It's been a tough month for media, to be sure, and now especially the spotlight-of-despair seems to have moved from newspapers to the glossies. You know it's getting bad when the plight of a company as high-in-the-sky as Condé Nast gets the New York Post treatment: Sunday's headline of "Axes are In Vogue" was a real groaner. Apparently, reclusive Chairman Si Newhouse, Jr. has an yearly tradition of taking the bulk of December off, only to return in January and make sweeping changes in the way the company's run. Holiday-meets-new-year layoffs are regular occurrences at most corporate giants, but local papers seem to be going wild over the happenings at 4 Times Square because of the irresistible combination of in-house celebrities (Anna Wintour, Graydon Carter, etc.) and probably the image of some poor little editor carrying her back issues-filled cardboard box out to the street in four-inch stilettos. Awkward!
A few blocks away, the folks at Hearst (also reeling from a slew of firings and closings) seem to be taking a page out of The New York Times' playbook (having recently signed on none other than Bono to write several columns next year) and have elected to sign on Christy Turlington as contributing editor starting in the December 2008 issue of Marie Claire. Turlington's no ditz: She's getting a master's at Columbia right now and her first piece is about Senate resolutions, not lip gloss. Can smart, hot chicks save the glossies? Only time will tell.
