“The uneven U.S. economic environment and uncertain global conditions continued to present challenges to the advertising marketplace,” said Arthur Sulzberger Jr., in a statement.

However, it wasn’t all bad news. Circulation revenue was up almost 10 percent and “Paid subscriptions to all of the company’s digital packages, e-readers and replica editions totaled approximately 472,000,” according to Sulzberger, Jr.

Fingers crossed that those numbers keep growing, not the ones we mentioned in the beginning.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Philip R. Wiser, a digital entrepreneur and former chief technology officer of Sony Corporation of America, will start February 1. Most recently, Wiser was the chairman and president of Sezmi Corporation, a provider of broadband-broadcast hybrid TV solutions that he co-founded in 2006.

“Phil’s been on the front lines of the digital convergence,” said Frank A. Bennack, Jr., CEO of Hearst Corporation. “His experience as chief technology officer of a major media company and building digital companies in two different fields — television and music — will certainly help our businesses grapple with the changing landscape and continue to provide the best media and information products possible.”

“Hearst has been pushing the envelope in the digital arena for some time and has been very successful in leveraging its products and brands through new channels,” Wiser said. “I see great future potential and I’m delighted to join Hearst to help accelerate its efforts and maximize digital market opportunities across the corporation.”

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

We could barely keep up with the steady stream of A-listers who poured into Michael’s today. When we arrived a little before noon, there was a handful of power brokers quietly hunkering down to business over their Cobb salads in the back of the room. By the time Bravo’s latest star, designer Chris March arrived with Jennifer Geisser, the network’s senior vice president of communications, and publicist Alana McElroy, there was a palpable party vibe in the dining room.  Late arrival Harold Ford, Jr. worked the room like nobody’s business while social swans Muffie Potter Aston and Suzanne Johnson doled out air kisses like they were candy.

While it was a little hard to hear over the chattering crowd, I thoroughly enjoyed dishing with Chris, whose new show, Mad Fashion, premiered Tuesday night on Bravo. Chris, you might recall was a finalist on Project Runway. (Christian Siriano was the winner that season). His quirky couture and good natured personality ( gotta love that laugh!) made him a fan favorite. Chris tells me when Bravo’s resident boy wonder, Andy Cohen, got wind he was shopping a show around, he got in touch with Chris and insisted Bravo see it first. The deal was done in a matter of days.

Unlike most of those ubiquitous Bravolebrities, Chris isn’t into the fame game. “I didn’t do either show to get famous,” he tells me. “I did it to get to do the type of work I wanted to do.” Things have worked out pretty well on that score. On the Wednesday before the I Heart Radio concert in Las Vegas, Chris got a call from Lady Gaga’s office requesting he make something fabulous for her appearance at the show. In less than a week, he delivered the studded motorcycle cape she wore on stage. “That wouldn’t have happened without being on television.” Maybe, but the guy has definitely got it.  This is the same man who made Meryl Streep‘s last Oscar dress at his kitchen table. His secret weapon: a drama-free attitude when dealing with people who live and die for style.

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Here’s a few more gems from Talese:

On Arthur Sulzberger, Jr.:

I think the Times is now better than ever. Better than when I worked for it. And Sulzberger the publisher has to take credit for it. And I think that the reporters we celebrate tonight are the quintessential journalists of my lifetime, and the editors too: The Jill Abramsons, the Bill Kellers, and the publisher Sulzberger. Here I am sort of making a belated celebration of and tossing of the hat to and making my genuflection to people I criticized four or five years ago.

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— DIANE CLEHANE

They were lined up into the street to get into Michael’s today for that last gasp of revelry before heading out of town for the holidays. (We were impressed by how patient Eliot Spitzer seemed on the coat check line.) The red wine was flowing as VIPs cooled their heels in the lounge waiting for their dates to arrive. “Can’t anyone get anywhere on time in this city?” groused one well-heeled gent as he sipped his pinot noir while compulsively checking his iPhone. Apparently not. By the time Jonathan Wald, Becca Thrash and Harold Ford, Jr. strolled in, the place was going at full tilt — just the way the regulars like it.

Here’s the rundown on today’s crowd:

1. Dan Rather, Eliot Spitzer, Tom Tuggle and another ‘suit’ we didn’t recognize. For the record, it looked like ‘The Steamroller’ did most of the talking …

2. Today show’s Marc Victor, frequent morning show guest security expert Bill Stanton and Men’s Health honcho David Zinczenko. Did you happen to catch the cover story in the Style section of this Sunday’s New York Times chronicling Dave’s relationship with BFF Mediaite founder Dan Abrams? All we can say is: Gentlemen, give your publicists a raise.

3. ‘Mayor’ Joe Armstrong and money man George Farias.

4.  Departing NBC Uni honcho Jeff Zucker, who we spied listening intently to the whisperings of  CNBC Squawk Box anchor Joe Kernen. Stock tips, perhaps?

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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

There are the Emmys and Golden Globes, among the many awards shows. But you can add another to the list of annual awards telecasts.

The Paley Center for Media, formerly the Museum of Television and Radio, will offer its first television awards beginning in May 2012.

“We believe the awards committee has made significant progress in identifying the ways to achieve our objectives, and we will continue to carefully refine our plans to leverage those assets as we further refine the nominations process, voting, judging and award categories in the months ahead,” Pat Mitchell, Paley Center CEO and president, said.

That awards committee was formed in March.

“The Paley Center has considerable curatorial expertise and occupies a unique position at the intersection between the industry and the viewing public,” Frank A. Bennack, Jr., chairman of the Paley Center, said in a statement. “Our goal is to put our own distinctive stamp on honoring the great work being done by so many in the media community.”

The Paley Center, with locations in New York and Los Angeles, was founded in 1975 by William S. Paley.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

— DIANE CLEHANE

If we’d come by on Monday, we would have run into Tyra Banks at breakfast and Harold Ford, Jr. at lunch. Oh, well. Michael’s was still brimming with plenty of the usual suspects today, and more than a few did a double take when Tim Gunn arrived with legendary editor Grace Mirabella on his arm.

When Project Runway‘s unflappable designer mentor sat down with the former Vogue editor, I wasn’t surprised to overhear their conversation turn immediately to fashion. Tim was all ears when asking Ms. Mirabella (whose namesake magazine remains one of my all-time favorites) about her thoughts on age-appropriate looks for everything from jeans to evening wear. Gathering intelligence for all those fledgling fashionistas, no doubt.

Here’s the rundown on today’s crowd:

1. Jack Myers of Jack Myers Media Advisory Group, presiding over a table of social media gurus: Huffington Post’s CEO Eric Hippeau, president Greg Coleman and senior vice president Phil Cara with Stephen Cannon of Mercedes Benz, Virgin Mobile’s Stacy Schwartz and Tom Cuniff of Combe Inc.

2. Peter Brown and John Reid

3. Producer John Hart (long time, no see!) with another distinguished looking white-haired gent

4. My good friend and publicist extraordinaire Catherine Saxton and Richard Smullen, co-founder and CEO of AdGenesis, beezag, and koppr. Catherine tells me she’s jetting off in a few days to Marabella to visit with “some Khashoggis.” Send us a postcard!

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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

PRNewser‘s Joe Ciarallo attended the PaidContent 2010 conference today in New York. At the conference, the top three executives at The New York Times Company addressed perhaps one of the biggest stories in journalism in recent months: the company’s decision to move to a “metered system” over the next year from what is now a completely open and free website.

Arthur Sulzberger, Jr., the company’s chairman & publisher, insisted that the Times is not worried that a pay meter will cause the newspaper to lose relevance. “We are not trying to eliminate ourselves from the digital eco-system,” he said. “We’ll only lose relevance if we lose our brand promise, and our brand promise is having the best journalism you can find.”

“What people misunderstand about the business model issue is it’s not just to figure out a pricing and metered based model, but it’s about how to figure out how to grow your advertising business,” said Martin Neisenholtz, SVP of digital operations. “We intend fully to grow that ad business for as long as we need to, and that is the challenge.”

When asked if the company’s blogs will be a part of the metered system, Neisenholtz said, “Our intention is that blogs would be behind the wall.”

President & CEO Janet Robinson reinforced the stance that the metered system will help the Times grow its ad revenue and audience. “The metered solution is an elegant solution providing both free and paid content. This is a way for us to continue to have a robust ad base but also have a large audience as well,” she said.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

As suspected, the reason behind the move is the search for an additional revenue stream, which Sulzberger and Robinson said, “will be an important part of our future.” They added:

“While digital advertising will continue to be the major contributor to our success on the Web, we expect that online subscription revenue will improve our ability to grow an important part of this business.”

As for the choice of a metered model versus, say, The Wall Street Journal‘s model requiring payment for full access to exclusive stories, Sulzberger and Robinson said the move will allow the Times to “remain a vibrant part of the search-driven Web, which has proven to be an integral reason for why we have become an industry leader in display advertising.” Who said Google News wasn’t good for something (ahem, Rupert Murdoch)?

Sulzberger and Robinson also addressed concern from critics recently — criticism which has reached a fever pitch since a New York magazine report surfaced over the weekend revealing the paper’s pay model plans a few days in advance. The execs admitted there are challenges ahead, and they are taking it slowly, planning to roll out the pay model a year from now. As they told their staff:

“Ultimately, we recognize that the success of our ideas will be judged by how well we execute this effort in the months to come. That is why we are waiting until 2011 to introduce this new system. To pursue this new approach requires that we utilize the full energy and intellect of all of you. All that work begins today…It will take time to get this right.”

Other things to take away from the memo: while the idea of joining a consortium with other publishers is still on the table, this metered model will be a “stand-alone product.”

In addition to the memo, the paper also published their own story today about their announcement, emphasizing their desire to take it slowly and get their pay model right. Executive editor Bill Keller, has reportedly “embraced the plan,” telling the Times:

“It underscores the value of what we do — trustworthy, aggressively reported professional journalism, which is an increasingly rare and precious thing. And it gives us a second way to sustain that hard, expensive work, in addition to our healthy advertising revenue.”

After the jump, the full memo sent to Times staffers today.

Read more: The Times to Charge for Frequent Access to Its Web Site –New York Times

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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

The model will be a metered plan, as predicted by New York magazine’s Gabriel Sherman over the weekend. Although announced today, the plan won’t go into effect until next year, the New York Times Co. said.

The metered plan will allow users to access a certain number of articles for free before being prompted to pay for additional access, much like The Financial Times‘ current model. Subscribers to the print edition will continue to have free access.

Said publisher Arthur Sulzberger, Jr.:

“Our new business model is designed to provide additional support for The New York Times‘ extraordinary, professional journalism. Our audiences are very loyal and we believe that our readers will pay for our award-winning digital content and services.”

Full release after the jump

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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

PRNewser: Former FishbowlDC founding editor Garrett Graff, now the editor of the Washingtonian, talks about working in PR and then making the jump to journalism.

All Things Digital: Today, Mcgraw-Hill told investors that its sale of BusinessWeek netted the company $5.9 million after taxes.

Worcester Telegram & Gazette: Ralph D. Crowley, Jr., who is looking to buy the Worcester Telegram & Gazette from The New York Times Co., says negotiations might be wrapped up in two weeks.

New York Times: A closer look at Comcast‘s bid for a majority stake in NBC Universal.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

The new members of the board include French; former BusinessWeek president and publisher William P. Kupper, Jr.; former Warburg Pincus managing director Al Aguirre; John Balzer, a director at Goldman Sachs; b-to-b veteran George L. Hundley, Jr.; and Charles G. McCurdy, the current CEO of Apprise Media and b-to-b company Canon Communications.

In announcing its new board, Cygnus emphasized each member’s work on digital integration and the development of new initiatives beyond print media, perhaps hinting at Cygnus’ goals post-reorganization.

“Today’s media landscape offers exceptional opportunities for growth and transformation as it has in each prior decade,” French said. “Each of our board members has participated in the industry from launching start-ups to establishing world leading mediums. Experience, knowledge and hands-on expertise will provide us with a competitive edge and a unique vision of the future. This new board is reflective of our commitment to our business and to the B2B industry as a whole.”

After the jump, full bios of the Cygnus’ new board members.

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After Arthur Gregg Sulzberger (son of Arthur Sulzberger, Jr.) joined the Times staff in February, ‘City Room’ bureau chief Sewell Chan told mediabistro.com, “He has been absolutely impressive, gracious, smart as a whip, hardworking, full of energy, full of ideas, and has a great sense of language.” Let’s hope this holds true for the new legacy on the block.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Today, Time magazine has a commemorative issue hitting newsstands. The issue features memories of Michael from a laundry list of his famous friends and admirers, including Stevie Wonder, Whitney Houston, Tina Turner and Nancy Reagan.

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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

— DIANE CLEHANE

We heard we missed quite a scene yesterday when the dining room was filled with the likes of dirty joke diva Sarah Silverman, Pedro Almodovar, Harvey Weinstein and his oh-so-fashionable wife, designer Georgina Chapman, Ron Perelman and a long list of other movers and shakers. But there were plenty of fabulous folks to chat with today, so I made the rounds before they got down to business over their Cobb salads.

I was delighted to see ‘Mayor’ Joe Armstrong, who had been across the pond enjoying some time in London and missing from his regular perch at Michael’s for several weeks. He’s right back into the swing of things, having been at Sunday night’s Tony Awards to see his friend Sir Elton John, who wrote the music for 10-time award winner Billy Elliot celebrate with the cast on their big night. Monday night Joe attended the benefit for Paul Newman’s Hole in the Wall Gang Camp hosted by Julia Roberts, Robert Redford and some other A-listers. “We raised $2.5 million,” reports Joe, who volunteers at the camp every summer. “It’s great to see all of Paul’s work is still going strong.” Joe was lunching today with the charming — and funny — Harold Ford, Jr., chairman of the Democratic Leadership Council who moonlights as a news analyst for MSNBC.

Here’s the rundown on today’s crowd:

1. The ‘Imber Gang’: Dr. Gerald Imber, Jerry Della Femina, Jeff Greenfield and Andy Bergman.

2. A dapper duo: Nielsen Business Media’s Gerry Byrne and Henry Schleiff. I stopped by Gerry’s table to catch up since we last crossed paths at Showtime’s party for Nurse Jackie and its star, Edie Falco. Coincidentally, Gerry, who is one of the greatest guys in the business, is getting a ‘Made in New York’ Award from the mayor’s office next Monday night and his fellow honoree is none other than Edie. Small world.

3. ‘Mayor’ Joe Armstrong and Harold Ford, Jr.

4. Stan Shuman with another gent we didn’t recognize…

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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.