Page Six has hired longtime WWD media reporter Stephanie Smith to replace the departed Corynne Steindler, we hear from good sources. Congrats to Stephanie for landing a new media job, America's rarest commodity. [Pic: Rachel Sklar]

• Twitter is close to raising $100 million in new funding. And despite the fact it makes no money, the deal will value the company at $1 billion. [WSJ, CNN]
• A new survey finds that 86% of the public thinks the news media tries to influence public opinion. One reason to discount the data: Fox News came in as the country's most-trusted and least-trusted news source. And Bill O'Reilly ranked as "the most-trusted news anchor on cable TV." [THR, Poynter]
• MTV reports that it plans to go ahead with the drug-intervention reality series featuring DJ AM that was shot just before he died. [THR]
• Michael Moore's new documentary is off to a strong start, alas. [LAT]
• Tim Knight, Newsday's publisher, has handed in his resignation. [NYT]
• Corynne Steindler of "Page Six" is joining Bonnie Fuller's new website. [NYO]
• NBC Nightly News' audience is growing, believe it or not. [HP]
• Yahoo is spending $100 million to remind you it still exists. [BrandChannel]
• CBS has a brand new viewer today. Chief exec Les Moonves and CBS Early Show anchor Julie Chen had a son named Charlie this morning. [ET]

Book parties tend to be circle jerk affairs: sordid Chardonnay-and-canapé-fueled minuets of self-congratulation. Last night's New York mag Look Book book party at Bergdorf Goodman, however, was amazingly a creative act. Characters who'd otherwise only rub shoulders when on adjoining pages were actually in the same room with each other and in some cases even talked! This was great! And Nikola Tamindzic found that these people were eager and comfortable photographic subjects.

Round midnight at 21st and 10th, the Conde Nast Rock and Republic pre-party was ending. Great hives of inebriated party-people heaved out, wobbly on margaritas and spike heels, into the waiting Conde Nast town cars. Then we saw Nicole Brydson, the Observer's gal on the fashion streets. She and her Nat Sherman cigarettes were with Observer media reporter Michael Calderone and Brooklyn Paper's Adam Rathe. Page Six's Corynne Steindler was talking urgently into her phone. They were going to Pete Wentz's party at Tenjune.

Got any info on the goings on of New York's restaurant scene? Snapshots, tips and limericks to tips@gawker.com. Discretion is assured. In/Out Call

Weren't we supposed to see a diminishing of hostilities at this point in the conflict? It hasn't turned out that way. After a blistering early morning attack by the establishment forces, Moktada al-Roshan's scrappy band of Radar insurgents have responded with a surprise strike of their own. Ba'ar Koveesee, the tactical genius of the Maerdi army, just launched the following retort, aimed at the heart of the government's Koran al-Steindler.

So you're probably already glutted on bloggy inside baseball today, but we wanted to bring you this news anyway because it's relevant to anyone who cares about intertnet celebrity gossip: Molly Goodson, of the Hauslaib-owned MollyGood blog, is departing her almosteponymous site for Lisa Sugar's almosteponymous site, PopSugar. We're fans of Molly's writing and her nose for the news. We also sort of feel bad that her dog didn't do better in the blog pets poll. So we wish her the best in her new gig, and we worry about how the Jossip (cough) empire will carry on without her. Seriously, first Corynne Steindler and now this!!

Working at Page Six requires many skills, not least among them knowing the difference between Luke and Owen Wilson. Of course, it also helps to have even a rudimentary knowledge of geography and maybe even local politics. You never know when those things are going to come in handy, working at a New York tabloid and all.