Here we are in the fifth day of the Possible Spitzer Hooker #2 saga, and the tabloid accusations continue to fly back and forth like so many bullets made of sex. Kristin Davis, who everyone agrees ran several high-priced call girl rings, also stands accused by the Post of servicing Eliot Spitzer himself; the Daily News says she has no connection to the Love Guv. The latest developments: Daily News sez madam serviced big sports star; No way, sez Post. Plus: Is the Kristin Davis "Black Book" client list a hoax? The Post says yes, for some reason!

The owners of wilting alt weekly The Village Voice continue to condemn their staff to the torture of a thousand cuts. Last week, the Voice's overlords at cost-cutting conglomerate The New Times laid off dance critic Deborah Jowitt after she'd served forty years at the paper. Now, an insider tells us that writer Chris Thompson-who relocated his family from San Francisco to take the job-has been let go. The problem, our tipster says, is that Voice editor-in-chief Tony Ortega has most of his hiring decisions dictated to him by his New Times bosses "and then he sulks because he doesn't really like them, and then decides they aren't 'working out.'" More Voice woes after the jump.

Newspaper advertising dropped 7.9% last year-and that's before the recession really bit. Revenue from their websites, that sliver at the top in slightly paler red, could only slow the decline. [Data from the Newspaper Association of America. Chart by Gawker.]

In the UK, entertainment reporters have a reputation for being tough and heartless when it comes to reporting on celebrities. But you have to give them this: They're also horny sleazebags. At least one is. His name is Rob Grainge, and he works for the London Paper. Now that French first lady Carla Bruni is getting so much press for her tour of England and other endeavors, the London Paper is trying to get some renewed interest in Grainge's interview with Bruni last year, when she was still a simple model and celebrity. And it is interesting, as a case study in a reporter being unable to control his metaphorical boner while interviewing a pretty woman.

The story of Kristin Davis, who the Post fingered yesterday as not only a high-priced madam, but also another hooker visited by Eliot Spitzer, is actually getting more interesting. Why? Because every new story that comes out makes it less clear if Davis actually has any connection to Spitzer. The Post says she does! The Daily News says she doesn't! And the Times doesn't really say anything! Verrrrrrrrrrryyy interesting. Somebody has screwed up on this story, big time. After the jump, we speculate—plus, we have some insight into the Daily News' big "Madam's Black Book" cover story today.

Even at a quarter, the New York Sun is tough sell. The paper is such a joke we don't even make it fun of it. At best, it's like an animal shelter for unemployed New York writers. But even if it's a bizarre Zionist vanity project, someone needs to move that paper. So it falls to the telemarketers to sell the paper's lies. A tipster sent a recording of the pitch. We've dutifully transcribed the absurd stuff, after the jump.

We never thought we'd see the day when the Governor of New York's illegal sex trysts would give us only a renewed sense of ennui, but: Okay, we get it. The guy liked hookers. If the Post keeps this up, lots of other valuable yellow journalism will fail to make the front page. Click to enlarge the cover shot. And after the jump, Eliot Spitzer hooker #2 Kristin Davis' MySpace picture, JUST TO GET IT OUT OF THE WAY:

Well, that didn't last long. Feisty Robert MacMillan got a job at the Wall Street Journal after the wire service reporter buttonholed Rupert Murdoch on his first visit to the newspaper the media mogul acquired last year. (MacMillan: "Can you tell me what you talked to the editors about?" To security guard: "Please don't touch me." Murdoch: "No.") The Reuters reporter's impromptu interview didn't elicit any information but his shamelessness seems to have recommended him to Murdoch's lieutenants at the Journal, who hired him in February to cover the media industry for the business newspaper. For a month, at least. MacMillan's Facebook profile indicates he's already returned to Reuters.

The Smoking Gun says that the LA Times' big investigative scoop last week implicating Bad Boy records chief Sean "Puffy" Combs in the 1994 shooting and robbery of rival rapper Tupac Shakur was based on fabricated evidence. The site says that James Sabatino (pictured)—an incarcerated con man who appeared as a player in the shooting in the LAT story—is actually a fabulist who forged the FBI reports that the paper relied on to build its investigation.

How on Earth is this Times piece about how it is too expensive for reporters to actually tag along with campaigns not headlined "On This Year's Bus, Fewer Boys (and Girls)" or something along those lines? "The Buzz on the Bus" barely qualifies as one of those Timesian barely qualifying puns. Anyway, it's a bad thing that no newspapers send reporters on the bus (or plane) anymore, because newspapers are dying, but it's also a good thing, because of blogs and the YouTube. Also there is a picture of Mark Halperin playing make-believe reporter and looking cold. [NYT]

Arthur Sulzberger's bonus, now tied more closely to performance targets at his family's newspaper, the New York Times, rose 113% last year. Meanwhile, advertising revenues at the group were down 13.8% in December, compared with 12 months earlier.

Howard University has completely stopped publication of its daily student newspaper, The Hilltop, after finding out that it owed $48,000 to its printer. Now the staff is pissed about the publishing suspension, the administration is pissed about the money, and both are wondering how the paper managed to lose $20,000 from its account for no apparent reason. These accounting shenanigans surprise me not one bit, because Howard University has been sending me bills for money I don't owe for the past seven years or so. Stop harassing me and maybe you'll have better luck with the paper! It's all karma. [Black College Wire via Romenesko]

Whatever your feelings toward the New York Post, the feisty tab sure does have a way with headlines. And, of course, Page Six has no problem boasting about it-or cross-promoting tasty corporate products. Harper Entertainment, which, like the Post, is owned by monolithic News Corp., is publishing Headless Body in Topless Bar, a celebration of some of the paper's greatest hits. Page Six's top picks after the jump.

The crap economy and the internet are turning America's super-stores into haggling dens where savvy shoppers and retailers negotiate sales without regard for sticker prices, according to today's New York Times. "'We want to work with the customer, and if that happens to mean negotiating a price, then we're willing to look at that,' said Kathryn Gallagher, a spokeswoman for Home Depot." Haggling at Home Depot? That'd be kind of neat if it happened. But it doesn't-at least not anywhere in the article.

Tribune CEO Sam Zell's plan to cut 400 to 500 jobs from his newspaper fiefdom—including 150 positions at the Los Angeles Times alone—could be good news for some eager younglings. Rumors are mounting that LAT publisher David Hiller is hot to replace all those costly veteran reporters with J-School kids just hungry and indebted enough to work for scraps. If you've heard anything, kindly hit the tips button. [najp.org]

Since when is Newsday so hot? The paper consistently publishes the most boring front page of any of the Gotham tabloids, but the publication is clearly stirring the passions of corporate tycoons. Rupert Murdoch's interest emerged yesterday; now it's clear that the News Corp. CEO and Post owner must queue with other suitors interested in winning Newsday from money-hemorrhaging Tribune Company. Daily News owner Mort Zuckerman wants the paper for largely the same reason as Murdoch, which is to merge business-side offices and cut costs enough to drive the remaining, unaffiliated tabloid out of business. Long Island cable operator Cablevision Systems Corp. is bidding, perhaps so it can cross-sell ads from its cable system and local news channel into Newsday. It's not clear that the other two bidders are as serious as Murdoch, or can afford to be, but broker Citigroup is apparently planning a "soft auction." Newspaper analyst John Morton estimates Newsday could fetch $350 million to $400 million, down about half from its value five years ago. Kind of sad for what Morton described, in the Times' retelling, as "probably one of Tribune's more lucrative papers." [Times, WSJ]

New York has long been an anomaly among American cities: the metropolitan area supports four competing daily newspapers, the New York Times, the Post, Daily News and, in Long Island, Newsday. Maybe not for much longer. Crains, the business newspaper, claims Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation may have approached the owners of Newsday, Sam Zell's Tribune Company, with a bid. That the Australian media mogul would make such a bid is less a sign of confidence in the newspaper industry, and more an indication of the decline in print advertising, which has put pressure on all newspaper groups. It's only since the latest horrific numbers came out that Newsday's erratic owner, Sam Zell, has indicated Tribune may be willing to sell. (The conglomerate lost $78m in the fourth quarter.)

Evil terrorist and fashion icon Osama Bin Laden is just like some slow, cranky old man: sitting around the cave, reading the newspaper, complaining about the funny pages. The world's most wanted criminal released another audio tape yesterday, specifically to condemn those stupid fucking Danish Muhammad cartoons, and threaten Europe with a "severe reckoning." The main cartoon (which is for sale, and pictured) was reprinted last month in a show of solidarity with the cartoonist, who lives in safe houses because his life is in danger [WP]. Still! For the stupid half-funny cartoon! Enough already, Muslim extremists! "I have always been an atheist, and I dare say these events have only intensified my atheism," the cartoonist tells the New York Times. Smooth move, extremists: you're making him like god even less. Nice spiritual persuasion there. Below, the full page of mediocre cartoons, once again. Gosh.

You might remember the article about sex workers in the Sunday New York Times, "The Double Lives of High-Priced Call Girls," that interviewed a Williamsburg artist and "part-time prostitute," an internet escort raising money for her uninsured father's operation, and a dominatrix. The article appeared calm and fair, and didn't identify the working women as victims. However, one of the women profiled, the artist/part time prostitute "Faith O'Donnell," was unhappy with how she was represented. The article described her as "25, is a hipster with entrancing blue eyes who carries an NPR tote bag and might offer up a few pleasantries on the Whole Foods checkout line before turning back to her Junot Diaz novel." But that's not what irked her! On the sex workers' blog Bound, Not Gagged, she tells us "How the NYT Got an Interview Wrong: For one thing, basic details were wrong, but too many identifying details were included, despite my request to the contrary (I wish I had paid off my student loans!)..."

Ew: David Berkowitz, the jailed "Son of Sam" serial killer who stalked New York women in the late 70s, has written a book: Son of Hope—The Prison Journals of David Berkowitz, Volume 1. He's a Christian now! Village Voice columnist Michael Musto begs us not to buy it: "I can still vividly remember being a teen harlot when Berkowitz was killing people left and right in my native Brooklyn, and having to race home from the subway after a night at Studio 54, terrified that he'd put an end to my partying." Know who also has a new book out? Jimmy Breslin (The Good Rat), badass Pulitzer-winning reporter who was at the Daily News when he received a weirdo handwritten letter from Berkowitz: "Hello from the gutters of N.Y.C. which are filled with dog manure, vomit, stale wine, urine and blood..." An excerpt of Berkowitz's book follows, which refers to something called "the Force."