You couldn’t keep up with all the Huffington Post sites if you dedicated your life to it, but nevertheless, we thought we should tell you Huffington Post Japan is now live. The new edition comes on the heels of HuffPo Germany, which debuted just last week.

HuffPo Japan is the latest local effort (joining France, Italy, Spain, Canada, and the United Kingdom) from Huffington Post. A look at its team: Shigeki Matsuura is editor-in-chief; Chitose Wada is news editor; Naoko Utsumiya and Akihiro Chishiro are associate news editors; Kenji Ando and Kaori Matsumoto are blog editors; Chika Igaya serves as reporter; and Atsushi Nagayama is traffic and trends editor.

“In addition to telling the stories of such defining events, and inviting Japan’s people to tell their own stories, HuffPost Japan will be exploring and celebrating the country’s culture, from deeply-rooted traditions — including zen meditation and Tea Ceremonies, with their rich rituals and fascinating tea masters like Sen no Rikyu — to its embrace of oddball pursuits, like, yes, crying baby contests,” wrote Arianna Huffington, in announcing the new site.

Well, we hope Japan is ready for the inevitable crying baby slideshows. Or maybe that’s already a thing.

Editor’s Note: Due to a technical error, Morning Media Newsfeed was not sent this morning. The problem has now been fixed, and the newsletter will return to its normal schedule on Tuesday.

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Former Ms. Magazine Editor Mary Thom Dead at 68 (AP / Huffington Post)
Prominent feminist Mary Thom, a writer and former editor of Ms. magazine who also was an avid motorcyclist, crashed while riding on a highway and was killed, her nephew said Saturday. She was 68. NYT Thom joined Ms. magazine in 1972 as an editor, rising to become executive editor in 1990. She was known as a journalistic virtuoso who shaped the writing of many of the feminist movement’s luminaries, including Gloria Steinem.  Ms. “We who are Mary’s friends and family haven’t absorbed her loss yet; it’s too sudden,” said Women’s Media Center co-founders Robin Morgan, Gloria Steinem and Jane Fonda in a statement over the weekend. “Ms. magazine, the Women’s Media Center, the women’s movement and American journalism have suffered an enormous blow. Mary was and will always be our moral compass and steady heart.” FishbowlNY Thom lived for decades in New York City and served as an editor for Ms. for nearly 20 years before leaving the feminist magazine in 1992. The glossy, which began as an insert in New York magazine, became a feminist powerhouse read in the 1970s but struggled to leverage commercial success with its ideological voice. Read more

Christina Huffington, the 22-year-old daughter of Arianna Huffington, is a recovering cocaine addict. In a piece published on The Huffington Post, Huffington admits that her parents’ divorce and other personal problems caused her to seek refuge in the powerful drug:

One line erased my doubts, my fears and my insecurities. I was euphoric. Gone was the girl who wanted to crawl out of her skin and in her place was the confident, beautiful girl I always wanted to be. For six years, I chased that high on and off, but I never found it again. Instead I found self-hatred. I found pure selfishness.

To her credit, Huffington — who says she has been sober for 13 months now — shows some self-awareness by adding that she felt a lot of shame because she was raised in a wealthy family and was never “abused or neglected.” And her reason for writing about the addiction is valiant as well:

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In keeping with the usual head-spinning weekly scene that is Wednesdays at Michael’s, the joint was jumping today. It was SRO in the front dining room and at the bar where producer Beverly Camhe was holding court with fellow producer Marc Altshuler and writer/directors Derek Anderson and Victor Kubicek in celebration of their upcoming documentary In God We Trust Who Pays for His Crime on the Bernie Madoff scandal. The film will debut in the highly coveted Friday night slot at the Tribeca Film Festival next week.

Bev tells me the tickets for the highly anticipated film sold out in ten minutes when they went on sale at with American Express last night, and they are currently looking for a theater to handle the overflow. For those of you who missed the boat entirely, there’s always pay per view. Bev says anyone who sees the film should prepare to be shocked. “Don’t believe what you’ve heard. You’ll be surprised to know who knew what and when they knew it.” For the record, Bev believes that both Madoff sons, the late Mark Madoff and Andrew Madoff, didn’t know anything. I would have loved to have explored that very topic myself when I spotted Mark at Michael’s last spring, but he bolted before I could ask him anything about their father’s massive Ponzi scheme. “Bernie was a bi-polar sociopath, so it’s entirely possible he was able to keep it from them,” says Bev.  I asked Marc if they’d heard from any of the Madoffs or insiders since they began production, and he told me, “They’ve been oddly quiet. I’m surprised they even stayed in New York.” Some people have no shame.

Mickey Ateyeh and Angela Cummings

Not all the action was in the main dining room. I was invited to the swanky lunch held in the Garden Room for Angela Cummings today celebrating the launch of her new collection with Assael. Mickey Ateyeh, Angela’s long time BFF and business partner gathered 24 New York power gals – the ladies who never eat lunch who actually lunched today – for an intimate gathering.  The first to arrive was Liz Smith followed by a veritable who’s who in New York social and business circles, including Paula Zahn, Linda Fairstein, Jackie Leo,  Barbara Taylor Bradford, Christy Ferer, who is in hot pursuit for her company’s next CEO (Anyone?), Fern Mallis, DuJour‘s Cindy Lewis and Judy Licht. 

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A couple of big changes to AOL this morning. Arthur Minson, COO of the company, is stepping down from his role, and Susan Lyne has been named CEO of AOL’s Brand Group.

Minson was named CFO of the company in 2009, then was promoted to COO last summer. Minson will remain at AOL, but it’s uncertain for how long. “Artie has played a key role in the turnaround of AOL and that will continue in 2013 during the transition period,” said Tim Armstrong, CEO of AOL, in a statement.”

Lyne was most recently chairman and CEO of Gilt Groupe. In her new role she will oversee a variety of brands, including TechCrunch and Engadget. Arianna Huffington will of course continue to run The Huffington Post.

Peter Daou and James Boyce, former advisors for John Kerry, just cleared a hurdle in their push to show that they had the initial idea for Huffington Post, and that Arianna Huffington and Ken Lerer cut them out of it and launched the site without them. The claim was first filed in 2010, but a ruling by a New York judge is moving it forward.

The judge allowed the idea theft, fraud and unjust enrichment claims to move ahead, essentially giving some credence to what Daou and Boyce have been saying.

A snippet of the judge’s ruling:

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The whirlwind surrounding the New Republic continued last night as Chris Hughes, editor-in-chief and publisher of the magazine, threw a party to celebrate the glossy. Since those in the publishing business love nothing more than to hobnob with people just like them, there was a slew of big names in attendance.

Now you might be saying “I don’t care about yet another event full of media people congratulating themselves for being themselves” but we know you do! Otherwise you wouldn’t be reading this. So allow us to give you what you want, a list of people who went to Hughes’ shindig, via The Huffington Post.

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Combine tasty treats, sleek design, and the now famous ‘Sitting Cameramen of Astor Place’ and you get the latest episode of “Cubes.”

In this episode of Cubes, the MediabistroTV crew is invited into the New York Headquarters of AOL and The Huffington Post. Hosted by the founding editor of The Huffington Post and president of HuffPost Live, Roy Sekoff, the crew visits the cavernous Huffington Post newsroom where hundreds of writers sit keyboard to keyboard under the watchful gaze of Arianna Huffington herself who plays the always gracious hostess by offering up some tasty Greek Christmas cookies. After burning through the sugar high, the guys mingle with the ghosts of journalism past in the HuffPost Live newsroom where live news is served up eight hours a day by tables of writers, producers and editors who always know what time it is in Funkytown.

You can view our other MediabistroTV productions on our YouTube Channel.

Jimmy Maymann, formerly AOL senior vice president and head of International, has been bumped up to CEO of the Huffington Post Media Group. As CEO, Maymann will be responsible for continuing to grow the Huffington Post’s many web properties and its relatively new streaming news network, HuffPost Live.

“Jimmy has been an indispensable partner to me over the past year-and-a-half as we have launched HuffPost around the world,” said Arianna Huffington, in a statement. ”He brings a vibrant entrepreneurial spirit and an ability to scale a business, so he was the first person I turned to to be our CEO.”

Maymann joined AOL in 2011, when his company — GoViral —  was acquired by AOL for a cool $97 million.

The above is an office used by a big name in media. Can you figure out who it is? Does the desk give it away? Maybe the chairs? Below the secret is revealed! Oh c’mon, click through. It’s Friday, you know you don’t feel like thinking.

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