Today was a particularly deadly day in the media world: Liz Smith penned her final gossip prose, Newsday saw writedowns, the Times downsized its style magazine, and, after 150 years, the Rocky Mountain News is dead. Well, um. So, 30 Rock is new tonight.
• Cablevision, owners of Newsday, wrote down the paper’s value by $402 million today, and plans to start charging viewers for online use. [Reuters]
• Last weekend, Defamer.com was merged into Gawker.com, leaving its writers, Seth Abramovitch, S.T. VanAirsdale, and Kyle Buchanan, out of a job. Now, all three laid-off bloggers have been tapped to write for entertainment magazine Movieline, which is relaunching as a “web portal covering all things Hollywood.” [FishbowlNY/Mediabistro]
• Liz Smith penned her last column, titled “I’ll Miss You, NYC!” The gossip world wept briefly, then pulled itself together, looked at a picture of Tara Reid’s naked abdomen, and steeled itself for battle once again. [NYP]
• The New York Times is downsizing T, its style magazine, from fifteen to twelve issues a year. The Times Company “is lumbering under a mountain of debt,” the Post reports. [Cut]
• The 150-year-old Rocky Mountain News will publish its final paper tomorrow, and then fold forever. A CEO told staffers: “Denver can’t support two newspapers anymore,” and reportedly some of those staffers cried. He added, “The industry is in serious, serious trouble.” Thanks for that. [Rocky Mountain News via Mixed Media/Portfolio]
