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Oprah Winfrey to Leave Talk Show in 2011 (ABC News)
After more than 20 years at the top of the daytime talk show game, Oprah Winfrey's calling it quits. According to insiders, Winfrey informed her staff of her decision late this afternoon in a company meeting, described as "emotional, supportive and respectful." Huffington Post: Oprah's most memorable TV moments. NYT: "The sun will set on the Oprah show as its 25th season draws to a close on Sept. 9, 2011," Tim Bennett, the president of Winfrey's production company, Harpo, said in a letter to her 214 local TV stations on Thursday evening. WSJ: Local TV stations, which use Winfrey to anchor daytime hours, could smart from her move. B&C: Syndicators have been preparing for the day that Oprah goes off the air for years, but fragmentation has made developing the next big daytime hit tougher than ever.

Media Columnist Among BusinessWeek Casualties (FishbowlNY)
Media columnist Jon Fine, who has been enjoying a six-month sabbatical since September, will not be returning to BusinessWeek after it gets taken over by Bloomberg. "I have absolutely no regrets," he said. Fine and wife Laurel Touby wrapped up the first leg of their worldwide tour earlier this month. Silicon Alley Insider: Other longtime reporters cut from the magazine as well. NYP: Bloomberg is expected to eliminate up to 130 employees out of a total 400 -- a staggering 32-percent staff reduction.

With 90 Laid Off, AP Finally Hits Payroll Cut Goal (FishbowlNY)
Last year, Associated Press CEO Tom Curley told staff that the company needed to cut 10 percent of its payroll. Voluntary buyouts, a hiring freeze and layoffs this year moved the company toward that goal -- and now the AP says it has achieved 10 percent by laying off 90 people let go across the organization. Gawker: The AP layoff list. FishbowlNY: The News Media Guild, which represents 1,300 Associated Press employees, said four bureaus are also being closed due to the cuts.

AOL Layoff Package: You Stay, You Pay (AllThingsDigital)
AOL is offering those who "volunteer" to leave the company now a departure package that ranges from three to nine months of pay, compared to one to four months for employees laid off in the first quarter of next year. The offer is part of a massive layoff of 2,500 of its 6,000-person workforce. AllThingsDigital: AOL eying sale of MapQuest. NYT: AOL said in a regulatory filing that the job cuts were meant to save about $300 million a year.

Harbinger Cuts New York Times Stake Again (Reuters)
Hedge fund Harbinger Capital Partners cut its stake again in The New York Times Co., almost two years after it bought a big stake in a bid to shake up the publisher. Harbinger owns 14.64 percent of the Times Co's publicly traded shares. In September, the hedge fund reported a 16.38 percent stake.

Times Chicago Edition Begins Today (NYT)
The first Chicago edition of The New York Times will be published today, a month after the paper began publishing a regional edition in San Francisco. A new organization, the Chicago News Cooperative will produce two additional pages of coverage, twice a week, for copies of the paper distributed in that region.

Daily Beast Hires Former Dennis Exec (NYP)
Tina Brown has hired a former top executive from Felix Dennis' laddie empire to be her new president. Steve Colvin was the U.S. CEO for Dennis Publishing, serving as the steadying business hand for the blustery and controversial founder of Maxim, Blender, Stuff and The Week.

Lawsuit Accuses Hartford Courant of Plagiarism (NYT)
The Journal Inquirer of Manchester, Conn., has sued The Hartford Courant, the state's largest paper, saying that it copied The Journal Inquirer's work in articles published last summer, a time when The Courant was also, in a subsequent admission, lifting material from several other northern Connecticut newspapers.

When News Falls in a Forest (ProPublica)
Stephen Engelberg: The question of why and when a particular development ignites broader passions is one of journalism's enduring mysteries. Reporters and editors are notoriously poor at forecasting when a story will erupt. We're steeped in our material and can lose the sense of how our work might be perceived by the wider public.

Vice Profits Soar Amid Recession (FT)
Vice expects to increase revenues across the whole business from $45 million in 2008 to $64 million in 2009. Every business unit is growing, and this year, profits from VBS, its online video service, and Virtue, its in-house advertising agency, will outstrip those of its magazine. mediabistro.com: So what do you do, Vice editor-in-chief Jesse Pearson?

BBC America's President Garth Ancier Exiting Post (Mediaweek)
Garth Ancier is stepping down as president, BBC Worldwide America after three years. Ancier, who will exit in March, will continue to be associated with the company in a consulting capacity as a nonexecutive director and will continue to be a member of the BBC Worldwide America board.

Elle Decor Swallows 'High Quality' Metropolitan Home Subscribers (Folio:)
A little more than a week after folding Metropolitan Home, Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S. said Thursday it is rolling the magazine's "highest quality" subscribers to Elle Decor. The move increases Elle Decor's rate base 10 percent to 550,000.

Former Fox News Anchor Has New Fake News Gig (TVNewser)
Suzanne Sena, former primetime/late night news anchor on Fox News Channel, is back in front of the camera, this time anchoring for ONN: Onion News Network. Sena worked for FNC from 2006-2008. For ONN, Sena anchors coverage of a malfunctioning TelePromTer at the White House.

GE and Vivendi Play 'Poulet' (Forbes)
Despite heavily hyped expectations of an NBC Universal sale to Comcast, a deal before Thanksgiving appears unlikely. Whether they call it chicken or poulet, it's the game being played by the television and film outfit's current owners, General Electric, which holds an 80 percent stake, and Paris-based Vivendi, which owns 20 percent.

Did Lifetime Kill Project Runway? (Salon)
Heather Havrilesky: Irina Shabeyeva won last night's finale of Project Runway, which might've been interesting if it were remotely unexpected, or if someone said something memorable during the entire finale. The story of season six was that there was no story.