In your soggy Monday media column: Salon's sad sale talks fall through, Oprah's network is unpopular, Lorin Stein is the Hot Sexxxy Literary It Boy of the moment, Tina Brown is provincially famous, and John King's future is murky.

  • Salon—a fairly good website with strong writing and reporting that makes no money—has been in talks to sell itself to Newser, a website with no good writing or reporting whatsoever that (and I'm just speculating here) makes profits of one nickel per annum. That in itself is a sign of desperation. But now the talks have reportedly broken down: "The talks faltered just after The Huffington Post sold itself to AOL for $315 million, which raised questions among Salon.com's board members about whether they were selling for too low a price." Hahaha. Hey, I understand that Stephen King has made millions writing words, and here I am toiling for a pittance! My boss is underpaying me, clearly!
  • You know what's not very popular with television viewers these days? Oprah's new cable network. Not enough Oprah.
  • Are you familiar with Manhattan's Hot New Literary It Boy, Lorin Stein, the new editor of The Paris Review? He sounds unbearable, based solely on this NYT profile in which he seems to work incredibly hard to subliminally insinuate to the reporter that, yes, he is indeed the Hot New Literary It Boy, not to mention the fact that ladies love him so much that he can't help but be a "serial dater." Also, this recounting of one of the many raucous office parties that he goes to like, you know, every day:

  • "The place was so thick with pot smoke," Mr. Stein recalled giddily. "I thought no one was ever going to leave. Finally, I was like, ‘Can someone help me clean up these beer bottles?' And everyone jumped up like little worker ants."

  • What an absolute scene! We look forward to being proven wrong about you, Lorin Stein.
  • Michael Wolff's Wolff Pack reports: Nobody outside of New York knows or cares who Tina Brown is. Tina Brown agrees.
  • Is CNN tired of robotic humanoid John King and his boring show that nobody watches? Maybe! Also, CNN still wants Katie Couric to come work there. Good luck with that! This has been your CNN update, for the decade.