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Yahoo! Tumblrs for Cool: Board Approves $1.1 Billion Deal as Expected (AllThingsD)
The Yahoo! board has approved a massive $1.1 billion all-cash deal to buy Tumblr. It’s not clear when the official vote was taken, but sources close to the board said the acquisition was a foregone conclusion and was unanimously approved by the directors of the Silicon Valley Internet giant. The deal will likely be announced Monday morning, said numerous sources. Business Insider Marissa Mayer has made her first big move as CEO of Yahoo!. She’s buying a social networking site with a younger audience and a ton of page views. Now it’s time to monetize the thing. Tumblr has just $13 million in revenue right now. It should be able to increase that revenue following the model of Twitter and Facebook. BuzzFeed When Yahoo! was founded, Tumblr’s most important demographic wasn’t even born. This — not profit or monthly active user numbers or corporate image-making — is what explains why Yahoo! wants Tumblr. GigaOM The painful fact is that Yahoo! doesn’t just look desperate — in many ways it is desperate. Mayer has made some changes since she took over the ailing former Web portal, including the acquisition of Summly and a number of other mobile-focused startups and services, but the company still needs to make some aggressive moves if it is going to jump-start any growth at all. AllThingsD If you write about Tumblr as a business, you are required to note that Tumblr has a lot of porn. So why isn’t that an issue for Yahoo!? Read more

When two of The Village Voice‘s top editors quit rather than downsize staffers, it was only a matter of time before those layoffs transpired. The cuts involved three big names. According to Gawker, Michael Musto, Robert Sietsema and Michael Feingold have all been let go.

Christine Brennan, executive editor of the Village Voice Media Group, oversaw the reductions, which included some on the business side of the Voice. She was also the one asking Will Bourne, the Voice’s last editor, to fire or reduce the roles of staffers.

Musto had been writing for the Voice since the early 1980s; Sietsema since the early 90s; and Feingold since the late 90s. When a paper just fires three of their most iconic writers, you know things are bad.

On Monday night (known across the land as the night before the election) the CLMP (Council of Literary Magazines and Presses) hosted its annual spelling bee fundraiser. The line-up of spellers showcased the spelling talents of some well known media types including Harper Collins’ Jonathan Burnham, the NYT‘s David
Carr, The New Yorker‘s Judith Thurman, Michael Musto from the Village Voice, and PW‘s Sara Nelson among others. The night was moderated by former Times Style Sectioner Bob Morris — sadly Alex Kuczynski was a last-minute no-show The Bee was held at Diane Von Furstenburg’s studio on west W 14th st, and in keeping with the theme all the words were related to fashion. It’s harder than you think!

Most of the pre Bee chatter appeared to revolve either around the next day’s election or everyone’s dependence on spell check, ourselves included. We fully admit to not being the best of spellers, and judging by how quickly the star line-up went down (“eyelet” was the first word to take someone out) we are not alone! Before being given his second word (crewelwork) David Carr took a moment to mention that his copy desk had had a good laugh that morning when they’d seen an invite to the event listing him as a “speller,” then he asked for a definition of crewelwork that didn’t include his job. Watch the video of what happened next after the jump. Oh yes, in the end Jonathan Burnham walked away triumphant after spelling “astigmatism” correctly.

*We stole this photo from Galley Cat‘s Ron Hogan who, we happen to know, is a very good speller!

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Ladies, want to know how to get a man? Ask 33 gay men. That’s what Daylle Deanna Schwartz did for her new book, Straight Talk with Gay Guys.

Her promotional video (click above) features Michael Musto, Michael McDerman, Rick Trabucco and other fabulous guys.

The burning questions include:

“Why don’t men know how to give me an orgasm!?”

“Why are men such jerks?”

The advice:

Michael Musto on how to get a man: “You have to play hard to get.”

“Revolve around yourself!”

“If you’re just hounding them all the time, you’re going to drive them away.”

“You’re not his mom.”

“If he’s not what you want, then move on.”