• The Times takes a look at prospective Tribune buyers Eli Broad and Ron Burkle. The latter is "best known for his friendship with Stephen Bing, the film producer who fathered a child with both the actress Elizabeth Hurley and Kirk Kerkorian's former wife, Lisa." [NYT]
  

• Rosie! The Musical. Brought to you by inveterate musical writer Ben Greenman. [The Feed]
  

SCOTT KIDDER — Randy Falco's right-hand man and human "computer" — newly-appointed President and COO Ron Grant — referred to by new AOL chief Randy Falco as "my computer" — has a holiday message for AOL's tens of thousands of employees: Have a good holiday weekend, and stay the fuck away from your email!

• Ad Age's Media Mavens: A remarkably diverse group. [copyranter]
  

Just over the transom:

It's that time again where we float a rumor currently making the rounds and ask you to do our work for us: Has the NBC axe fallen on some local "favorites"? A tipster writes:

A tipster sends word on the glacial pace of the MSNBC layoffs:

The world's biggest Internet service provider keeps getting smaller, this week announcing that offices in Albuquerque, New Mexico and Tucson, Arizona will close in December and 1400 workers will lose their jobs. AOL will also sell its 400-person Ogden, Utah call center, with no guarantee that those employees will keep their jobs.

As we speak nervous NBC employees are gathering for a townhall meeting where television head Jeff Zucker a number of them that they're free to pursue other interests and not to let the door hit them on the ass on the way out. While the exact number of fired employees is in some dispute by credulous Times reporters, the general consensus seems to be that 700 people will be let go. England's Guardian, however, sees a much direr situation:

• NBC Cuts: Approximately 700 jobs axed, MSNBC moved from Secaucus, news budget slashed, expensive dramas abandoned. [Bloomberg]
• Of course, if you believe the Times, the layoffs will not be extensive. [NYT]
• Also, the network now plans to buy more of its crappy programming from its in-house studio. Insert your own "And such small portions" joke here. [WSJ]
• And MSNBC "stars" like Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews may be moved to CNBC, which means we might actually start watching MSNBC. [B&C]
• In non-NBC news, you'll soon be able to see the Wall Street Journal's repellent editorials in full color. The rest of the paper, too. [AdAge]

It's that time again where we float a rumor currently making the rounds and ask you to do our work for us: We're hearing that NBC is about to get a lot lighter, employee-wise. Some of what we've been told involves massive layoffs at MSNBC, with the remaining crew moving from Secaucus to 30 Rock (which means, at least, that MSNBC head Dan Ambrams will be able to have lunch with his pal Dave Zinczenko a bit more often). Fishbowl DC reports that Jeff Zucker (who will surely keep his job, what with the excellent work he's been doing lately) will announce the firings tomorrow; let's see if we can't get a little more information before then. Confidential memos or scurrilous gossip here.

A reader asks Valleywag,

Yesterday morning a bevy of chief marketing officers were taking part in an Advertising Week discussion entitled "Catch and Release" at the McGraw-Hill auditorium in midtown. Simultaneously, a few blocks south, a vast number of McGraw-Hill employees were being "released" from their jobs. Estimates suggest that the textbook publisher terminated approximately 300 people, including editors, production types, and administrative assistants. As for the "catch" part: around one hundred of these folks can keep their jobs if they accept the "opportunity" to move to the bright lights of cosmopolitan Columbus, Ohio. So if you're working in the creative industries you can expect a flood of resumes from desperate former employees who, if nothing else, know how to make sure that minorities and the handicapped are presented attractively in your publication.

When AOL announced it will fire 5,000 employees in the next six months, what jobs was it cutting? The Washington Post shares some deets.

Disney has opted for a novel way to celebrate the happy occasion of Pirates of the Caribbean 2's unprecedented opening weekend gross: by cutting down production and shitcanning a large chunk of its personnel. Variety heralds the carnage to come:

Earlier today we skeptically noted what seemed to be an unfounded rumor, that Vibe editor-in-chief Mimi Valdes, along with much of her staff, was being canned from the urban music mag. We asked if anyone could provide any word on what was going on over there, and, obediently, Mediaweek's Stephanie Smith quickly complied. What's going on? The mag is being sold, and Valdes and president Kenard Gibbs are expected to go. "Additionally," Smith reports, "layoffs, primarily on the editorial side, are expected." So who's buying?

What we have here is either an actual bug-eyed-insane AOLer gloating over his own company's failure in the Internet access business, or an equally bug-eyed-insane AOLer seeding lies to discredit Valleywag, defame AOL, or both. Either way, the grammar and spelling prove this tipster really is from AOL.

Every journalist knows, some tips are too juicy to be true. Despite ZDNet columnist Tom Foremski's dire prediction of thousands of Sun layoffs today, Jon Schwartz's company only cut 400 jobs today. BusinessWeek says that 122 are in Colorado, 113 in Menlo Park, according to a Colorado Department of Labor official. A pain for those who got fired, but more Boston Massacre than Nanjing Massacre.

The penny drops for thousands of Sun employees Thursday morning, according to ZDNet columnist Tom Foremski. CEO Jon Schwartz (pictured) will announce a round of layoffs, part of the 4000 to 5000 layoffs Sun promised in May.

When Time Warner, which had long owned 50 percent of Court TV, acquired the other half last month, everyone was sure that layoffs would be coming soon. Today they finally arrived. Reports a Court TV source: