After Metro editor Dean Chang and National editor Mark Mooney got canned from the Daily News, the Post's Keith Kelly said the following day that the firings were part of a panicked strategy by editor-in-chief Martin Dunn to please owner Mort Zuckerman. Kelly pointed out that Dunn's contract expires in the "fourth quarter of this year"—but it's sooner than it sounds, as sources tell us the contract actually expires in October, the beginning of the fourth quarter.

It seems to us that Dunn would like his contract renewed, so surely he'll have to show Zuckerman some bigger circ and revenue increases than the News has been pulling in lately. But! Two features staffers have left in the last two weeks, and sources say that it's only a matter of time until Mooney's favorite staffers are shown the door.

Mooney "was a dinosaur. Getting rid of him was long overdue," said a staffer. Mooney's dismissal is also almost certainly part of a coming reorganization of the national desk; sources say that the national reporters' jobs are likely not in jeopardy, but that the days of the national desk as a separate department could be coming to an end. Sounds like now would be a great time to go raiding for reporters and editors, should anyone hiring have any favorites at the News.