It’s not all bad, Angelina Jolie body double lawsuit news this week for media titan Rupert Murdoch. Stony Brook University’s School of Journalism has revealed a most generous endowment from the News Corporation chief.

The $50,000 gift will go towards a new department of the school named after Sunday Times foreign correspondent Marie Colvin, who was killed in Syria in February, 2012. From the official announcement:

Mr. Murdoch’s donation will help to expand the Marie Colvin Center for International Reporting’s overseas program, Journalism Without Walls, which has already sent student journalists to Russia, Cuba, China and Kenya.

“Marie was an outstanding foreign correspondent who risked her life to tell Sunday Times readers what was really going on in war zones across the globe,” said Mr. Murdoch. “She stood in the finest tradition of war reporters and News Corp.’s donation will help train the next generation so they too can bear witness.”

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Rupert Murdoch Files for Divorce, Won’t Affect News Corp Split (Deadline Hollywood)
News Corp Chairman/CEO Rupert Murdoch filed for divorce from wife Wendi Deng Murdoch Thursday morning in New York State Supreme Court, Deadline learned at 9 a.m. The divorce will not impact Rupert’s mega-media holdings, according to insiders, and was deliberately announced for maximum transparency before News Corp spins off its publishing assets into a separately traded company by June 28. WSJ Nearly all of the Murdoch family’s voting stock — a block of 38.4 percent — is held through the Murdoch Family Trust, whose beneficiaries are Rupert’s six children. It is likely that a prenuptial agreement makes it impossible for Wendi to obtain voting shares in the company in the event of a divorce, an attorney familiar with New York laws said. The attorney added that a New York judge would probably not award her any stock in court, as New York courts generally don’t keep people as partners in business when they can’t stay partners in marriage. TVNewser The couple married in 1999, 17 days after Rupert’s divorce from his second wife was finalized. They have two daughters together: Grace, 11, and Chloe, 9. Wendi, who is the chief of strategy for MySpace in China, famously slapped a man who attempted to attack Rupert during his testimony in front of a British Parliament committee about phone-hacking at his London newspapers. NY Mag / Daily Intelligencer For years, it seemed apparent to Rupert’s lieutenants that he was living a separate life from Wendi and was OK with it. Wendi, for her part, seemed happy, too. Wendi reinvented herself as an alpha mom and Hollywood personality, striking up friendships with a diverse circle that included Sergey Brin and Nicole Kidman. THR A spokesperson for former British prime minister Tony Blair flatly denied media rumors that Wendi was romantically involved with him. FishbowlNY Is a new, future ex-Mrs. Murdoch just around the corner? Read more

David DeVoe, CFO of News Corporation, will retire from the company after it splits, on June 28. He will retain his seat on News Corp.’s board of directors, a spot he has held since 1990.

Succeeding DeVoe is John Nallen, who will be named senior executive VP and CFO of 21st Century Fox, the entertainment side of the News Corp. split. Nallen has been with News Corp. for 18 years. His appointment will be effective July 1 and he’ll report to Chase Carey and Rupert Murdoch.

In a statement, Murdoch said of DeVoe, “I would like to express my profound gratitude to Dave for his enormous contributions to News Corp. over nearly three decades in which he has played a pivotal role in building the Company into a global leader. He is a world-class executive whose stellar financial stewardship can be credited for the enviable financial position we’re in at this exciting time in the company’s evolution.”

Rupert Murdoch is calling it quits with his wife of 14 years, Wendi Deng. According to Deadline, Murdoch filed for divorce this morning in New York’s Supreme Court.

Murdoch and Deng met in 1997 and married in 1999, just weeks after his divorice with Anna Maria Torv Murdoch Mann was finalized. We have two questions:

1) Is a new, future ex Mrs. Murdoch just around the corner?

2) Without Deng, who will protect Murdoch from pie attacks?

Will you accept a friend request from Rupert Murdoch? If you’re lucky, you’ll be asking yourself that when WSJ Profile, News Corp.’s LinkedIn competitor, debuts. As you can see from the picture, WSJ Profile will be almost identical to LinkedIn in what it offers. The Next Web reports that WSJ Profile is expected to launch in the next few weeks.

Lex Fenwick, CEO of Dow Jones, considers WSJ Profile a smart way to keep people glued to the Wall Street Journal. “We will be able to build a network of like-minded people around the world, into a community,” he said.

We agree that WSJ Profile is a good idea, but all we want to know is if it’s a blingee free zone or not.

At the risk of beating a dead multi-billion dollar company, let’s talk about that News Corp. split again. The board voted to move the plan forward, and made June 28 the official separation date. The two new companies will be News Corp. (publishing) and 21st Century Fox (movies and TV).

Aside from the official date, the other thing to note is that there’s more information about the boards of each company. Forbes reports that Rupert Murdoch, Lachlan Murdoch and James Murdoch will have seats on both. News Corp.’s board will also feature John Elkann (former Fiat chairman); Ana Paula Pessoa (partner at Brunswick Group, a PR firm); and Masroor Siddiqui (an investor). At 21st Century Fox there’ll be Delphine Arnault (deputy general manager at Christian Dior); Jacques Nasser (former Ford CEO); and Robert Silberman (executive chairman at Strayer Education).

Now, who wants to have a News Corp. Split Party on the 28th? We’re thinking jello shooters and an ice sculpture of Rupert giving a thumbs up. We’re flexible though.

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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

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

Rupert Murdoch is going to become an even richer man than he already he is when News Corp. finally splits. According to Bloomberg, Murdoch will be paid $28 million in total compensation when 21st Century Fox and New News Corp. begin their reign.

To make matters even sweeter for Murdoch, the payment is better than last year’s, when he raked in $24 million. The man is doing well. So what’s on Murdoch’s mind lately? Oh, the usual. Bashing The New York Times:

NYT op-Ed today argues. US inhospitality to teenage migrants led to Boston terror attack.Give us a break!And they charge $2.00!

— Rupert Murdoch(@rupertmurdoch) April 24, 2013

When Gawker’s John Cook noticed a grainy photo of Rupert Murdoch “hanging with the Dow Jones team” on the News Corporation CEO’s Tumblr, he proposed to his readers a game.

“Let’s Play Spot the Non-Whites Around Rupert Murdoch!”

But Gawker’s fierce commenters turned the gun on Nick Denton‘s flagship site.

“Gawker media is not exactly a Rainbow,” wrote one under the nom-de-commentaire, birthdeath. “Pot, meet kettle.”

“No, not a rainbow. But for what it’s worth and since you asked, 1/3 of our masthead (at this site, not company-wide) is not white,” Cook replied.

Wrote another commenter: “I’m sure the difficulty in having more people of color at sites like Buzzfeed and Gawker is that they only want to pay people under 40,000 a year….and they want them to live in NYC and be super trendy etc. So who can afford to live like that? Trust-fund, predominately white, babies of course. See: Lena Dunham’s character in ‘Girls.’”

So, was Cook race-baiting for clicks, here? Or was he making a fair observation? Tell us in the comments below.

Image: [Tumblr]