Septuagenarian Lewis Lapham's post-Harper's magazine Lapham's Quarterly finally launched last night after a prolonged gestation period. Carnegie Corporation president Vartan Gregorian, who made an appearance in Lapham's "dramatic documentary musical" called The American Ruling Class, did introductions. Lapham, as Lapham does, didn't wear socks. Portfolio's Jeff Bercovici says the "Lapham's Quarterly will change the way you think about thinking." Of course he, like almost everyone else, hadn't actually read the issue.

Here's HuffPo's Rachel Sklar on making friends down in Boca at the American Magazine Conference: "We're pleased as punch to report that [Portfolio blogger] Jeff [Bercovici] was enthused about the notion of cross-posting from Portfolio to HuffPo, saying that he was always happy to increase his traffic. Well, now, see Jeff? Compensation comes in many forms, and rich indeed are those who blog within our warm, happy embrace. Arianna was happy to give Jeff a mini-scoop which may or may not be showing up on his blog soon (free content for Jeff!)...." [HuffPo]

Conde Nast Portfolio's December issue will have 111.3 ad pages, says the Post's Keith Kelly: "That comes after a 185 ad-page debut in April, followed by 121.2 in September, 117.9 in October and 108.2 in November." (That's a bit more than 1/3rd of Vanity Fair's ad pages, right?) Meanwhile, we hear that on their website, media blogger Jeff Bercovici and finance blogger Felix Salmon have recently been trading off months as top traffic-getters. We also hear that the online ad folks are totally over the top! They don't have much inventory to sell, as site traffic is still low—and yet veritable hordes of them fly across the country to meet with agencies and pitch. The sales team sounds crazily over-built for the current size of the website.

More staff turnover at Portofolio: senior associate editor Jeffrey Chu bails for Fast Company. On the plus side, hey, Jeff Bercovici and, uh, Lloyd Grove are on the scene! [NYP]

From former Radar reporter Jeff Bercovici's change-of-address email: "After a year at a turbulent start-up whose every move was covered in the press, I've moved on to... well, Portfolio!"

Reporter Jeff Bercovici, who got his start (as far as we're concerned!) at WWD, is leaving Radar for... wait for it... Portfolio! To BLOG. Enjoy blogging, blogsy! Blog it up! Though he'll stay at Radar as a contributing editor.

The story of any company's demise is a mess of allegations, innuendo, slights, and wrongs: Employees treated badly, employers indignant, clients left holding the bag. The story behind the swift downfall of Drew Kerr's publicity firm, Four Corners, is no different. To pull out every last cliche, it's a cautionary tale of one man's twisted vision—a tale of how ego and greed should not be mistaken for ambition. Yes! So, how did Kerr's firm, which handled accounts like Radar and Maxim, go to hell so fast?

Say what you will about Radar impresario Maer Roshan (and we have!), but the man knows how to put together a staff. In fact, one of the hallmarks of the three incarnations of his magazine has been the strength of the writers and editors he convinces to join him on his magical mystical journey through magazine-dom. But just who comprises this motley crew? From whence did they spring? And what in their varied backgrounds could have prepared them for the GREATEST MAGAZINE RE-RE-LAUNCH EVER? Come, let's examine their biographies together!

• "Time Inc. has selected Stockholm's Bonnier Group as the winner of the auction for the right to buy 18 of Time Inc.'s magazines. There was no immediate word on the price that Bonnier will pay, but the terms are in place and a deal should close within a month." That's what AdAge said, but then they pulled it. So who knows? [AdAge]
  

• The news is still big; it's the newspapers that got small. [Slate]
• David Carr asks: Is CNN news or entertainment? What, it can't be both? [NYT]
• Pissing off Dick Cheney was not, in fact, the Times' reason for running its financial-records-spying story, says Bill Keller. [NYT]
• As we already told you, WWD media man Jeff Bercovici is going to Radar. WWD media woman Sara James, however, is not. She's leaving Women's Wear — we're sure of that — but it's just unclear where she's going. [Jossip]
• Roger Ailes thinks with Fox Newsies aren't working hard enough. [B&C]
• Wednesday will be Charlie Gibson's last day at GMA, and his feeling will be hurt if he doesn't get as many video tributes as Katie did. [USAT]
• Spiers steals David Lat from slutty sister Wonkette for her nascent juggernaut. Next time, she'll just twist Denton's nipple directly, without the intermediary. [WWD (second item)]
• Bigshot VCs give people like Rafat Ali — proprietor of the distressingly capitalized paidContent.org and, years ago, an intern where we used to work — money. [WSJ]

Radar chief Maer Roshan has never been known to be the most understanding subject when reporters break pieces of news he doesn't necessarily want broken, or with a spin he doesn't particularly want spun. So he was no doubt less than tickled with WWD media guru Jeff Bercovici back in March, when Jeff uncovered the news that Maer's beleaguered mag was set to be resurrected once again. Savor this irony, then: We're now hearing — just as a rumor, mind you, but from more than one person — that Bercovici is in talks with the Radarites to join the mag, should it ever launch. It's a clever way for Maer to control some of his coverage, eh?

Jeff Bercovici, the sharply dressed but nevertheless heterosexual media editor of Women's Wear Daily, won Gawker's High-Stakes Ellies Pool Tuesday night by correctly predicting winners in 10 of 22 National Magazine Award categories. Now officially known as the Most Accuratest Media Pundit in New York, Bercovici today accepted the remainder of his prize: The coveted Gawker Ellie, delivered over lunch at — where else? — Michael's.

• Will Katie go to CBS? We continue to not really have any idea. [USAT]
• What did Bonnie Fuller learn from getting fired from Conde Nast? "Blatant disloyalty is never the smart course of action." Who knew? [NYT]
• Kurt Andersen thinks — hopes! — that the celebrity moment might finally be over. [NYM]
• Elizabeth Spiers is starting a blog about Wall Street. Also, she used to work here. [IWantMedia]
• Esquire has a funny spoof in its new issue written by — who else? — a Foer brother, in this case champion memorizer Joshua. [WP]
• Simon Dumenco isn't sure newspapers will survive, and he can't believe it took the Times until now to get rid of the printed stock tables. [Ad Age]
• Jim Surowiecki thinks newspapers will survive, and he can't believe it took them until now to get rid of printed stock tables. [NYer]
• WWD media reporter Jeff Bercovici breakfasts on spelt toast with almond butter and a home-brewed cappuccino. [Jossip]
• Syd Schanberg quit his job as the Village Voice's Press Clips columnist just after the New Times deal closed, feeling that the company was no longer interested in media criticism. Friday he won an award for his Voice media criticism. [VV]

Because we know you're tired of embarrassing yourselves:

We asked a bunch of media folks why they're thankful on this Thanksgiving, and many of them told us. Here, the media reporters. We start with the Observer boys, and, first, Gabe Sherman: