FICRY

Just as record numbers of aimless liberal arts majors are getting duped into applying to expensive journalism schools (a year at Columbia will put you back a cool 60k, which is about 60k more than the average j-school graduate’s salary these days), the world of journalism is crumbling. This is not news to anyone, [...]

Time’s coverage of the faltering newspaper industry is easy for them to do. They aren’t facing buyouts and closed newsstands like newspapers have been for the past decade. But in the past two years, the conversation has picked up significantly, and more panicked: How do we keep our newspapers alive?
There are already misconceptions that newspapers [...]

Undergraduates of journalism across the country are finding themselves at a crossroad: Jump head-first into a withering field or attend graduate school. For pro-blogger-turned-student Hunter Walker, he chose the latter. At a nearly $48,000 price tag to attend journalism school at Columbia University (top-notch, by the way), Walker found himself questioning his motive. Is this [...]

As if we needed more proof of the pending fashion world apocalypse (because bargaining on the floor of Saks Fifth Avenue last Christmas wasn’t enough), the self-titled “queen of snark” Maureen Dowd questions the relevancy of one Anna Wintour, Vogue editor-in-chief, deemed The Last Empress in her Sunday column. Dowd uses the new documentary on [...]

In the New York Times’ “Idea of the Day” blog, editor Tom Kuntz postulates that the work of Charles Dickens is experiencing a resurgence. He positions Dickens’s novels, with their intricate, very often finance-fueled plot lines about paupers, orphans, and misfits as the perfect works for the post FICRY-age. According to Kuntz, Dickens will eclipse [...]

(AP) From Atlanta, Ga., listen to Marian Chamberlain, 65, jobless, and no longer eligible for unemployment: “I will never be able to retire.” From Shakopee, Minn., listen to Bruce Paul, 56, a vintage car mechanic laid off in January and unemployed for the first time since Richard Nixon was president. Today he and his wife [...]

An Onion staffer reported to Gawker.com that the humor publication has laid off editorial and sales staff, for its Los Angeles and San Francisco print editions, in preparation of the closure of these branches. Get the full story.

Associated Press –Boston — The management of the Boston Globe threatened late Sunday to begin the process of shutting down the newspaper in a dispute with its unions over $20 million in cuts. The Globe’s owner, New York Times Co., gave its biggest union a copy of a notice it was prepared to file Monday [...]

The fledgeling Condé Nast business magazine, launched in 2007, will be closing up shop immediately. New York Times reports that; “under Ms. Lipman, a former editor at The Wall Street Journal, Portfolio failed to gain traction with advertisers and readers, in part because it was confronted by a historic recession in ad spending in its [...]

As reported today by Gawker, many companies are taking rather absurd cost cutting measures in an effort to stay afloat.  Among the best/worst?  Alpha Media will no longer provide toilet paper for its office facilities. Get the full story here.