In N Out

Former LAT staffer Tina Daunt has been scooped up by Huffpo. She'll be consulting on the LA Edition...how that's different from the regular edition remains to be seen.

Daunt tells FBLA "I'll be a writer for the site. But I'm also working on other projects, including launching the blog version of my former LATimes column, Cause Celebre, and freelancing for magazines."

Our congratulations to Tina on the gig.

Previously on FBLA:

Local journalist Alonso Duralde has just announced on Facebook that he is being laid off from his gig at MSNBC.com, where he worked as a film critic. We are making angry faces.

So far no response to our generous offer.

Author, cultural critic and television personality Richard Metzger has joined the LA Times' Brand X. He's now "at the helm" of the Brand X blog, thereby guaranteeing we will visit it every single day. Metzger is still blogging for his Dangerous Minds website - but there seems to be a great deal of cross posting from Brand X.

Daniel Battsek is leaving his post as president of Miramax after 18 years of working for Disney. Details from The Wrap:

"With the change in direction at Miramax, we have reached a mutual agreement with Daniel that he will leave his post as president, effective January 2010," Rich Ross, newly appointed chairman of the Walt Disney Studios, said in a release Friday.

The news comes less than a month after Disney significantly downsized the division's release schedule and folded much of its operations into the studio's larger film group.

Our sister blog MediaJobsDaily broke the news that The Wall Street Journal announced today plans to its Boston bureau. Nine positions will be eliminated.

The "unthinkable" closure is a response to the "profound economic downturn," according to a memo sent by editor in chief Robert Thomson.

Thomson also wrote that "there are no plans, nascent or otherwise, to close any other U.S. or international bureau."

The Boston bureau was led by Gary Putka, who has been at the Journal since at least 1986.

Memo from Robert Thompson after the jump-

continued...

A little foodie-friendly birdie told us Heather John has left Bon Appetit as an editor and will land some kind of contributing deal.

Previously on FBLA:

Sister blog FishbowlNY has details on the latest layoffs at Condé Nast:

Yesterday, the axe fell hard at Vanity Fair, which had already cut a handful of business-side staff last week as part of the Condé Nast bloodletting. Hey, if Anna Wintour has to do it, so does Graydon Carter.

Except, according to Keith Kelly, Graydon didn't even stick around for the bloodbath, instead enjoying a meal at his restaurant Monkey Bar while staffers in "the double-digits...as high as senior editors and as low as fact-checkers" (hey! fact-checkers are people, too!) were informed of their new unemployment status. And it's all Graydon's fault, too, for not making the necessary 5 percent cut that all Condé titles were ordered to make last year. The New York Post article ominously warns that some contributing editors will be cut as well, and soon.

Stephanie Smith at Condé Nast-owned WWD reports that GQ, which had been spared from layoffs so far, let about six staffers go from both the business and edit sides yesterday.

We're getting more information about the layoffs announced today.

We've been told Tina Daunt is out at the LA Times. Peter Hong took a buyout. Calender writer, Diane Haithman and travel writer, Susan Spano have also been laid off.

There are more. We'll post them as we get them. Sorry guys.

We just got word that staffer Scott T. Sterling former Metromix music writer turned The Guide Bars & Clubs writer/Pop&Hiss blogger has been laid off from the LA Times.

There are more names to come. We'll try to bring them to you as we get them.

Previously on FBLA: Layoffs at LA Times Today

Condé Nast continues to axe staff, this time at Details and Los Angeles-based Bon Appetit. From the New York Post:

Barbara Fairchild, Bon Appetit's longtime editor-in-chief, cut six editorial staffers in the Los Angeles office yesterday, according to sources.

And Details - which lost its publisher, Steve DeLuca, in the early days of the Condé Carnage - had two business positions axed yesterday by Bill Wackerman, the senior vice president and publishing director of Glamour who is now overseeing the men's book.