Good news for budding gossip reporters, or writers desperate enough to pretend Britney Spears rehashes are their life's ambition: some media organizations are still hiring.

Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, which shut down the Page Six's website earlier this month, says economic conditions aren't right for new contenders in the viciously competitive online gossip arena. But word is the Associated Press—which recently declared that trainwreck Britney Spears was henceforth a "big deal"—is hiring 20 or so writers for the wire service's new entertainment site.

And paparazzi agency x17, which supplies celebrity photos and video to media organizations such as CNN, is cutting out the middleman: the controversial shop, which near cornered the market in Britney Spears non-news, will service consumers directly with its own imagery, and prose provided by its own editorial staff.