It's a grim day for employees of Citigroup as they hear more about the beleaguered bank's plans to cut costs and slash another 10,000 jobs. But Citi director Dick Parsons doesn't want to see anyone to give up hope. He issued a memo to company employees earlier this morning and urged them to "keep the faith." The memo's below.

♦ Dick Parsons is the frontrunner to replace Sir Win Bischoff as chairman of Citigroup. [Reuters]
♦ Steve Rattner is shutting down the Quadrangle Group's hedge fund amid weak performance and investor redemptions. [WSJ]
♦ Phil Falcone, Ken Griffin, John Paulson, Jim Simons and George Soros will appear in front of a House panel today. [DB]
♦ Hank Paulson is taking a beating following the news that the Treasury will now focus on struggling consumers, instead of financial institutions. Paulson has become "a reduced figure, damaged by the financial-market meltdown that happened on his watch and by the government's struggles to respond to it." [WSJ, DB, Bloomberg]

Dick Parsons says he has no plans to run for mayor and that Mike Bloomberg should serve another four years. We believe it! If he were gearing up to campaign, would Parsons2009.com really still be available? [NYM]

Just who are the city's biggest media titans supporting this November? Below, details on the campaign contributions of Jeff Bewkes, Dick Parsons, Barry Diller, Jann Wenner, Bob Wright, Mel Karmazin, Robert F.X. Sillerman, Ben Silverman, and a handful of others.

Some of the biggest moguls and powerbrokers in New York just can't seem to figure out who the next mayor should be! According to the Times today, heavyweights like Martin Lipton, Steve Rattner and Jerry Speyer—as well as other members of the Kathryn Wylde-led Partnership for New York City—have been scratching their heads, debating which way to tug on the strings. Do we try and overturn term limits so Michael Bloomberg can stay on? Do we find another mega-wealthy businessman to fill his shoes? But Dick Parsons doesn't want the job, goddamit! Maybe John Catsimatidis? We're guessing Kevin Sheekey has already made his opinion known.

Dick Parsons is the former chairman and CEO of Time Warner. An oft-rumored political candidate, he currently sits on the Board of Directors for the Commission on Presidential Debates and acts as an economic adivser for Obama.

• In an interview with the Guardian, Conrad Black calls his fraud trial "bullshit" and announces that he's at war with the U.S. government. The paper also has an excerpt from Black's forthcoming biography of Richard Nixon, which praises the former president's "surpassing dignity." Read into that what you will. [Guardian]
  

• Conrad Black's second-in-command turned star government witness serves up Lord Black on a platter. [WSJ]
  

• Oprah Winfrey endorses Barack Obama. Hell, if she can move copies of The Road she can probably sell anything. [NYT]
  

• In his memoir, former Time Inc. EIC Norman Pearlstine paints NYT honcho Arthur Sulzberger, Jr., as a lightweight for that whole "not caving to federal prosecutors like Time did" thing. [NYP]
  

Wow, who's a jealous suitor? One day after he said Google paid "a stunning price" for YouTube, one his company could not afford, Time Warner CEO/chairman Dick Parsons (pictured) told the UK Guardian that the company would pursue potential copyright infringement on Google's new property.

• Hey, maybe newspaper readership isn't actually declining, if you count all those people who read papers on the web. Which would seem to make sense. [E&P]
• Syd Schanberg points out that old media will have to stick around in some form, because someone has to do the original reporting. To which we say: Duh. [VV]
• Jack Shafer says Daily Newser Lloyd Grove was right to piss on Time Warner's allegedly off-the-record Scalia event. Just like we said yesterday afternoon. [Slate]
• Judith Miller might put Lewis Libby in jail, but Time's Viveca Novak is key to keeping Karl Rove out, apparently. [WP]
• Tom Friedman sued for copyright infringement over World Is Flat cover art. By someone right here in the United States, no less. [E&P