Jane Friedman's departure as HarperCollins CEO, first reported by Gawker, has been officially confirmed by the book publisher. Her replacement by Brian Murray, 21 years her junior, comes less than a month after a similar generational shift at Bertelsmann AG's Random House, where unsentimental German engineer Markus Dohle, 39, replaced book-loving lawyer Peter Olson, 58. The young book executives hope to fix slowing growth and to better exploit the explosion in online digital media. But it's not clear whether broad technology trends had much to do with the departure of Friedman, who got her start as a Knopf dictaphone typist four decades ago, went on to become a pioneer in audio books and online marketing and who led a unique and ambitious push to digitize HaperCollins' collection. As a surprised fellow executives groped for answers about the change last night, some speculated it might even have its roots in late 2006, when Friedman, with the backing of Roger Ailes, squelched the a high-profile book overseen by HarperCollins executive Judith Regan by alleged killer OJ Simpson, then pushed Regan out of the company in the wake of Regan's remarks about Jews. As one former News Corp. insider put it:

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On June 18, Michelle Obama will be on daytime lady talk show The View, and not as some piddling guest, either, as producers originally proposed: The prospective first lady is going to be a full host, just like Cindy McCain, except unlike Cindy she's widely expected to call Barbara Walters "whitey," curse and burn an American flag. As a full host, Obama will get "to help interview guests and participate in the opening 'hot topics,' or banter about what's in the news that day," and also shift uncomfortably as her randy co-hosts ask about husband Barack and his, uh, physical fitness. I guess this is Michelle Obama's big chance to prove to prospective Barack supporters that she's not the crazy, mouthy free-thinker she's been made out to be. Just like a certain other would-be presidential wife had to do 16 years ago. How far we've come. Michelle should totally show up in a burka. After the jump, how the View ladies welcomed Michelle's husband.

We're hearing a wild rumor that Jane Friedman was just fired from her perch atop News Corp.'s HarperCollins. If true, this would sure lend a hefty dose of irony to the publishing executive's quote in the Observer today, gleaned from an industry party on the Twentieth Century Fox lot Saturday: "I love being CEO of HarperCollins!" Anyone hearing anything? UPDATE: The Observer quotes a source confirming Friedman's departure, and the Wall Street Journal is reporting the exit as fact. Two strange things about these reports:

Didn't get enough gay hip hop blind items in the new Terrance Dean tell-all book Hiding In Hip Hop? It's your lucky day, because there's a follow-up documentary on the way! The entertainment industry vet and former down-low brother Dean tells us the entire film—catchily named "X'pos'D" —will be going up on YouTube soon, and that the LOGO network has "expressed interest" in it. It will explore "why the black community is afraid to address the taboo of homosexuality." Maybe because they'll be X'pos'D! The trailer, featuring a veritable library of gay slurs, is below.

Yazmany Arboleda, the Assassination artist shut down by the Secret Service this morning, apparently has quite a history as an art world prankster. Does that mean that his whole idea of setting up a controversial art exhibit across the street from the NYT building was just a prank? Well, even if he was serious about the exhibit, it's still basically a publicity-seeking prank on the media. The aesthetic philosophers amongst you can debate the implications of his motivation. [Unbeige]

Vanity Fair is a national publication, but it's gone to a lot of trouble to market itself to the tastemakers of New York City. The magazine has produced a 40-page guide to the summer in NYC, with lists and quick critiques of everything from the best outdoor bars with roof decks to the hottest summer concerts. It's a smart (if labor-intensive) promotional move: making the in-crowd know you went to a lot of effort on their behalf. Populists that we are, we're bringing the entire document to the public—you can view the whole thing here. Below, a sample page of VF's editorial comments on summer bars:

Now that the rules for stealing news stories have been revealed, people are seeing stolen stories everywhere! At the National Review, they're accusing the New Yorker's Jeff Toobin of ripping off the Weekly Standard's profile last year of Nixon-loving political hit man Roger Stone. We guess that's true, if you consider it plagiarism to quote the well-rehearsed quotes of a veteran quote whore:

Hillary Clinton's non-concession speech last night was apparently an insane circus of self-delusion and argument. Also the reporters to supporters ratio had to be totally out of whack, considering how many first-hand accounts are on the web today. So let's pick some anecdotes, shall we? First, from the Washington Post's Dana Milbank, the mystery of the reporter who KILLED CLINTON

The NYPD and the Secret Service shut down an art exhibition across the street from the New York Times building earlier this morning. The show's title was "The Assassination of Hillary Clinton/The Assassination of Barack Obama." This is today's "Thing most assured of getting in the tabloids tomorrow." The artist, Yazmany Arboleda, says his project is really about the media—he's definitely good at getting media attention, at least. He's even set up a website for each candidate's assassination (uh, in the media). Photos of his illegal work after the jump:

Murdoch golden-boy Robert Thomson was expected to purge the Wall Street Journal's senior ranks after taking full control of the newspaper's editorial operation. And so it begins: deputy managing editor Bill Grueskin is leaving the paper for Columbia's journalism school. Grueskin was one of the Journal veterans most resistant to the will of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, the newspaper's new owner; so his departure is not a surprise. Next on the list: 'ethics' editor Alix Freedman, whose title alone must be offensive to the Australian media mogul and his lieutenants. Given the exodus of senior staff from the Journal and other newspapers, she'd better hurry if she too is to secure one of those few remaining places in j-school heaven. (After the jump, Grueskin's exit note in which the Journal editor hopes laughably he'll be free to focus on the "broader issues" of journalism.)

At least three staff members of the New York Observer live in Williamsburg, the Brooklyn neighborhood where every description was already a cliché like, ten years ago, dude. And they're determined to parlay their job at a somewhat relevant media outlet into some easy hipster sex this summer. So today they put together a long and infuriating package about living the post-college high life in "Williamsburg College." The two theses of the story are "Williamsburg does not blow!" and "it's not that different from college anyway." Only one of which is true.

Barack Obama is the Democratic nominee for President! It's so exciting and historic! Finally, newspapers across the nation get to run all those "what does it mean that we have a black candidate" pieces they've been sitting on for months. In the interest of having something new to say about this campaign of a thousand cuts, we've compiled a gallery of newspaper front pages from around the nation (but mostly New York and DC). Check them out, along with our commentary and exclusive analysis, below.

Would you like to become an "expert" in a field that really defies easy expert prediction? Here's how: Take a group of things in that field that have already proven themselves to be successful. Then find common characteristics among the items in that group. Put forward those characteristics as your own personal advice about how to be successful in said field. Then, when your audience discovers that simply staring at a bunch of characteristics of things successful in the past does nothing to help them make the hard decisions about the future, you can just shrug and say, "Hey, these things are complex!" This works for "experts" in stock picking, politics, and, especially, marketing.

Ben Karlin, the funnyman former Daily Show producer who is, unfortunately, kind of a dick, is currently suing some company over a book about Spain. Mario Batali is involved, too. What in the world is Ben Karlin doing working on a book about Spain, which does not appear to be a comedy project? We don't know, but it sure sounds like the guy is (wisely) just signing up for any old book that'll cut him a check:

Many of the print publications we used to read regularly we now keep track of online. And every now and then, when we pick up a print edition, we feel like a huge giant! Because everything—everything!—has shrunk. (Pretty sure the New York Press is printed on a cocktail napkin now?) The olde New York Times is now one measly foot wide. They've also added a useless "table of contents" that takes up three A section pages. Many readers naturally assume that they are paying more for less "news" and more "summaries of news" and "plugs for the website." Vanity Fair compared three copies of the paper from 2008, 2007, and 1998, and it turns out that there are just as many square inches of column space devoted to news in all three! Thanks, of course, to significantly less space devoted to advertising, which is why they are laying everyone off, again. [VF]

Super-rich guys who work in private equity may be the masters of the universe, but it's remarkably easy to get under their skin. All it takes is some crappy "street theater" mocking them as mean, heartless wealthy elites, and they run back into their corner offices and cry into their monogrammed handkerchiefs. The huge union SEIU has, for the last year, been staging little theatrical protests of the private equity industry's greed, featuring puppets and megaphones and whatnot. Which you would think would be as effective as sitting across the street from the White House with a "No Nukes" sign. But it really gets the rich guys worked up! Now the SEIU is taking their campaign international, with help from grumpy comedian Lewis Black, and it's making the titans of finance so upset they want to run out and buy the Kleenex Corporation. It's not fair!

"The American Idol host is advertising in Backstage for single guys who 'have a unique and strong relationship' with their mothers for a new NBC reality show he's exec-producing called 'Momma's Boys.'" [Post]

Less than one month ago, Times Editor Bill Keller told staff the newspaper had completed the buyout and termination of about 100 reporters and editors and that "so far nothing... suggests we will be going through this again anytime soon." But the Post today named three writers exiting the Times, and implied the departures were involuntary. Medical-devices reporter Barnaby Feder was, according to an anonymous Post source, given four days to pack up his stuff; baseball writer Murray Chass is not returning from sick leave and arts writer Lawrence Van Gelder is retiring after 41 years. The tabloid's Page Six said a "bloody ax continues to swing" at the Times, but Feder is the only of the three clearly alleged to have been forced out, and it's possible he was cut prior to Keller's May memo and somehow had his exit delayed, or that he was ejected more recently for non-economic reasons. One termination, and two possibly voluntary departures for illness and retirement do not make for layoffs, Page Six. Weak sauce. Anyone have a better handle on what's going on at the Times? [Post]