Just in time for Christmas, AOL is asking 2,500 of its workers to volunteer for buyouts starting Dec. 4 (layoffs come after) as the company separates from Time Warner and a shadow of its former online conglomerate self.

The AP's layoffs continued yesterday. Small AP bureaus seem particularly vulnerable. We updated our comprehensive AP Layoff List this morning with several new tips we received overnight, and we'll continue to update today as new info comes in. [The List]

AOL announced today that it plans to shed one-third of its workforce, or 2,300 jobs, as it prepares to be spun off by its parent company, Time Warner. The most ironic part? The man most responsible for uniting AOL and Time Warner in what has since turned out to be the most ill-advised merger in history, is the happiest he's been in years. Steve Case, AOL's co-founder, just sold his Paypal also-ran, Revolution Money, yesterday to American Express for $300 million. [Bloomberg, NYT]

In your wistful Wednesday media column: Fox News anchor moves up in the world, layoffs loom at Time Inc. and BusinessWeek, people still say they read newspapers, and Pat Kiernan has a contest, for you.

This morning, we've updated our AP Layoff List post with multiple new tips, including bureau closures in the US and abroad, and names of some more layoff victims. We'll continue to update it as info comes in. [AP Layoff List]

Slate honcho Jacob Weisberg has addressed Double X's shuttering as a stand-along entity in a memo, confirming some layoffs and characterizing the site's demotion to a section of Slate as "returning Double X to the womb from which it sprang."

Don Dodge used to be an official evangelist for Microsoft, hyping the company's software and insulting its competitor Google. Then Microsoft laid him off, and Google hired him. Cue the bitter, flip-flopping blog post in which Dodge loudly switches sides.

The layoffs at the AP are indeed happening today. We're compiling a list of all the casualties—the ones we hear about and the ones reported elsewhere. Click through for our continuously updated list.

BusinessWeek, which is in full reinvention mode since its was bought by Bloomberg last month, has found itself a new editor. We also hear layoffs are coming. Full info below. (UPDATED, with internal memo).

Last month we heard that the AP might need to make hundreds of layoffs before the end of the year. Some of those layoffs, we hear, could be coming today.

With 100 buyoutlayoffs already assured by the end of the year, the New York Times is tossing in a bit more good news for employees: 25 additional layoffs, thanks to the magical economics of outsourcing.

Newsweek laid off "about a dozen" editorial staffers Wednesday. The weekly posted a 48 percent drop in revenue in the third quarter, resulting in a $4.3 million loss. Memo from editor Jon Meacham after the jump.

Current Media said it would shed 80 people, confirming earlier reports, and will make its unconventional format more boringly traditional. This might sound bad. But the San Francisco cable network assures us it is evidence of amazing success!

In your woebegone Wednesday media column: Hearst gets money, layoffs at Current TV, Conde Nast gets internet religion, and Sesame Street characters are the swing votes in Fox News' war for righteousness.

Adobe will lay off 680 people, or nearly 10 percent of its workforce. The publishing software company joins Electronic Arts and AOL in making pre-Thanksgiving cutbacks. At least these workers won't be shocked during the holidays. Just broke. (Pic)

AOL will lay off about 100 today, as we reported, says All Things D.

'Tis the season to rush up layoffs so they don't fall in the sacrosanct Thanksgiving-to-Christmas period: An AOL insider tells us the company is slated to let go around 100 people tomorrow, following 1,500 firings Electronic Arts announced today.

That 16-year-old TechCrunch writer with 120,000 Twitter followers, who we wrote about yesterday, is part of a burgeoning child punditocracy. Children are operating in virtually every facet media — and doing so successfully. Fear for your job.

Sure, about 450 Time Warner magazine workers will soon be jobless, but times are also tough for company executives: They just can't sell their company-sponsored private jets, and must continue to possess the posh mini-airliners. Such a bummer.

In your thumping Thursday media column: Glenn Beck does not die on the operating table, more rumor-details on the Essence layoffs, Fortune and SI get hacked, and a dying newspaper goes glossy, for unknown reasons.