• Another hour of "Today" just means more Al Roker to love. And, you know, Ann Curry. [WSJ]
  

Sure, Viacom's had a pretty tumultuous year, with enough layoffs, tear-soaked executive shitcannings, high-profile pissing matches between superannuated overlords drunk on power and the overpaid, fading megastars who test their patience, and random on-lot conflagrations to test the morale of even the most slavishly dedicated drone. But that's precisely why a heartfelt, year-ending memo from the corporation's new CEO (you know, the person who replaced the guy who everybody loved) is so important: Without a well-spun accounting of all the things that went right within the faceless multimedia corporation (15 Golden Globe nominations! The launch of a bilingual music channel targeting bicultural Hispanics! Other stuff!) and an obligatory expression of thanks for hard work manifested mainly in stock price fluctuations, employees might be sent off to their holiday vacations thinking only about the turmoil of the past 12 months. After the jump, New Fearless Leader Phillipe Dauman's 2006-capping note to his charges (forwarded to us by someone who wants us all to feel like we're part of the corporate family), which is sure to send his little Viacommies to their brief hiatus pumping their fists and ready for the fresh challenges of the New Year.

It's got to be tough to work at the Times right now: Rumors are swirling about a change in ownership, the paper's relevance is being questioned by both the right and the left, and it's holiday time, which means your chances of getting ass-grabbed by a jolly Bill Safire have increased exponentially. To top it all off, Bill Keller - sounding like a man who has suffered a serious beating at the hands of the circulation department - has just announced that deadlines are being moved up half an hour. The idea is that if more customers in the suburbs can get their papers earlier in the morning, circulation will magically rise and Pinch won't be forced to sell more space in the new Times tower. What does this (probably futile) move mean for you? Basically nothing: You read the paper on line, much like everyone else here in the twenty-first century. Full memo after the jump.

We just got a memo that the Wall Street Journal, the paper which shamed the New York Stock Exchange into closing in observance of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, has finally acknowledged the holiday itself:

Earlier today we mentioned Time Inc.'s plan to jettison a boatload of titles. Well, it has come to pass. After the jump, the full memo from Chairman Ann Moore. Our favorite bit? "In all there are 18 print titles for sale. 440 employees work at the Time4 Media titles involved and another 120 work at The Parenting Group. I want to thank our colleagues at these magazines for all their hardwork over the years. They serve their audiences well, and we will continue to work closely with them until the sale is final."

Hot New York Times memo action! In an attempt to curb the newsroom's insatiable appetite for placing heavily surcharged direct phone calls from hotel rooms, assistant managing editor William Schmidt drops knowledge on how to use this Internet thing everyone's talking about to actually save money on travel. The first tip is to ignore the red-flagged "Out of Policy" notices on the NYT's own travel-booking portal, since someone finally realized that Expedia & co. have been gleefully reaming the paper by disqualifying some of the cheapest flights. "Ignore those little red flags and other warnings!" declares an insouciant Schmidt. "Common sense should prevail, not policy guidelines." But really, coach travel only? And what about Cathy Horyn's ros per diem? Full memo after the jump.

Oh dear. Look what we missed on 43rd Street this afternoon:

So after Time Inc. made it through those tumultuous rounds of layoffs and other cutbacks a few months ago, it's all clear sailing these days at 1271 Sixth Avenue, right? Well, maybe not. Chairman Ann Moore's quarterly status report went out to Time Inc.'ers yesterday, and it starts on a bad note — that Q1 at the mag publisher was "less robust than we expected," coming in below last year's Q1. But then things pick up: The new management structure is leaner and faster! The mags are all industry leaders! The whole thing is a very important part of Time Warner! The web! And, of course, there's this bit of heartwarming job-security news: After all those earlier layoffs, "we do hope the majority of eliminations is behind us." We're sure those of you still toiling at the company will sleep soundly after that declaration.

We've never really heard of Circus magazine, and we suspect this entirely our own fault, because we're so inexcusably square. We're told it's a big-deal rock and metal mag, and, like Rolling Stone, it has been around since the late '60s and run by the same guy the whole time. Or, at least, that was the case until yesterday, when freelancers learned it had unceremoniously shut down. In an era when rich Hachette shutters seemingly successful ELLEgirl because projections didn't look good, when rich Mort Zuckerman can't decide whether or not he's actually willing to sink money in Radar, this has got to be the saddest magazine-closure email we've seen:

One of the major new features promised when the Times announced an exciting new redesign of its website at the start of April was the MyTimes personalized homepages — enriched with the expertise of real, live Timespeople. Of course, MyTimes wasn't actually available then, and, six week later, it's still not. But good news: It's getting close! A memo to Times staffers yesterday afternoon announced it is finally being introduced internally. ("Please do not distribute information about it outside the company," the memo says. So: Shhh!) Invitations will go out to those readers who signed up to be notified in a week or two, and it'll go to all readers a bit later. We can barely contain ourselves till then.

Remember the consolidation of the Times regional sections we mentioned before? Apparently, it's not going so well. Sure, providing the same stories for New Jersey, Long Island, and Connecticut might make economic sense, but West Orange guidos are completely different from Bayshore guidos, and there's no way a single piece can do justice to the rich palette of tones and colors that those two divergent groups display. In any event, folks at the NYT have realized this, and restored some local reporting.

Alert! Alert! Security breach! Someone who is not a Conde editor potentially getting perks of the sort reserved only for Conde editors!

This say-it-ain't-so memo just in from HBO headquarters on Bryant Park:

Timesman Rick Berke was promoted in January to become the paper's assistant managing editor for news. In that capacity, as Bill Keller noted in the memo announcing the move, Berke would count among his duties supervising "a serious conversation about the quality of writing at the paper." So, pray tell, what do you think would increase the quality of writing in the Times? We'd suggest starting with the lengths of stories — and Berke says he agrees. Which is why it's quite so amusing that the first fruits of that "serious discussion" — released at the very end of the day Friday, which a serious newsman like Berke would no doubt find a curious time for a major organization to be releasing information — is a memo that runs to 29 pages (including the lovely MSWord-designed cover, above right).

Thought the star system at The New York Times died with Howell Raines' editorship? Perhaps in the public eye, yes. But in the way that really matters — the pocketbook — far from it. Since 1990, it turns out, the Times has awarding favored writers a special "senior writer" status — which is to say, a we-like-you cash bonus. But there's a problem! With no one moving out of the senior-writer slots, there's no way to move new people in. And so there was a memo from Bill Keller yesterday: Senior writer terms will now last for only four years, after which you might be renewed but might not be. This way, there'll be new slots opening regularly, and the chance for new hotshots to get their bonuses.

As if things aren't already tough enough for the Sun, New York's little right-wing paper that sometimes can, now it's facing a vicious attack from within. This email from publicity chief Maggie Shnayerson was circulated to the staff earlier this afternoon:

An email sent to the EW staff earlier this week:

We've received a copy of a memo recently circulating around the House of Conde regarding four organized running events. For those of you who aren't fluent in physical fitness, we've provided our handy translation services:

The sun is shining, the pollen is in the air, and that means one of our favorite times of year is right around the corner: Media softball season! And with that comes our favorite part of our favorite time of year: Media softball memos! And here's the opening pitch, an announcement of New York's first — and compulsory — softball game. In which they will be playing against themselves. (But don't knock it, to paraphrase the Woodman: It's a game with someone you love.)

Nearly a month ago we reported that Charles DuBow, lifestyle editor at Forbes.com, was packing up his "wealth porn" and moving it over to BusinessWeek.com. Now he's there, and he's not happy. Know that Roger Franklin is the site's copy chief, then read: