Breaking News

As part of a previously announced plan to reduce headcount, we hear Reader’s Digest Association will announce cuts of up to 300 employees at a series of internal meetings within the next week, according to a source inside the company. A 300-person layoff would represent approximately 8 percent of RDA’s total workforce.

A majority of the cuts will likely affect several of RDA’s foreign publications, “but I think there will definitely be some cuts” at RDA’s Pleasantville, NY headquarters, the source says. A corporate communications representative at Reader’s Digest Association was unavailable for official comment today, but we’ll update you with additional information as it comes in.

In a November 2008 report on the company’s operating performance, Reader’s Digest described the first quarter of its 2009 fiscal year as “challenging for the company.” Recent news hasn’t been all bad, however, and new products aren’t on hold, even with layoffs on the way:

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FishbowlNY has heard multiple reports from inside Gawker Media that Consumer Reports is in talks to purchase GM’s Consumerist blog. A meeting was held yesterday between visiting executives and top Gawker management — including Consumerist editor Ben Popken — while Ken Weine, a spokesman for Consumer Reports‘ parent company Consumer Union, told FishbowlNY this afternoon that “we’ve had discussions about Consumerist and that’s all I can say at this time.” Gawker publisher Nick Denton put Consumerist up for sale last month.

The consumer watchdog blog would be a natural acquisition for Consumer Reports. Two weeks ago, Popken told PC World he was in “preliminary negotiations, but things look good” regarding a purchase, adding that “the prospect is a good name everyone will be happy with.”

So, which three Gawker Media employees learned last night that they’d been let go?

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(L-R: Megan Carpentier, Tracie Egan, and Sadie Stein)

In the wake of Gawker Media’s latest layoffs, we’re hearing more about what went down at the blog network. Sources with inside knowledge of today’s cuts report that editors Megan Carpentier, Tracie Egan, and associate editor Sadie Stein are the Jezebel staffers who’ve been made part-time employees. Jezebel managing editor Anna Holmes would only tell FishbowlNY that three editors had their hours cut, declining to confirm their names. Holmes said there “shouldn’t be much less” content on the blog following the staff cuts and status changes. Carpentier posted to Twitter at approximately 11 p.m. Monday night, seemingly in reference to her modified employment status:

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Two-year-old “Harvard lifestyle” magazine 02138 has ceased publication. It’s the second media casualty of the day. Manhattan Media, the local newspaper publisher that acquired 02138 back in May, issued a statement saying that “the current economic environment has made it too difficult to proceed at this time.”

Just three months ago, Manhattan Media launched a high-profile effort to redesign the magazine. What went wrong?

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FishbowlNY has confirmation that layoffs one tipster calls “major” have hit Southern Progress Corporation, the Time Inc. subsidiary that publishes Southern Living, Cooking Light, Health, Southern Accents, Cottage Living, and Coastal Living, among others. As Southern Progress spokeswoman Laura Hardin told FishbowlNY today, “Of course we’re sad to be losing good people. It was an unfortunate but necessary decision based on challenging economic conditions in our industry.”

Hardin declined to specify how many employees have been affected or which titles lost staff, saying only that “several business and edit positions were affected.” Birmingham Weekly, which shares a hometown with Southern Progress’ Alabama headquarters, reported yesterday that the Time Inc. division “laid off as many as 30 employees.”

Though they corroborate what media reporter Keith Kelly‘s been hearing about a “new round of layoffs” for Time Inc., cuts at Southern Progress might seem to be at odds with the “top structural initiatives” recently outlined by Time Warner CEO and president Jeff Bewkes in his most recent financial results report when he said the company would be “increasingly focus[ing] on our goal to create and manage high-quality branded content, across multiple platforms around the world, at the highest returns possible for our stockholders.” At the same time, signs were there…

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We’ve been hearing rumors for weeks — going back and forth all day — but we’ve just got the official word from Michael Moi, director of communications at the New York Sun: Tomorrow’s paper will be its last.

Details as they come.

Dealbook is reporting that Microsoft and Yahoo are “finally” coming to the table to participate in “active merger talks.” It seems Microsoft, which had earlier threatened to abandon their bid, has just this week increased it by “several dollars,” which we can only assume is business speak for “a whole lot.”

According to Dealbook* the talks “represent an enormous breakthrough following weeks of behind-the-scenes discussions without any progress,” even though “they could still be postponed or collapse entirely.” Stay tuned.

*UPDATE We initially attributed this to Dealbreaker, hat tip to “reader00″ for pointing out this was actually a Dealbook story. Our mistake.

We’re all familiar with the experience of waiting for phone call that never comes (unless of course you’re Hillary Clinton). But over at the Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg is bemoaning “blogger’s” apparent inability to pick up the phone at all:

It’s one of the mysteries of the blogosphere, why more people don’t simply pick up the phone once in a while.

It seems Goldberg is upset that Matt Haber over at the Observer wrote a piece about Goldberg’s new blog without calling for comment (maybe he was operating on the three day rule?). According to Goldberg, Haber “repeated a discredited accusation made by an ethically-challenged journalist about my reporting without having sought my comment.” [UPDATED: Ken Silverstein's response here]

The accusation in question — that “according to Harper’s Ken Silverstein [Goldberg relied] “heavily on administration sources and war hawks (and in at least one crucial case, a fabricator)”" — also happened to be the lede into a fairly tame and friendly piece announcing Goldberg’s arrival to the Atlantic’s online scene.

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TV Guide, whose sale to Macrovision was completed last night, laid off nine editorial staffers including editor-in-chief Ian Birch, managing editor Lois Draegin and Steve Sonsky, an executive editor based in Radnor, PA. Consuela Golden, the magazine’s assistant managing editor, confirmed the news to FishbowlNY this afternoon.

Tip us if you hear anything.

WWD reports that Elle fashion director Nina Garcia is out. Garcia, who stars in Project Runway, has been writing a monthly fashion column for the magazine since she returned from maternity leave. The news comes with the Tyra Banks-hosted reality show featuring Elle fashion news director Anne Slowey set to air on CW soon.

We’ll stay on the story throughout the weekend, but email us if you hear anything.

UPDATE: Our source at Elle confirms that Garcia has been fired.