The company responsible for the Gulf of Mexico oil spill wants you to know that they're working very hard to fix it. They've capped one leak! And now they're towing a concrete "dome" to the site to contain the spill.

In your pleasant Thursday media column: Sarah Palin produces a string of English-language words that ostensibly describe Glenn Beck, a NYT reporter is hazy on sourcing rules, Barack Obama smooches the press, and management moves at Forbes.

Forbes is seeking to put together a top-flight team of media bloggers! They offer bloggers the chance to write for "millions of Forbes readers." In return, bloggers get no money. Sound good?

In your counterfeit Friday media column: Rupert Murdoch launches the first volley in the new paywall wars, ABC News employees face a buyout deadline, Forbes loses a key editor, and Variety throws a hissyfit.

With the other Elevation Partners, singer Bono invested in Palm, an analyst dartboard; Yelp, a class-action magnet; and Forbes and Move.com, both financially bulldozed. He might be our "worst investor," but Bono's financial blues album should be a hit.

• As rumored, the New York Times plans to begin charging readers to access stories on the NYT website. It will be a metered system (so only "frequent readers" will be affected), and it doesn't start until 2011. And faithful subscribers to the print edition won't be forced to pay anything extra. [NYT]
• What are the chances Conan lands at Fox? It could happen, but there are plenty of reasons why Fox might decide to back away from a deal. [WSJ]
• The news biz: Talks to bring Ted Koppel back to ABC News appear to have fallen through; Megyn Kelly is getting her own show on Fox News; and CNN has announced it's partnering with hipster mag Vice, oddly enough. [NYO]
• Condé Nast's Fairchild unit has a new chief. Gina Sanders, Lucky's publisher (and Si Newhouse's niece) will now be running the show. [WWD]
• The Sundance Film Festival kicks off in Park City, Utah tomorrow. And it's shaping up to be fest's "most important" year ever, supposedly. [NYT, WSJ]

Ever feel like hurling an uncooperative laptop across the room? Then you can imagine how Forbes' Brian Caulfield felt when his notebook crashed during a Steve Jobs keynote. And why the computer's vengeful owner took it to a gun range.

[Forbes sold their Manhattan headquarters to New York University this week. The publishing company will remain a tenant in the building for the next five years. Image via Getty]

• Is NBC shutting down Jay Leno's 10pm show and moving him back to late night? Is Conan O'Brien out of a job? NBC isn't denying that a schedule change has been discussed, but it's not saying much more than that for now. [NYT]
• ABC News is reportedly in negotiations with Ted Koppel to bring him back to the network as the anchor of This Week on Sunday mornings. [Politico]
• CNN is handing over the 1-3pm slot to Ali Velshi starting on Jan. 18. [NYT]
• Forbes has sold off its landmark building on lower Fifth Ave. to NYU. [NYO]
• Despite the standoff between Cablevision and Scripps, ratings for the company's two cable outlets, HGTV and Food Network, are up. [AdAge]
• Tucker Carlson's new website, The Daily Caller, launches next week. [WI]
• Avatar's streak continues: It's now the No. 2 biggest movie ever. [THR]
• A Blockbuster video kiosk is coming to a Duane Reade near you. [NYCTB]
• Fox is delaying the start of its sketchy new reality show. [THR]
• Break out a tissue: The Hof is leaving America's Got Talent. [People]
• Lady Gaga was the special guest on Launch My Line last night. [Gawker]
• Did ABC News buy George Stephanopoulos a booster seat when he joined the Good Morning America team? That's the rumor, at least. [Popeater]

A reliable tipster tells us Forbes waited until after they laid off dozens of people to announce bonus paid leave. Several victims are talking to lawyers because they worked ten months of 2009 and feel entitled to any reward.

That juicy tell-all book about the splintering Forbes family is probably by a recently departed Forbes managing editor, who has issued a tanatalizing no-comment on the matter. This is why you must be careful who you fire, media barons.

• ABC has offered George Stephanopoulos the job of Good Morning America co-host and "intensive negotiations" are now reportedly underway. [WP]
• More on how the deal to hand over control of NBC to Comcast came together; and more on how the deal will be viewed by regulators in Washington.
• Oprah won't be hosting her own show when her cable network debuts in 2011, but she will have a "significant presence" on OWN, reportedly. [NYP]
• The magazine graveyard: National Geographic Adventure is no more. [NYT
• Cuts: Thomson Reuters is laying off 240; Daily Candy is shutting down seven of its 12 editions and laying off half a dozen; and ALM is shuttering four titles.
• Town & Country is planning to sex up the magazine, apparently. [WWD]
• An unnamed former Forbes staffer is writing a tell-all about the mag. [DF]
• Lou Dobbs is a nasty, evil man. But you probably knew that. [TDB]
• Someone is paying "at least $100 million" for Friendster? [Reuters]
• This year's Grammy nominations were announced this morning. [LAT]

Laying off as many as one in four Forbes writers and editors a few weeks ago hasn't been enough to stanch the flow of red ink, it seems. The magazine is now reportedly close to selling its historic headquarters on lower Fifth Avenue for $55 million, which is nearly a third of what it was hoping to get for the building two years ago. [NYP]
Update: Forbes is now denying the report in today's Post.

Tipsters never rest! Today a source says that editors axed in brutal cuts at Forbes are rumored to be shopping a book about the Forbes brothers and a feud between them about the company's direction.

If you haven't picked up something to wear for Halloween, Forbes has posted its annual collection of masks featuring "some of the year's most frightening faces." There's a little something for everyone. The Glenn Beck will work for if you're looking to frighten your liberal friends; then there's the one of Michael Moore, which will work nicely if you plan to hang out with a bunch of conservatives this weekend. Of course, if you actually work at Forbes and you just watched the company lay off as many as 100 employees this week, the most frightening man around right now is probably Steve Forbes himself, in which case you'll need this. You're welcome. [Forbes]

• Time Inc. is expected to announce plans to slash $100 million in costs next week; naturally, lots of layoffs will be involved in making that happen. [NYT]
• The Wall Street Journal is closing its Boston bureau. Also in Beantown: The Boston Globe's publisher has announced he's stepping down. [BW, NYT]
• The war between the White House and Fox News is over. For now. [DF]
• Esquire's latest bid for relevance: Its December issue will be tricked out with "an emerging technology called augmented reality." Sounds hot. [WSJ]
• Lou Dobbs says someone fired a shot at his New Jersey home/horse farm. He's yet to blame the population of Mexico. But just give it time. [CNN]

• Tom McGeveran took over as editor of the Observer after Peter Kaplan made his exit this spring, but now he's headed out the door as well. [NYO]
• Layoffs: The cuts at Condé Nast continue though they should end soon; the layoffs at Forbes this week were deep ones: 1 in 4 editorial staffers were let go.
• Newsday's website erected a pay wall today. Good luck with that. [E&P]
• The Michael Jackson movie This Is It sold $2.2 million in tickets on its opening night, which is pretty good considering it was a Tuesday. [LAT, NYT]

The layoffs at Forbes, which we first reported on three weeks ago, arrived today, and we hear from inside the magazine that they're "real big.... huge," with a rumored 50 or so editorial staff let go. (Updates: LA+London bureaus gone.)

• Nell Scovell, a writer on Dave Letterman's show in the late '80s, has stepped forward to detail the show's "hostile, sexually charged atmosphere." [VF]
• Layoffs: Yesterday's cuts at Forbes claimed 30-40 people; reality TV-focused Teen Vogue laid off half a dozen staffers today; the cuts continue this week at W; and a big round of cuts could go down at Time Inc. sometime next week.
• Sarah Palin's memoir, which comes out next month, had already earned her $1.25 million even before she stepped down as Alaska's governor. [AP]
• Michael Jackson's This Is It debuts in theaters tonight. [NYDN]
• How's Jay Leno's new show doing more than a month in? Not so good. [NYT]

In your dark Tuesday media column: the layoff train is rollin' down the tracks that many magazines now regret installing in their offices, the San Francisco Chronicle flounders like a flounder, Wonkette hates Politico anew, and John Stossel vs. Lou Dobbs.