• More on Condé Nast's decision to shut down four magazines, including Gourmet, Cookie, Modern Bride and Elegant Bride: An estimated 180 people will likely lose their jobs as part of the move, although CEO Chuck Townsend says the company has no plans to shutter any other titles. [NYO, AdAge]
• If Comcast goes ahead with a deal to take a controlling stake in NBC, Jeff Zucker, NBC Universal's CEO, may need to find a new job. [NYP]
• Don Imus' radio show debuted on Fox Business today. [WP]
• Rich Ross, the president of Disney Channels Worldwide, is taking over Walt Disney Studios; he's succeeding Dick Cook, who was ousted on Sept. 16. [NYT]
• Universal Pictures has fired chairmen Marc Shmuger and David Linde. [LAT]
• CBS has been busy ridding YouTube of David Letterman's mea culpa. [NYT]
• Zombieland was No. 1 at the box office this weekend with a $25 million take. Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs dropped to second place. [Variety]
• It wasn't all bad news at Condé Nast today: The New Yorker landed its biggest ad buy since 2005 with a $1 million deal with HSBC. [Folio]

• Veteran theater producer Rocco Landesman has been nominated to be the next chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts. [NYT]
• Why did David Geffen try to buy a stake in the New York Times? It wasn't because he thought he'd make money, that's for certain. [Newsweek]
• After taking some heat over a $75,000 speaking fee he received last week, the Times's Tom Friedman says he now plans to return the money. [LAT]
• Sarah Palin's book deal with HarperCollins is a go. How much money was involved isn't clear but the memoir will be out in 2010, which just so happens when she'll be running for reelection in Alaska. [LAT, AP]
• Bad news, hooker fans: Craigslist is dropping its erotic services section. [WP]

Meet Markus Dohle, the new CEO of Random House. His previous job was retooling Bertelsmann AG's printing plants to repair mobile phones, generate billing statements and warehouse pills. In case that's not unglamorous enough on its own, note that Dohle is following in the footsteps of Peter Olson, who while considered a tough-talking bean counter was also a former lawyer and banker fluent in three languages, not to mention a voracious reader. Dohle seems to want to move beyond the rarefied club of literary publishing into more practical, money-making endeavors; according to the Wall Street Journal, which broke news of his appointment this morning citing anonymous sources, he is interested in expanding education services, among other things. Having turned Bertelsmann's publishing division into a "growth engine" and with no obvious emotional attachment to high-minded writing per se, Dohle should be the ruthless numbers man Olson always fancied himself but could never actually become. [WSJ]