MEDIA
• Is Jon Stewart really the only late-night host not currently covering the salaries of his laid-off, non-striking employees? [Mixed Media/Portfolio]
• The key lines from the n+1 essay that helped convinced Choire Sicha and Emily Gould to quit: “The purpose of Gawker Media was always to improve on the print publishing business model. It was never, as the content of Gawker sometimes seemed to suggest, to produce critiques of the waste that model created. The content at Gawker, like most Condé Nast titles, is a service to the advertisers. … You could say that as Gawker Media grew, from Gawker’s success, Gawker outlived the conditions for its existence.” Joshua David Stein announced his own departure, due mostly to personal loyalty, on Saturday. [n+1, Media Mob/NYO]
• Meanwhile, Portfolio’s Jeff Bercovici proves that Condé and Gawker really are at the same level: “By the way, those who feel wronged by Gawker over the years can take some satisfaction in the uniquely terrible timing of the walkout for Denton, who is pumped full of painkillers after a recent back injury. Last week, the pain became so intense he needed an ambulance to get to the hospital. As he was being loaded into the ambulance, he says, his greatest fear was that he would be spotted by someone from Gawker, which is headquartered just down the block from his home.” [Mixed Media/Portfolio]
FINANCE
• Looks like Vikram Pandit is the lead candidate for CEO at Citigroup, the job that nobody wants. Billed as an “inside man,” Pandit really joined Citi just eight months ago when the firm paid $800 million for his hedge fund, mostly just to secure his services. So either Chuck Prince was actually planning some succession, or Pandit’s the (un)luckiest man alive. [NYT]
• John Thain takes over at Merrill today, and he plans to remold the bank in the image of his old haunts at Goldman Sachs. Maybe Ben Stein wasn’t so crazy after all. [FT]
• You know those two big Bear Stearns hedge funds that went down early this summer, setting off the entire subprime implosion? Somehow the fund manager, Ralph Cioffi, is still employed by Bear, and the bank is desperate to hold on to him since he’s somehow convinced his old investors to sink more cash into a new independent fund. And we thought the problem with Wall Street was that they fired everyone at the first sign of a mistake. [NYP]
LAW
• Justice Thomas explains why he hasn’t talked during oral arguments for over a year. The oral arguments are for listening, and “My colleagues should shut up!” [Washington Whispers/US News]
• Talk about a paradox: A panel of judges rejected the judiciary’s own lawsuit to force the legislature to raise judges’ pay after years of stagnation. [New York Law Journal]
• Are New York law firms completely bonkers to try to match salaries and bonuses across the board, regardless of that year’s performance? Um, yeah! [NYT]
FASHION
• Jack and Lazaro: fashion bloggers! [Fashion Week Daily]
• In more fashion-blogging news, Teen Vogue’s Kimball Hastings has jumped ship to Ralph Lauren. [Fashionista]
• Your time has come! Relatable, down-to-earth beauty is what model scouts are now searching for. [NYT]
