Last year, The New Yorker's Jane Mayer wrote a long story on what a bunch of shits (paraphrasing) the conservative cartoonish evil billionaire Koch Brothers are. This led to much protesting from the Kochs' paid minions, and a months-long campaign to try to smear Mayer in the press.

Since the recession hit and print started dying in earnest, magazines have been...let's say, loosening their standards on the editorial-advertising divide. Now, in a bid to maintain relevance, the American Society of Magazine Editors has updated its ethical guidelines. HMMMM.

We didn't get that much out of Vogue editor Anna Wintour during our brief conversation last night, but she did admit that running the magazine isn't actually all that hard. Then we asked creative director Grace Coddington to chime in.

Last night was football night and magazine night in America! New York hosted both the National Magazine Awards and the first round of the NFL Draft. Which one was better? Which was more embarrassing? Which had Anna Wintour?

ASME is done handing out awards to the top magazines again. By all accounts, the ceremony was an odd mix of depression and uplifting speechifying. Just listen to what Twitter is saying:

In your awardy Thursday media column: the recessiontastic magazine awards are here, newspaper meta-layoffs, Lenny Dykstra's canned, more justice for Chauncey Bailey, and advertising brainstorming:

Us Weekly became the third magazine in a week reprimanded by the American Society of Magazine Editors for impure ads. It's as if Us, Entertainment Weekly and ESPN the Magazine don't care about purity!

In your finally Friday media column: the New York Times "eats crow" (funny joke LOL), the Newseum wins, ASME loses, and police charge Fox with being annoying:

In your swashbuckling Wednesday media column: XXL-Giant feud update, NPR infighting, nobody's scared of ASME, the Boston Globe is mad, son, and dead goats save newspapers:

In your rubble-strewn Friday media column: rumors of carnage at Budget Travel, threats at a medical journal, advertising havoc at ESPN mag, and editors destroy everything:

At left is the top of an interview with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez filed by Charlotte Hall, Editor of the Orlando Sentinel and President of the American Society Of Newspaper Editors. Other editors who recently accompanied Hall to Venezuela, like Marty Baron of the Boston Globe and Margaret Sullivan of the Buffalo News, led their stories with unflattering facts about Chavez, like recently-autheticated evidence he sought to supply missiles to Colombian rebels, his country's skyrocketing homicide rate and a rebuke in a December national referendum. Hall, in contrast, introduced her story with a series of anecdotes supplied by Chavez himself, descriptions of his clothing and a button he used to summon coffee, plus the observation that he kissed female editors on their cheeks. This fluffy treatment, and Hall's sycophantic smiling in the accompanying photo, we hear, horrified some in the Sentinel newsroom, particularly among those who already regarded the editor as a "clueless" transplant from the tabloid Newsday.

Dave Zinczenko of Men's Health has ceded the American Society of Magazine Editors honors to his Rodale colleague, David Willey, the industry association's incoming president. But that's not all the editor and best-selling author has given up. Willey, editor of Runner's World, appears to have been acclaimed the new hot magazine editor. Women's Wear Daily gushed that, at the ASME's awards event last week, Willey's looks prompted female editors to giggle "like teenagers." (The reception given by mag fags such as Adam Moss was not deemed fit for publication.) But it's confusing: Zinczenko and Willey both work on Rodale fitness titles, they're both good-looking by the low standards of the magazine industry, and they've both attracted the attention of that fame diviner, Star magazine talking head Julia Allison. Here's how to tell the two magazine hotties apart.

Tina Brown, former editor of Tatler, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, and (the failed) Talk Magazine got inducted into the American Magazine Editors Hall of Fame this afternoon. She summed up her career in the industry as "Three weddings and a funeral." The funeral being Talk. Her most recent claim to fame, a biography of Diana ten years after the princess' death, presumably falls under "grave robbing".

• Does it count as a New York magazine stunt if no one notices, or cares? [Romenesko]
• ASME elects new prez and veep; new prez and veep promptly make Bush and Cheney jokes. [WWD]
• Lachlan Murdoch has a second son; Choire Sicha promptly begins lusting for him. [Advertiser]
• WSJ editor Paul Steiger named chairman of Pulitzers board. This will have no practical effect on you in any way. [NYT]

• "His ability to remain totally upright when sprinting, as if carrying an invisible egg and spoon—what are these, if not the techniques of an alien life force who has just graduated summa cum laude in advanced human behavior?" Tom Cruise, watch out — the New Yorker is onto you, and Sy Hersh might be looking for a new beat. [NYer]
• Apple v. Apple, resolved: the Beatles' record label loses to Apple computers, meaning that we can all download the boys on iTunes with reckless, 99-cent abandon. [Variety]
• Glamour EIC Cindi Leive has been named the new prez of the American Society of Magazine Editors. Just another damn responsibility for her assistant. [FishbowlNY]
• 60 Minutes may get Anderson Cooper, but they only get him 5 times per year. He'll be filling Christine Amanpour's part-time position — what we lose in classy accents, we make up for in piercing pools of blue. [AP]
• Kaavya Viswanathan may have fucked up, but she's no James Frey. Give the girl a crackpipe, though, and anything's possible. [USA Today]
• New Jersey's new tourism slogan, "Come See For Yourself," is wisely abandoned. As it turns out, West Virginia is already using the catchphrase, along with the Dakotas and any other states no one would willingly see for themselves. [Adfreak]
• Behold the unimpressive aesthetics of the Art Rock show at Rockefeller Center. Glance now and save yourself the effort of going to the real thing. [Animal]
• Elle creative director Gilles Bensimon loses a 14-year-old beauty to a 17-year-old amateur. So, who's the young waif in question? And why is Gilles such a dirty old man? [Breakfast]

If you're anything like us, you were drinking and dancing till the wee hours last night, celebrating the announcement of this year's National Magazine Award finalists. Such excitement! Such drama! Such drug-addled nightmares of being stampeded by a herd of bronze elephants! In the sober light of morning, finally, there's a chance to ponder some of the great metaphysical questions raised by yesterday's announcement:

• Beloved perv Dan Savage discovers another note left by Village Voice Media tribal warlord Mike Lacey: "I recently discovered that many of the young ladies who advertise in the back pages of the Voice actually have PENISES. They appear to be ladies until it s too late." [Slog]
• The Huffington Post agrees: Tomatoes are delicious. [Media Mob]
• Everyone's favorite lady from the now-defunct Black Table takes her act elsewhere: Amy Blair writes Week in Craig for Animal mag's online venture. [Animal NY]
• The Times online is all hopped up on bloggy goofballs: today they launch yet another blog, The Pour. Written by resident wino Eric Asimov, it promises to be an exciting look at the world of, uh, overanalyzing your booze. [The Pour]
• Determined to win an Ellie in the court of public opinion, the Atlantic puts all of its nominated material online. [Atlantic]
• Blondie builds stuff. [The Gutter]
• Grammar cop cites a Paris Hilton-inspired advertisement on the Drudge Report. Isn't that, like, a triply offensive violation? [Banterist]
• The only thing truly worth failing: the Ann Coulter Quiz. [Minor Tweaks]

Put on your monkey suits and call your bookie — The ASME has just announced the finalists for the 40th annual National Magazine Awards. While we'll have to wait until May 9 to see the winners accept their elephantine prizes, there's still more than enough time to organize your office betting pool.

• After Blairgate and Judygate (and with Wen Ho Leegate and Stephen Hatfillgate pending) Times cancels J.T. LeRoy piece for T after New York convinces them he may or may not exist. [WWD]
• Is People the new Us Weekly? Keith Kelly seems to think so, saying that Time Inc. celeb title is up while its competitors are down. [NYP]
• Bill and Cathie at ASME: Buckley and Hearst's Black to receive lifetime-achievement awards from the mag group. [AdAge]
• Tokion sold, as if that makes any difference to your life. [Folio:]
• Taking a cue from his pals' pal Judy, Bush, too, should take a severance and a letter to the editor and just retire already, says Greg Mitchell. [E&P]
• It seems the kids like the blogs. [News.com]