This morning, Mashable.com laid off nearly two dozen editorial staffers in a move that the sort of people who do the firing colloquially call “a pivot.” According to CNN’s Dylan Byers, Mashable staffers were informed that the company will be moving away from “hard news” and towards video.

Newspapers, magazines, TV networks and online conglomerates are laying off journalists left and right, but even the sad crumbling world of professional news delivery has a fortunate one percent. This elite group now includes Ben Parr, whose employer Mashable, the tech blog, paid him a $250,000 retention bonus only to turn around and fire him. Meet the happiest unemployed journalist in the world!

Newsweek Technology Editor and professional Steve Jobs imitator Dan Lyons—author of Options: The Secret Life of Steve Jobs—was completely blown away by Facebook's new design. So blown away that he felt the need to share his feelings with the world:

In your departing Tuesday media column: Sam Sifton says goodbye to the NYT restaurant critic gig (with memo!), Nancy Franklin quits as NYer TV critic, more News Corp scandalism, and Mashable expands.

Oh Merton, you were such a lovable guy! Singing your songs on Chatroulette and wooing the collective internet in that hoody and those glasses. You had a mystique! And then you had to go and open your mouth. Sigh.

Responding to rumors he might sell his tech blog to AOL, Mashable CEO/babe magnet Pete Cashmore says he's gone to first or second base with some company, and flirted with others, but isn't about to close a deal.

If AOL buys Mashable — or just sells the monster tech blog's ads — it will be banking less on journalism than on the site's network of members, Twitter fans and party groupies. Banking, that is, on Pete Cashmore's hotness.

AOL is interested in buying the world's largest tech blog, Mashable, we hear from a source at the internet conglomerate. And in fact the two sides have been talking, people outside AOL have whispered to one another, and to us.

The proposer: Adam Hirsch, COO of geek business hub Mashable. The courted: Sharon Feder, Mashable's Managing Editor. The location: On stage at the Social Good conference at the 92nd St. Y. And the verdict?

Ever worked from home, felt sad, drank coffee, had a Hot Pockets, and reminisced? Then you know exactly how Politico's Patrick Gavin, web comic Alex Blagg and new media flack Leslie Bradshaw felt today.

We certainly don't know what Mashable CEO Pete Cashmore does. We have even less of an idea how Adam Hirsch, the tech blog's COO, stays busy. Hand-cranking the site's server, perhaps, to save on electricity costs? In this just-unearthed Halloween photo sent in by a tipster, Hirsch seems to be short a piece of clothing. Can you think of a better caption? Leave it in the comments. The best will become the post's new headline. Yesterday's winner: kfury, for "We can see Google from our campus!"

With the election for the President of the United States coming to a head on November 4th, people are more anxious than ever to get an of idea of how the race will turn out. Polls are being run daily and being reported via various news outlets, but wouldn’t it be nice to get an overall view of how the results may break down come election night? Here are 12 presidential poll and electoral projection resources that can help you get a better idea.

The team at Yahoo Search has been involved with what is browser-based search assist for some time. For instance, they launched a feature literally titled Yahoo Search Assist in mid-2007.

Young master Peter Cashmore of Mashable ditched the vest for the last party before repatriating to Blighty one step ahead of immigration officials. Here he's caught savoring a sweet cupcake with a come-hither glint in his eye. Proffer a different headline in the comments, and the most cunning linguist will be crowned with a new title on this post. Yesterday, emnem had the climactic entry with "Eric Shmidt and wife Wendy seen in Valleywag Green #61b335." (Photo by Andrew Mager)

Mashable founder Pete Cashmore will say goodbye to his American friends tonight in San Francisco. The faux-blogging CEO caps off his six-month visa stay with a party, booze, food, and — as always — startup pitches. The Scottish whirlwind came to the U.S. and stayed long enough to snag a documentary, as well as gals left, right, and sometimes both sides. What's the secret? Perhaps it's his dapper outfit. We chronicle Pete's magical suit vest:February 23, 2008: FlashMash Meet NYC Februrary 25, 2008:

GigaOm's Om Malik and Mashable's Pete Cashmore like to present themselves as leaders of a new kind of Web 2.0 journalism. Both turned up at Current TV's offices Friday, ostensibly to cover Current's Twitter-enhanced coverage of the first Presidential debate. Truth is, Current's publicists had called reporters to tip us off that executive chairman of the board Al Gore would be there. Gore didn't bother to use Twitter himself — he didn't even stick around for the debate. But he did take time to pose for photos.Malik and Cashmore, perhaps taking a cue, didn't do any real reporting on the event, leaving that to Threat Level and Laughing Squid. The two simply blogged their Al-and-me pictures as news stories on GigaOm and Mashable, bringing themselves one step closer to the old media stereotype of the vain reporter who can't stop inserting himself into the story — or in this case, into the non-story.

How absurd: Six Apart, the blog-software maker which has helped so many bloggers overturn the staid, outdated conventions of journalism and PR, has tried to use an embargo to quash news of a software upgrade until 9 p.m. tonight. Mashable published the news earlier this morning, and then yanked its story. The software in question, Movable Type Pro, is an anodyne improvement, turning MT's existing commenter features into a social network. Why this news ought to be released in a coordinated fashion is beyond me; for that matter, why it's interesting is also beyond me, since Six Apart has been trying to get into the social-network business since its ill-fated purchase of LiveJournal in 2005. News.com, admirably, has kept its post online. Here's Mashable's now-unpublished report by writer Kristen Nicole:

Mashable founder Pete Cashmore makes a living throwing parties. Tumblr founder David Karp seems to get by on going to them, if only to make people say, "Why who's that fellow dressed so much like, Chuck Bass, and how can I join any website he's created?" This must explain why the two make such good dancing partners. But won't Iminlikewithyou founder Charles Forman get jealous? Write your own caption for this post and we'll use the best one as its new title. Friday's winner is bloggerman with "And in the end the stock you take is equal to the mess you make."

Careful, Pete — get too handsy and we hear Niles could happy slap you back to Blighty, as when she's not appearing in Californication or on French Maid TV, she practices kung fu and holds a second degree black belt. Maybe next time she can torture him into confessing what, exactly, he does besides show up at parties to pose with hotties. Can you come up with a better caption? Do so in the comments. The best one will become this post's new headline. Yesterday's winner: "Lectroid Julia Bigboote's pheromonic camouflage fails at the worst possible moment " by matto. (Photo by Marc Salsberry)

"Some blogs, like TechCrunch and Mashable are so loaded with widgets that they take at least 30 seconds to fully render," gripes a post by frequent Valleywag commenter Alan Wilensky. So true! When I was a website producer, I used to plot page load times versus daily pageviews. Load speed affected traffic — and hence revenue and brand reach— far more than I could convince my managers.