A tipster is telling us that the Wall Street Journal's fabled Page One staff will be dissolved into the news desk. Page One editor Mike Williams would become a "roving features editor," which sounds much less powerful. The Page One desk is responsible, among other things, for the often breezy but always well-researched A-Hed feature, which has been increasingly marginalized as the Journal's front page gets newsier. Its disbanding would mark only the latest move by new editor Robert Thomson to remake the Journal in the image of the Financial Times, Thomson's former employer and a favorite of ultimate Journal overlord Rupert Murdoch. In fact, the paper's old guard is said by our insider to be grumbling that recent FT-like stories, like the front page article on alleged flaws in the Libor benchmark lending rate, are shoving aside "stories that appeal beyond the circle of Murdoch's friends in the global elite." But not all veteran editors are suffering under a cluster of changes said to be coming down in the coming days.

After the severe bloodletting at Hachette's websites last month, one would expect remaining survivors at Elle.com, ElleGirl.com and Premiere.com might be grateful. Not so. In fact, there's been something of an uprising against digital vice president Todd Anderman (left), a clumsy transplant from Maxim Digital. As Women's Wear Daily is reporting, two of Anderman's top underlings have resigned: fashion director Joe Berean and Keith Pollock, executive editor of Elle.com and ElleGirl.com. Left unsaid? Pollock is the shopboy installed by Elle creative director Joe Zee, with whom he is said to be cozy, so his disgruntled exit from Anderman's employ will not soon be forgotten. Nor will the purported reason, a series of Anderman-instigated messes stretching back to an embarrassing incident involving the VP's laptop and a digital projector.

The Post's Page Six continues to dribble out names of reporters laid off by the Times, and continues to imply, but not say, the layoffs are fresh — which means they likely aren't, but are instead victims of the only newsroom layoffs in Times history, which concluded May 7. Today, Page Six names one person who took the buyout, metro reporter Anthony Ramirez, plus one person forced out — cops reporter Thomas Lueck. "Lueck was on his way to work when they phoned him to say his services were no longer needed," said the Post's tipster. The Post thinks this is "heartless." Right, not at all in the gallant vein of how the Post treated its own cops reporter. [Post]

"The Wall Street Journal has hired Financial Times journalists Thorold Barker and Liam Denning, who write the New York content for the London-based paper's popular and influential Lex column." [Guardian]

Everyone seems nearly as confused in the aftermath of Jane Friedman's departure from atop HarperCollins as they were in the frantic hours before the official confirmation. But it looks increasingly like the CEO was elbowed aside. Friedman's deputy and successor, Brian Murray, has disclosed he was summoned to a meeting with Rupert Murdoch Wednesday and unexpectedly offered her job. But Friedman didn't discuss her departure with Murdoch until two days later, on Wednesday, according to a Times source "familiar with her situation." If true, that would signal Murdoch wanted her out. Perhaps the HarperCollins pipeline looked weak; Leon Neyfakh at the Observer raised the possibility of "a terrible fourth quarter." Still, there are all sorts of conflicting signals.

If you're working at a subdivision of 20th Century Fox, in Hollywood, as an intern, you can probably get away with writing an anonymous blog. What you can NOT get away with? Disclosing your college (USC), plus your gender (female), plus a plethora of details about your workday, like how you were asked to help play a prank on a celebrity and "find pools," whatever that means. With that much identifying information, you are going to get caught, even inside a large company like Fox, and everyone is then going to know about how you "sometimes... spend my day hoping no one catches me Gmail chatting with my best friend." And your boss is going to know you think he's kind of a disaster:

Kurt Andersen, Jim Cramer and—blogger Will Leitch. Deadspin's 32-year-old editor, seen most recently warring with old-time blog-hating sports writers, has landed one of the sweetest gigs in print: a columnist for Adam Moss' New York magazine.

Jacob Weisberg is stepping aside as the editor of Slate... OR IS HE? Technically, sure, he's ceding the reins after six years to deputy David Plotz, but if Slate has taught us anything, it is to question blatantly-obvious facts just for the hell of it. And if one does that, one discovers Weisberg isn't stepping down at all, he's stepping up, to run something terrifying called the Slate Group, which will be in charge of Slate and various spinoffs, including a new business site called The Big Money. Weisberg compares Slate Group to Time Inc., which of course has not only the flagship newsmagazines but also celebrity, business and sports titles, as well. It might seem natural for these new spinoffs to be, say, blogs, but of course Slate Group isn't using that word, because it's too popular. Instead the site is looking at launching "tools or news aggregators." [Times]

Jane Friedman's departure as HarperCollins CEO, first reported by Gawker, has been officially confirmed by the book publisher. Her replacement by Brian Murray, 21 years her junior, comes less than a month after a similar generational shift at Bertelsmann AG's Random House, where unsentimental German engineer Markus Dohle, 39, replaced book-loving lawyer Peter Olson, 58. The young book executives hope to fix slowing growth and to better exploit the explosion in online digital media. But it's not clear whether broad technology trends had much to do with the departure of Friedman, who got her start as a Knopf dictaphone typist four decades ago, went on to become a pioneer in audio books and online marketing and who led a unique and ambitious push to digitize HaperCollins' collection. As a surprised fellow executives groped for answers about the change last night, some speculated it might even have its roots in late 2006, when Friedman, with the backing of Roger Ailes, squelched the a high-profile book overseen by HarperCollins executive Judith Regan by alleged killer OJ Simpson, then pushed Regan out of the company in the wake of Regan's remarks about Jews. As one former News Corp. insider put it:

See the updated original post for more.

Other than contemplate the ongoing federal probe over his prostitute habit, what does former Gov. Eliot Spitzer do with himself all day? Punches the clock at his dad's real estate company, it turns out. According to the Observer, Spitzer is poised to eventually take over for his father, who has been treated for Parkinson's disease. Of course, the job means hitting up bankers Spitzer relentlessly hounded as New York attorney general. How uncomfortable. Hopefully the former john has some experience handling embarrassing and awkward situations! At least he doesn't have to worry about real estate brokers and fellow owners, back-slapping types who apparently share Spitzer's taste for quality poontang:

Less than one month ago, Times Editor Bill Keller told staff the newspaper had completed the buyout and termination of about 100 reporters and editors and that "so far nothing... suggests we will be going through this again anytime soon." But the Post today named three writers exiting the Times, and implied the departures were involuntary. Medical-devices reporter Barnaby Feder was, according to an anonymous Post source, given four days to pack up his stuff; baseball writer Murray Chass is not returning from sick leave and arts writer Lawrence Van Gelder is retiring after 41 years. The tabloid's Page Six said a "bloody ax continues to swing" at the Times, but Feder is the only of the three clearly alleged to have been forced out, and it's possible he was cut prior to Keller's May memo and somehow had his exit delayed, or that he was ejected more recently for non-economic reasons. One termination, and two possibly voluntary departures for illness and retirement do not make for layoffs, Page Six. Weak sauce. Anyone have a better handle on what's going on at the Times? [Post]

"I'm just happy to have a place that's as good as Radar for the kind of writing I want to do. I've never been good at judging a publication's longevity." [Observer]

Our source was right: Greg Gittrich is leaving the Daily News for NBC. "Insiders at NBC tell Media Ink that he is going to be the news editor of the digital operations of NBC Local Media Group, a new job." [Post]

CONSOL Energy is obviously having a hard time finding enough good people to join the ranks of the professional coal mining community. The company has produced an awesome virtual reality tour of a coal mine on its website, to help convince you what a great career coal mining can be. Apparently modern coal mines are made up of four rooms: "Challenging," "Rewarding," "Opportunity," and "Stability." Which one do you want to go to? I don't know, whichever one has the most coal! [via Adrants]

A media company identifying itself as "Cond Nast Publications" is in need of a copy editor. Specifically, the ad says, "TheAssociate Copy Editorreviews copyedited text." Urgent, please apply now! Click through for a screengrab of thisjobopportunity.

First letter of each paragraph: "GOODBYE READERS." He's taking a buyout. [Post]

Nearly a quarter of business school graduates surveyed said the number one company they want to land a job at is, unsurprisingly, Google — what with the pools, hair cuts, massages, legendary cafeteria and valuable stock. Other tech companies included Apple in fourth, Microsoft in twelfth and Amazon in 23rd place. For you managers of the future looking to get an interview with Steve Jobs, the school Apple recruits most heavily at is Stanford, followed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Michigan and the University of Chicago. [Fortune] (Photo by Sam Pullara)

"Bob Schieffer signed a new long-term contract with CBS News, the network confirmed Monday... The chief Washington correspondent initially planned to retire after the 2008 presidential election." [Broadcasting & Cable]

What does it take to get a job in this tough economy? A crazy website demonstrating that you are an insane person! Back in March we reported on Josh Millrod, a maniacal young man with a Bachelor of Music in Trumpet Performance and Certificate in Journalism from Indiana University who built a seizure-inducing site full of consciously exaggerated braggadocio about his entry-level marketing skills. And it worked! Josh writes in today to report that he has in fact landed a job in marketing, and we wish him the best of luck. This tactic also worked for ad copywriter Yutaka Tsujino, whose website proclaiming how much he sucks got him a prime job earlier this month. Professionalism was always overrated. [Earlier]