The Post is crowing today after nabbing Les Goodstein from the NY Daily News, its now-former President and Chief Operating Officer. Today the Post happily (and somewhat smugly) introduces Goodstone to its readers as the new senior vice president News Corp, officially switching moguls from Mort Zuckerman to Rupert Murdoch.

The Post goes on to say all sorts of nice things about Goodstein, who, since leaving the Daily News, apparently no longer sucks.

Number of times the Post reminds us that it's America's fastest-growing newspaper: 2

Number of times the Post reminds us that the Daily News actually has a higher circulation: 0

According to Jeff Bercovici at WWD, Mort Zuckerman was not happy about losing his 28-year lieutenant (COO for 5 of them), a guy who "knows where the bodies are buried." Zuckerman apparently flew back to New York from Aspen to cajole his man to stay put, to no avail.

In other news, somewhere in Morocco, a man is smiling.

Daily Defection [NYP]
Less Goodstein at the News [WWD]
Mr. Goodstein, I Love You [Gypsy, as sung by Mama Rupe]