• News Corp. posted a $6.4 billion loss for the quarter after writing down half the value of Dow Jones, which it purchased in 2007. [Reuters, BN]
• The Wall Street Journal is laying off 14 people and will also be closing the newspaper's fashion bureau. [E&P, FWD]
• Rupert Murdoch says he has no plans to buy the Times. [E&P]
• The Grammys are on Sunday; here's what you can expect to see. [CNN]
• Chesley Sullenberger will be on 60 Minutes this weekend. [NYP]
• Congrats, ESPN! Sarah Palin says she named her baby in honor of the cable network's hometown of Bristol, Connecticut. [HuffPo]

Colors aren't just for looking at. They're also for making your brain do things! Science has produced a breakthrough new study about how colors can make reporters stop screwing around and get to work:

Ann Curry grills the octuplet mom today. Why have all these babies without a steady job, tart? Well, she has one, Ann: media curio. Click to idly watch baby lady entertain you!

One way to become the opposite of a respected White House correspondent is to hit up the president for an autograph, then get yanked away by the Secret Service. But uh...a kid made him do it!

What's screaming CNBC madman Jim Cramer been up to? Putting on a Burger King mask in order to infiltrate a slumber party full of 14 year-olds. There's no taking this one back, Jimmy. Everyone knows.

Fact-conveying site About.com has always been a moneymaker in the New York Times Co.'s portfolio (somehow), even as its newspapers were spiraling downwards. But now About has its own problems:

What happened to No-Drama Obama? As the blithe candidate of hope, he led a leakproof, gaffe-resistant campaign. Ever since the election, he's been exploding with scandal and gossip. Fantastic!

Second-string New Yorker movie critic David Denby hates 'snark.' He wrote a whole book of fiction about it! What would the man think if he knew that snark—yes, snark—is creeping into his own publication's content?

In your risible Thursday media column: a new New Yorker publisher, Time Out NY cuts pay (with a pizza party!), Laurel Touby Twitters, and more:

The Senate votes today on the economic stimulus package which will (temporarily?) stave off utter doom. If it doesn't pass by a huge margin, Obama's "work together" agenda is a total failure! Time to panic!

Micropayments are the future of content! If I had a nickel for every time I heard that one. Walter Isaacson, a former managing editor of Time, is the latest to pick up this tired banner.

In the past 24 hours, more than 8,000 of you voted on which Conde Nast magazine most deserves to live. You care, you really care! Your full results—and what they mean—below:

• Lionsgate and the Weinstein Co. filed lawsuits against each other yesterday over distribution rights to the Sundance hit film Push. [THR]
• Shake up at Condé Nast: New Yorker publisher Drew Schutte is out and will be replaced by Condé Nast Traveler publisher Lisa Hughes. [NYP]
• The New York Times Co. is cutting staff at its About.com unit. [Reuters]
• Walter Isaacson has a few thoughts on how to save newspapers. [Time]
• The House has voted to extend the deadline to switch to digital TV. [NYT]
• Katie Couric will be hitting the catwalk during Fashion Week. Yay. [WWD]

What do you get when you mix the star power of musical train wreck Axl Rose with the finance-as-a-second-career media appeal of former ballplayer Lenny Dykstra? A Guns N' Roses financial columnist!

In your frostbitten Wednesday media column: Time Warner burns billions, the Daily Beast loses luster, alt-weeklies miraculously manage, and more!

Hey, our friend David Denby was on Charlie Rose last night, going on and on about how he despises Maureen Dowd. Why didn't he just call his book "All I Know Is Maureen Dowd Sucks"?

Former alleged Spitzer hooker #2 Kristin Davis: "I got the best response to my escort ad's in New York magazine. They're expensive, but that's where many of my clients got my phone number." [Steppin Out]

What's this—rumors of more magazine death at Conde Nast? We've had enough. It's time to act. Vote on which teetering Conde mag you want to save, and we'll buy ten subscriptions to the winner.

Tom Daschle, the respected health care wonk with the legislative experience and expertise needed to force health care reform through an obstructionist Senate, withdrew from the Obama cabinet because of the New York Times.

Oh shucks, now there are layoffs at Bloomberg. Which brings the number of remaining media companies with good job security to, hmm, let me check here... none.