Longtime Gawker readers may recall a bygone era in which Laurel Touby, founder of media job board-etc. site Mediabistro, was a regular Gawker "character," famous for her feather boas and inability to use email properly. After she sold Mediabistro for $23 million in 2007, she became more famous for being a Can You Believe The Lady Who Started Mediabistro Is Now Super Rich, What The Fuck Is This World Coming To? Well. Years have passed. Now you must hear all about Laurel Touby's multimillion-dollar apartment.

In your foreboding Thursday media column: Rumors of veterans departing their jobs far and wide, Anthony Kennedy's story weakens, newspapers and magazines lose huge money, and Jon Fine's media gig disappears.

Millionairess Mediabistro founder Laurel Touby and her husband, Businessweek media columnist Jon Fine, are taking months-long sabbaticals to "do some ambitious traveling." We'd do the exact same thing if we had that money. Jerks. [The Wrap. Pic: MB]

The problem with Twitterati isn't so much oversharing as undercaring. Laurel Touby's apartment woes, Lockhart Steele's porn name, and Penelope Trunk's divorce bill are as good as the media elite's tweets get!

It's a horrible disease that threatens everyone's well-being! No, not the swine flu, silly — we're talking Twitter. Alan Meckler, Jon Fine, and Patrick Gavin were among today's victims:

Who knew New Yorker writers used Facebook enough to hate its new look, as Susan Orlean does? In other trivia, Tricia Romano got sauced, Olivier Knox developed a crush, and Jon Fine revealed his ignorance:

Twitter is supposed to save journalism 140 characters at a time. Media people love it, and we love media people, so let's take a look at what the Twitterati have to say for themselves.

Husband-of-Touby Jon Fine, who writes for Business Week when he's not being lassoed by his millionairess wife's trademark boa, sneaked a look at Rupert Murdoch's speed dial. The Australian media mogul's old cellphone is on display at the Newseum, that mausoleum of 20th-century media bric-a-brac, which Fine checked out this week. Murdoch's key phone numbers include those of his children, various executives at News Corporation-and, slightly less predictably, a Tunisian movie producer called Tarak Ben Ammar.

Former Gawker editor Choire Sicha interviewed BusinessWeek's Jon Fine—husband of confused gazillionaire Mediabistro lady Laurel Touby—for this internet video thing called Bloggingheads. And he sorta made Jon uncomfortable! No one likes to talk about money, especially when they have lots and lots of it. "This short clip is my final, incoherent (and actually feverish) attempt at rehashing his wife Laurel Touby's complaints about her riches in the New York Times," Choire says. Enjoy Jon's hip Ramones shirt and admire his vast record collection, after the jump!

Mediabistro founder Laurel Touby and all her Laurel Touby-loving friends have put together a very special Christmas video to wish you happy holidays! From Touby's "media family" (which includes husband Jon Fine, Bonnie Fuller, and Arianna Huffington) to yours (which probably doesn't), please have a "warm and fuzzy New Year!" It's just like that I Am African campaign but without any social good and slightly less funny!

Rolling Stone and Us Weekly owner Jann Wenner and his partner, Matt Nye, (for whom he dropped his wife, Jane) are expecting twins in January, according to Business Week's Jon Fine. The newest little Wenners will join his current army of four. But this party is just beginning—the interview transcript is something to behold. Some highlights!

"[BusinessWeek media columnist] Jon Fine is thinking he'd be truly impressed by the severity of his headache if he weren't living inside it. It's [his wife, Mediabistro lady] Laurel [Touby]'s fault for throwing such an awesome party." Oh we are sure it was bitchin'! Omg you were like soooo wasted dude!

BusinessWeekman Jon Fine has called out TMZ for sending Britney Spears "valentines," saying that the stories about the "rehab doll" they've been running have been suspiciously favorable. He cites the site's reports that Britney "has had an utter personality change since going into rehab" and its description of her as "radiant, smiling, and hatted" as evidence. "If the first 'official' photo session of a rehabbed Ms. Spears appears on TMZ.com, we'll know we're truly onto something," he concludes. It's an interesting take, but probably not an accurate one. Thing is, when Britney is staying out of nightclubs and keeping her clothes and wig on, there's really not much to say! The only way to make a story is to be all "she has turned her life around for good." Plus, if Britney or her people (such as they are) could figure out how to get TMZ in their pocket, Britney wouldn't be on TMZ in the first place. Right?

While we were all marveling at the so-crazy-they-just-might-work internet schemes of Atoosa "Alpha Kitty" "Big Momma" "'Toos" "The 'Toos" Rubenstein on Friday, Jon Fine was scraping the floor for quotes that didn't make the cut the first time around. The result could sort of be considered his 'The Beales of Grey Gardens:'

Today, BusinessWeek's Jon Fine takes a long, hard look at what a certain former Editor in Chief, a young woman named Atoosa Rubenstein, has been up to since leaving Seventeen. We already know, of course, that she's been spending a lot of time on MySpace. So what's her strategy for building the brand that will make her "the new Oprah?" Well, it's hard to say, exactly, but an important component of the plan seems to be . . . spending a lot of time on MySpace.

• Gruff, avuncular voice may introduce Katie Couric. Or not. [NYDN]
• Domain for new magazine using common word as name already taken. [WWD]
• Virginia Heffernan and Jon Fine are hot on the trail of lonelygirl15. Imagine if they teamed up! It would be like Nancy Drew meets the Hardy Boys! Except, you know, about solving a YouTube mystery. [Screens]
• Even the nipple slips are third tier this week. [Egotastic]

• Washington Post executive editor thinks it's inappropriate for his reporters to actually report what they've heard from sources. Unless those sources happen to be frat dudes who reveal the secrets of pawning your friend off on the ugly chick. [NYS]
• Observer editor Peter Kaplan punks George Gurley; introduces intern as new owner Jared Kushner. Good sport Gurley chuckles, drags intern into bathroom for traditional "Bump Off George's Knuckles" welcome. [NYDN]
• Jon Fine actually has an interesting angle on the whole "Time moves to Friday" thing: It's gonna hurt Life. And possibly BusinessWeek, but that goes unsaid. [BW]

• Gawker-reader Jon Fine doesn't give a shit where you put your ads, so long as it doesn't affect coverage. Unrelated: Go see Little Miss Sunshine, it's the funniest movie of the year. [BW]
• Ana Marie Cox on her new position: ""I've been trying to sell out for a very long time." About as long as she's been using that quote, actually. [WWD]
• If you want to get Rachel Sklar's attention, mention her vagina. Just be respectful about it, okay? [ETP]

• Boston Globe joins trend of selling ads on sectional front pages. God knows The Jimmy Fund needs more venues in which to get its message across. [BG]
• If Jon Fine weren't such a good person he would have had a crucial scoop about National Geographic. National Geographic. C'mon, yellow cover, comes with a map inside? Eh, never mind. [BW]
• YouTube dude doesn't envision bubble bursting, won't sell yet. We see Calcanis-like levels of bitterness on the horizon. [Marketwatch]

BusinessWeek's story on the purchase of Wired News is worse than useless. Writer Jon Fine (pictured here in his New Media glasses) rushed out a piece as thoroughly researched as a Gawker Media blog post.