatile and we don’t see this changing in the near future, None of this is easy in these difficult times. Thank you all for your courage, your talent and your commitment to fulfilling our mission. You will be hearing more from your managers.”
Employees were invited to take voluntary buyouts. Or else ... layoffs. Inevitable layoffs.
“I hope the needed savings can be achieved through voluntary buyouts but if not, I will be forced to go to layoffs among the excluded staff,” executive editor Jill Abramson wrote in a separate email to Times staff. “I expect that I will have to reduce the excluded staff by about 30 positions.”
But the Newspaper Guild, which just accepted a contract with the paper, wanted to extend the opportunity for buyouts to its members.
“The Newspaper Guild has asked that we offer Guild employees in the newsroom the opportunity to apply for buyouts. Among Guild employees, we are only looking for volunteers, for people who might see this offering as advantageous at this time,” Ms. Abramson wrote. “If you are interested in a severance payout, and leaving The Times, we invite you to pick up a copy of the guild package.”
The cold wafted through the newsroom.
The downsizing news at least gave new Times CEO Mark Thompson one more reason to be glad he had postponed his town hall meetings. Mr. Thompson has not had the smoothest transition into his new job, after all. The BBC Newsnight scandal followed the former BBC director across the Atlantic, raising questions both inside and outside the Times newsroom.
As Off the Record previously reported, Mr. Thompson planned to address the questions in town hall meetings on December 17 and 18. But, even before the cost-cutting news, Mr. Thompson announced he was pushing back the customary meet-and-greets to 2013. “I wanted to address questions about it at the Town Halls once the enquiry was out and all the facts were known,” Mr. Thompson wrote in a memo to staff. “It now turns out that Nick Pollard [who is in charge of the BBC enquiry] will not submit his report at the end of November as originally planned but some weeks later. As a result, I believe it makes sense to move the Town Halls to early in the new year.”
Hopefully, the thaw will have begun by then. Or at least temperatures will stabilize. For now, we are stocking up on long underwear.

Miss Charlie Brown in The Daily (Brian Zac/The Daily)

As one of the richest dogs in America, there are very few things that get me down. “Live every day like it’s actually seven days in human years” is my motto, so I try not to let the little stuff bother me. Someone forgot to put out beef tartare for my supper? That’s fine. Constantly being overshadowed by that little Maltese ass-licker Trouble until he “mysteriously” died? Doesn’t bother me in the least. Miss Charlie Brown of South Dakota does not sweat the small stuff, is what I’m saying.

But I was absolutely devastated to find out that Rupert Murdoch’s iPaw publication, The Daily, was shuttering its ... pages? I don’t know if that’s the right word. Maybe closing its “digital doors?” No ... that sounds like something Jeff Jarvis’s pooch would say.

Anyway, The Daily was done, at least the version that had rocketed me to stardom thanks to a series of seemingly random events: the leaking of an internal memo from EIC Jesse Angelo demanding, “find me the oldest dog in America, or the richest man in South Dakota,” the subsequent challenge by Stephen Colbert to find “the richest dog in South Dakota,” and The Daily’s seemingly bottomless coffers, which allowed a reporter and a photographer to fly all the way out to meet my family and me last year.

For that, I will be forever in The Daily’s debt. Well, not literally. I could probably buy and sell that money-suck of an app a million times over at this point. Let’s do the math: Rupert Murdoch’s infamous anti-Midas touch when it comes to all things confusing and electronic (and hey, buddy, I hear you on that ... I’m still scared of the sentient Roomba) was losing $30 million a year. I’m worth $130 million. And in English cocker spaniel years, I’ll be a dead dog before I run out of cash. Honestly, I’m not using all these dollar bills to buy a solid gold canine grille that reads “Hot Bitch.” The money is just sitting there.

So at this point, Mr. Murdoch, I’d like to formally make a proposal to purchase The Daily brand.

Because here’s the thing: I recognize quality content when I see it. Like Zach Baron’s gonzo journey to commemorate the 40th anniversary of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, which is the first story I remember reading in The Daily. (Yes, we pooches can read. And we send grammatically correct texts to each other when you aren’t looking, which at this point puts us leagues ahead of most human tweens.)

Or how about Michelle Ruiz’s profile of the gay couple who pampered their baby doll in a way that makes my owner’s treatment of me look perfectly sane? So creepy. It really hit the sweet spot between “totally fascinating/disturbing” and “kind of adorable.” In fact, that could have been The Daily’s motto. Also, The Daily was just plain useful. I never knew how dehydrated my owner was until I looked at that Pantone color chart and compared it to the water I was drinking out of the toilet.

Your writers and editors weren’t the problem, Mr. Murdoch. They were some of the most daring, inventive journalists I’ve seen in all my years (the exact number of which your publication was kind enough not to print). They pioneered drone journalism! Sometimes one got the sense that these brave men and women would do anything for a great story, even if it meant sacrificing their parents’ untroubled slumber. You don’t know how many times I have personally felt worried for vlogger Justin Rocket Silverman’s safety and well-being. The tasering episode. The one where he embedded with female paintball aficionados who took the game a little too seriously. Oh, and that time he let the Navy sic their attack dogs on him. Anyone who spends his days playing with tiger cubs and his nights with swing-state swingers should be given the Anderson Cooper Medal of WTF-ness. It was indicative of the whole site’s ethos ... tracking down the most dangerous/darling trend stories ever. (Though I hope Mr. Silverman keeps a bottle of Purell on hand at all times.)

You know, at times, The Daily seemed less like a News Corp. entity than a collage of the more intellectually stimulating reading material out there. David Knowles’s investigation into the men behind pink slime? Good stuff. And Benjamin Carlson’s look into Delphian, the $42k boarding school for the children of Scientologists, could have been written by a 2010 Tony Ortega. Do you see Emma Barker’s profile of fashion’s fallen star, Luis Estevez? That would have incited a bidding war between Vogue, The New Yorker and WWD, had it been freelance.

Then there were the straight-out amazing Vice-meets-The Atlantic long-reads, like the brilliant pieces on reclusive Trapper Keeper artist Lisa Frank, the dirty cartel of Tide Detergent snatchers, the abuse of mug shots by our own criminal justice system, and the where-are-they-now about the Nazi teeny-boppers turned hippie stoners.

Not to mention Monday’s amazing front-page jailhouse interview with the Amish bishop who’s behind bars for unsolicited beard-snipping. Where do you guys even come up with this stuff?

But here’s the thing, Rupert: with all these amazing stories, you were so protective of your content that you made it impossible for most people to even read it! I mean, I’m a dog, and even I know that an Internet newspaper needs to have an RSS feed. Did you somehow think that if you only allowed readers to access stories via a URL, and just forgot about having a landing site, you’d somehow be able to thwart those pesky teens intent on freeing all the precious words on the web? SOPA failed, you’re closing the first iPad paper because of your own hacking scandal, and you’re blocking your stories on Google News?
All I can say is: woof.

So Rupert, let’s make a deal: I’ve got some great ideas for reinventing the paper, and I’ll even take MySpace off your hands as a show of good faith.

And if you don’t want to do business with a dog, I’ll just hire all these talented writers myself for my own paper. Sorry, I don’t see your noncompete extending to The South Dakota Doggie Daily.

I know you gave it your best shot, but that dog just didn’t bark. Who do you think the world will love more: a tired old dog that can’t learn new tricks, or moi?

Sincerely,
Miss Charlie Brown of South Dakota

P.S. I’m the second richest dog in America, by the way. No need for the arbitrary “South Dakota” title. Once Gunther IV goes to that great fire hydrant in the sky, you better watch your back. Who let the dogs out, Rupert? You did.
--

Brown.

Is it happening again?

The bad time went by many names: the meltdown ... the shakeout ... the reckoning ... the death of print... or sometimes, simply, “trying to freelance.”

Old-timers can still remember it—how, amid the frozen winter of 2008, the corridors of once unshakable media empires ran red with ink as the insertion orders dried up and crumbled into dust. Aeron chairs grew wet with tears. Editors were cashiered, contract writers flung overboard like chum. Soon you could see them all over Midtown: the sleek black Town Cars sitting idle on cinder blocks, rusting in the bleak unforgiving sun.

It was terrifying. The death knell—a merciless, unrelenting Twitter feed titled “The Media Is Dying”—sounded on a daily basis, sometimes hourly. Staffers watched in fear as the ghouls of HR, fingernails dabbed in scarlet, inched ever closer.

No publication was spared. The New York Times cut 100 newsroom jobs. Time Inc., cut 600 and then, unsated, came back for more. At Condé, 180 souls were lost. Issues bleached on newsstands as replacements failed to arrive. Gone were Gourmet, Cookie, Elegant Bride, Modern Bride, Radar, Vibe, Portfolio, Blender, Home, Country Home, Metropolitan Home, O at Home, Cottage Living, Southern Accents, Hallmark, Best Life, Golf for Women, Travel + Leisure Golf, Domino, Teen, Cosmo Girl, Playgirl, Quick & Simple, Men’s Vogue, PC Magazine.

Poof.

Graydon Carter was reduced to waiting in line in the Condé cafeteria—Frank Gehry’s suddenly funereal Windex wonderland—an industry titan contemplating garlic-free stir-fry and make-your-own salads, trapezoidal tray in hand. Flower deliveries stopped cold. The devil could barely afford Prada.

Christmas parties were summarily canceled, dancing on graves having been deemed unseemly and expensive. Throughout the industry, a sobering sadness fell. Gone even were the days of schadenfreude; survivor’s guilt was all that remained. There was talk, endless talk, about the future of the industry and how to adapt to the changing world. There were lessons to learn.

But then, ad sales bounced back. Companies started hiring again. Mr. Carter opened Monkey Bar. Things may not have been as lavish as they’d been in the glory days, but they were better. Better was the operative word—it made it possible to forget. A collective amnesia settled in. The storm was over, and the sunshine was so very pleasant. Yes, media is a shaky industry, people would ruefully acknowledge. The future is digital, that much was obvious. iPad apps became de rigueur, but the investment was halfhearted. Websites were relaunched, then re-relaunched, then more or less ignored.

Things are fine now, people said. Let’s focus on the next deadline.

The reprieve has been sweet, but will it last? Lately there have been some uneasy rumblings, a disturbance in the Force, small but unmistakable indications that the past is catching up with us. The Daily, Rupert Murdoch’s bold foray into the tablet future, laid off 50 a few months back. Condé Nast just let 60 staffers go after announcing that all its magazines needed to slash 5 percent from next year’s budget. Most had already had to cut 10 percent over the summer. Hearst is reorganizing the shelter titles, but it’s hard to take shelter anywhere when there are cracks in the foundation.

“We’ve gone through a period of treading water, but now it’s crunch time, and there will be lots more of these,” said Paul Armstrong, who writes the “The Media Is Dying” Twitter feed. Although Mr. Armstrong continued tweeting through the good times, his dispatches were mostly about innovation and other happy things. Now he is once again the angel of death.

Last week, Tina Brown announced that Newsweek would cease printing a physical magazine in December. The cracks are getting harder and harder to ignore.

“We are transitioning Newsweek, not saying goodbye to it,” Ms. Brown wrote in a Daily Beast post. Transitioning ... Sounds painless, doesn’t it? Like shedding one’s corporeal vessel and just floating up to the clouds ...

“We remain committed to Newsweek and to the journalism that it represents,” she continued, reassuringly. “This decision is not about the quality of the brand or the journalism—that is as powerful as ever. It is about the challenging economics of print publishing and distribution.”

But had anybody really learned anything in the intervening years? Newsweek and the Daily Beast merged in 2010—a marriage of convenience that was never very convenient at all.

Newsweek struggled during the two years under Ms. Brown. There were misfires like September’s “Muslim Rage” cover, the “First Gay President” cover and the “crazy eyes Bachman cover,” and fan fiction imagining Princess Diana alive at 50. Just last week, a six-page cover article asserted that heaven is indeed real. The strategy might have gotten the magazine some publicity—indeed, mocking the Newsweek cover became something of a media sport—but it didn’t sell enough copies of a magazine that relied almost entirely on subscriptions. Meanwhile, the Daily Beast began to suffer, becoming just another good-enough aggregator that spent an awful lot of time covering the royal family. “Read This, Skip That” was the Beast’s motto. Over time, we began to skip it all.

Try as Ms. Brown did to put an upbeat spin on the news that there would be no more Newsweek, she could not avoid the unavoidable fact that there wasn’t room or money for all her employees in the exciting digital future.

“Regrettably we anticipate staff reductions and the streamlining of our editorial and business operations both here in the U.S. and internationally,” she wrote.

Now, once again, there is fear and paranoia and silence.

Hold onto your K-Cups; it’s probably just beginning.

“We are certainly going to see more of this,” said Reed Phillips, managing partner and co-founder of DeSilva & Phillips, a media banking firm. “It’s a product of the downturn and the transition to digital. But most publications will transition in a more gradual way.”

The hope, of course, is that magazines will figure out how to bring in revenues with digital before they have to kill print. But sources working on the digital side at various media companies privately express doubt that there is really a substantial commitment to apps and websites, despite the easy enthusiasm.

“Magazines can ‘survive’ by going all-digital, but, like Newsweek,will find that they can only justify a small staff, given far reduced revenues,” said Ken Doctor, a news industry analyst. “It’s a downward spiral.”

Meanwhile, the clock is ticking, and iPad apps don’t monetize themselves.

“Time is running out faster on the print products than magazine publishers anticipated, and their tablet products, readers and advertisers aren’t yet ready to replace that print,” Mr. Doctor added. Thanks, Doc.

Newsweek Global may well work. It probably won’t. But either way, the magazine industry should take note. Unless the Mayans were right about 2012, there probably isn’t much time.

The Daily, Downsized (4:51 PM): Peter Kafka at All Things D dropped a bombshell this afternoon: According to "people familiar" with the plans, Rupert Murdoch's iPad-only newspaper, The Daily, is planning to lay off one-third of its staff (or: "The publisher plans to tell its workers today that it will fire 50 of its 170 employees").

That publisher is Greg Clayman, who with his wife, just closed on a $1.2M co-op in Brooklyn Heights. This comes on the heels of Daily editor-in-chief Jesse Angelo's recent reassurance to the iPad-paper's staffers of their own sturdiness, in spite of "haters" who would argue otherwise: "As for the latest misinformed, untrue rumors of our imminent demise, I would urge you to ignore them," he wrote in a published memo on July 13. They may now be slightly more difficult to ignore.

That said, (despite what some higher-ups at The Daily might think of the "haters" at The Observer), we wish them and their staffers the best of luck going into today's Big Meeting, which we hear just ended. And that said? If you're at The Daily, and know anything about what's going inside their conference room right now, or if you're not at The Daily any more, feel free to fill us in on what's going on. You can also call or text this reporter at 646-784-0038 with any details.

4:55: Another public memo has been published by Jesse Angelo, addressed to the publication's "Readers and Friends," this one explaining that the sports and opinion sections are being changed.

We believe our Opinion and Sports sections created fantastic and engaging original content, and we know they had many fans (myself included). But they also garnered the lightest traffic and reorganizing them will allow us to focus on the areas that have proven most popular, like original reporting, visually-impacting stories, great photographs and video, infographics and award-winning design.

In other words, the Opinion and Sports sections as they were staffed internally are dunzo. They're also locking The Daily in "portrait" mode on the iPad, which makes us wonder who on the design and coding teams—two of the most crucial components of the operation—got handed pink-slips today.

4:56: A tipster tells us that everyone who got laid off still gets to keep their News Corp-issued iPad, if they had one. So...there's that.

5:00 PM: One associate sports editor, Emma Span, Tweeted out earlier: "Yep, first found about my own layoff via Twitter. I feel just like an MLB player!" To make it even worse: "No venting to Gawker for me though. I liked it there."

5:05 PM: We're now told that it's the entire sports and opinion staffs that got hit, as well as some people on the primary news staff. Those names include: Deborah Hastings (news writer/producer), Melissa Arseniuk (multimedia producer/writer), Carmel Melouney (news reporter), Emily Canal (news) Elizabeth Semrai (news/travel editor), Chavie Lieber (news reporter), and Josh Bernstein (investigative correspondent). We hear that those names are news side-cuts, and that there shouldn't be many more where that came from.

5:16 PM: Hearing that Jesse Angelo is holding a staff meeting at 6PM. Also, side-benefit of getting laid off from The Daily? "I have to say it's a relief to be able to publicly mock Fox News again." The Power of Optimism.

5:18 PM: The Daily's national sports columnist, Dan Wolken: "To answer questions, yes, The Daily laid off sports staff today, including me. I'll be fine. Enjoyed the opportunity tremendously."

5:23 PM: We're hearing the severance package details leak out as well. One tipster got two months. Curious to hear what others got. This could be as a result of Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act mandates, or good will! We're not lawyers enough to know.

5:32 PM: The press release from Rubenstein PR reads: "A total of 50 full-time employees, 29 percent of the full-time staff, will be released." It also confirms what we've been hearing about the opinion and sports sections. Still no word on whether or not the fates of The Daily's office in L.A. (including former Page Six maestro Richard Johnson) have been affected or not.

5:55 PM: The D.C. bureau—which, really, was two people (Laura Parker and 18 year-old White House reporter Myles Miller)—is done.

6:01 PM:: We've now heard the "two months severance" number multiple times. Also, from a now-former Daily employee: "They [management] started to look really at all the finances of everything. Everyone thought it was going to be fine. Everyone said 'all this talk [about potential layoffs] is not true.'"

6:21 PM: Buzzfeed's John Hermann files a story about The Daily where one staffer notes that "edit was understaffed." Another tipster writes in to ask two questions: Will senior staffers be taking a pay cut? And will laid off staffers be released from the non-compete agreement that bars them from working for the USA Today, the New York Times, and People for a year after employment with The Daily has ended? Michael Calderone at the Huffington Post noted of the non-compete in May:

Upon joining The Daily, staffers agree to not work for the following "directly competitive” outlets for at least one year if they leave or are fired: USA Today, People, and The New York Times/New York Times Magazine.

6:35 PM: A source familiar with the situation tell us that the L.A. office of The Daily is closing, but that Richard Johnson will remain with the company, and in L.A. No word on the rest of his staff.

7:15 PM: Meeting's out. In it, Jesse Angelo and Greg Clayman insisted that News Corp backs The Daily, and that it is a success, but that the numbers simply weren't there for sports and op-ed (though no word was given on the news side-cuts). Sports editor Chris D'Amico (who one tipster called a "BEAST" in a complimentary manner) will be staying on as managing editor. We also heard The Daily's copy desk got hit hard, and that the L.A. bureau staffers who worked with Richard Johnson have been laid off, as well (as previously noted, Johnson will be staying with The Daily).

Everyone hit by layoffs at The Daily, however, will be receiving a "discretionary bonus" (taxed at the higher bonus rate) from the company in addition to their two-months severance pay. When the benefits run out, Daily staffers are eligible for unemployment benefits. It comes to many as a surprisingly sweet severance package on behalf of News Corp, but it's worth noting that layoffs hit some staffers right before the equity in their 401Ks could vest. They are also being encouraged to apply within News Corp. for new gigs, but most people probably won't considering that they'll lose the two months severance if they take a different job with the company.

The NDA/non-compete agreement will not be enforced for the laid off staffers, who are free to apply to jobs at USA Today, People, and The New York Times/New York Times Magazine, as well as CNN, The Guardian, and Huffington Post/AOL (which were also named in the non-compete). The non-solicitation agreement remains intact. Meanwhile, as it turns out, some people do not get to keep the iPads, while others do.

- - -

Elsewhere, in today's media news:

The DNA of DNAinfo: What's it like to work in the blisteringly exciting nu-newsroom of hyperlocal startup DNAinfo?

"Check your parks/playgrounds and see whether the sprinklers are on," wrote Billy Gorta, a senior editor who came to DNAinfo from the New York Post, in an email to staff on June 20. "Need outraged parents if they're off or pics of happy kids if they're on."

Joe Pompeo at Capital New York has the most in-depth piece on DNAinfo written yet. Other revelations: They'll be opening up shop in Chicago this Fall, there remains no great theory for why their incredibly rich backer Joe Ricketts is funding a hyperlocal news other than 'he thinks there's money to be made,' they took James "Jim" Fanelli from his job as assistant city editor at the New York Daily News earlier this month, and Ricketts isn't a fan of Obama. It is a wonderful read and should leave you with very few questions as to how that happened and how it's going to continue to happen. [Capital New York]

Pulitzer-Nom Pete Non Times: Sports reporter Pete Thamel is leaving The New York Times for Sports Illustrated after nine years.  Thamel was nominated for a Pulitzer by the Times in 2006, FBNY notes. [The Big Lead]

Hoda-unnit? The New York Daily News made a big fuss on their front page today about Hoda Kotb, NBC's fourth-hour-of-Today anchor and one-half of the reigning on-air boozing championship team with Kathy Lee Gifford. They claimed that Kotb, who was supposed to be on vacation, was called off vacation to be flown into her Today chair to save the tuchus of Savannah Guthrie, currently hosting for Today at the Olympics. But Hoda was always supposed to be going to the Olympics, an NBC flack told Fishbowl NY. They even had a Facebook poll about what Hoda should do when she's there ("Make a Drinking Game Out of The Changing of the Guard" was, sadly, not an option). Whoops? Who knows. Fishbowl NY filed the post on the Daily News story at 11:09 AM. The Daily News—which had posted the story at 2AM—updated it at 2:01 PM. The new penultimate graf on the story: "Our network insider maintains that Kotb's actual departure was up in the air and that Thursday's call came because of the sub-par ratings for the pre-Olympics coverage against the 'Today' show's rival." [FBNY, NYDN]

Tips, whatever? Put 'em here. But we're going to spend the rest of the day updating this Daily news.

fkamer@observer.com | @weareyourfek

News Corp godfather Rupert Murdoch capitalized on a weekend in which he could bury news about himself, by burying news about himself. The bejoweled Mr. Murdoch has removed one of his many hats—his directorship of News Corp's British tabloids—more likely than not because it is collectively the Von Dutch Trucker Hat of his media empire: A classically bad look, that continues to get worse by the day. Here's the Murdoch Spin. Here's a John Gapper column about it with a great drawing at the top of Murdoch cutting himself in half, ha. At this juncture, it's difficult to properly assess the significance of this news, seeing as how Michael Wolff has yet to pen a vaguely conspiratorial column explaining this as further evidence of Mr. Murdoch's enjoyment of tea sandwiches spread with Terrine of Plump Impoverished Children. Also, someone at The Daily Beast called this a "Saigon Moment" which is a little melodramatic and hyperbolic but also kind of hysterical and British of them, so it works. [Financial Times, Daily Beast]

The acerbic and brilliant Scottish-American columnist and author Alexander Cockburn died on Saturday at 71, from complications relating to cancer. Among his many achievements, he famously started The Village Voice's media column, Press Clips, and was a first-wave media critic, the likes of which this writer and many others like him do a piss-poor imitation of, to this day, in obtuse, failing tribute. Cockburn is survived by his daughter, two brothers, and several nieces and nephews, notes the Times, in a thorough obituary for the man. [NYT / Media]

In a lengthy Q & A with Talking Points Memo, MSNBC's weekend blogger anchor Chris Hayes shares the best advice he's ever received: "My mom once told me: If you’re on the fence about going to a funeral, you should always go." Honestly: Better than we'd hoped. He also tries to explain the difference between MSNBC and Fox News, which, whatever it was, Dylan Byers at Politico astutely picked apart: "The problem with Hayes' distinction is that, no matter how you get from point A to point B, you get there." [TPM, Politico]

Noted: The number of people (on paper) who contributed to Saturday's A1 NYT filing on the shooting in Colorado? Eighteen. Two bylines, with sixteen contribution credits. [NYT / National]

IAC chairman Barry Diller and New York's Worst Boss 2007 uber-producer Scott Rudin want to launch an eBook business. Match made in heaven? Some kind of match, made somewhere. [Deadline Hollywood]

And by the way, if you were wondering how Nikki Finke covered Friday night's tragedy in Colorado, you'll have to go to her site to find out. Here's the moment we stopped. [Gawker]

NPR vixen Teri Gross, on the fundamental difference in interview technique between herself and Howard Stern: "I don’t ask about [subjects'] penis size." [NYT Magazine]

Also from this weekend's Times Magazine, further kvetching about "curation" and Why It Makes People Angry, as if this isn't a third-wave debate that doesn't date back to 2005 (concerning bloggers as threatening the existence of everything sacred). Which is besides the fact this particular piece begins with the words "Years ago, in my penurious and somewhat traumatic 20s," a "GERIATRICS X-ING" traffic sign for wordage consumption, if there ever was one. [NYT Magazine]

Despite a This American Life story that was media reporting's version of a PETA video where one watches adorable baby chicks get ground up into McNuggets, the Chicago Tribune is sticking with hyperlocal journalism factory farm Journatic. But don't worry, it's okay: They hired a consultant. That always helps. [Jim Romenesko]

Scandal rocks Garden & Gun: They retouched a dog on the cover! Hilariously, in this NYT story on the old, storied, and not-at-all-new tradition of magazines retouching photos, the Garden & Gun dog was the lede. [NYT / Arts]

Buzzfeed's John Hermann gives credit where it's due: Some Kid On Reddit did an excellent job rounding up news on the shooting in Aurora, and no doubt, half the people covering it for outlets on the Internet took their cues from him, because that's how it works now. Elsewhere, someone on Reddit is still really concerned about misandry. Also, there needs to be a single-serve Tumblr for every time Buzzfeed writes about Reddit (as opposed to simply culling content sans-credit from it). It should be called IS THE BUZZFEED REDDIT MOBIUS STRIP ONRAMP OPEN TODAY? DOT TUMBLR DOT COM. [BuzzFeed]

Finally: The lovely albatross of the Observer's media desk for the last year and a half has been liberated from abdicated the position, and this writer will be filling in the interim. Please send your tips, gossip, rhetoric, legal threats, inspirational quotes, and freshman year poetry—along with, while we're at it, your nominations for Media Power Couples, Bachelors, and Bachelorettes (which, due to unpopular demand, we'll be doling out again soon)—right this way.

Happy Monday.

fkamer@observer.com | @weareyourfek

Launched in 2009, Newscore collected and redistributed the news stories from News Corp.’s reporters in the U.S., U.K. and Australia, while racing rivals AP and Reuters on breaking news. Newscore CEO John Moody, a former Fox News executive, was reportedly inspired by a moment of synergy between Fox News and The Australian in covering Heath Ledger’s death.

Designed to save costs on outside wire subscriptions and minimize duplicate reporting, Newscore content was at one time poised to be sold to outside news organizations, although one News Corp. insider said those talks fell through when the company’s public image suffered amid allegations of phone hacking at News of the World.

For News Corp. employees, Newscore was cherished as a wackier alternative to other wires, curating a web-friendly—and classically Murdoch—mix of the buzzy weird news, crime and animal stories well-suited to the company’s tabloid elements.

The layoffs are part of a wave of cost-cutting measures occurring as the media giant prepares to spin off its newspaper operations (like The Wall Street Journal and the New York Post) into a separate company, which will no longer be insulated by the success of properties like Fox News and BSkyB.

Last month, Dow Jones shut down the print version of SmartMoney magazine, eliminating 25 positions, and The New York Times reported that News Corp.’s Australian business was also being restructured, cutting hundreds of jobs.

One insider said that COO Chase Carey—who became Mr. Murdoch’s deputy as the News International scandal gutted News Corp’s executive ranks—had gone through the budget identifying money losers like SmartMoney and Newscore. A person with knowledge of the situation said the final call was made by Fox News CEO Roger Ailes, who decided that Fox News would “absorb” Newscore, bringing home Mr. Moody, who will now be an executive vice president and executive editor of FoxNews.com. In a statement to The Hollywood Reporter last month, Mr. Ailes said that Newscore would “strengthen [their] overall newsgathering capabilities.”

His remarks confused reporters and editors, whom insiders say were unceremoniously laid off. In an HR meeting, reporters were told that the “Newscore function is going to be absorbed, but not the staff,” which they understood as a reference to its proprietary aggregation software. Laid off employees were given the opportunity to interview for positions at Fox News and handful of others were enlisted short-term to write evergreen service features for FoxNews.com after the wire went dark June 29. Some have already been placed in new positions within the company.

In addition, there are internal rumors that The Daily has been put “on watch.” According to a source the status of the groundbreaking iPad tabloid—which loses $30 million a year—will be reassessed after the November 6 election.

The shutdown of Newscore predated News Corp.’s decision to split, but some insiders speculated that Newscore’s function would be diminished if it weren’t relaying news stories from television news properties to print ones.

In a publicity blitz following the announcement of the split—a move long recommended by Wall Street analysts and unanimously approved by News Corp.’s board of directors—Rupert Murdoch said the company will pursue more digital subscription-driven models, (a la the Times of London) and will no longer spill buckets of red ink. (Watch out, New York Post!) Mr. Murdoch will remain chairman of the to-be-named company and appoint a separate CEO.

Rupert Murdoch

News Corp. owner Rupert Murdoch sometimes thinks "out loud" on his Twitter feed, pondering recent news and issuing his own opinions. Today, while musing on the split between Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes, Mr. Murdoch dropped this doozy:

Watch Katie Holmes and Scientology story develop. Something creepy, maybe even evil, about these people.

— Rupert Murdoch(@rupertmurdoch) July 1, 2012

Twitter wits were driven from their heat-wave-induced torpor, assailing Mr. Murdoch for pointing out "the obvious" as well as implying the emperor of News Corp. was ignoring the phone-hacking elephant in the room.

Business Insider suggests an off-the-cuff, potentially provocative observation such as this from Mr. Murdoch is one of the best things about Twitter. Henry Blodget observes, "Never before have celebrities and media stars been able to show this side of themselves to so many people--in real time--without media intermediaries in the middle." We are inclined to agree. Anything that takes us away from panting through an apocalyptic heat wave for a moment.

UPDATE

Village Voice editor Tony Ortega, who has been on the Scientology beat for years, points out Mr. Murdoch was doubling down in his "creepy, maybe even evil" tweet on an earlier Sunday morning observation made about Mr. Hubbard's peculiar institution:

Scientology back in news.Very weird cult, but big, big money involved with Tom Cruise either number two or three in hiearchy.

— Rupert Murdoch(@rupertmurdoch) July 1, 2012

In an interview with the Journal—the crown jewel of his quarantined newspaper business— Mr. Murdoch denied that his decision was influenced by the so-called "Murdoch Discount." The Murdoch Discount is the theory that News Corp. shares trade at less than what they're worth because the company is run at Mr. Murdoch's whim and he's liable to do things like, say, grossly overpay for The Wall Street Journal.

"I don't give a ---- about that," he told the Journal.

Judging from Journal precedent, the four letter word at play was not "damn."

Thick-skinned.

News Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch confirmed reports that he will divide the corporation into two companies—one for television and entertainment, one for newspapers and publishing—in a message to employees today.

The lengthy memo, obtained by the The New York Times, touches on everything from the First Amendment to the iPad but does not mention the ongoing phone-hacking and bribery scandal in the UK. Some think the restructuring, on which they'll reportedly be advised by Goldman Sachs, is an attempt to protect top management from this or future messes.

"Our publishing businesses are greatly undervalued by the skeptics," Mr. Murdoch wrote. "Through this transformation we will unleash their real potential, and be able to better articulate the true value they hold for shareholders."

According to the memo, Mr. Murdoch will "personally" lead the creation of the new companies. He will serve as chairman of both organizations and the CEO of the television and entertainment half. Chase Carey will be his COO. No word on who will head up the news and publishing division.

And it sounds like he's in good spirits:

"Over the years, I have become accustomed to the noise of critics and naysayers…and pretty thick-skinned! Remember what they said when we started the Fox Network, Sky, Fox News and The Sun? These experiences have made me more resilient. And they should you, as well. And time and time again, we persevered, creating new businesses, new products, telling new stories, informing and educating the public in new ways — and giving jobs to thousands more people."

One reason for triumphalism: News Corp. share price surged 6.6% after the company confirmed it was considering a split on Tuesday, according to the Chicago Tribune.