Yesterday was all doom and gloom for the future of print over at The New York Times, which reported an average newsstand loss in the magazine industry of 9.1 percent and an overall circulation decline of 2.2 percent from the previous year. While we floated the idea that some of the publishers that actually showed gains (Rodale and Meredith) operated in a niche market for customers, there might be even better news over at AdAge, where Nat Ives pointed out that the individual sale losses have actually slowed down in the past year. Big sellers like Cosmopolitan and Us Weekly either slowed down their decline to the single digits, or actually improved their single-copy sales, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations. So what’s the logic behind the market? Why did Us Weekly gain 1 percent in sales while In Touch plummeted over 10 percent? And what can cause a magazine to do fare better in subscription form than single-issue, like Woman’s Day?

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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

• Here’s your Sarah Palin highlight reel, addressing the Tea Party convention, with a bunch of stuff written on her hand.

• WTOP.COM: Nicolas B. Tatro named Deputy International News Editor of Associated Press

• AdAge: Only Professor Moneybags can afford to support the news industry.

• Mediaite: Megan McCain knows exactly what is wrong with Sarah Palin, as do the rest of us.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Our colleagues at FishbowlLA picked up on this story via Advertising Age: The Huffington Post is offering marketers the chance to pay to post comments in the readers’ comment section of the site as well as its Twitter feed.

Although no marketers have signed on yet, this seems to signify one new way that HuffPost is seeking to make money. Does that mean writers who produce content for the site — for free — will finally get paid? As FishbowlLA said, “Yeah, start holding your breath.”

And here’s another question: if it works, will other publications follow suit? Where will ads pop up next?

HuffPo Offers Their Tweets For Sale –FishbowlLA

Huffington Post’s New Ad Revenue Stream: Twitter Feeds –AdAge

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

In late August Jermaine Hall was named editor-in-chief, a circle completed as Hall’s first job was working for the original Vibe. And he’s certainly set on making his mark: His decision to put Chris Brown on the cover for the relaunched magazine’s December issue (the new Vibe.com has already been up and running since August) is bound to stir up controversy. Brown’s ex-girlfriend Rihanna is currently doing the talk-show circuit on the physical altercation between her and Brown before the Grammys this February, and putting the convicted R&B star on the cover of Vibe can either be seen as tone-deaf and offensive, or provocative and challenging.

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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Using new technology only made possible with Apple Inc.’s iPhone operating system upgrade this week, the magazine has launched an iPhone application that sells additional content through the app itself.

The “Men’s Health Workouts” app, which is available for $1.99, “comes with photos, instructions and the ability to track one’s progress for 18 workouts and more than 125 exercises,” explains AdAge.com‘s Nat Ives. However, users can purchase additional workouts and other info — for as little as 99 cents.

According to Apple, this approach to apps is revolutionary, but its probably not the last time we’ll see a magazine use this new technology to sell additional content to readers and iPhone users.

Earlier this week, we spoke exclusively with Wired Editor-in-Chief Chris Anderson about new ways magazines and newspapers can monetize content. Something tells us Anderson would be very intrigued by Men’s Health‘s new model.

“It’s not about charging more for the same products, but releasing different products,” Anderson told FBNY. “[Those products] are not for everybody, but for enough people that we can charge a higher price.”

Update: In a press release today, the magazine said the app “includes 18 exclusive workouts and 125+ exercises from the world’s top strength coaches, athletes, and fitness experts. Each workout features step-by-step instructions, high-quality photos, advanced logging functions, and is powered by a one-of-kind circuit training interface.” The additional content available for purchase will be workout “expansion packs” including additional groups of workouts directly within the application itself. Available expansion packs at launch include, “The Ultimate Abs Pack,” “Build a Beach Ready Body,” and “Huge Arms in a Hurry.”

“Men’s Health is leading the industry by adapting our print products to emerging digital platforms,” said David Zinczenko, the magazine’s editor-in-chief. “While other magazines have offered iPhone applications before, we are the first to embrace Apple’s In-App purchase function, and in doing so, we are the first to deviate from these traditional marketing methods. In essence, we are creating a distribution channel within the iPhone for our content.”

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

That blow to the fake news industry was counteracted by NBC’s announcement that it was planning to place half-hour “Weekend Update” shows on its fall schedule, a trick they pulled off last year by positioning it as extra election coverage. The show will be anchored by “Saturday Night Live” head writer Seth Meyers and will fill out the network’s Thursday night line-up, NBC said.

In further celebration of fake news, AdAge.com has a Q&A with Onion president and CEO Steve Hannah, who reveals that the paper’s digital side is now bringing in more than half of the company’s revenue.

“Digital is becoming a bigger chunk of our revenue than print,” Hannah said. “Print is still very strong for us. Digital, it’s not much more than half, but it’s more than half.”

Hannah also said he is looking to move the popular Onion News Network to television. With the success of fake news on TV, its possible we could see an ONN on prime time up against “Weekend Update” some time soon.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

AdAge is reporting that the company is planning cuts, maybe as early as this week, to the Conde Nast Media Group, which apparently handles more than 80% of the company’s revenue. The group takes “the lead on big corporate marketing programs and contracts with advertisers that buy across three or more Conde titles.”

Meanwhile the Observer quotes an insider as saying the cuts Conde made last October were “half-assed.” Furthermore, “Conde Nast publishers and editors have been told by the chairman, Si Newhouse, and the CEO, Chuck Townsend, in the past two weeks to cut yet again, the majority being told to cut 10 percent from their non-salary, discretionary budgets, according to five Conde Nast sources with direct knowledge of the budget cuts.” This to take place by the end of the month.

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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

AdAge reports (full press release after the jump) that CondeNet is set to be eliminated altogether and that its functions (the aforementioned selling of ad space) will be consolidated, along with the rest of the company’s digital operations, under Conde Nast Digital, to be run by Sarah Chubb former president of CondeNet. Says one media buyer: “For the advertiser, this will help streamline the conversation to get the deals done in a more timely basis — one-stop shopping vs. multiple contact points.”

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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

The group will also blog, write and appear on air for the media company’s women-oriented properties and contribute to a quarterly newsletter, “Power of the Purse,” covering marketing to the demographic and the latest female trends. The panel will convene for the first time Feb. 10. In effect, it could become the most powerful female-focused agency in the country.

The article goes on to note that members will be able to “recuse themselves if necessary to avoid conflicts.” Meanwhile, some folks attending the CES out in Las Vegas (where our own Chris Ariens is at), appear to be taking “consulting” to an extreme.

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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

The New York Post is reporting that according to Madison Ave. the ad downturn is only going to get worse next year: “The talk in industry circles is that the major agency holding companies…are planning deeper cuts to ring in the New Year…Everybody is focused on Detroit, where there will be significant cuts, anywhere that you have an agency that touches the Big 3, you are preparing for spending to be down 25 percent.”

AdAge has more numbers to put to the pain we are all already feeling. They are reporting that media industries have shed more than 30,000 jobs in 2008.

Also, the New York Times Co. is borrowing against their almost brand new building to “ease a potential cash-flow squeeze,” which is probably less bad news than common sense come to think of it.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.