It seemed like each time Bill Keller wrote a column for The New York Times Magazine, half the world loved it and half the world hated it. From lamenting the lure of Twitter to wishing that people would stop writing books, each piece brought a strong reaction from readers, but apparently not a strong enough one from Keller himself.

According to WWD, Keller is ending his column in September. He says that he’s moving on to the Op-ed section because it’ll give him more freedom. “The magazine column has been fun — and I’ve loved being part of Hugo’s relaunch — but op-ed has greater license to have opinions, and a day-before deadline,” said Keller.

Hugo Lindgren complimented Keller’s pieces, calling them “smart.” He also noted the old adage that there’s no such thing as bad press.

Going to the Op-ed section is a good move for Keller. He’s certainly got a knack for getting the media world wound up (which is what we love about him – there’s nothing more fun than watching media people lose their minds over a column), and as he said, he’ll be able to take it to a new level in the Op-ed section.

We look forward to the ensuing criticism or praise that those columns will generate almost as much as the columns themselves.

This week’s New York features the anticipated debut of Frank Rich. When Rich left The New York Times for the magazine, it was quite a loss for the paper. And then, more recently, New York appeared to be rubbing it in that he was now writing for them. So it’s good to see Hugo Lindgren, Editor-in-Chief of The New York Times Magazine, poking some fun at New York for its cover.

Lindgren tweeted this morning, “Hey @dixonanddixon [the guy behind the mag's design], why is Frank Rich’s name so small on the cover of @nymag? Shouldn’t it be bigger than the logo?”

A little rivalry is always a good thing.

The announcement today that Bill Keller would be replaced by Jill Abramson as Executive Editor at the New York Times was something of a bombshell. Keller, it seems, has been achieving a higher and higher profile lately with his columns for the Times. So what’s the story behind this? The official statement is that Keller stepped down, and his boss Arthur Sulzberger Jr., the paper’s publisher, accepted his resignation “with mixed emotions.” But is there more to it than that?

Hamilton Nolan at Gawker speculated:

The official word is that this was completely Keller’s decision, and “with a formidable combination in place to succeed him, he felt it was a good time to step aside.” Fine. Could be the truth, and that’s it. Then again, could be more to it. The NYT may very well have another round of newsroom cuts coming down the road—declining print ad revenue will not be replaced by online ad revenue (or paywall revenue), so eventual cutbacks are inevitable. Keller’s already presided over one major round of newsroom layoffs. Maybe he just didn’t want the heartache of doing another

Another question is: how long has Keller wanted to leave? In a recent Esquire interview with Keller, it seems that he may have thought he would be working the job for much longer.

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Last week we told you about the list of banned words that Hugo Lindgren had found from the previous editor at The New York Times Magazine. The list included such cringeworthy (that’s probably on the list now that we think about it) words as “celeb” and “hubby.”

At the end of his post, Lindgren then invited readers to submit words they hated, and today the 6th Floor Blog has published the entire list. That’s it on the right, hanging in the Times’ office. As you can see, people submitted a lot of words.

Here’s a few that we agree with:

• boffo
• nosh
• über- anything
• sammich

Any words you’d like to add?

There are certain words that people just cannot tolerate. For example, FishbowlNY doesn’t like “moist.” Something about it just grosses us out. Today Hugo Lindgren sheds some light on the words that the previous editor at the New York Times Magazine banned, and as he notes, it’s still relevant.

A sample of the prohibited words:

• zeitgeist
• staffer
• hubby
• celeb
• duo
• indie
• bistro

We’re trying not to take offense to that last one.

Oh holy crap. WWD might have just published the weirdest media article in months today. In a profile of Hugo Lindgren, Adam Rapoport and Josh Tyrangiel, WWD uses a form of “dude” 17 times and, because they do things like wear jeans, dubs the three men “Dude-itors.”

Yes, that’s right. Dude-itors.

Why are they considered so manly? The examples are endless! How about the time when Rapoport complained about a Starbucks lid? Or the fact that none of them wear glasses like the (obviously) un-manly Adam Moss? And let’s not forget that they listen to that zany rock music (specifically Ric Ocasek, who at 62 years-old, refuses to stop rocking).

Had enough Man for today? Probably. But If you haven’t, and want to read the entire piece, go right ahead.

In the meantime we’ll be here attempting to understand how a piece like that gets posted without at least one editor asking, “Dude, what the hell?”

UPDATE:
Ann Friedman has a great take on the WWD piece.

Hugo Lindgren has gotten strong reviews for the newly designed New York Times Magazine across the board (with the possible exception of his decision to let Bill Keller write a column).

But even better than strong reviews? Making money! WWD reports that ad pages for the magazine group, including the Times’ Magazine and Sally Singer‘s T Magazine, were up 10.5% in the first quarter to 509 pages, a return to first-quarter 2009 levels.

Of course that’s nowhere near what they were in 2008, when the magazine had 858 pages in the first quarter. But let’s not get crazy. Things were real different back then.

Hopefully this will take some of the sting out of yesterday’s report that profits for the New York Times overall dropped 57%. We all need to heal.

Virginia Heffernan, former columnist for The New York Times Magazine, has a new position at the Times: starting Monday, she will “write regularly for the Opinion pages,” she told Adweek.

She also announced her new position over Twitter: “Some late Wednesday news: I’m going to the NYT’s Opinion pages. Excited.”

Heffernan, 41, was with the Times Magazine for four years until earlier this year, when new editor Hugo Lindgren decided to end her column, “The Medium.”

This news comes following several departures at the Times‘ Opinion pages, including Bob Herbert, who recently left to pursue other projects, Frank Rich, who left earlier this month for New York magazine, David Shipley, who left for Bloomberg’s new opinion venture, and editor Mark Lotto, who is leaving for GQ.

“Hello? Hello!”

This is the first line from Hugo Lindgren, in his post on the new blog that accompanies the revamped New York Times Magazine.

The blog is called The 6th Floor, and this is the “about” section:

The 6th Floor is the blog of The New York Times Magazine, where staff members — editors, designers, writers, photo editors and researchers — share ideas, arguments, curiosities and links.

Lindgren says that the blog is a place for readers to see what the staff is talking about, or simply put, just “stuff that interests us.” Seems a bit self-important, but hell, you never know. Mark Bittman circulating a link to a bunny licking an ice cream cone might be newsworthy.