• Does Jann want to sell off Wenner Media? [WWD]
• And does Time Warner no longer want to sell off part of AOL? [NYT]
• Former Regan Media flack Paul Crichton could be considering suing his old boss Judith over her characterization of his departure. Oh, the fun never stops over there. [Radar]
• Washington Post Magazine Reader Peter Carlson discovers the charms of erstwhile New York Presser and onetime Spicoli gondolier Matt Taibbi. [WP]
• ABC went with Vargas and Woodruff only after the network couldn't reach a deal with Charlie Gibson. [NYT]
• And apparently there's this cool blog revolutionizing Hollywood coverage. [LA Mag]

With time, the jheri curl relaxes.

A pal far more theatrical than we are calls to our attention, per the latest Wenner Media tumult, the opening scene of Shakespeare's King Lear. In it, Lear banishes a loyal longtime ally from his kingdom, even though the ally is merely looking out for the king's best interests.

It's tough to decide on our favorite bit in WWD's profile today of outgoing Wenner Media honcho Kent Brownridge.

With longtime general manager Kent Brownridge on his way to retirement, Jann Wenner will need a new bad cop to his (moderately) good cop. The early money is on Gary Armstrong, Wenner Media's chief marketing officer.

"My nickname for him was Dr. Evil," media commentator Simon Dumenco once said of Wenner Media's Kent Brownridge, "because there is actually an admirably playful edge to his evilness." For 31 years, Brownridge has been Jann Wenner's businessman and hatchet man — the guy who took Jann and Jane's little San Francisco rock magazine and built it into a significant publisher, and the guy who keeps all the Wenner trains running on time, occasionally by firing a conductor or two. "[H]e is the soul — the very moral center — of the magazine business laid bare," Dumenco said in that same interview with the Times. "Other grandees, like Jann, try to disguise their ruthlessness with charm and smoke and mirrors, but Kent, God love him, just lets it hang out."

So what to do when no one will come run your men's lifestyle magazine because everyone hates the idea of working for you? When you're so well known for meddling and overruling that one candidate for the job, who refuses to be considered for the position, comments, "It's like going to work for George Steinbrenner?" Easy! Put yourself in charge.

We recently realized that, despite the usual piss and vinegar we dump upon Jann Wenner's well-coiffed head, he does something for his employees that many media masters do not: He provides cheap flu shots. Granted, the health initiative could merely be to protect himself from getting sick whilst meandering around the Wenner Media office, but we don't really care about the rationale. The shots are included in the monthly healthcare costs for which most are already paying for, and the shots are offered in-office. It's so easy, we're inclined to think of Papa Jann as the King of Media Inoculation.

So Michael Caruso, the EIC of that other Wenner Media title, Men's Journal, packed up his office yesterday and announced that he was off like an old lady's libido. Having spent two years helming the apple in Jann Wenner's eye, Caruso's decided not to renew his contract, which was up in November. According to Mediaweek, the move isn't much of a surprise: Caruso had spent most of the summer complaining about the company's "management style." Gosh, what could Caruso possibly be unhappy about?

So we've been perusing the content over at our media gossip cousin Jossip's house lately, and we couldn't help but notice a fixation with Wenner Media that may, truthfully, put our Conde Nastiness to shame. Not that Wenner's Us Weekly and Rolling Stone aren't worthy of obsession, but, uh, they're not. It's Men's Journal that's the real gem of Jann Wenner's crown. But that isn't what's the problem, anyhow.

• With only 50 out of 367 employees contributing, Jann Wenner's hurricane relief fundraising drive hasn't had the sort of response he'd "hoped for." Well, Jann, your employees haven't had the sort of salaries they'd hoped for. [Jossip]
• More on the Bellis front: Bret Easton Ellis thinks Katie Couric is a bitch and "very glib" about publishing. [WWeek]
• Our local primary elections are right around the corner; time to learn the difference between your ass and your elbow. [Gotham Gazette]
• Sometimes, we'd give money just to make the benefit concerts stop. [Black Table]
• The ten most ignored news stories of the year. Get riled up or something. [SFBG]
• FishbowlDC joins the scooping frenzy with an advance copy of Carl Bernstein's account of being scooped by Vanity Fair in the outing of Mark Felt as Deep Throat. [FishbowlDC]

Well-coifed young Jossip continues his gavel-to-gavel coverage of Jann Wenner's annual OCD-a-thon, late yesterday reporting that today is the big day: After several rounds of pre-inspections, he says, the man himself will finally be wiping his white glove through the Rolling Stone, Us Weekly, and Men's Journal offices, giving the final word on who has sufficiently tidied their workspace and who must instead be taking outside and shot.

Bushy-tailed young Jossip, who's been breaking major scoops on the Jann-Wenner-is-a-crazed-neat-freak beat, today delivers the money shot. He's got the formal, official, formal official email from the Rolling Stone and Us Weekly publisher about the housecleaning that's in store.

The Post's Keith Kelly brought news earlier in the week that Rolling Stone honcho Jann Wenner is in talks with MTV to launch an Apprentice-style reality show in which aspiring rock journalists compete for a chance to work at RS. We thought it only fair to the college kids drooling over this opportunity to tell them what it's really like to work for Wenner Media, and so we solicited favorite Jann tales from our readers. As always, you guys delivered.

Anything good — hell with good; anything successful — must be copied ad nauseum, and so today's Post brings news that Rolling Stone frontman Jann Wenner will become the latest mogul to rip off Donald Trump's The Apprentice. Janny-boy is in talks with MTV Networks to create the show, in which he'll star, reports Krazy Keith Kelly.

The Post's Keith Kelly gets a preview of Talk veteran Maer Roshan's soon-to-be-launched magazine, Radar, and notes that it's already taking swipes at other magazines. Media targets include Jann Wenner, Bonnie Fuller, and particularly Details editor Dan Peres. "Let's Get One Thing Straight," says one article, "Dan Peres, editor-in-chief of Details, is not gay. But his magazine sure seems to be."
Radar's attitude: more SPY than Vanity Fair [Keith Kelly - Post]

Keith Kelly reports that Jann Wenner renewed Us Weekly Editor Bonnie Fuller's contract for three years. Newsstand sales have increased over 55.2% during her tenure. (According to our completely unscientific estimate, tacky photos of 20 year old pop stars have increased 72.3%. Actual text has decreased 89.6% and multisyllabic words have decreased 63.4%. Not that we're saying there's a correlation...)
Bonnie's bonanza [Keith Kelly - Post]

US Weekly Editor Bonnie Fuller's contract is up in a little over two weeks and she's negotiating with Wenner Media Chairman Jann Wenner for a three-year renewal. Says one insider, "On the surface, it should be a no-brainer...But if any two people can screw it up, it's Bonnie and Jann."
Fuller contract countdown [Post]

If you can get your hands on a copy of the January issue of Toronto Life, there's an extensive feature-length profile of Us Weekly editor and "evil genius" Bonnie Fuller. Some things you may not know: She refused to tell people her daughter had leukemia for fear that they would think she was using it for professional advancement. The working title of her memoir was From Geek to Oh My Goddess: How to Have the Big Career and the Big Love Life and the Big FamilyEven If You Have a Big Loser Complex Inside. She didn't tell her husband about her nose job.