TWT CEO Larry Beasley (a.k.a. “Evil Santa”) and the gang of suits over off New York Avenue are contemplating another deep round of layoffs at the troubled newspaper. Sources say the next axe to fall may not be far off.

The reason: A TWT insider tells FishbowlDC that the publication is bleeding money. More specifically, management was told they had three years to get to zero subsidy from the parent company. Only six months are left on that timetable and TWT is still tens of millions away from breaking even. We’re told management is “cornered and desperate” and doesn’t have many cards to play.

Over the weekend, WaPo‘s ombudsman Patrick Pexton signed off for the last time. Pexton completed his two-year position. And now his position has died. As has widely been reported, WaPo‘s days of having an ombudsman are over.

In the writeup, Pexton compliments the paper, the reporters, the copy editors and management profusely. He insists people should have compassion for those tasked with making tough calls where layoffs are concerned. But one line that jumped out at us as odd in Pexton’s farewell was the following, perhaps unintentional, kick in the pants that he sandwiched in right after thanking Post Co. chief executive Donald Graham and Publisher Katharine Weymouth for never interfering with what he wrote.

“And readers, you should know that, although the future Post may not look like the present Post, the commitment of Graham and Weymouth to the survival of this publication is ironclad.”

Whoa! Survival? Read more

(A Sprinkling of Things we Think you Ought to Know…)

Weingarten Defends D.C. – WaPo “humorist” Gene Weingarten uses his weekend column to defend the honor of Washington, D.C. from NYP’s Cindy Adams. Adams famously bashed Washington a few weeks ago, calling it “a sewer.” While Adams doesn’t return Weingarten’s requests for an interview, Gene tries interviewing her anyway. He writes, “Cindy, I make fun of Washington all the time, but I do it because it is the opposite of dirty. It’s as though we took a city and surgically removed all the grit. Washington is spit-shined. People are annoyingly polite and genteel. Nobody jaywalks. The homeless wear spats. You can eat off the sidewalk; indeed, many fine restaurants encourage it. Whereas — and I mean no disrespect to your city — New York smells of stale pee, with a fresh pee chaser.” Is Gene trying to start ANOTHER DC-NYC turf war? Good for Gene for taking on a tired, hack writer for a major market newspaper. Where on EARTH could he have come up with such an idea?

Ashley Judd bares it all and Diplomat Dennis Rodman… Read more

Higher-ups at Human Events warned staff on Tuesday that there would be a big announcement at a 10:30 a.m. meeting the next day. Many employees had a feeling it would be bad news, possibly more layoffs.

Workers who showed up at the office before the meeting went to their desks and computers as usual. Then they gathered in the conference room where V.P. and Group Publisher Joe Guerriero announced that the last payday for nearly all staff members would be this Friday. After the meeting, employees returned to their computers, only to find they couldn’t use them. While the bad news was delivered, the log-in information had been changed.

Employees were told if they needed to retrieve any personal information from what was now their former computers, management would watch them while they did so. Today will be their last day in the office. Human Events will no longer be available in print. Feb. 18th was their last issue.

Guerriero would not comment on the record for this story.

What happened in the meeting…Despite the somber news, no negative energy was felt inside the conference room, a source who was present for the meeting told FBDC. Read more

WaPo’s Richard Cohen starts his latest piece by saying that he “loves” all of his readers. He then launches into a sermon about how we are a nation of phonies because we drop formalities or, as Cohen writes, we’ve “done away with the intermediary steps of feelings less than love.” He says it’s not enough to like someone or “hold them in some esteem.”

While I eventually found myself agreeing with Cohen, he got off to a weird start when he writes that “this all started some years back” when he called an airline company and a woman introduced herself using only her first name. Then, things get a little weird. Read more

Act I Scene I

This is what happens when you have multiple blogs and hot heads at a newspaper. They get catty. They fight, scratch, kick. Whatever it takes to make a coworker look like a dumbass. Nothing a few trust exercises in the woods couldn’t resolve, but we think WaPo‘s Erik Wemple might not catch Dana Milbank, no matter how petite Milbank is, or how much bicycling Wemple does to keep himself fit and capable of catching his colleague.

This morning at 9:09 a.m. Wemple ran a post about a recent Hartford meeting on gun violence, after which Milbank “ruled” against the audience as to whether a father of a Sandy Hook victim was heckled. Ruled? Is Milbank a judge?

Wemple cracked, “Milbank and others on ‘Reliable Sources’ appeared to conclude that the whole heckling thing was a ‘judgment call.’ Right, an easy judgment call. (And Milbank takes issue with the judgment of this post).”

Act I Scene II. Milbank responds! Read more

Stop the presses! Has WaPo stolen fashion writer Robin Givhan back from the clutches of Tina Brown‘s failed Daily Beast?

Last month Washingtonian‘s Harry Jaffe reported that Brown let Givhan go. Givhan told Jaffe, “I”m shell-shocked.”

Last night at 8:47 p.m. WaPo published this lengthy story in its Style section by Givhan on inaugural gowns and the global interest the ordeal attracts. Much of the story details the fashion designers who have attracted a flash of attention from various first ladies only to later crash and burn.

As if he predicted the story in WaPo, Jaffe wrote, “Brown could not have picked a worse time, for her, to let Givhan go. The inaugural season is the height of fashion coverage in the capital.”

The headline: “The agony and ecstasy of creating inaugural gowns”

We’re told that Givhan will have more stories in WaPo. But speaking of agony, is she back for good? She left WaPo for The Daily Beast in December, 2010. A click on her name shows her picture and a single word description: “Critic.” We’ve reached out to WaPo spokeswoman Kris Koratti for more details.

Update: “It’s a freelance piece,” Koratti replied. The print version includes the phrase with her byline, “Special to the Washington Post.”

Last month TWT‘s new Executive Editor David Jackson announced to his newsroom that the publication would be taking things in a new, brighter direction that would involve reorganization and layoffs. Today he releases another letter, this time, a “vision” for what’s to come. In it, no word as to which members of the newsroom will soon be let go.

Human Events underwent several big changes in the course of the last year: big layoffs, new hires and a redesign. More may be coming.

Earlier today FBDC got wind that Eagle Publishing, parent company of Human Events, may sell the conservative weekly off to the Young America’s Foundation. YAF is a nonprofit that promotes conservatism among high school and college students. It also oversees the National Journalism Center, an internship program for aspiring writers.

Vice President and Group Publisher at Human Events Joe Guerriero didn’t deny the rumor… Read more

The Washington Times really knows how to welcome visitors to their humble abode off New York Avenue. Known for having snakes in their newsroom as well as showers, Murphy Beds and mirrors in some of the executive offices, the place isn’t the classiest of joints. But toilet paper in the grass?

Before conjuring up dreams of an all-new building, Chief Operating Officer John Martin might want to concentrate more on keeping the current surrounding grounds more picked up, which they’ve been known to do in the past. His hands must be full with current duties to overlook the mess of impending layoffs.

Nonetheless, this is the impressive first impression… Read more