The Times has new details about Eric Schurenberg's departure from Time Inc.'s Money: It is supposedly related to "talk within the company of a new editorial direction" for the 2 million-circulation title. Yes, the collapse of Western capitalism would seem to pose some, uh, new and unique challenges to a personal finance magazine, and it sounds like Money has already found more than its share of efficiencies on the business side, sharing an ad staff and website with other company brands. Who will be the Neel Kashkari of Money's editorial rescue plan? We hear the new editor might be Ellen McGirt, a former Money columnist and editor-at-large who later wrote for Fortune and Fast Company. (UPDATE: Not her, she says.) You may have seen her on the teevee!

McGirt has served as a guest correspondent for CNN’s American Morning, and has appeared frequently on Good Morning America, CBS Early Today, NBC Nightly News, CNN, NBC's Weekend Today, HGTV and BET.

So said the press release announcing McGirt's hiring by Fast Company last year. It also quoted the magazine's editor calling her "a rising star in the world of business journalism."

McGirt's online editorial experience at AOL, Oxygen Media and Yahoo properties would be an asset amid Time Inc.'s heightened focus on non-print "platforms." And it can't hurt that she knows how to turn Barack Obama into cover-worthy financial journalism.

A tipster tells us only that McGirt was offered the job; Time Inc. editor in chief John Huey sounded certain in his memo about Schurenberg's departure that the outgoing editor's replacement would be named "early next week." If you have any idea whethe McGirt — or someone else — agreed to take the helm, do let us know.

(Photo by Brian Solis on Flickr)