Regardless of the fact Twitter makes no money, and thus far no one has figured out a way to make money from the microblogging service that has saturated the media landscape in the past few months, everyone wants a piece (including Facebook, who recently based their enormously unpopular redesign on Twittery features).

Rumors have been circulating for the last few weeks that Google has been making moves to purchase the site. Now AllThingsD is reporting that Microsoft and Google are both in talks with the company.

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AllThingsD is reporting that another round of layoffs is on the way at Forbes and more than 50 people will be let go from both the business and editorial side. You may recall the last two rounds of cuts — during which ForbesAuto.com was shuttered — were mainly the result of the web and print operations being consolidated. As Peter Kafka points out, however, there can’t be much reason for this week’s cuts “beyond the fact that the miserable economy has been especially rough on magazines in general and business titles specifically.”

Keith Kelly has the names of a number of people let go including: “Ronda Kass, an art director, and Kasia Moreno, an editorial director. On the dot-com side, Mitchell Martin, head of the breaking-news department, is out along with three of his reporters, Alex Davidson, Lisa LaMotta, and Ruthie Ackerman.” As well as Stewart Pinkerton, one of the five managing editors, whose retirement last week may have been encouraged.

Game on? AllThingsD has picked up on the news that Google has introduced ads to Google News. Meaning that as newspapers continue (an increasingly desperate) fight for their lives Google aims to make some money off of what is left. Times are tough all around!

So, will this be the straw that breaks the camel’s back or merely the first domino in a long line that ends with everyone, including Google, paying for content. As Kafka point out this may be just the thing to do it:

In 2006, the World Association of Newspapers demanded that Google News stop indexing its member sites on the grounds that Google was profiting from the use of their copyright material. Agence France-Presse sued Google for the same thing in 2005. At the time, Google News carried no advertisements and hence, no obvious revenue stream. What will they, and other members of the fast-deteriorating newspaper industry say now that it does?

One imagines we won’t have to wait too long to find out.

Not that long ago news that major media companies were mandating unpaid weeks off and significant salary cuts would have been greeted with outrage. These days, while not great news, one is tempted to breathe a sigh of relief: it’s better than being laid off! And it certainly seems like more companies are trying to figure out ways to avoid just that.

AllThingsD is reporting that New York is cutting the salaries of its writers. Says NYMag spokesperson Serena Torrey “Where we can find efficiencies in terms of limiting, say, freelance labor or hours worked, or by renegotiating deals, we’re certainly doing that.” Gawker is speculating that the cuts may be as much as 15%, though it will vary per writer. In somewhat related news Kurt Anderson has penned his last column for the magazine, due to his “busy schedule,” though he will still contribute periodically.

Meanwhile Gannett, the country’s largest newspaper publisher, is requiring all of its 30,000 employees to take an unpaid week off as a way to avoid laying off.

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New year, new turbulent media news to report! (Unless you work for Conde is which case the surprise may be that there is no surprise.)

AllThingsD reported yesterday that the long-rumored second round of layoffs has taken place over at Forbes. 19 people in total were let go from both the Web and the magazine as the company proceeds with its plan to combine the two operations. Among those let go was media reporter James Abels. Read the full memo here.

Meanwhile after spending the holidays holding their collective breath the NYO says Conde Nasters are discovering “January Surprise” layoffs may not actually come to pass: “This building buzzes when it’s real…There’s no buzz right now.”

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