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WSJ's Deogun Leaving For CNBC (NYT)
Early next year Nikhil Deogun, one of the top editors at The Wall Street Journal, will become CNBC's new managing editor. The hiring of Mr. Deogun is something of a coup for CNBC, as executives at News Corp., the owner of the Journal, had tried to persuade him not to depart the company, people close to the parties involved said. The network's current managing editor, Tyler Mathisen, will become its vice president for strategic editorial initiatives and a permanent anchor for Power Lunch. TVNewser: Internal memo.

Publishers Weekly Cover Photo Sparks Twitter Controversy (GalleyCat)
The Twittersphere pounced on Publishers Weekly for running a cover image of a woman's head covered with countless hair picks, with the cover line, "Afro picks: New books and trends in African-American publishing." Hoping to ease the controversy, PW's senior news editor Calvin Reid responded via the magazine's Twitter feed, using the hashtag #afropw to archive the ongoing discussion about the picture. Said Reid, via Twitter, "Obviously many people dislike the image. Perhaps I shouldn't have used it but I believe its [sic] a fine & beautiful & funny image."

Goo.gl Challenges Bit.ly as King of the Short (NYT/Bits)
Google announced a move into the realm of the small Monday: URL shorteners, which condense long Web addresses into very short ones. The new Goo.gl service is a direct attack on Bit.ly, which has fast become the de facto link shortener on Twitter. WebNewser: Facebook makes its entry into the URL-shortening arena with fb.me, which both automatically shortens URLs in its mobile interface and substitutes for http://www.facebook.com/ in URLs. Bit.ly blog: Announcing Bit.ly Pro.

Top Author Shifts E-Book Rights to Amazon.com (NYT/Media Decoder)
Ever since e-books emerged as a major growth market, New York's largest publishing houses have worried that big-name authors might sign deals directly with e-book retailers, bypassing traditional publishers entirely. Now, Stephen R. Covey, one of the most successful business authors of the last two decades, has moved e-book rights to two of his best-selling books from his print publisher, Simon & Schuster to a digital publisher that will sell the e-books to Amazon.com for one year.

Editor & Publisher To Publish January Issue -- Hope Remains? (E&P)
Due to overwhelming reader and advertiser demand, Editor & Publisher will publish its next issue, the January 2010 edition, as planned, editor Greg Mitchell announced Monday. But it may still be the final issue of E&P, after 125 years. Meanwhile, a number of outside companies and individuals have expressed interest in possibly keeping E&P going, so stay tuned for updates.

1,100 AOL Employees Took The Buyout (Silicon Alley Insider)
In November, AOL told employees it needed 2,500 of them to volunteer for layoffs before December 10, and if that number was not reached through buyouts, it would be reached through normal layoffs in Q1. A source close to the company now tells us approximately 1,100 AOL employees took the offer, which means about another 1,400 AOL employees will be laid off before the end of Q1 2010.

Facebook Moves to Standardize and Own Customer IDs (BusinessWeek)
Will Web anonymity end as Facebook monetizes its gigantic customer profile database? Facebook wants to become a kind of digital calling card, what vice president of product Chris Cox calls an "identity medium" for transactions between the individuals and businesses inhabiting the Web.

Dead Print Magazine Tally Tapers Off (Folio:)
2009 is drawing to a close and data from online magazine database MediaFinder.com reports that 428 titles have ceased publication in 2009, through December 14. While any magazine going out of business isn't good news, the silver lining is the total number of foldings this year (although anything could technically happen between now and December 31) is down significantly from 2008 (613) and 2007 (643).

Gillian Reagan Leaves New York Observer for The Business Insider (Romenesko)
Gillian Reagan, the New York Observer's tech and new media reporter, will join The Business Insider as senior editor, covering media and the New York tech scene.

MySpace and News Corp. Eye Flixster (AllThingsD)
Now that MySpace CEO Owen Van Natta has sucked up some decent music start-ups -- Imeem and iLike -- for a song, to bolster the social networking site's efforts to expand into an entertainment portal, what's next? According to several sources, the News Corp. unit has turned its omnivorous attentions to Flixster, the popular social networking site for movies.

Former CQ Pres. Robert Merry Joins Intelligence Firm Stratfor as Publisher (PRNewswire)
Robert Merry, who most recently served as president and editor-in-chief of Congressional Quarterly for 12 years, will become publisher of global intelligence firm Stratfor in January 2010.

Arbitrator Upholds NYT Newsroom Staffers' Seniority Rights (Romenesko)
An arbitrator on Monday upheld Times' newsroom employees' seniority rights, added an annual week of severance pay for employees properly laid off in inverse order of seniority and sped up the challenge process for those laid off out of seniority in a ruling that resolved in the Guild's favor most aspects of a multi-faceted dispute over job security.

Jerry Kersting Named Tribune Broadcasting COO (Chicago Tribune)
Jerry Kersting, an executive vice president at the Tribune Co. since April 2008, has been appointed Tribune Broadcasting's chief operating officer. The company said the promotion will enable Tribune Broadcasting president Ed Wilson "to focus even more time and attention on his responsibilities to drive revenue and generate sales across the company" in his additional role as chief revenue officer.

How Dell Got Out of Hell (The Big Money)
You can't help thinking that Dell Inc.'s announcement that it has recorded $6.5 million of sales using Twitter is both a step forward and a step backward for social media within major companies. Any Fortune 500 exec is bound to pay attention when there's a sniff of making real money from social media. Yet to celebrate that Dell is selling more stuff through Twitter surely undersells social media's real value to companies -- namely, the ability to transform the relationship of a business with its customers.

Paramount Delays Decision on 5-Year Deal with Redbox (LAT)
Paramount Pictures has put off a decision on whether to enter into a five-year deal that has riled half the Hollywood studios. The Viacom Inc.-owned studio has extended through June its trial agreement with $1-a-night DVD kiosk company Redbox that was set to expire Dec. 31. Paramount's ultimate decision is being closely watched, because it could indicate where most of the Hollywood studios stand on supporting the video rental company, whose growth has mushroomed despite a big drop in DVD sales.