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

WaPo‘s Publisher Katharine Weymouth is holding one of her regular Town Hall meetings today with Washington Post employees. But this one could be rather rough as it will be the first Town Hall since news of her pay raise and big bonus broke. After she announced that profits are 66 percent down, Weymouth could face newsroom wrath with the union riled over the fact that Weymouth is getting a 16.4 percent pay hike. Media Matters unearthed the numbers in an SEC filing, reporting that Weymouth’s salary was $537,000 in 2010, but effective April, 11 it is now $625,000.

WaPo‘s 2010 SEC filings were released this week. In a year when the newspaper saw tough cuts in staff, publisher Katharine Weymouth (granddaughter of famed Post publisher Katharine Graham) earned $537,000 and a bonus of $483,750, plus an additional $1,053,441 based on a pre-established long-term pay plan. She’s also getting a 16.5% raise in her 2011 salary. Not too shabby. Except that now, staffers at WaPo are…displeased.

Ylan Q. Mui tweeted a link to Footnoted, which has the whole story on the SEC filings, adding: “@washingtonpost publisher Katharine Weymouth gets $2 mil and a raise while newsroom enjoys cost-cutting.” J. Freedom Du Lac tweeted the same link after saying: “Trending topic at WaPo: ‘Katharine Weymouth gets $2M and raise while newsroom enjoys cost-cutting.’”

After seeing that their tweets at made it onto NYP‘s Page Six, du Lac tweeted again: “Are we fired yet?” Let’s hope not. But just think of how much more money Weymouth could pay herself if you are…

L: Tim Burger, Kiki Ryan, Christine Delargy and Glenn Ballard hit the red carpet with their swag bags full of goodies. R: Kiki Ryan gets acquainted with the fruit.

Cocktails flowed to live music while waiters carried flutes of Cristal and Dom through the crowd. Politicos and media types, dressed in cocktail attire nibbled on shrimp, creme puffs and other culinary delicacies…

While this might sound like an exclusive cocktail on Embassy Row, it was actually the scene at the new Georgetown Social Safeway last night. Media types such as WaPo Publisher Katharine Weymouth and Washingtonian Publisher Cathy Merrill Williams joined WaPo’s Amy Argetsinger, Carol Joynt, Politico’s Kiki Ryan, CBS’ Christine Delargy, Tammy Haddad, 9 News’ Angie Goff, Janet Donovan, Politics Daily’s Annie Groer, Georgetown Dish’s Judith Beermann, Tim Burger, Wendy Gordon, Marlene Hall and Linda Roth for free run of the uber-chic grocery megastore.

The fete, planned by event guru Philip Dufour (the mastermind behind MSNBC’s WHCD & RTCA parties) was actually a blast. Who knew grocery stores could be so much fun?

Tammy Haddad and Cathy Merrill Williams say cheese (ha, grocery store – get it?).

Carol Joynt and Judith Beermann.

“Inside the messy collapse of a great newspaper.” That’s the sub-headline of TNR‘s fiery article about the Post “apocalypse” that FishbowlDC previewed this evening.

From Susan Glasser‘s rise and fall as editor of the the national desk, the birth of Politico and Katharine Weymouth‘s “salon” fiasco to the hire of Marcus Brauchli and the “mad bitch” beer scandal, the five-page piece by Gabriel Sherman tracks the events leading up to what he describes as a major “identity crisis.”

Sherman says, “the Post seems to be paralyzed – and trapped. It can’t go completely local because the local news in Washington is, in many respects, national; and its status as the paper of record for national politics is under assault from numerous competitors – competitors it isn’t clear the Post can defeat.”

While the piece draws no clear conclusions, the painful recap of the paper’s hardships is sure to get some attention.

Via Newseum.org.

Notice anything different about your paper this morning? WaPo unveiled a new look today, complete with an eight-page “Redesign Owner’s Manual,” which includes notes from publisher Katharine Weymouth, editor Marcus Brauchli and editorial editor Fred Hiatt.

Most noticeable changes include: bigger, more readable fonts, navigation bars across the tops of section fronts, Health & Science section now on Tuesdays, Local Living section on Thursdays, new opinion page Washington Forum in the A-section, and classifieds have been moved to the Local Living and Sports sections. Reporters’ emails are now at end of their pieces and columnists like Howard Kurtz and Al Kamen‘s photos have been added to their columns.

WaPo welcomes comments at ideas@washpost.com and staffers were prepped this weekend on how to handle reader feedback. That memo (via Politico) is after the jump…

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• Last time we checked, “Yeas & Nays” had yet to update its Twitter page photo, but now the Examiner makes it official. Introducing Nikki Schwab and Tara Palmeri.

• In this month’s Washingtonian… NJ‘s Suzanne Clark, NYT‘s Maureen Dowd, MTP’s Betsy Fischer, PBS’ Gwen Ifill, BET’s Debra Lee, NPR’s Diane Rehm, NPR’s Vivian Schiller, NPR’s Nina Totenberg and WaPo‘s Katharine Weymouth represent the media on the mag’s 100 Most Powerful Women.

• CNN’s “State of the Union” executive producer Michelle Jaconi and journo band Suspicious Package’s Christina Sevilla are among Washingtonian‘s Most Stylish People. The 18 fashionistas will be toasted at a party thrown by the mag this evening, and you can check out the complete list on newsstands.

The final merge of WaPo and .com is just around the corner. According to WBJ, WaPo and washingtonpost.com are making it official as a combined entity next year. The print and online operations of the newspaper will merge as of Jan. 1, 2010.

Katharine Weymouth sent a memo to employees this morning stating that it was important to create one organization for print and online operations that would mirror the perception of readers, users and advertisers.

Best wishes to the happy couple! For more on this check the Washington Biz Journal here.

Good morning FishbowlDC! Got a blind item, interesting link, funny note, comment, birthday, anniversary or anything of the sort for Morning Reading List? Drop us a line.

What know and what we’re reading this Wednesday morning…

NEWSPAPERS | TV | ONLINE | NEWS NOTES | WEST WING REPORTAGE | JOBS

NEWSPAPERS

Slate’s Jack Shafer on WaPo‘s Katharine Weymouth: “One of the things Washington Post publisher Katharine Weymouth has got to learn is that she can’t pretend that the newsroom floats in its own accountable-only-to-Brauchli ether at the same time she is telling editors (plural) enough with dwarf-leg stories.” Read on.

Yesterday in WaPo- “Controversy Over How, Why Post Piece Was Killed, If Publisher Weymouth Involved.”

New culture editor at NYT- Jon Landman, the deputy managing editor.

TV

Norah O’Donnell is in NY, co-anchoring the 9am hour of the “Today Show.” She tweets, “I may cook on TV!” and that she and her husband Chef Geoff have just finished their baby food cookbook, out in 2010.

In what NBC is calling a “world exclusive interview,” Ann Curry will sit down with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Tehran. This is his first interview since the June elections and will air on “Today” tomorrow and “Nightly News” Friday.

It appears there may be more cuts looming at NBC News- NYO reports another round of voluntary buyouts are being offered. What will that mean for the DC bureau?

ONLINE

Facebook has crossed 300 million users worldwide.

This is your blog, courtesy of mediabistro.

NEWS NOTES

Sarah Palin has officially signed on with the Washington Speaker’s Bureau (via PoliticalWire).

When asked about the latest ACORN scandal, ABC’s Charlie Gibson told Chicago talk radio hosts that he hadn’t heard about it and “maybe this is just one you leave to the cables.”

Which brings us to this piece “Divide between right, mainstream media” by Mike Allen and Michael Calderone in Politico… “The right-wing media’s single-minded focus on a handful of targets over the past months and its success in pushing those stories into the mainstream have underscored the sharp divide between traditional news organizations and the bloggers and talk show hosts aggressively pursuing an ideological agenda.”

WEST WING REPORTAGE

Remember when former President George W. Bush called former NYT reporter Andrew Clymer a “major league asshole?” He does, and now he’s offering his advice to Kanye West in a very entertaining piece on the Daily Best. “…I congratulate you on being chosen for our club, The Cussed Out by Higher Authority Who DidnÂ’t Believe Microphones Work Club. Should we ever meet, I will show you the secret handshake, but I can tell you it involves an extended middle finger.”

Also on the Daily Beast today- a collection of the best OTR-gone-public comments.

HAT TIPS: mediabistro, TVNewser, Daniel Lippman

On her Facebook profile, Washingtonian President and Publisher Cathy Merrill Williams has posted a letter applauding WaPo‘s Weymouth for her attempt to find new revenue streams and for trying something new re: the “salon” scandals. Her post below or visit it on Facebook here.

New Washington Post Publisher Katharine Weymouth has been taking a lot of flak from journalists and press junkies. Weymouth and her team at the Washington Post proposed to host off-the-record dinners at her home paid for by a sponsor. These “salon” events were ridiculed in the press as selling access for power and damaging the reputation of the venerable Washington Post.

For all of the bad press she and her editor Marcus Brauchli are getting, I see great hope. I for one am betting on the 43-year-old publisher to reinvent an institution in an industry that is crumbling.

She tried something new. Was it a well thought-out and properly executed plan? No, not even close. But she tried something new. All businesses make mistakes especially when searching for a new business model. RH Macy’s went bankrupt 5 times before it succeeded. Hershey and Disney also initially failed spectacularly, leaving debtors out in the cold.

Weymouth has to keep trying new things because the newspaper lost $25 million last year. As Atlantic owner David Bradley and his own salons were pulled into the debate, he had it right: “As the whole of our enterprise surely knows, the economic foundation beneath journalism is falling away. The imperative…is to rebuild journalism on different financial pillars.” So she is going to likely have to fail a few more times to succeed.

There has been a lot of sanctimony from journalists inside and outside the Washington Post. I suspect it is easier to be sanctimonious if you are not the one that has to pay the rent (or your own pay check). The Post’s Ombudsman Andrew Alexander wrote a 2788 word piece this past Sunday ripping apart the entire management team at the Post all while noting that only 2 readers have canceled subscriptions because of it. This is naval gazing at its worst.

The rest after the jump…

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