In your grim Thursday media column: Pigs nab Gessen, newspaper layoffs, newspapers sales, overall newspaper desperation, the real issues in OWS coverage, and Fleshbot could be yours!

  • N+1 founder, sad young literary man, frequent New Yorker contributor, and onetime top-tier Gawker character Keith Gessen was arrested today at the Occupy Wall Street protests! Video above! He was charged with "two counts of disorderly conduct, one charge of obstructing government administration," according to the n+1 interns. As of an hour ago he was reportedly still in custody. You have our full moral support, Keith Gessen. In times like these, let us remember that there are even bigger issues than blog vs. literary person feuds, very rarely.
  • The Orlando Sentinel laid off 16 newsroom staffers today. The slow motion return of the newspaperpocalypse continues.
  • But look, elsewhere, someone has actually purchased a newspaper! Specifically, San Diego businessman Doug Manchester is buying the San Diego Union-Tribune from Platinum Equity. There's a common theory on Wall Street known as the "Greater fool" theory. Not that that has anything to do with the topic at hand.
  • Oh, all is saved: eight newspaper companies are teaming up to launch yet another fucking Groupon knockoff. Just what the world needs: another fucking Groupon knockoff. Just what the newspaper industry needs: another fucking Groupon knockoffs. Just what your readers have been clamoring for: another fucking Groupon knockoff. But newspaper stocks now, cheap!
  • Uh oh, both nudity and cursing have made their way into live news coverage of the Occupy Wall Street mega-demonstrations today. Better just not cover that stuff at all, to be on the safe side. I bet you could just fill that news hole with, I don't know, coverage of the markets.
  • Gawker Media's very own Fleshbot is for sale! If you're interested, just, ah, send me the money, and I'll be sure it gets to the right place. Better send some pornography, as well!

[Photo: Julian Povey/ Flickr]