In your downward Friday media column: rumored layoffs at Playboy and Hearst, two-paper towns are dying, your favorite crappy TV channels revealed, and more!

Slow magazine death news: According to a tipster (unconfirmed, as far as we can tell), Playboy "let 12-20 people go from their Chicago offices" yesterday. And Fishbowl NY says that Good Housekeeping had four layoffs today, and that Hearst in in the process of getting rid of its entire permalancer research staff.


The 138 year-old Tucson Citizen, an afternoon paper, is probably going to close next month because Gannett can't sell it, unsurprisingly. Tucson still has a morning paper, the Arizona Daily Star. The days of non-mega-cities having two newspapers are over, friends.


New idea: the Ford Foundation should buy the New York Times. Sure, throw it on the idea pile! Meanwhile, the head of the AP says that when the new service's content agreement with Google expires in December, he can "imagine content going behind a pay wall." Sure, throw it on the idea pile!

If you could keep only a few TV channels, what would they be? We'll tell you, America, by citing the results of a new survey! ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, ESPN, Discovery Channel, History, Sci Fi Channel, HBO and Food Network, in order of preference. Nothing will make us give up According to Jim!


The last American non-journalist who is excited to meet a journalist is found working in an ice cream shop in Times Square.