"The Mort Zuckerman-owned paper is looking for 25 volunteers in the newsroom to take buyouts as the paper copes with a decline in ad revenue." [Post]

Chaunce Hayden, the random dude from Jersey who publishes the little-read but often-stolen-from gossip rag Steppin' Out, is really learning to play the retribution game! Page Six boss Richard Johnson angrily told off Chaunce after Chaunce gave him a bad tip about a radio shock jock fiancee's sex tape that got the Post sued for millions. But now Chaunce has gotten his revenge the gossip way-by giving rival gossip hack Shallon Lester from the Daily News a chance to trash Page Six as a dirty place that's out to "smear people and ruin people's lives." People like Chaunce Hayden, for example! Then Shallon talks about how everyone takes bribes. "Everyone" like Page Six (yes)? We haven't quite sorted out who we're backing in this war of too many words:

You know times are tough for the newspaper business when sworn enemies come together: "Rupert Murdoch, whose News Corporation owns The New York Post, and Mortimer B. Zuckerman, the real estate developer and owner of The Daily News, who for years have been bitter tabloid competitors, are considering the unthinkable: cooperation. Representatives of Mr. Zuckerman and Mr. Murdoch have been in discussions for several weeks to find ways to combine some business functions of The Daily News and The Post, according to people briefed on the matter." [NYT]

"The Irena Briganti that I know is funny, hard-working and always willing to help out a colleague-no matter how busy she is," wrote Fox Television flack Erica Keane yesterday, in response to our "smear" of Briganti, Fox News boss Roger Ailes' PR attack-dog-in-chief. But Keane is in the minority in her assessment of Briganti's charm. Our post on her generated perhaps the biggest outpouring of responses we've had since Bloomberg staffers got the chance to vent about horrid boss Matthew Winkler. There was a wellspring of resentment against the Fox News flack just waiting to come out-and much of it came to us unsolicited. Everyone from journalists to Briganti's fellow News Corp. employees weighed in. "She-devil" is among the more middle-of-the-road descriptions. After the jump, all you'll need to know about Briganti's reputation-and her handful of obligatory defenders:

Sultry beach hero hottie set to save journalism! [NYDN]

Daily News reporter Caitlin Millat went crazy yesterday. Crazy for journalism, that is! "I stabbed an innocent victim, got shot by a police officer, and suffered a severe asthma attack on Wednesday in Brooklyn," she writes, "all in a day's work for the Daily News." She now languishes in an isolation cell on Riker's Island. No, just kidding! She was just playing the role of a crazy person to help out with the city's annual EMT competition. Don't scare us like that, Caitlin! As an added bonus for all of us curious readers, she was able to turn her unique first-person experience into a story in today's paper. Synergetic! There's also a video. Near the end is when she stabs a guy. [NYDN]

When the Daily News needed to illustrate a story on karaoke bars, guess who appeared in the photo? Julia Allison, omnipresent media figure and karaoke aficionado! Her face is the mandated illustration for at least one-third of all breaking lifestyle stories within the confines of Manhattan. And her singing partner is none other than Tumblr founder David Karp, no doubt belting out "Ride of the Valkyries" as undercover PepsiCo advertising operatives furiously scribble notes. Though this song lasted but a moment, the blog debate over the song will surely consume hundreds of hours. Julia Allison's Tumblr'd question that night: "What are the top Geek songs of all time?" Oh, the synchronicity. [via NYDN]

The New York Post has canned Leonardo Blair, the black reporter who earlier this month filed a federal lawsuit against the NYPD alleging racial harassment. Blair probably got the sense that his employer didn't really have his back when the Post ran an editorial ho-humming racial profiling complaints the same day that Blair filed his suit. Neither the Post nor Blair would comment on the end of his employment there. At least the Daily News is now free to commission Blair to write a scandalous tell-all of racial discrimination in the inner bowels of the Post. If they don't, you have to wonder whether they're sufficiently bloodthirsty (or rather, justice-thirsty) to play with Rupert Murdoch. [NYDN]

Geez Roger Clemens, do you mind if we go a single day without being bombarded by news of yet another one of your past trysts with a Southern blond woman somehow vaguely connected to pop culture? Monday we learned that scowling baseball great Clemens, self-proclaimed paragon of family virtue, cheated on his wife with a continuously intoxicated country music star. More girlfriends came out in the subsequent days. And now we're battered with the news that the rich pitcher may have had a romance with the ex-wife of a fat, drunk professional golfer [NYDN]. Is nothing sacred?

Roger Clemens, the recently retired former Yankees ace pitcher and full time Class A jerk, has used his commitment to his wife (pictured) and family as a defense of his own character, which has been impugned by steroid allegations. And, you know, by his own general asshole demeanor that causes him to do things like throw a fastball at his own son. But today the Daily News says that Clemens carried on a ten year affair with train wreck country singer Mindy McCready—although they never trot out any real proof. And their lead, which seems to imply Clemens is a statutory rapist, is a little problematic:

Celebrities and their kids are saving the earth from extinction by doing stuff! We always knew this to be the case. Today it's confirmed by the Daily News' servicey feature telling us how celebrities raise their kids to be "eco-friendly." By recycling them? No silly, by giving them pretentious names and then having their publicists send out a press release every time they buy them a carton of organic juice! Evidence of how low the bar for parenting and environmental self-congratulation has sunk: e-vites, cooking vegetables, and hardwood floors.

Daily News reporter Shallon Lester wasn't satisfied just secretly yearning to be friends with Paris Hilton, like most entertainment reporters. She wants to actually be her friend! On TV, at least. (Pictured: an actual photo montage of what the two would look like if their heads were in close proximity, via the NYDN). So the intrepid journalist ventured out to the auditions for the upcoming MTV show and small step towards the apocalypse "Paris Hilton Is My New BFF." How could a trained, professional journalist possibly blend in with a crowd of fame whores? It wasn't that hard at all!

Don't you wish there was a magic pill you could take when you go to bed that would make you wake up on time, feeling refreshed, without an alarm clock? Well according to medical science, there is no such thing. Sorry. But according to 37 year-old mom of three Cathy Beggan from New Jersey, her special time-release blend of herbs and vitamins can do just that. And a Daily News reporter says they really work, science be damned!

Here we are in the fifth day of the Possible Spitzer Hooker #2 saga, and the tabloid accusations continue to fly back and forth like so many bullets made of sex. Kristin Davis, who everyone agrees ran several high-priced call girl rings, also stands accused by the Post of servicing Eliot Spitzer himself; the Daily News says she has no connection to the Love Guv. The latest developments: Daily News sez madam serviced big sports star; No way, sez Post. Plus: Is the Kristin Davis "Black Book" client list a hoax? The Post says yes, for some reason!

The story of Kristin Davis, who the Post fingered yesterday as not only a high-priced madam, but also another hooker visited by Eliot Spitzer, is actually getting more interesting. Why? Because every new story that comes out makes it less clear if Davis actually has any connection to Spitzer. The Post says she does! The Daily News says she doesn't! And the Times doesn't really say anything! Verrrrrrrrrrryyy interesting. Somebody has screwed up on this story, big time. After the jump, we speculate—plus, we have some insight into the Daily News' big "Madam's Black Book" cover story today.

"Love And The Gov: The Other Woman...And she's an employee of the state's Office of Intergovernmental Affairs—you can say that again!" It's a cover headline that only would have been good if they said it in self-mockery. But they didn't. Except unwittingly.

There is much wailing and gnashing of teeth across the state of New York today as the citizenry tries to come to terms with the scandal that has ripped our illusions away: the Yankees signing comedian Billy Crystal to a one-game contract. He'll appear in a spring training game, as a publicity stunt. This sudden disgrace of our heroes is shaking us to the very core! The New York Post splashed the outrage on their (back) cover, and fired off a defense of our collective moral standards:

After a fatal accident just two months ago, the painfully incomplete Trump Tower has managed to muck it up again, this time leaving industrial chains to blow freely in the wind and break about a dozen windows. Keep up the great work.

The ongoing quest to make personal finance interesting to average schlubs is not just confined to the internet or television; the Daily News gets into the act today with its own celebrity-infused financial advisory articles that may or may not contain sound advice [NYDN]. First, the paper lets us know what to do with our upcoming national tax refunds: Splurge! They come to this conclusion by asking the most obvious personal finance experts: Rich people!

The tabloid frenzy over Richard Martin, the crazy old Bay Ridge super who enjoys posting crazy signs insulting his tenants, continues to escalate. The Daily News gains the edge today by breaking the story that the cranky old man is letting his building's lobby fill up with garbage. To teach those dirty tenants! The city's other media outlets are surely deploying crack investigative teams to Bay Ridge at this very moment, intent on uncovering all the serpentine twists and turns of this developing, inconsequential matter. After the jump, an actual photo of the abrasive sign that the coot posted warning his tenants of his rotten scheme.