HarperCollins is laying off staffers, the Toronto Metro is written by interns, and approximately 41,000 media jobs have been slashed since the start of the recession.

• Slate is launching a French version of its website. Mais ouiiii. [Politico]

• And, a "youth-focused" edition of French Vogue is reportedly in the works. Apparently today was a good day for media in Paris. [Cut]

• The Observer has stopped running Moira Hodgson’s restaurant reviews, the financing for which, she claims, has “been coming out of my pocket.”[GrubStreet]

• After being laid off from Portfolio.com and losing freelance gigs, Laura Rich, Sara Clemence, and Lynn Parramore have launched RecessionWire.com, a more positively spun news website about the recession (tagline: "Born to Die"). Clemence says she also bought DepressionWire.com, though she hopes she won’t have to use it. [NYT]

• The Toronto Metro has laid off all of its staff writers and “hired” unpaid interns to write the paper. Metro’s group publisher for English Canada, Bill McDonald, called the change “a small adjustment to our staff.” [FishbowlNY/Mediabistro]

• Approximately 41,000 media jobs have been slashed since the start of the recession, and nearly 31,200 of those jobs were at newspapers. [Ad Age]

• The Philadelphia Inquirer and Pittsburgh Post-Gazette are sharing content with one another. [Editor & Publisher]

• On The Daily Show, Walter Isaacson reiterated his idea for an “iTunes-esque” pay system for online newspapers, despite the fact that many others have argued against them. For his part, Jon Stewart’s preferred newspaper-rescue plan is to turn newsprint into narcotics. [FishbowlNY/Mediabistro]

• Cablevision, which bought Newsday from the Tribune Co. last July, has announced plans to write down its newspaper assets by nearly $450 million. [NYP]

• HarperCollins is laying off staffers. [Gawker]

• Hachette Filipacchi Media, which publishes Elle magazine, has dropped out of the Magazine Publishers of America as “a response to the recession” (the group has dues). [Ad Age]