As Reuters' Robert MacMillan writes, this has been one of the worst weeks for journalism in terms of job losses.

Now it's getting worse. Following layoffs at BusinessWeek and the Associated Press, The Washington Post has laid off an unspecified number of people working for washingtonpost.com, the paper's web site.

The bottom line is that the web site, long an entirely separate editorial operation, is being integrated back into the paper's newsroom, thus the perfect opportunity to cut payroll. But MacMillan says there are other motives:

The company, all my sources tell me, want to cut staff before the end of the year because next year the remainder would become unionized. Web staff are not unionized now. That, my sources say, would make it much more difficult for the money-losing Washington Post to cut costs by laying off people because they would be protected to some extent by their contract.

Here's another report about the layoffs from the Washington City & Press. And this from the Washington City Paper, which this afternoon wrote:

According to a knowledgeable source, the ranks of the RIFed number around ten so far.

City Desk is working on compiling a list of the dismissed, which reportedly includes at least one big industry name.

I'm not sure you can call it a suspension from Twitter if the guy supposedly being suspended is, you know, still tweeting. But there are rumors that ESPN has ordered Sports Guy columnist Bill Simmons -- currently on the road promoting his massive tome, The Book of Basketball -- not to tweet for two weeks.

It started with The Big Lead, an independent sports blog which wrote:

Bill Simmons had a book signing in Beaverton, Oregon last night, and a reader who attended wrote in that he "overheard" ESPN's Sports Guy telling a fan that he was "suspended from tweeting for two weeks" and that all he was allowed to tweet about was his book tour. We went to the usually-forthcoming Simmons this morning, and here was his response: "no commento."

From there it got picked up by NBCSports.com Out of Bounds blogger Rick Chandler, who seems to have found a smoking gun:

[A]pparently it was this Twitter jab at WEEI, a sports radio station in Boston, that caused the little red revolving lights to start spinning at ESPN headquarters. Very naughty, Bill! Didn't you know that ESPN and WEEI recently signed an affiliation deal?

The tweet Chandler refers to is this one:

Hey WEEI: You were wrong, I did a Boston interview today. With your competition. Rather give them ratings over deceitful scumbags like you.

The thing is, since that tweet sent on Nov. 10, Simmons has tweeted 45 times. Unless they're being done by a ghost tweeter.

I'm tempted to dismiss the whole thing, but then there's this: The Big Lead uploaded a video interview (below) with Simmons in Portland, where in response to a fan saying "we didn't get any tweets," Simmons replied, "That's a whole other story, why you didn't get any tweets. ...No comment on the tweets."

You don't "no comment on the tweets" unless there's something going on with the tweets.

Twitter officially launched its geotagging application-program interface, platform director Ryan Sarver announced on the Twitter Blog.

Users can opt-in by clicking a box in their settings menu, and several third-party tools support the API.

Sarver's post:

In August, we announced that we were working on a new API that would provide developers with the ability to geotag tweets. Today, the Geotagging API is officially available.

This release is unique in that it's API-only, which means you won't see any changes on twitter.com yet. Instead, Twitter applications like Birdfeed, Seesmic Web, Foursquare, Gowalla, Twidroid, Twittelator Pro and others are already supporting this new functionality (go try them out now!) in interesting ways that include geotagging your tweets and displaying the location from where a tweet was posted. The added information provides valuable context when reading your friends' tweets and allows you to better focus in on local conversations. Now you can find out what live music is playing right now in your neighborhood or what people visiting Checkpoint Charlie are saying today about the anniversary of the Berlin Wall. These are only the beginning, and we are really looking forward to seeing the creative uses emerge from the developer community.

It's important to note that geotagging is disabled by default for all users, which means you will need to opt-in in order to use it. To activate the new geotagging functionality, go to your Settings page and click "Enable Geotagging."

Just in time to discuss the controversial goal that sent France's national soccer team to the World Cup, Twitter debuted support for French, joining its already-existing English, Spanish and Japanese support.

Twitter's Jenna Dawn announced the news on the social-networking site's blog, but she did so in French.

The English-language translation, courtesy of TechCrunch:

With the addition of the Spanish version of the site last month, many people have joined the conversations on Twitter. More and more people tweet outside the United States, and we are now able to accommodate users of nearly 30 Francophone countries. It is now possible to change the language settings in French with the participation of translators who have helped turn Twitter into a platform for truly global communication.

The French twitteurs golds can already track people and companies they are familiar with. Whether you attended @lepicerie or @lopera for your gastronomic outings, you read @lemondefr on your way to work, you listen to @theteenagers on the way home, or you're a fan of @CanadiensMTL, there is a wealth of information useful to discover at any time.

To see Twitter in French, just check your settings and select "French" from the menu.

One last thing: Some of the Twitter team will be in Paris Nov. 9 and 10 for LeWeb conference, presented by @loic. The specialists of our platform, Ryan Sarver (@rsarver) and Marcel Molina (@noradio) will present, among other things, a session for developers. If you are in the region on those days, please join us!

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When companies want to use social media to market their brand without making it seem like they're marketing their brand, they often turn to companies such as social application-based ad services provider RockYou.

This week RockYou announced it has raised another $50 million in venture funds, this from Softbank. The company, which distributes widgets and applications for social media, says it will use the money for brand-building, further apps development and product expansion.

RockYou has raised $118 million since its inception in 2005. Other investors are Sequoia Capital, Partech International, Lightspeed Venture Partners, DCM and SK Telecom Ventures.

Former CNET executive vice president Stephen Colvin joined The Daily Beast as the news site's first president, paidContent reported.

Colvin will be responsible for revenue generation, audience development, brand development and social media at The Daily Beast and report to co-founder and editor in chief Tina Brown, according to paidContent. He will also oversee Beast Books, a new joint venture between the site and Perseus Books, and develop a series of events.

Prior to overseeing the entertainment and lifestyle divisions at CNET, Colvin was president and CEO of Dennis Publishing, where he launched the company's U.S. business, according to paidContent.

Friday has been a busy day for Web-based Twitter client Brizzly, as it launched in full public beta mode, added foreign-language translation via Google Translate and hired former Facebook and FriendFeed employee Ben Darnell, CNET and TechCrunch reported.

Brizzly had previously been available only via an invite code.

The translation feature works via a simple click of a question mark, according to CNET.

And Brizzly parent Thing Labs founder and CEO Jason Shellen told TechCrunch Darnell will work on "larger framework for communication and content discovery."

College football's controversial Bowl Championship Series kicked off a Twitter account, and the response of many fans clamoring for a playoff: "Tweet THIS," AdAge.com reported.

The @InsideTheBCS account launched with three Tweets, according to AdAge.com: a welcome message to new followers, a link to an article questioning the fairness of a playoff system and a quote from University of Florida head coach Urban Meyer about how the BCS system has been good for college football.

Sports Illustrated columnist Stewart Mandel tweeted, as reported by AdAge.com:

If the balloon boy dad set up a Twitter account, even he would not draw the level of venom @InsidetheBCS is right now.

BCS executive director Bill Hancock told AdAge.com:

We think a lot of the feelings out there are because people just don't understand it. The side talking about playoffs has had that turf to itself…we want it to be a two-way conversation. That's the great thing about social media. It gives everybody a chance to weigh in.

CNBC will debut one-hour documentary Inside the Mind of Google, hosted by Maria Bartiromo, Thursday, Dec. 3 at 9 p.m. ET/PT.

The network said Bartiromo will tell "viewers the fascinating story of how two graduate students took a one-time research project and, in barely a decade, turned it into a global technological powerhouse," adding that Bartiromo will examine the company's flagship search engine, go inside company headquarters the "Googleplex" and speak with vice president Marissa Mayer and chief mobile evangelist Vic Gundotra.

Inside the Mind of Google will reair Thursday, Dec. 3 at 10 p.m.; Saturday, Dec. 5 at 7 p.m.; and Sunday, Dec. 6 at 10 p.m.

Nine National Football League players will be featured on MogoTXT's text-messaging system following an agreement with NFL PLAYERS, the NFL Players Association's licensing and marketing subsidiary.

NFL PLAYERS and the participating players will share revenues generated from the content that is created, and MogoTXT, NFL PLAYERS and the players will donate a portion of the revenues to selected charities, including charitable initiatives sponsored or supported by NFL PLAYERS and participating NFL players.

Players who will partake in MogoTXT's social-media offering are: Atlanta Falcons safety Erik Coleman, New Orleans Saints wide receiver Marques Colston, Washington Redskins tight end Chris Cooley, New York Jets kicker Jay Feely, Minnesota Vikings WR Percy Harvin, Vikings running back Ian Johnson, Saints WR Lance Moore, Houston Texans RB Steve Slaton and Saints RB Pierre Thomas.

MogoTXT also added a new group-texting channel that enables fans to see back-and-forth text-message conversations between Colston, Moore and Thomas.

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When Movieline.com launched last April, it "opened" well (to borrow a Hollywood phrase), logging 8,355 visits on the first day -- neither blockbuster hit nor flop.

Cut to the present and Movieline.com, which revives the legacy of popular print publication Movieline Magazine (folded almost a decade ago), is approaching 1 million unique monthly visitors, fairly remarkable for a site just six months old.

ComScore.com numbers for October show Movieline.com with 930,000 unique visitors, or 30,000 per day. That's up from more than 700,000 in September, and represents almost quadruple growth from the site's debut numbers. Certainly before year's end, Movieline.com will have more than 1 million unique monthly visitors.

Owned by Jay Penske's Mail.com Media Corp., Movieline.com is all about movies, television and Hollywood stars. It features a lively mix of news, reviews, opinion, interviews and video clips. (See screen grab below.)

General manager and editorial director Charles Runnette, a veteran of Hollywood Life and television documentaries, oversees a small editorial staff whose members come from places such as NYTimes.com, Defamer.com, TheWrap.com, VanityFair.com and Variety.com.

"We keep it a lean operation," Runnette says. (Who doesn't these days?)

Seventy percent of Movieline.com's audience, Runnette says, "aren't in the business. They're people who want to find out what's happening in television and film before anyone else."

Runnette says Movieline.com's prime editorial directive "is to engage people. I feel like all the writers have excellent taste and they understand we're trying to appeal to a broad audience."

While that mandate rules out F-bombs, Movieline.com's writers deliver a steady stream of edgy and entertaining content that continues to find a larger audience.

Like nearly all publications dependent primarily on ads, Movieline.com is facing revenue challenges. "We're not profitable just yet," Runnette says, "but we're on our way."

On Thursday WebNewser reported that AOL is seeking as many as 2,500 employees to step up and take a severance deal.

Now the Wall Street Journal has some details on AOL's "Voluntary Separation Program":

The company said Thursday it is asking for up to 2,500 people across all divisions to take buyout packages during a one-week program starting Dec. 4. If AOL doesn't reach that target, it intends to make involuntary layoffs, leaving the company with about 4,400 employees. ...

Employees who volunteer in December to give up their jobs will receive three to nine months pay and other benefits, depending on rank, a person familiar with the matter said. Employees who are laid off involuntarily will receive a package of one to four months.

Interestingly, WSJ reported, even amid the layoffs AOL is hiring for "some positions that [CEO Tim] Armstrong has pinpointed as essential to its growth, such as journalists."

Armstrong, a former Google executive, is attempting to reposition AOL from provider of subscription-based services to digital content powerhouse.