In your tragic Thursday media column: more info on the companywide layoffs at Village Voice Media, the NYT Co. makes money, a Washington Post heiress has a bright idea, The Economist screws up, and newspaper layoffs are back.

Now, if we've connected the proper dots, we know why they may be insisting on those criminal background checks for what we think are $80K-a-year assistantships over at Newsweek! It seems that the "World Famous Magazine" made a wee hiring error when it brought on Keely Tillona as assistant to Newsweek senior editor Lally Weymouth. Tillona had been released from Riker's Island the month before, where she'd been incarcerated on charges relating to ID fraud. Then the recidivist bilked her boss Weymouth, who is the daughter of Washington Post publisher Katharine Graham, out of $4,000 over the summer. Chanel, Lord & Taylor and Tory Burch were the beneficiaries of Newsweek's apparent inability to check out references.