If Hearst publications were half as dirty as their new tower, well, we'd still be reading Cosmo.

• Jon Friedman thinks the CBS Evening News needs more funny. [MarketWatch]
• There's a new round of rumors that Dow Jones is for sale. The alleged buyer this time: Warren Buffett. [Dow Jones Newswires via SmartMoney]
• At conference, Sulzberger lays out plan for "meeting the demands of modern consumers while staying true to journalism's traditional values." Surprising, "make sure your paper has a major ethics crisis at least every other year" was not a recommendation. [E&P]
• The Times scandals are good news, says Bill Powers. [National Journal]
• Is the final liquidation of Primedia imminent? One can only hope. [Folio:]
• New York mag adds new section of real-estate porn, and Cosmo editor Kate White hates late close nights at the office. Yes, it's hard being a Hearst EIC. [WWD]
• We'd make a joke about hip-hop mag The Source going broke and writing bad checks, but we're a little afraid of them. [NYP]

Holy shit, did you hear? Publishers are "confident," perhaps with no good reason whatsoever! To wit: Hearst and Conde Nast have given the big, gay green light to two test titles, Weekend and Men's Vogue, respectively, which are soon to be regular fixtures in your monthly newsstand scowlathon.

• Al Gore, media mogul, is set to launch Current TV a week from today. [NYT]
• Jann Wenner and Kent Brownridge are the lovable rogues of publishing. Unless you have to work for them, in which case they're not so much lovable. [NYT]
• Another launch: Quick & Simple, Hearst's first weekly service mag, will his stands next week. Only $1.49 per issue. [Mediaweek]
• Simon Dumenco reveals all his off-the-record secrets, including the sweet nothings Jacob Bernstein whispered to him at summer camp. [Ad Age]
• New public-radio program, "Open Source," will be blog-based radio. Because that's what bloggers need: More opportunities to yammer. [NYT]

We're hearing that there's drama once-glorious halls of Hearst's drifting fashion magazine, Harper's Bazaar. Spoiler alert: the ever-so-important March cover will feature the multi-talented Gwen Stefani, as shot by... Mario Testino s assistant. No, that s not a misprint. Famed photographer Testino is on contract with Cond Nast, but his assistant Alexi Lubromirski is free to roam, and is thus picking up some extra work outside of the House Of Nasty.

Construction has finally begun on the last of the boom's media skyscrapers, a tower for Hearst, owner of Cosmopolitan and much else. We would make some superstitious remark about business nemesis, inevitably follows real estate hubris, with a nod to AOL Time Warner. But the Hearst tower, designed by Norman Foster, is rather stylish. It's hard to think of a better waste of investors' money.
Foster's Hearst building [Wired New York]

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