In your arctic Wednesday media column: the NYT freelancers grow restless, News Corp hands out Christmas bonuses, the Miami Herald is sad, fabulous corrections, and layoffs at TNR.

A couple of years ago, Caitlin Kelly made a third of her income freelancing for the New York Times; now, she says, the competition and the long wait times make it hardly worth the bother. Also, "the line-up for the Times' remaining assignments already stretches, for one section editor I know, into April." Crikey! So that's why the Style section is always five months late on trends.


A tipster full of holiday cheer tells us there is free food in the News Corp. lobby today. "Yeah, we ain't got no holiday party. BUT WE GOT MUFFINS!" Rejoice!


It is kind of sad (although not surprising, or even a bad idea!) that the Miami Herald is now just stone cold soliciting donations on its website, to try to not go broke, but it is even sadder that this debasement won't work out for them.


Regret The Error gives the already famous WaPo "911/ 9-11" correction its correction of the year, so let's look at one of the many fine runners-up:

News Tribune (Washington State):

A photo caption on Tuesday's Page A8 said a student was performing the Heimlich maneuver on a dummy. The student was actually playing around and pretending to choke the dummy

The New Republic is laying off six editorial staffers, including senior editor Chris Orr.