In your departing Tuesday media column: Sam Sifton says goodbye to the NYT restaurant critic gig (with memo!), Nancy Franklin quits as NYer TV critic, more News Corp scandalism, and Mashable expands.

  • Sam Sifton is leaving his gig as New York Times restaurant critic after only two years. He's moving up to become the paper's new National Editor. Who will be his replacement? A rumor is going around the Times newsroom that it could be Pete Wells. Jill Ambramson's internal memo:

  • Dear Colleagues,

  • I'm excited to share with you two new appointments.

  • Sam Sifton will be our new National editor. From his star runs at Dining and Culture, we all know that Sam is a superb editor who brings infectious energy and a host of original ideas, digital and print, to everything he touches. Correspondents and critics adore him. So who better to fill the shoes of Rick Berke? Sam's background here isn't hard news, but we all saw the newsiness and urgency he brought to the Culture report. He takes over a superb desk that flawlessly handles the fastest-breaking and challenging news stories. This will be very sad news to his devoted fans as our brilliant dining critic, but Sam, a lover of regional food, looks forward to dining adventures with the National correspondents. It will be thrilling to watch him apply his editing and writing talents to the National report.

  • Adam Bryant will be Senior Editor for Features, with his central focus reviving our How We Live group. I've long wanted to reconstitute the group as it existed in its early years with a cadre of strong reporters who aim for the front page and feature section fronts. How We Live is defined broadly and should connect to key areas of our news coverage, like joblessness, technology and family life. Adam, who has been the graceful hands behind some of our most important national and business stories over the last years, will work closely with Assistant Managing Editor Rick Berke, who oversees our features, in conceptualizing and editing sharp and grabby pieces across our sections and platforms.

  • Fondly,
    Jill

  • Also today in people saying goodbye to insanely cushy journalism jobs: Nancy Franklin, the TV critic at The New Yorker, is quitting her job after 13 years. "Happy to have had, for 13 yrs, the best job ever, and happy to be giving it up," she says. She wrote a couple of pages a week. About television. In The New Yorker. For a cushy salary. And she's quitting. During a recession. Without even having another job offer. Actually, we completely understand. Droning about TV in The New Yorker week after week could induce serious inferiority complex in anyone.
  • What the hell is happening in the endless News Corp scandal today? The British government has ordered James Murdoch to come address its investigators again, since the first time, everything he said was a lie. (That's hyperbole! Do not sue!) Also, News Corp shareholders currently suing the company "have filed a second amended complaint today in Delaware arguing that the phone hacking scandal that has overwhelmed News Corp. the past several months is but the latest chapter in an ongoing saga of illegal conduct." This has been your daily endless News Corp scandal update.
  • Mashable is expanding. Huzzah for anyone in media succeeding, at all!

[Photo of Sam Sifton reviewing some KFC via]