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. continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

The publication recently went through a redesign, so maybe they need time to work out some of the gobbledygook invading their copy. See the full story with the coding here.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

First impression: Nice digs! The Heritage Foundation has some bucks, and they dropped some buck on the lobby of their 7^th floor theater, where the party was held.

Second impression: This was a Christmas party, damn it! None of this PC “Happy Holidays” garbage here, it’s the Christmas season. Christmas tree glistening away in the reflection of the ceiling to floor windows overlooking Union Station, Christmas ties and freshly nogged eggs. OK, maybe not the egg part, but the rest was all Christmas.

Third impression: Top-shelf booze. This soiree was for media types, after all, and even conservative media types love them some alcohol. There was plenty to be had here, Bombay Sapphire, Absolute, etc. No bathtub gin/rail swill here, that stuff is for liberals and this was a 1% party.

Fourth impression: These people know how to eat. The buffet spread had crab cakes (delicious), chicken breast slices (delicious), tiny wieners baked in croissants (huh?). Yes, the tiny wieners were a bit out of place, but they weren’t all that bad, actually. And the dessert table? A diabetic coma waiting to happen, but what a way to go.

Fifth impression: Who goes to a conservative media party? Turns out a lot of people. The room was full of Heritage staff, Hill staff and media types from Human Events, The Washington Times, Roll Call, The Hill, Fox News, etc. Surprising was the age range. While there was a disproportionate share of curmudgeons there (looking at you, Cal Thomas, John Gizzi and Al Regnery), there were a lot of young people there too. Jason Mattera, the soon-to-NOT-BE-Editor-in-Chief of Human Events, Vince Coglianese from the Daily Caller, Conn Carroll from the Washington Examiner, and boybander extraordinaire, Slate’s own Dave Weigel.  Also in the crowd, towering over it and the only thing in the room taller than the Christmas tree was Jim Pinkerton, the 6 foot 9 inch writer/contributor for Fox News.

Overall impression: A much better party than expected. Though, admittedly, the expectations were low. Probability of adding this party to the must-crash list for next year? High.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Here we offer you a second view of Gizzi’s daytime digs that are located near Union Station on Massachusetts Avenue. No need to reveal the exact address.

Want to play our cubicle game? Take a picture of your cubicle, or better yet, your neighbor’s when he or she is out at an important interview. If you want to set up props, all the better. We’ll never tell. Send to FishbowlDC@mediabistro.com or to FishbowlBetsy@gmail.com.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

• Tucker Carlson, editor-in-chief of The Daily Caller will speak at an event sponsored by Accuracy in Media on Thursday and, later that night, will serve as Master of Ceremonies for CPAC’s Presidential Banquet honoring Arthur Brooks, president of the American Enterprise Institute.
• S.E. Cupp, a Daily Caller columnist, will sign her book, Losing Our Religion: The Liberal Media’s Attack on Christianity, on Friday before taking part in a Saturday panel for students on how to become a columnist. Also on the panel: The Weekly Standard‘s Fred Barnes and Andrew Ferguson, and NYT‘s Ross Douthat.
• BigJournalism’s Andrew Breitbart will speak in the main ballroom on Saturday morning, and he’ll be introduced by Townhall‘s Guy Benson.
• Dana Loesch, also of BigJournalism, will participate in a panel on new media activism along with Matt Sheffield of the Washington Examiner on Thursday.
• More from the Washington Examiner: Mark Tapscott will be on a panel on Friday morning, Tim Carney will be on another on Friday afternoon, and Michael Barone will be on one Saturday evening. Also on Barone’s panel: John Gizzi of Human Events and FNC contributor Margaret Hoover.
• Conservative pundit Ann Coulter will speak to CPAC students Friday night along with FNC’s “Red Eye” gang: Greg Gutfeld, Bill Schultz, and Andy Levy before taking the main stage on Saturday, following National Review‘s Jonah Goldberg.
• Also on different panels (so, so many panels): Human Events‘ Jason Mattera, WaPo‘s Julia Duin (as a moderator. Need a refresher? We had dinner with last week), Quin Hillyer of TWT (also as a moderator), Andrew McCarthy of National Review, and WSJ‘s John Fund.
• CNN contributor and Red State managing editor Erick Erickson will be the guest of honor at a student luncheon on Friday.
• CPAC’s 2010 Blogger of the Year Ed Morrissey of HotAir will present this year’s award to Javier Manjarres of The Shark Tank.

FishbowlDC has obtained a press pass, but it doesn’t come with many perks (other than free admission). They’re holding our badge at the Media Check-In desk, so that’s nice of them. Credentialed press “do not necessarily have access” to the CPAC Bloggers’ Lounge according to their e-mail, and we’ve requested several interviews with speakers using CPAC’s guidelines for doing so. No word yet. Stay tuned…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

While taking questions on the serious topic of the President’s decision not to release detainee abuse photos, Human Events’ John Gizzi‘s cell phone went off. “Just put it on vibrate, man, we did this before,” Gibbs said, just as it went off again. Gibbs then stepped off the podium, got the culprit cell, and tossed it to an aide in the back room.

Next up- CBS’ Bill Plante‘s phone. But instead of giving up the device, Plante got up to the amusement of the press corps, returning to the briefing room a few minutes later, after his phone call.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

(Photo Credit)

Where will you be watching tonight’s election results? We’ve asked all sorts of journos for their evening plans and they include an Atlanta hotel room, the Phoenix Biltmore, and Champs Sports Bar in Cincinnati.

Join us after the jump…

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Good morning Washington.

Got a blind item, interesting link, funny note, comment, birthday, anniversary or anything of the sort for Morning Reading List? Drop us a line or let us know in the tips box below.

We’ve got your morning mix of media Muesli after the jump…

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

(Photo Credit)

It’s the end of an era, in many ways: FishbowlDC has learned that long-time White House reporter Trude Feldman will no longer cover the White House: The White House canceled her pass.

The frail and diminutive Feldman was a regular presence at the White House and certainly did her part to contribute to the notion that the White House press corps is full of characters.

(Photo Credit)

Feldman was frequently cited in White House transcripts as being associated with “Trans Services” but she was perhaps most famous for the fact that, well, no one really knew for whom she worked or where he work appeared.

John Gizzi once praised Tony Snow by recalling the attention he paid to Feldman:

Bounding back up the stairs and into the room to retrieve it, I found — to my surprise — Tony all alone with Trudy Feldman, whose outlets for columns are a mystery to most in the press corps. But Tony Snow was in no hurry and gave her the attention he would a network bureau chief.

Martha Brant wrote this in 2003:

Only the peculiar club of White House press secretaries really understands what it’s like to work both sides. They don’t get together very often. Maybe once a year they’ll see each other at academic panels or charity events. When they do, they often talk about the reporters who plagued them. “I don’t think you could put five of us in a room for more than an hour without sooner or later the conversation circling back to Trudy Feldman,” says Clinton’s Jake Siewert, who now works at Alcoa. Feldman, who worked for several small publications but was a big headache, rivals only Helen Thomas in their reveries.

Or this:

Gerald Ford’s press secretary, Ron Nessen, who was also on the panel, noted that there are three things that haven’t changed in the 30 years since he manned the podium: reporters Helen Thomas, Les Kinsolving and Trudy Feldman.

She did occasionally score an interview, like this one with Bill Clinton (taken from the September 29, 1998 Jerusalem Post):

“What has really been helpful to me in the last several months, and particularly in the last few weeks, is religious guidance that I have been given about atonement from the Yom Kippur liturgy, to remind me that while it is unusual for the president to be in a public situation like this, the fundamental truth is that the human condition – with its frailties and propensity to sin – is something I do share with others,” Clinton said in an interview last week with Trudy Feldman, a White House-based journalist, that was published in The Washington Post.

Or Ronald Reagan (taken from October 30, 1981 Washington Post):

In an interview two weeks ago with journalist Trudy Feldman, Reagan raised the possiblity of PLO participation in such talks, although he stated the standard caveat that the organization must first recognize Israel’s right to exist.

And in 2002, President George W. Bush joked with the short Trude:

President Bush. I can’t see you. Trudy [Trudy Feldman, Trans Features], you’re blocking her vision.

ABC’s Ann Compton (also president of the White House Correspondents’ Association) told FishbowlDC: “White House reporters have long heard of her tenacity in trying to reach administration officials. Dora Bush said that she and her husband once changed their home phone number and the first call they got on their new number was Trude.”

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For the record: Although she is cited in White House transcripts (and in the news reports above) as “Trudy Feldman,” her official name is “Trude B. Feldman” and her last association was with the World Tribune Company.

According to the Tribune’s website, her last article for them was in December 2006 and she is described thusly:

Trude B. Feldman, a veteran White House and State Department correspondent, met Gerald R. Ford when he was a congressman. She also covered his vice presidency and presidency and has often interviewed him since he left the presidency. Ms. Feldman has interviewed every U.S. president since Lyndon B. Johnson; and every U.S. vice president from Hubert H. Humphrey to Al Gore. She is a contributing editor for World Tribune.com.

Happy trails, Trude.

(Photo Credit)

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.