When some future historian writes the book about how newspapers went the way of the steel industry (if there are books in the future, of course), today could be the lede:

• The Los Angeles Times notified 150 newsroom staffers that they're getting fired today, months after they already cut dozens of jobs; the paper's publisher "stepped down," and will be replaced on an interim basis by Randy Michaels, a man with a career in radio.
• The New York Times' stock dropped another 3 percent today, falling to $13.21 and, at one point, hitting another decade-low of $13.00
• The Wall Street Journal is buying out half a dozen staffers
• The Chicago Tribune's editor-in-chief, Ann Marie Lipinski, is resigning, and wrote in her farewell memo, "it would be inaccurate to attribute it to any one event." This comes less than a week after the Tribune announced it would cut 80 positions from its newsroom, the second wave of cuts this year for the paper.
• McClatchy's stock went down 3.14 percent, Gannett down 0.9 percent, News Corp down 0.77 percent.

Yesterday we wrote about the suit a thrice bed-bug-bitten former Fox News employee filed against the owner and maintenance company of News Corp.'s headquarters at 1211 Avenue of the Americas. We were skeptical of Joan Clark’s claim in the New York Supreme Court lawsuit that she suffered Post Traumatic Stress Disorder following three separate bed bug attacks in the network's offices, but perhaps we dismissed her case too soon.

Dr. Bob Lynn, a leading addiction recovery specialist who ran the state of New Jersey’s PTSD initiative following 9/11, told us that “the case can be made that bed bugs were responsible.  read more »

The lawyer for a bedbug-bitten Fox News employee suing the landlord and maintenance company of 1211 Avenue of the Americas today blamed his client's condition on foreign visitors to New York.

“My position is that it comes from foreigners,” Mr. Schnurman told The Observer. “Because it became so inexpensive for foreigners to travel here, I believe they brought it into our hotel system.”

His client, Joan Clark, claims in her lawsuit in New York Supreme Court that she's “suffering from emotional distress” from the bedbug attacks inside the News Corp. headquarters at 1211 Avenue of the Americas, which is owned by Beacon Capital Partners.  read more »

Say goodbye to the Financial District, suckers!

The Media Mob's John Koblin links to a PaidContent report that Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones staffers will be working out of News Corp.'s Midtown headquarters at 1211 Avenue of the Americas by spring of 2009:  read more »

We just caught up with Robert Thomson, who, it was just announced, will be the newspaper's next managing editor, on the phone. "I feel privileged," he said. "I'm looking forward with much excitement to making the Journal, and its news wires, which is the greatest news organization in the world, even greater."

He will move down to the newsroom's ninth floor tomorrow, and will take over chief editing duties over the paper immediately.  read more »

Here's the News Corp. press release. More coming shortly.

Robert Thomson has been appointed Editor-in-Chief of Dow Jones and managing editor of the Wall Street Journal, effective immediately, Rupert Murdoch, Chairman of Dow Jones & company, announced.

The Dow Jones Special Committee today unanimously endorsed Mr. Thomson's appointment following his nomination by the Company last week.

 read more »

Check out the above rendering. We got it on Monday afternoon at a press conference to tout the deal struck this weekend between the Related Companies and the M.T.A. over the development rights of the West Side rail yards.

Look closely. An old rendering, from Related's original rail yards bid in November, featured a sign above the concert stage that read "myspace.com". It was, of course, a reference to then-anchor tenant News Corp., owner of MySpace.  read more »

Two nights ago, Rupert Murdoch told The Observer that he went "a little too far" by declaring that his purchase of Newsday was a certainty, which he boldly told reporters and investors earlier in the week. This afternoon, he has withdrawn his offer.  read more »

Rupert Murdoch was standing in a deep corner of the Rose Hall at about 7:30 p.m. last night to toast his fellow influencers: It was the Time 100 celebration, an event that drums up publicity for the magazine's decreasingly influential list of the 100 most influential people in the world.

The day before, Mr. Murdoch had promised investors and reporters listening in on a News Corp. investors' call that he'd prevail in his purchase of Newsday over rival bidders Mort Zuckerman and the Dolans.  read more »

For the past two weeks, Robert Thomson, publisher of The Wall Street Journal, has been busy not being the paper’s editor.

It hasn’t been easy. Since April 22, when Marcus Brauchli resigned as the newspaper’s managing editor, Mr. Thomson, who was forced to describe himself in an interview with The New York Times as the interim “head of content” for the paper, has had nine meetings (in person and on conference calls) to soothe the fraying nerves of his orphaned editorial staff.

“There was a real panic here for a few days when Marcus left,” said one reporter.  read more »