As you may know if you read half a dozen media news and gossip sites, Howell Raines profiled the Poynter Institute's Jim Romenesko in this month's Portfolio. Mr. Raines calls Mr. Romenesko's media news site, "a high-tech tom-tom for angst-ridden members of a dying tribe" and calls the man himself "both the medium and the message." (Mr. Romenesko linked to the story himself, pulling one of the least flattering statements, "From guru to geezer in cyberspace," as befits what all media writers are contractually-bound to refer to as his modest Midwestern demeanor.)  read more »

Portfolio senior editor Bob Roe was fired this week, and his last day was today, Media Mob has learned. It's the first major firing this year in what has been a relatively quiet year for the magazine.  read more »

The old online editor at Portfolio, Chris Jones, is joining the digital side of nytimes.com. The last time we heard from Mr. Jones, he was fleeing the increasingly encroaching presence of the business side at portfolio.com.  read more »

It's on the record now.

Condé Nast editorial director Tom Wallace gave the company's loudest and most forceful public support for Joanne Lipman, the editor of Portfolio. In a story in today's Women's Wear Daily written by Stephanie Smith, Wallace says the following: that the company "love[s]" Joanne Lipman; that she's an "ingenious" editor; that she's absolutely safe in her job; that the company is "extremely pleased" with the magazine.  read more »

An odd thing happened after Jacob Lewis was hired as Portfolio’s managing editor back in September: that wacky 17th floor at 4 Times Square, full of firings and bloody exits, began to calm down.

“When he came in, we had been in a period of start-up tumult, and he’s helped move us into the next phase,” said Kyle Pope, Portfolio’s articles editor.

“He’s made the trains run on time in some basic, fundamental way that as a start-up we were having problems with,” said Jesse Eisinger, a senior staff writer.  read more »

Howell Raines is back.

The former executive editor of the New York Times has written his first media column for Portfolio, and it's about—surprise!—the New York Times. It will appear in the April issue that hits newstands later this week. (Online this morning.)

The article, titled "Murdoch v. the Times," examines the paper's vulnerability, particularly in the wake of Rupert Murdoch's purchase of the Wall Street Journal.

"There is no more important question in American journalism than the future of the Times, and I don't think the newspaper or the journalistic profession is taking Murdoch in particular or the takeover issue in general seriously enough," he writes.  read more »

Last night, at Columbia's journalism school, Joanne Lipman said that three years ago she got a call from Si Newhouse. She met with him, had lunch, and loved the conversation so much she would have been perfectly satisfied with her life even if she'd been struck by a truck on her way out the door of his apartment building.  read more »

Jim Impoco, the former deputy editor of Portfolio, is heading back to his old home at The Times, where he’ll be a consulting editor at The New York Times Magazine.

Magazine editor Gerald Marzorati told Off the Record Mr.  read more »

Shortly after former Newsweek writer Dana Thomas signed a contract with Portfolio to become the latter magazine’s European editor, she celebrated with a “couple-thousand”-dollar shopping spree.

“The first thing I did after I got the job was go shopping, and I bought three new dresses and a pair of red boots,” she said. “They’re red suede boots and they go over the knee—they’re really hot.  read more »

Last week, Michael Kinsley arrived at 4 Times Square for a meeting with Portfolio editor Joanne Lipman and word of the meeting spread quickly through the building: Was he about to become the latest masthead addition to the monthly business magazine?

Not quite yet.

Mr. Kinsley told Media Mob that he was meeting with Ms. Lipman to give her a few pointers with how to run the magazine.  read more »