Somewhere in this great land of ours, there is a reporter who holds the single worst reporting job in America. Sure, the guy who has to constantly watch men be filled up with poison in a prison in Huntsville, Texas is a strong candidate. But we know there are many more. What about the reporter who has to cover long-haul truckers? Or the municipal waste beat? Or the St. Louis Rams?

In your woebegone Wednesday media column: Rumors of more Conde Nast layoffs at Architectural Digest and the research department, ideas for BusinessWeek's future, Ross Douthat is insecure, and the Weather Channel grows ever more awesome.

After the New York Times announced that it's cutting 100 more newsroom jobs, guess what happened, virally? Many commenters begged to be allowed to pay for the paper's online content! Is this the NYT's salvation? Ha, no.

Let's just examine this Politico story here, headlined "Lamar Alexander to Barack Obama: No 'enemies list.'" What is it about?

ABC White House correspondent and alleged tool Jake Tapper is furious with the White House for saying Fox News is not a "legitimate news organization." He had an argument with Robert Gibbs about it!

This year, Conde Nast hired McKinsey, folded several magazines, and instituted across-the-board budget cuts and layoffs. Clearly, the fancy days are over. Right? No, says the company. This is just a temporary blip.

Playboy is cutting its rate base from 2.6 million to 1.5 million, nearly a 40% drop. But...but...naked cartoon characters! What more do you pervs want? [Mediaweek. Pic: TMZ]

• It's Tuesday, which means fresh job cuts at Condé Nast have been revealed. In addition to the dozen Glamour staffers laid off yesterday, Style.com will cut Candy Pratts Price. And 200+ more layoffs could be ahead. [WWD, NYP, FWD]
• Maybe Condé Nast's fancy iPhone application, which was announced today, will stem the red ink? Maybe not. But it certainly can't hurt either. [AdAge]
• BusinessWeek editor-in-chief Steve Adler says he will step down once the sale of the magazine to Bloomberg LP is completed in about a month. [BW]
• Sarah Palin will be Oprah's guest on November 16 as the former governor embarks on her book tour. Many of her fans aren't happy, unsurprisingly. [CT]
• The search for a Good Morning America co-host continues at ABC News. The front-runner at the moment seems to be George Stephanopoulos. [LAT]
• Malcolm Gladwell says journalists shouldn't go to journalism school. [Time]
• Harvey Weinstein's book publishing company is giving up its independence. It will be combined with Perseus Books starting December 1. [WSJ]

This could be because Condé Nast is determined to prepare its most overindulged employees for the exceedingly tough times ahead—or it could just have something to do with the fact Vogue's November issue has an environmental theme—but Hamish Bowles, the fashion mag's European editor-at-large, was asked to head to survival school "in deepest southern Utah" as part of an article in the new issue.

In your dangerous Tuesday media column: A media employee cries for help from the office bathroom, more details on yesterday's Glamour layoffs, a dangerous liberal media pumpkin, and a newspaper gets cheaper, on purpose.

Maziar Bahari, the Canadian-Iranian Newsweek reporter who has been detained in Tehran's notorious Evin Prison since his arrest while covering the nation's post-election uprising in June, has arrived safely in London in time for the birth of his first child.

Incompetent superflack Ronn [sic] Torossian: Just when you're trying to ignore him, his outbursts interrupt an ABC newsman trying to interview fraudulent faith healer Benny Hinn. Twice. Ronn is such an asshole he embarrasses Benny Hinn. Watch and be amazed.

This image (and video!) would be our NYT layoff-watch logo if the paper allowed embedding.

• The New York Times says it will cut 100 newsroom jobs, or roughly 8% of its editorial workforce, via buyouts and/or layoffs. [NYT, NYO]
• The Condé Nast cuts continue today at Wired, Glamour and Lucky. [Gawker]
• The bad news for NBC: It's facing blowback from its affiliates over Jay Leno's 10pm show. The good news: MObama is booked on Leno this Fri. [LAT, AP]
• Meanwhile, Vivendi, NBC and Comcast are inching along in their respective negotiations to hand over control of the network to Comcast; and former News Corp. exec Peter Chernin has signed on to advise the cable giant. [NYT, WSJ]
• CBS News paid tribute to late 60 Minutes creator Don Hewitt today. [AP]
• Ticket sales were up big this weekend. As expected, Where the Wild Things Are came in No. 1 at the box office with $32.5 million in sales. [LAT, THR]

We hear Wired had its own round of editorial layoffs today. What's going on at Conde Nast? A very bad Monday. In a very bad month. Let's review:

New York Times editor Bill Keller just sent out an internal memo saying that the company needs to cut 100 newsroom positions by the end of this year. Buyout offers are going out; layoffs are possible. Full memo below:

In Part Two of New York Times reporter David Rohde's account of his captivity by the Taliban, we learn two things: 1) The Taliban lies, and 2) it seems like the New York Times' public relations professionals lie, too.

In your malicious Monday media column: computers replace sportswriters (finally), rumored layoffs at W mag and Lucky, a new way for death to save the media, and the salvation of publishing arrives.

ABC announced last month that Diane Sawyer would depart Good Morning America at the end of the year to replace Charles Gibson as anchor of ABC's World News. Now we hear that the morning show's co-anchor, Chris Cuomo, is leaving the program as well. According to a well-placed source, Cuomo plans to move over to 20/20, taking over for John Stossel who left ABC in September to join Fox News and Fox Business.

Conde Nast layoffs never stop: A tipster tells us that Glamour had at least another half dozen layoffs today, including several editors. The magazine already had one round of layoffs earlier this month. If you know more, email us.