A day after the New York Times Co. shocked skeptics by revealing it actually turned a profit last year, it appears there might be more layoffs at Gray Lady. The Wrap reports that despite the paper's seemingly improving economic state, when asked whether there will be staff cuts in 2010 chief financial officer James Follo responded: "I think we would expect that to be the case, yes." It's not clear whether or not the cuts will be in the newsroom, which last year lost popular writers including Jennifer 8. Lee to buyouts, and others including trend piece extraordinaire Allen Salkin to layoffs. The paper is expected to introduce a controversial paywall on its website in 2010.
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When Tyra sent her would-be top models out on the streets to pose as part of the homeless masses, never did we think the Gray Lady would follow her lead. But last night, the NY Times's Natasha Lennard went into the night to pose as a homeless person, as did 200 others, to test the system. Would she and her fellow faux-hobos get counted by the Homeless Outreach Population Estimate (HOPE) census takers? The count takes place one winter night a year... and (spoiler alert) she was counted by the organization (at which time she told them she was a decoy). more ›

Irishman Phelim McAleer is a former journalist turned filmmaker whose most recent work is the "anti-environmentalist" documentary Mine Your Own Business. So, yeah, he's part of the head-in-the-sand camp which future generations will likely regard with unspeakable contempt as they hoard fuel Mad Max-style in a miserable, eco-apocalyptic landscape. Which is exactly what the well-intentioned new documentary The Age of Stupid is about; it stars Pete Postlethwaite as a global archivist living in 2055, flipping through the pivotal news stories from 2004 - 2008 and wondering why we didn’t stop global warming when we had a chance. more ›

Two American journalists, who were arrested by North Korea while covering North Korean refugees in China three months ago, were sentenced to 12 years of hard labor by the Central Court of North Korea. Korea's official news agency KCNA reported that the court accused Euna Lee and Laura Ling of "committing hostilities against the Korean nation and illegal entry." The U.S. State Department released a statement, "We are deeply concerned by the reported sentencing of the two American citizen journalists by North Korean authorities, and we are engaged through all possible channels to secure their release. We once again urge North Korea to grant the immediate release of the two American citizen journalists on humanitarian grounds." Lee and Ling work for San Francisco-based Current TV, which was co-founded by Al Gore. The AP adds, "There are fears Pyongyang is using the women as bargaining chips as the U.N. debates a new resolution to punish the country for its defiant May 25 atomic test and as North Korea seeks to draw Washington into direct negotiations," but one law professor in Seoul said, "The sentence doesn't mean much because the issue will be resolved diplomatically in the end." more ›