In your frigid Friday media column: rumored troubles at the NY Press, Jose Antonio Vargas can't drive, a headline legend retires, Demand Media acts just as you'd expect them to, and Conde Nast will brag about its digital sales.

  • Veteran New York Press editor Jerry Portwood is leaving for Out magazine, and the NYO says that Marissa Maier is his replacement. (Film critic Armond White is also leaving the paper, for another publication owned by the same company.) But we hear that the situation's a little more complicated than that for the Press, which has struggled under the ownership of Manhattan Media, a company more used to putting out tiny little niche neighborhood papers than full-on (once edgy) alt-weeklies. The company, we hear, has grown tired of the Press, and could sell it off, kill its print edition and leave it as a website only, or get rid of it entirely—at least that's the fear of some insiders. Also: it's pretty damn thin these days, ad-wise. Which is all to say... good luck, Marissa!
    Update: And the Village Voice has some quotes from NY Press publisher Tom Allon that would not make anyone feel great about their job security, over there.
  • Jose Antonio Vargas, the former Washington Post reporter who wrote a very honest and moving story recently outing himself as an illegal immigrant, has now had his driver's license revoked because of the story. It was worth it, Jose (says everyone whose licenses have not been revoked).
  • Vincent Musetto, the man who wrote the headline "Headless Body in Topless Bar" is retiring from the New York Post. Vincent Musetto, please send me a pithy line to write right here.
  • Hellacious robotic content farm Demand Media, which lives at the very deep dark bottom of the internet, has had its lawyers send a cease and desist letter to a blog that writes mean things about Demand Media. This has been: How to Confirm Everyone's Suspicions that You're a Thin-Skinned Jerk, by Demand Media.
  • Have you been sitting around saying to yourself, "My, how I pine for comprehensive digital sales numbers for Conde Nast tablet editions?" Your prayers will be answered quite soon, quite soon indeed.

[Photo via Flickr]