Click here to receive Mediabistro’s Morning Media Newsfeed via email.

Pink Slips For A Dozen-Plus Daily News Staffers (Capital New York)
The New York Daily News is now undergoing what employees of the tabloid have been fearing for weeks: Multiple insiders tell Capital that layoffs hit the newsroom Wednesday. FishbowlNY Two veterans of the paper — Albor Ruiz and Joanna Molloy — were among those let go. Ruiz had been with the Daily News for 19 years; Molloy for 15. Other names in the bunch include Christina Boyle and Robert Gearty, both reporters. NY Observer Rumors have been circulating for some time that a round of pink slips was imminent at the Daily News. Although this is the most significant number of layoffs since editor-in-chief Colin Myler took over in November 2011, there has been a slow trickle of departures over the past months. Features editor John Oswald left in March and features reporter Jacob Osterhout vented his rage in a goodbye email after he was let go earlier this spring. Read more

As we reported last week, Stephen A. Smith is back in the fold at ESPN.

He will host a show on ESPN 1050/WEPN nightly from 7 to 9 p.m. Then, Smith will do a two-hour program for the ESPN Radio affiliate in Los Angeles.

Smith, the former Daily News sportswriter, will be a featured ESPN.com columnist, while also contributing to both ESPNNewYork.com and ESPNLosAngeles.com.

“Stephen A. consistently offers strong opinions on a wide variety of topics,” said Norby Williamson, executive vice president, production, in a statement. “He has a proven track record as an authoritative voice, which will lead to insightful conversation leading into Knicks and Lakers game coverage.”

ESPN says Smith will start contributing this week.

Smith, who previously worked for ESPN 1050 from 2005 to 2008, hosted a pair of TV projects for the cable network.

“No TV for now. Just Radio and Dot.Com. That works for me. The last thing I’m worried about is my TV opportunities. They’re coming,” Smith tweeted today.

• Olympic Gold Medal speedskater Sven Kramer get grumpy with reporters.

• Huffington Post: Who would have seen this day coming? The National Enquirer is up for a Pulitzer Prize for its breaking of the John Edwards/Rielle Hunter sex scandal. Hey, when they’re right, they’re right.

• FishbowlDC: Perhaps the Daily News will win a Pulitzer for its coverage of CNN’s Jeffrey Toobin‘s secret love child as well.

• TVWeek: No one ever said Oprah shies away from her gimmicks: On March 3rd the queen of daytime TV will have past and future Academy Award nominees interviewing each other on her show. Too bad Katherine Bigelow won’t be there so she and James Cameron could quiz each other on their former relationship.

• Mashable: Quick, everyone jump onto this class action lawsuit against Google Buzz!

• CJR: The Daily Beast‘s list of Most Influential Journalists include very few actual, uh, journalists.

• TVNewser: He hasn’t even officially started his new gig at Fox Business News, but Charlie Gasparino got one hell of a scoop today by reporting on Tiger Woods’ return to golf.

• Business Insider: NBC has yet to explain why it won’t show any of the Olympic coverage live.

• WebNewser: b5Media has launched women’s site Crushable.com with our own ex-editor Amanda Ernst, Erin Carlson (formerly of BusinessInsider), and Jean Bentley.

• TheStreet: Finally, some good news for Sirius XM…stocks for the satellite radio company raised above $1 for the first time in two years.

• New York Post: Keith Kelly reports: Mort Zuckerman‘s Daily News isn’t exactly overflowing with extra funds. After the 401k program was slashed last year, the newest way to pinch pennies involves salary cuts for anyone getting over $110k a year. At least they still have a janitor.

Widening its circulation lead last year by over 40,000 copies, Mort Zuckerman‘s New York Daily News is now soundly beating Rupert Murdoch‘s New York Post with a much wider margin than in September of 2008, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulation. Back then, the Daily News was only leading by 4,100 copies over the Post. So what changed?

In 2006 the tense rivalry between Zuckerman and Murdoch’s publications seemed to be going to the Post, but as both papers have lost readers to the Internet and Murdoch raised the price of newsstand issues to 50 cents in 2008, the Daily News has come out the clear winner…at least in overall print consumers. That’s to say nothing of Internet readers, of which Murdoch, with his grand plans for making news aggregators pay, may learn to capitalize on before Zuckerman.

Then again, Murdoch has always made single-issue sales his bread-and-butter, and with last week’s quote from The Guardian‘s Alan Rusbridger about the Australian mogul losing his Fleet Street touch, the Daily News may be just more evidence to that point.

Read More: New York Daily News Circulation Lead Widens Over Post –Bloomberg

Previously: The Guardian‘s Editor Swipes At Pay Walls, Murdoch, Latest Newspaper Circ Numbers Show Ten Percent Drop

We’re not really sure what to make of New York magazine blog Daily Intel’s headline, “Even in Dismal Print Climate, New York Post and Daily News Couldn’t Get Along.” Doesn’t the first part kind of necessitate the second?

The history between the New York Post and the New York Daily News has been mired in bloodshed from the get-go, and the recent economic downturn has done nothing except give the Daily News some room to catch up with Rupert Murdoch‘s title. Obviously: there will be blood. So when juicy gossip escaped that there were talks of a Mort Zuckerman-Murdoch collaboration in 2008, it was easy enough to chalk it up to hot air, though the PR boost gave the duo some room to publicly swipe at each other like Statler and Waldorf in the balcony of “The Muppet Show.”

Zuckerman called the talks — which reportedly continued until a few months ago — “sporadic and occasional” and added “it’s not surprising they have gone nowhere.” Col Allan, the Post‘s top editor, refused to even acknowledge the talks existed, calling them “Wishful thinking at the Daily News.” Aw, get a room, you two!

Read More: Even in Dismal Print Climate, New York Post and Daily News Couldn’t Get Along
–Daily Intel

New York Post And New York Daily News Considering The Unthinkable: Cooperation –Huffington Post

It seems like there’s only bad news in the media world these days. But this morning on the mediabistro.com Morning Media Menu, FishbowlNY editor Amanda Ernst and hosts Jason Boog of GalleyCat and AgencySpy‘s Matt Van Hoven only had good things to report.

That good news included a conversation about Sarah Palin‘s memoir Going Rogue, out today, and Levi Johnston‘s Playgirl photo spread, which is giving the out-of-print magazine buzz that will hopefully propel upcoming print issues.

Other good news: Budget Travel is not closing, despite recent rumors; Daily News owner Mortimer B. Zuckerman has invested in expanding the paper’s printing plant; and YouTube has launched a new channel to better help news organizations like The Huffington Post and NPR manage video submissions from citizen journalists.

You can listen to all the past podcasts at BlogTalkRadio.com/mediabistro and call in at 646-929-0321.

The Audit Bureau of Circulations released its report on the state of the newspaper industry for the six-month period ending March 31, 2009 and findings include a seven percent decrease in daily circulation to 34,439,713. Sunday circulation dropped more than five percent to 42,082,707.

The Boston Globe, which might be shuttered by The New York Times Co., saw circulation fall more than 13 percent (daily) and 11 percent (Sunday).

Of the New York-region papers, Rupert Murdoch‘s The Wall Street Journal fared the best, as circulation actually increased by 06. percent. The New York Times (3.5 percent), Newsday (7 percent), the Daily News (14 percent), and the New York Post (20 percent) all posted drops.

Today’s New York Times is speculating whether Rupert Murdoch has a soft spot for Barack Obama. Anyone who keeps up with the New York Post can’t help but be aware that the Senator and now President-elect has rarely been subject to the infamous (and endlessly entertaining) lacerations of the Post‘s front-page headlines. However the Times also points out that the love is not merely cover-deep:

The Post mentioned Mr. Obama’s damaging associations with the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright and William Ayers less often than several other large American newspapers, including its archrival tabloid, the Daily News

So, has Rupe gone left?

Read more

We’ve noticed a number of people twittering and facebooking today that they couldn’t find a copy of various papers this morning. Turns out they weren’t imagining it! The Daily News sold out of even the extra printed copies of their regular morning edition and planned on printing and distributing an updated second edition. The New York Times reported that the New York Post had also sold-out (in our non-scientifically based experience it is always the first to go) along with the Times.

The [Times] printed 35 percent more papers in the ‘single copy’ print run, which supplies newsstands. Still, by morning, company officials found that papers were “selling out all across the metropolitan area” and decided to print 50,000 more copies for sale in the New York area.

This isn’t a New York-based phenomenon, either. Apparently the Washington Post also sold-out of newsstand copies and the Chicago Tribune was experiencing very long lines. Now if Barack Obama could just do something historic and momentous every single day for the next four years he could feasibly save the entire print journalism industry!