Continuing our obsession with Modern Love, that guilty-pleasure landmark of Relationships Today in the NYT's Sunday Styles section, we present some evidence. The Gay Recluse explains the column's Problem with the Gays: "In what is arguably the 'gayest' section of The Times, more women have written about gay men than gay men have... openly gay writers almost never appear, and even less frequently describe a romantic relationship." And he's done the math! Click for the tally.

Cherry-lipped Times columnist Maureen Dowd emphatically does not remember Times of London reporter Michelle Henery, but Henery sure remembers Dowd. At a recent Democratic presidential debate, Dowd got all "OMG so good to see you" with Henery even though they'd never met before, Henery wrote yesterday in a column. The explanation, based on Henery's scientific and conclusive email poll of friends: Dowd must have mistaken her for Michelle Obama. "I wondered how white America was going to elect a black man for president if they could not even tell us apart," wrote Henery, an American. The angry Dowd reaction, along with excerpts from Henery's yanked-from-the-Web column and pictures of both Michelles, after the jump.

"During [the American Society of Magazine Editors Awards], I sat between two of my all-time favorite people - one was Tina Brown's husband, Harry Evans; the other was the young writer Christopher Buckley," writes 85-year-old NY Post gossip columnist Liz Smith. "Young" Christopher Buckley, author of Thank You For Smoking, is a fresh-faced 55 years old. (The Post's other gossip columnist, Cindy Adams, is just 82 77). [NYP]

Trouble in the Windy City! Not only has the parent company of the Chicago Sun-Times put itself up for sale, but the paper's editorial page editor has finally resigned over changes made to her edit board's political endorsements. In a departing note to staff, Cheryl Reed tosses in allegations of racism and sexism over the editorials, which she says were "were rewritten by white men." And we thought white women were the problem! Our post-feminist rant after the jump.

Whoa! Novelist Michael Chabon (The Yiddish Policemen's Union) hits us with a little dose of crazy about Obama in a Washington Post op-ed. Basically, he's sick to death of people talking smack about Obama when they damn well know he's the best man for the job. In fact, he isn't isn't going to take it anymore! "There are many reasons not to support Barack Obama's candidacy for president," he begins, "but every one of them is bad for the same reason."

San Antonio's Express-News is concerned about the state of American matrimony. (Under siege, say experts!) To illustrate the front-page story, the Texas newspaper ran pictures of Nell and Wallace Crain: one on their wedding day, and now, as a loving elderly couple, still together after 67 years. The secret: a commitment to stay "married until death", according to the photo caption. Unfortunately, death had indeed broken their bond, unbeknownst to the Express-News' editors. Nell and Wallace Crain, interviewed last summer, died within two weeks of eachother, around Thanksgiving. The author of the piece, J. Michael Parker, explained: "I didn't feel like Mr. Crain's comments needed updating." The Express-News' abject correction, and apology, after the jump.

Advertising revenues at the New York Times have fallen off a cliff. Even allowing for the short accounting month, revenues at the Sulzbergers' core news properties were down 13.8% in December compared with twelve months earlier. (For the year as a whole, the decline was "only" 6.1%.) So, what does this mean? First, the erosion of the Times' print business is accelerating. Second, the growth of the news properties' online advertising, which was up 20% in December, isn't nearly rapid enough to compensate. And, third, if other newspapers show these dismal results, take that as a sign that the recession has hit advertising spending.

The News Corporation headquarters on 6th Avenue, the prospective home for Rupert Murdoch's Wall Street Journal, at least sounds like a building shabby enough for a newspaper. A spy on the 10th floor, which houses Murdoch's tabloid, the New York Post, describes the scene: broken chairs, redundant computer terminals never cleared away, old filing cabinets. Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal's main rival, the New York Times, has just moved into a shiny new building designed by Renzo Piano, the Italian starchitect. It's not natural: journalists were not meant to work under such fine conditions. In the form of a table, here's a handy guide to the new offices of the battling broadsheet newspapers.

Slate's TV Club was worried about a scene from The Wire in which an editor is chastised for cursing in the newsroom. Is that even possible? (It's getting that you can't even tell a female coworker she has a nice rack anymore!) Romenesko solicited swearing-in-the-newsroom tips, and reporters and former copyboys everywhere responded. What the fuck did they say?

Metro, a free newspaper empire spanning the globe, is laying off 27 people from its offices in Boston, New York and Philadelphia, reports Keith Kelly.The fired include, US EIC Jon Auerbach and Publisher Daniel Magnus. Last year, the company lost $10 million. Newspapers: Seriously, you can't give this shit away! [NYP]

Two hedge funds are trying to shake up the Times, and while the paper of record is offering up only the most perfunctory coverage of the situation, Rupert Murdoch's Wall Street Journal is tearing hungrily into a juicy story. The Journal shows how Scott Galloway, left, may be able to leverage his 4.9 percent of low-voting stock into four of 13 board seats and eventually split the Sulzbergers. It's a longshot scenario, but Galloway has a strong partner, Harbinger Capital, which wisely exploited the subprime mortgage fiasco, and is playing against a company trading at 15-year lows and whose shareholders mostly withheld votes from the board last year. If the Times wants to make the case for independent, family-run newspapers, it needs to step up its game, not only on the business side but at the business desk.

This week, editors at the Cleveland Plain Dealer why they had banned the word "nigger" from a column. "For many readers, it's never OK to use that word, given its history." Reluctance to use the racial epithet, even in reported speech, is a pretty good indicator of political correctness. So we did a quick search of the Nexis database, and ranked major newspapers by the number of times "nigger" has appeared over the last year. There's an interesting geographical pattern. New York's competitive newspapers are relatively free with the loaded word; the New York Times more so, even, than the tabloid New York Post, though that could also be a reflection of the Gray Lady's vast daily output. The word crops up often in big-city papers, often in the context of black interviewees, using "nigger" as a term of endearment or familiarity. The most politically correct part of the country is also the whitest: Northern California and the Pacific Northwest, where The Oregonian, The San Francisco Chronicle and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer registered only one hit each.

When mogul Rupert Murdoch was last heard talking about his British tabloid The Sun, he was complaining about how it had gone soft and crappy with nothing but celebrity coverage. You see how hands off he is, fearful reporters? Pish! says Andrew Neil. The embittered former editor of Murdoch's Sunday Times in London told a parliamentary committee that when he was on the job, Rupert was the final word in all publishing decisions. "If you want to know what Rupert Murdoch really thinks read the editorials in the Sun and the New York Post because he is editor-in-chief of these papers," Neil said. Of course, the Wall Street Journal, a much more prestigious paper just acquired by the News Corporation boss, is another matter. Murdoch would never dream of interfering there. [Guardian]

Deposed Los Angeles Times editor James O'Shea describes as "voodoo economics" the idea that tightening of newsroom spending is necessary to the survival of newspapers. We don't want to be too pedantic here, but wasn't that expression used in an wholly different context? When coined by George Bush the Elder, in his campaign for the 1980 Republican nomination, voodoo economics was a description of Ronald Reagan's fiscal recklessness. Which is an accusation one can certainly not levy against the LA Times' owners, the penny-pinching Tribune Company.

The editors of Cleveland Plain Dealer believe the use of the epithet "nigger" is never appropriate, even if it's essential to a story. "Particularly for people who are older, it takes them back to a place they don't want to think about," says the paper's managing editor. If the Ohio newspaper wants to take political correctness to an extreme, fine. For consistency's sake, however, the PC police might want to do a purge of the Plain Dealer's archives, where there are several instances of the n-word making it through intact onto the page. [Romenesko]

There is a hope for newsprint, after all. In the movies, at least. Here's the splash — Vampire Epidemic!!! — from the abysmal Ultraviolet. io9, the science fiction site, has put together a collection of other fantastic newspapers.

It's one of the great ironies. Craig Newmark and his colleagues at Craigslist are left-wing idealists who still believe in the responsibility of the press to speak truth to power. All the while, their online classifieds site, which is largely free, has undermined the economics of newspapers, and the anti-establishment alt weeklies above all. The company's decision to endow a faculty chair in new media studies at the University of California, Berkeley is a sweet gesture. (As is the support of the endearingly naive Craigslist boss for online news ventures such as Daylife.) But let's be clear: this is akin to the creation of a reservation for American Indians; it doesn't erase the stain of genocide.

The former New York Times Building will get totally cute cafes and clothing stores—maybe even a big box retailer, like T.J. Maxx or Target! It'll also be the new headquarters for the investment group that bought it, Africa Israel USA. We're sure they'll keep it classy. FYI, it shall be called the Times Square Building from here on out. [NY Sun]

You make crap for cash. Your achievements are barely noticed. Your company's idea of encouragement is not firing you. The last time you spent more than twenty good minutes with your kids or significant other was two weeks ago, give or take a month. Sound familiar? A former journalist who's now a professor at Indiana's Ball State University has turned your career malaise and the occasional desire you have to slap your editor really hard into a full-blown research study on journalist burnout. He draws his conclusions based on responses from newspaper staff nationwide. Also on something called a motivation-hygiene theory, which makes us giggle a little. What does the Ivory Tower think about how you're doing? Well, in a study whose main indicators are exhaustion and cynicism, probably not much. Who's the most miserable among your colleagues? How long will you last? If you promise not to kill yourself, then by all means, investigate the post-jump details.