AOL has put Sean Combs very publicly in the middle of its directors and managers. A company banking on formulaic, mass-produced content could do worse than the rap mogul, who wished AOL shares luck. They promptly slid.

• Nielsen has concluded a deal to sell handful of trade titles like The Hollywood Reporter and Billboard to a consortium of investors that includes Jimmy Finkelstein and Guggenheim Partners. Rupert Murdoch's son Lachlan was once part of the investor group, but ended up dropping out. [AdWeek, NYP, LAT]
• Nielsen also said today that it's shuttering two titles: Editor & Publisher, which dates back to 1884, and book pub Kirkus Reviews. [E&P, NYT]
• AOL and Time Warner are officially separate companies now. [WSJ, AP]
• George Stephanopoulos starts his new job of GMA anchor on Monday. [LAT]
• The controversy over MTV's latest series, Jersey Shore, rages on. [THR]
• Hollywood PR powerhouse PMK/HBH has pretty much imploded. [Wrap]
• The 30 worst women's magazine covers of the aughts. [Buzzfeed]
• The city's laziest magazine editor: Dave Zinczenko of Men's Health. [Gawker]

AOL roped New York Times tech reporter Saul Hansell into heading up "Seed," the ominous project to churn out news stories in response to what people type into search engines. Can Hansell make this hellish scheme less dreadful?

• Goodbyes: After 53 years on the air, CBS has canceled As the World Turns; meanwhile, the Bonnie Hunt Show won't be renewed after this season.
• JuJu Chang will take over for Chris Cuomo on Good Morning America. [NYP]
• Vevo, which is hoping to become the Hulu of music videos and is owned by Universal Music and Sony Music, made its debut today. [NYT, Reuters]
• Advertising is picking up again at the New York Times. Surprise! [AP, NYT]
• Related: The number of people who accepted Times buyouts has topped 50; tech reporter Saul Hansell is leaving the paper for AOL. And the Times is working with Google on a plan to "change the way news is consumed online."
• Bryant Gumbel revealed on Live with Regis and Kelly this morning that he has lung cancer and had surgery to remove a tumor two months ago. [NYP]
• Random House announced plans today to restructure its Crown Publishing Group; the division's publisher, Jenny Frost, is leaving the company. [NYT]
• Daily Variety has hired LAT veteran Leo Wolinsky as its new editor. [Variety]
• Will James Cameron's Avatar achieve Titanic-like success? Not so much. [AP]

Today we obtained a copy of one AOL editor's "welcome to the team" email to new writers.

• Another ex-Post staffer has filed a salacious lawsuit against the paper. [HP]
• Yet another magazine is no more. Giant gave up the ghost today. [Gawker]
• Rupert Murdoch's son, Lachlan Murdoch, is teaming up with media investor Jimmy Finkelstein to bid on a handful of media trade titles owned by Nielsen, including The Hollywood Reporter, Billboard, and AdWeek. [NYT]
• The guy who runs Clubplanet.com says that if Maxim's owners don't sell him the mag, it will go bust by March. Maxim isn't impressed. [P6, AdAge]
• One sector of the magazine biz that's doing well: Airline publishing! [WSJ]
• Did BusinessWeek just replace Maria Bartiromo with Charlie Rose? [BI]
• The good news for Jay Leno: His ratings seem to have stabilized in recent weeks. The bad: More people are watching shows they recorded on their DVRs rather than tune into NBC's misguided 10pm experiment. [THR, NYP]
• New Moon topped the box office once again this weekend, as expected. [THR]

The internet needs more hot search keyword-driven advertorial "content" about as much as the internet needs AOL. So, welcome to the "linchpin" of AOL's growth strategy: Hot search keyword-driven advertorial "content" crap!

Stop everything, The Internet: AOL is now Aol. Whether superimposed on a fish or a hand or just some swirly crap, this logo makes the bold statement: We can no longer afford capital letters. [Ad Age]

When you hear "AOL," you think of the dial-up Internet service that your elderly aunt still uses, right? Prepare for all of that to change! Now that AOL is being spun off by Time Warner, it's developed a new logo, dropping the all-caps and going with "Aol." which, in case you missed it, tacks on a period after the letters. America's perceptions will shift in no time! [PaidContent, WSJ/Digits]

Just in time for Christmas, AOL is asking 2,500 of its workers to volunteer for buyouts starting Dec. 4 (layoffs come after) as the company separates from Time Warner and a shadow of its former online conglomerate self.

AOL announced today that it plans to shed one-third of its workforce, or 2,300 jobs, as it prepares to be spun off by its parent company, Time Warner. The most ironic part? The man most responsible for uniting AOL and Time Warner in what has since turned out to be the most ill-advised merger in history, is the happiest he's been in years. Steve Case, AOL's co-founder, just sold his Paypal also-ran, Revolution Money, yesterday to American Express for $300 million. [Bloomberg, NYT]

AOL will lay off about 100 today, as we reported, says All Things D.

'Tis the season to rush up layoffs so they don't fall in the sacrosanct Thanksgiving-to-Christmas period: An AOL insider tells us the company is slated to let go around 100 people tomorrow, following 1,500 firings Electronic Arts announced today.

AOL CEO Tim Armstrong and Time Inc. CEO Ann Moore met recently.

Today was Kristin Kovner's last day at Google, after three years with the company in New York. And what better way for a YouTube marketer to say goodbye to cherished colleagues than with a serenade, uploaded to the intranet?

Everyone knows Tim Armstrong is planning more layoffs at AOL once the company is spun off from Time Warner. So why let them hang over the company's return to the markets as an independently-traded stock?

It seems Joanna Shields has found another mark. Barely 18 months ago, she sold her also-ran social network Bebo to AOL for $850 million. The disastrous deal still haunts AOL. Now she's charmed Rupert Murdoch's daughter into bankrolling her. How?

Tim Armstrong has begun to shape AOL to his liking, four months after Time Warner announced the much-diminished internet conglomerate's spinoff. Here's the internal memo in which the CEO calls some serious buckling down — and jettisons two executives.

• Reed Elsevier is planning to sell a bunch of publications, including Broadcasting & Cable, Publishers Weekly and Multichannel News. [THR]
• Rodale's president and CEO, Steve Murphy, has resigned. [Gawker]
• Disney reports third-quarter profit fell 26 percent from the same quarter a year ago. Sony posted a loss for the quarter, as well. [AP, Reuters]
• Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia reported a loss, but beat estimates. [NYP]
• TLC's been having a pretty good year, in case you haven't heard. [LAT]
• Amy Poehler is coming back to SNL. Just part-time, though. [Vulture]
• Maria Bartiromo has locked in a new five-year contract with CNBC. [VF]
• Dustin "Screech" Diamond's tell-all memoir will be published, after all! [NYO]

• How's the New York Times Co. planning to lift itself out of the financial mess it's been in? Times Co. chief Janet Robinson says more cuts are on the way and the company is planning to sell off more assets. Also, there's some sort of paid membership model in the works, apparently. [WSJ, Gawker]
• Related: The paper says it will sell its stake in the Red Sox by January. [BG]
• What you missed at Walter Cronkite's funeral yesterday. [NYT, WaPo]
• Best-selling author E. Lynn Harris has died. He was 54. [NYT]
• More magazine is teaming up with Candace Bushnell on a new Web series starring 90210's Jennie Garth and Talia Balsam from Mad Men. [MW]
• After a ten-year run, today is Paula Froelich's last day at Page Six. [NYM]