During an internal conference call yesterday, Bloomberg LP management announced it would freeze hiring and cut costs, a source told Silicon Alley Insider. Sure, Bloomberg earns its money licensing terminals to Wall Street firms, and is therefore more directly connected to the mortgage meltdown than any Silicon Valley firms. But news that Silicon Alley's most successful tech firm is suddenly under the gun remains unpleasant. Especially considering yesterday's doom and gloom prognostications from Digitas Web-ad buyer Carl Fremont. (Photo by azrainman)

Better start brown-bagging it if you're a New York Times employee; starting February 4, the cost-cutting newspaper will increase cafeteria prices by 3.9%, according to an email announcement to staffers today. But don't worry! Management would like you to know that coffee prices won't change-hungry employees hopped up on caffeine are both prettier and more industrious! Wonder if those catered lunches for masthead-occupiers are going to get a price-jump? Oh wait, they're already free! To be fair, prices will still be "8% to 10% below the average for the neighborhood," according to the memo. The Times cafeteria is run by Restaurant Associates, which also manages the eateries at Conde Nast, Hearst and Google-anyone know if those companies are also bumping up their prices? Let us know. Memo after the jump.

Golfweek's recent cover featuring a noose is getting a bad reaction from pretty much everyone, so they fired the editor responsible. The noose is—duh!—totally in reference to the suspension of Golf Channel anchor Kelly Tilghman, who made an extremely poorly-chosen comment involving the word "lynch" when discussing young golfers challenging Tiger Woods. As for the cover—yeah, that's one of those ideas that seems good at three in the morning but the next day you're totally like "Oops." Except with print, you can't take it back. Golfweek also issued an apology. There, now it's all fixed! Click to see the large version of this extremely bad decision! [Yahoo News] [AP]

Sometimes the cheapest laughs are still the most satisfying. [Neatorama via raincoaster]

The former New York Times Building will get totally cute cafes and clothing stores—maybe even a big box retailer, like T.J. Maxx or Target! It'll also be the new headquarters for the investment group that bought it, Africa Israel USA. We're sure they'll keep it classy. FYI, it shall be called the Times Square Building from here on out. [NY Sun]

Christine Griffin is 26, lives in New York, and works at Cosmopolitan magazine—every girl's dream! But living said dream is not all it's cracked up to be, even if you are working for the publication that pioneered a sex position called the Wanton Wheelbarrow. In fact, she thinks she might actually be "going on 36."

We're hearing that Condé Nast Media Group senior vice president Amy Churgin, who was in charge of new media, left the publishing company in a bit of a hurry last week. She's bounced around there a bit this year, spending just seven weeks last winter as the publisher of the group's Gourmet after a seven-year stint at Architectural Digest. Know anything else? Let us know.

Hey, kids! Still trying to make it in New York? Want to work in the fast-paced, exciting entertainment industry, for a "hip hop media mogul"? Are you "available and on call 24-7"? Got a recent pic of yourself ("for our files")? Then apply to be the personal assistant of P. Diddy! (Wait. Isn't it illegal to ask prospective employees to include a photo, unless they're an actor or model?) Anyway, Idolator hears that it's for a VH1 show. (As this job includes "coordinating business, social, and personal affairs," I'd just like to mention that I saw Mr. Diddy at an Eighth Avenue porn store several months ago. Don't ask.) Click for the memo!

The New Yorker has a new daily "cultural happenings" blog, Goings On. Today includes: Amy Winehouse news, something about author Henry Roth and Hollywood, and a post that begins, "Lunch in Midtown tends to extremes."
[Goings On]

Glenn Beck's recent tragic ordeal—he was treated like a commoner at a hospital rich people go to!—was a stunning wake-up call for the entire nation. Beck, despite hurting a whole lot, was made to wait in the emergency room for 40 minutes. He even cried! "The video," CNN insists, "brings to mind the case of Edith Rodriguez. Last year, she was on the floor of a Los Angeles hospital emergency room vomiting blood, and witnesses say no one did anything to help her. Her boyfriend actually called 911, which refused to help since she was already in a hospital. Rodriguez died in the emergency room." Ye gods, Beck could've died in that emergency room. Died of hemorrhoids, right there on the floor. [CNN]

Ashleigh Banfield, who used to be a "real" TV journalist and has even probably won some awards, would like you to know that she still cares very much what former professional football player and acquitted wife-murderer OJ Simpson does with his time. Simpson is currently in a Las Vegas jail for reasons unknown. Banfield was fired by MSNBC in 2004 for criticizing Fox News back when Keith Olbermann's ratings were terrible. [HuffPo]

Much like bloggers, Stalin "rewrote history, made anonymous accusations, hired and elevated hacks and phonies, ruined reputations at will, and airbrushed suddenly unwanted associates out of documents and photographs," explains New Republic editor Lee Siegel. And that's only one choice bit from the Times' review of his book, Against the Machine: Being Human in the Age of the Electronic Mob. For his part, Siegel refers to his praiseful anono-commenting on his very own essays as "my rollicking misadventures in the online world." Now that's re-writing history! (Click for the work of Siegel's former anonymous avatar, "Sprezzatura.")

Local girl Friday makes the big-time! NY1 political reporter and NYU grad Sandra Endo, who if we do say so ourselves, is completely adorable, has just been hired by CNN as a national correspondent. Endo just capped a decade at the local news-loop-that-could, covering our representatives' legislative (and personal) affairs. We like her for saying this to Columbia Journalism Review when asked about concierge services offered to the press during the 2004 Republican National Convention: "While it's thoughtful and ingenious for the host committee to be so considerate, I laughed at the thought of me being able to get my nails done in the middle of the convention. I think I would be fired first if I had that much down time!" Attaway. Press release, with all the usual congratulatory buzzphrases, after the jump.

Our favorite millionaire underdog plans to sue the photographer who took the family photos of her that ended up on the over of OK! magazine. Dani Brubaker sold them to the tabloid for $1 mil, but they weren't supposed to be sold, or even public. Oops! (It's OK to date a paparazzo, however). Click the thumb to view the larger version of this grievous breach of trust. [Pagesix]

Lou Dobbs took over two hours of prime CNN time last night (while they were supposed to be reporting the results from the Michigan primaries, no less!) to plug his book about how only he has the answer to what ails America. What ails America, by the way, is Mexicans taking our jobs here and Chinese people taking our jobs elsewhere (then sending us back POISON TOYS). The entire spectacle exposed the uneasy position Dobbs has at The Most Trusted Name in News. The first hour, as usual, was given over, mostly, to "real" news about politics and Michigan. The second was mostly free-wheeling opinionated shouty interviews with a panel made up of Bill Bennett some folks Dobbs ignored entirely. As other networks broadcast early returns from Michigan, Dobbs appeared aggravated when he had to jump to Wolf Blitzer with actual "news" on the close Romney/McCain race. Wolf looked uncomfortable when his fellow Election Night coverage marquee anchor star referred to the Democratic Party's "screwing over" of the voters of Michigan. "That's one way to look at it," Wolf charitably mumbled through his beard.

The new Ryan Adams YouTube video, which we can only assume is about his recent breakup with former Observer scribe, former model, and current ShopVogue writer Jessica Joffe, is called "Sad Days." Described as "found footage of dreams," it features a couple grainy shots of Jessica in all her redheaded beauty, plus shots of Ryan goofing around. Oh, the good times they must have had! Mostly, though, it features shots of the skyline racing by from the window of a car, or shots of the stars at night. Your next breakup could easily end up like this if you aren't careful! "He's obviously reaching out," writes a tipster. "Bless him." Click to watch! If you're looking for Jess, she appears about 2 minutes in, and again at 3:20, and at the very end.

Where did Hearst president Cathie Black pick up her steely ways? Why from "mad man" USA Today founder Al Neuharth of course! (She said it, we didn't.) In a November interview at the 92 St. Y with New York Post gossip Liz Smith, Black dishes about being a career woman and her early days with Neuharth. One gem? Neuharth kept his employees alert by keeping the office temp at 55°. "All you could think about was how damn cold you were," Black says. Watching employees hobble around on frostbitten toes is fun times! Watch the video after the jump. [92YBlog]

Playboy editor Chip Rowe would like you to know that he didn't actually solicit a pro-Olbermann letter from an Olbermann fan blogger after receiving a flood of negative responses to their interview. He merely invited her to respond if she so desired. Also this is S.O.P. and also "I read it for the articles" jokes are not funny anymore. [Playboy]

It's kind of embarrassing when you're opening rejection letters one day and writing about twelve-year-olds successfully publishing self-help books the next. But that's life! Libby Rees, 12, is on her second book. (Her first, about coping with her parents' divorce, was published three years ago). It's called At Sixes and Sevens and is about "making the transition from primary to secondary school." In other words, it's about the sheer hell of starting high school, going from "being the biggest to the small fry." Note to young readers: this pattern will repeat itself throughout your lives. [Sydney Morning Herald]

Hearst Magazines president Cathie Black is a total hardass. "You suck it in if you're ever driven to tears at the office," she tells the San Francisco Chronicle. "Get over it." Yikes. (Not that we particularly disagree, but when we say it, it's a lot less terrifying. Probably because the only publishing corporation we preside over at present has to do with Christmas thank-you cards.) Black's the affable sort, though, no need to cower (though it's probably one of those unwritten office rules.) "I'm from Chicago. I have strong Midwestern values. I'm accessible," she says. Funny, she won't answer our calls. A little advice from her old pal Rupert Murdoch, with whom she worked at New York magazine? Don't hold meetings sitting down. "He told me, 'when I stand the meetings are shorter,' and I vividly remember that," Black says. Actually? That totally works.