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Top Editor of Newsweek to Step Down Next Year (NYT)
After a long career at the helm of Newsweek, Richard Smith will step down next year as editor-in-chief and chief executive, the magazine said yesterday. The move will be accompanied by a reshuffling of several top positions, with Ann McDaniel, a veteran journalist and executive at Newsweek, emerging in a powerful new post, overseeing both the editorial and business sides of the magazine. NYP: Former Viacom executive Thomas Ascheim will be Newsweek's new CEO.

Slate to Launch Business Site (NYO)
Slate plans to start a separate site next year, devoted exclusively to business news and opinion. No one's been hired yet. Slate editors reportedly offered the top job to Elizabeth Spiers, the founding editor of both Gawker and the business blog DealBreaker, who now writes for New York, but were turned down.

Google and Friends to Gang Up on Facebook (NYT)
Google and some of the Web's leading social networks are teaming up to take on the new kid on the block — Facebook. On Thursday, an alliance of companies led by Google plans to begin introducing a common set of standards to allow software developers to write programs for Google's social network, Orkut, as well as others, including LinkedIn, hi5, Friendster, Plaxo, and Ning.

Writers Strike Reality Sets In (Variety)
While the networks have been repeating the mantra that "screens will not go black," it won't take long for TV viewers to see the impact of a Writers Guild of America strike. The canaries in TV's creative coal mine are late night hosts such as David Letterman and Jay Leno, whose monologues and sketches are dependent on union writers. NYP: Film and TV writers could walk off the job as early as tomorrow, although their union leaders signaled they would hold off calling a strike until after a meeting with their membership tomorrow night. LAT: It was unclear, however, whether the involvement of mediator Juan Carlos Gonzalez would be enough to bridge the deep divisions between the two sides.

Halloween Costumes: Dress Up As Your Favorite Media Meanie (Jossip)
Instead of frantically hunting through the on-sale rack at Ricky's for that elusive half-priced garment that says "Slutty, yet sophisticated," why not be creative? Here's a complete rundown of the scariest media personalities around (Wintour, Hitchens, etc..) with useful tips on how to capture their "essence" without breaking the bank or sacrificing your unique rebelliousness.

Washington Times Seeks 'Visionary' for Executive Editor Spot (Washingtonian)
A New York headhunting firm is interviewing prospects for the executive editor post at Washington's conservative broadsheet. The job description answers two pressing questions about the Washington Times: Wesley Pruden, who has been at the helm of the paper since 1992, is ready to retire, and the paper remains firmly in the grasp of the Reverend Sun Myung Moon. WaPo: One candidate is managing editor Fran Coombs, who has been interviewed for the job.

AMC 2007: 'Don't Put Content on Lockdown' Google Exec Urges Mag Eds (FBNY)
Even the most highly branded magazines, like Forbes and TV Guide see their online traffic dwarfed by that of "media interlopers" like Yahoo! and MySpace, Eileen Naughton, Google's director of media platforms, said yesterday at the American Magazine Conference. "These media interlopers are innovating the ways advertising is targeted, measured, bought, priced, and sold," she said.

AMC 2007: 'Privacy is an Old Man's Concern' LinkedIn Prez Says (FBNY)
"The younger generation is completely understanding of the fact that tons and tons of info is out on the Web already," said Reid Hoffman, chairman and president, products, LinkedIn. "As long as people start getting the benefit of it, they don't feel the risk of privacy so much [as older people]. If you actually look ... chief privacy officers tend to be over 40."

Portfolio Publisher Explains Condé Nast's 'Madness' (AllBusiness via WaPo)
Keith Girard: While most media industry experts consider the business magazine segment heavily saturated by prominent brands, Carey says Condé Nast saw "lots of white space." Business magazine readers are predominantly older white males. They were failing to reach those under 40, and more important, female business executives, he explains.

Entrepreneur Media Sued for Defrauding the US Patent Office (MIN)
Scott Smith, president of BizStars, has filed a notice of opposition against Entrepreneur Media, Inc., publisher of Entrepreneur, for defrauding the US Patent Office, claiming its trademark of the word "entrepreneur" for purposes of "radio and television programs" and "pre-recorded audio and video," are not legal due to the word being too generic and commonly used.

Study: More Hispanics Being Hired by Networks (WaPo)
The TV season that brought Emmy honors to Ugly Betty star America Ferrera also saw a rise in employment opportunities for Hispanics at the major networks, according to a report released Tuesday. The eighth annual survey by a coalition formed to push for more minority hiring for on- and off-camera jobs in broadcasting found Latinos made encouraging if "incremental" progress.

Salmi Pushes Digital Envelope at MTV (AdAge)
MTV Networks may have missed the boat on Facebook and MySpace, but Mika Salmi, the company's president of global digital media, has a plan to keep the brand afloat in the social-networking space. Flux is an "aggregated social network" that allows users to create a universal profile across any Web site — MTV or otherwise — that has social-networking tools.

The Bicycle Thief: Philip Gourevitch's Paris Review (NYO)
Philip Gourevitch, editor of The Paris Review, is young, attractive, socially ambitious, and successful. And it's his job to revitalize a magazine that had for decades been the expression in print of George Plimpton, arguably New York's most fashionable and well-loved arbiter of literary taste.

Stephen Colbert is laughing all the way to Fort Knox (Marketwatch)
Jon Friedman: It's depressing to watch respected journalists lower themselves just to tickle Stephen Colbert's funny bone. Maureen Dowd is the wittiest columnist anywhere, and Tim Russert is the best interviewer in television news. They shouldn't be kissing up to a comedian, even one as talented as Colbert. Media Matters: Stephen Colbert's joke is on the press, writes Eric Boehlert.

Debat Debate: ABC News Investigates Itself (NYO)
Journalism no longer wants Alexis Debat. But for the time being Debat's departure from the grand stage of network TV consulting will continue to be viewed through the gaze of journalistic standards. Part of ABC president David Westin's memo about the network's investigation into Debat's work is already coming under fire in certain quarters.