Well, HMMM: the New York Times Co. just announced that CEO Janet Robinson is "retiring." It's fair to call this unexpected. Try reading between these lines, from the NYT's own story:

In your mordant Monday media column: News Corp pays up for Milly Dowler, Janet Robinson tweets in secret, Ted Koppel could head to NBC, Americans think Fox News is "the best," and a Senator's wife finally resigns from a newspaper.

In your gray Monday media column: Dan Abrams stands united with Arianna Huffington, Janet Robinson's hard times, Robin Roberts tweets, Disney wants (more of) your kids' money, Foster Kamer to the NYO, and a Sulzberger story.

Close to 100 Times newsroom employees were laid off at the end of 2009. (Another 1,300 accepted a pay cut last May.) NYT CEO Janet Robinson did a lot better! She collected $6.2 million in total compensation in 2009.

Here is the internal New York Times memo that followed the company's release of their third quarter financial results.

The New York Times, which six months ago forced staffers to take a 5% paycut, has been overpaying its publisher and CEO for nearly two years in violation of its own compensation rules. We're supposed to bail these people out?

The New York Times has talked about charging again for some of its website; its CEO recently alluded to a "membership model with special offerings." What does that mean? Meet NYT Gold and NYT Silver.

• How's the New York Times Co. planning to lift itself out of the financial mess it's been in? Times Co. chief Janet Robinson says more cuts are on the way and the company is planning to sell off more assets. Also, there's some sort of paid membership model in the works, apparently. [WSJ, Gawker]
• Related: The paper says it will sell its stake in the Red Sox by January. [BG]
• What you missed at Walter Cronkite's funeral yesterday. [NYT, WaPo]
• Best-selling author E. Lynn Harris has died. He was 54. [NYT]
• More magazine is teaming up with Candace Bushnell on a new Web series starring 90210's Jennie Garth and Talia Balsam from Mad Men. [MW]
• After a ten-year run, today is Paula Froelich's last day at Page Six. [NYM]

New York Times Co. chairman Arthur Sulzberger Jr. and CEO Janet Robinson sent out a self-congratulatory memo this morning. Among their accomplishments: the New York Times still exists, despite Michael Hirschorn's prediction that it might not. Hirschorn tells us: "Speaking as 'one writer,' I'm genuinely happy to be proven wrong." Also, employees have lost a lot of their pay and benefits and they're raising newsstand and subscription prices. Go team! (via Nieman Lab and the Awl)

In your ever-gray Wednesday media column: Les Moonves can barely afford a dozen new million-dollar condos, The Daily Beast folds on freelance contracts, layoffs at MTV and TruTV, and the New York Times Co. is sick of your rumormongering.

• New York Times Co. CEO Janet Robinson "isn't happy with the media." She'd also like to make it clear that the company is not currently up for sale, so please put your dollar bills back in your wallet, thank you very much. [MW]
• Ten movies will compete for Best Picture at the Oscars now, not 5. [THR]
• Sad: Dick Cheney landed a $2 million deal to publish his memoir. [NYT]
• Also sad: MSNBC, the illustrious home of blowhard Keith Olbermann, seems to think its tired prison docs are more important than covering Iran. [LAT]
• Director David Fincher is in talks to make a movie about Facebook. [Reuters]
• The always classy In Touch spent $75,000 to purchase photos of Kate Gosselin spanking her kids in public for its cover last week. [WWD, NYP]

There haven't been too many reasons for New York Times Co. CEO Janet Robinson to celebrate in recent months. But today there is! Robinson turns 59 today. Other people with something to smile about today: Charlie Rangel is turning 79. Shia LaBeouf is 23. Fox News anchor Greta Van Susteren turns 55. Actor Peter Dinklage is 40. Public advocate Betsy Gotbaum turns 71. Cardiologist (and Oprah BFF) Mehmet Oz is turning 49. Mets shortstop José Reyes is 26. Hugh Laurie is 50. Actor Joshua Jackson is turning 31. Former housing secretary Henry Cisneros is 62. And former football great Joe Montana turns 53 today.

• The New York Times Co.'s bank balance is running a bit low, but that hasn't detered the company from handing out lavish pay packages. The company's CEO, Janet Robinson, received a total compensation package valued at $5.58 million in 2008, up from $4.14 million in 2007. [NYP, HP]
• Is Rachel Maddow losing her glow? March was the lowest-rated month so far for Maddow's MSNBC show since its debut last fall. [LAT]
• The Chicago Tribune plans to cut another 20 percent of its newsroom staff as it looks to reduce expenses amid continuing declines in advertising. [CB]
• Yahoo posted a 78 percent decline in quarterly profits and said it would eliminate about 675 more jobs, or 5% of its work force. [WSJ]
• Tonight is Len Berman's last night at WNBC. [NYDN]

Class rage at the New York Times! While the paper is on a ride straight to no-money hell, the execs are still getting paid big bucks. The NYT's not living up to its editorial page!

• It's been a dark day at the New York Times: Arthur Sulzberger Jr. and Janet Robinson announced a five percent salary reduction for all editors and said 100 employees on the business side would be laid off. [Gawker, NYO, NYT]
• Blender has been shuttered; April will be the mag's last issue. [AdAge]
• The Washington Post is offering buyouts again. And if enough people don't take 'em, the paper says a round of layoffs will follow. [Politico]
• Richard Beckman is out as Condé Nast's marketing chief; he'll be heading up the company's Fairchild Fashion Group instead. [WSJ, Crains]
• It's getting a little stormy over at the Weather Channel! [NYP]
• Rod Blagojevich may have some sort of reality show in the works. [CST]
• ABC News has settled a lawsuit filed against Diane Sawyer. [NYP]
• Barry Diller is the proud new owner of SportsPickle.com. [PaidContent]
• The most newspaper-friendly city in America? Rochester! [E&P]

♦ David Pecker's AMI, the publisher of the Star and National Enquirer, has been near bankruptcy for months. Now it's one step closer. [NYP]
♦ The details of Judith Regan's settlement with News Corp. have been revealed: It cost the company $10.75 million to make her go away. [Bloomberg]
♦ Janet Robinson says there are no plans to sell the Times. [E&P]
♦ A brief explanation for why newspapers are so screwed right now. [NYT, AP]
♦ An increasingly desperate OK! has cut the price of the mag. [NYP]
♦ The reorganization of Random House will likely leave Sonny Mehta the big winner. [NYO]
♦ Les Moonves on the state of network TV: "The model ain't broke." [THR]
♦ Gus Van Sant's Milk was named by the New York Film Critics Circle as the best film of 2008. [THR]

Peter Dinklage is short and old. He turns 39 today. Also celebrating: Scientology-lovin' Fox News legal eagle Greta Van Susteren is 54. Style.com's Candy Pratts Price looks damn good for someone turning 59. Harlem's own Charlie Rangel is turning 78. On the local political front, fire department commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta is 76 and public advocate is Betsy Gotbaum's turning 70. Mets shortstop José Reyes is celebrating his 25. Indiana Jones cutie Shia LeBeouf turns 22. Times CEO Janet Robinson is 58. Surgeon (and friend of Oprah) Mehmet Oz turns 48.

About.com's Scott Meyer was forced out as CEO of the New York Times-owned website after his senior staff threatened to quit unless he left, a tipster tells us. NYT CEO Janet Robinson had wanted to keep Meyer on, even though his reports ridiculed him as a biz-dev type who was clueless about the Web. That he left without a replacement indicates how deep the revolt went. For NYT Digital chief Martin Nisenholtz, who's running About.com for the time being, the gig is temporary, and involuntary. "Martin definitely doesn't want to run About," says our source — though he also pressed Robinson to do something about Meyer. As for replacements? Ron McCoy, the company's chief digital architect, and an early pioneer of search-engine optimization, is the heavy lifter at About.com, but he's not a candidate for the CEO spot: He flies in from Atlanta, and is said to be uninterested in management.

As former president and CEO of the New York Times Co., Robinson headed up day-to-day corporate operations at the newspaper. She retired in 2011.

Last week, Keith Kelly claimed that the New York Times will finally end the long national joke that is TimesSelect—you just know Maureen Dowd is cursing those Freakonomics guys right now for being able to refuse to have their blog behind the TimesSelect pay wall!—and a quick look at the just-out July numbers confirms that the core group of 225,000 or so people who signed up to pay for the service in the first place are pretty much the same people who still subscribe. (Everyone else either gets it free as part of their home delivery service, or as part of a college/university deal.) Whenever it does get shut down, it'll be a speck of egg on the faces of Times CEO Janet Robinson and Publisher Arthur "Pinch" Sulzberger Jr. But the failure of TimesSelect is probably the least of their worries right now: Their ad revenue, especially in the Regional Media Group (all those little papers they own in places like Lakeland, Florida) and classifieds across the board, is having a bit of a summer slump.