Heads are rolling in the Arlington offices of Washingtonpost.com, the longtime WaPo Web lab that is now undergoing a merger with the Post newsroom in downtown D.C. According to a knowledgeable source, the ranks of the RIFed number around ten so far.

City Desk is working on compiling a list of the dismissed, which reportedly includes at least one big industry name.

Meanwhile, one question looms: Are these layoffs? Or just strategic reductions aimed at redundant positions, as Post management would have us believe?

Consider the case of one dismissed employee. This individual was told that the "numbers have been bad on the digital side and because of that, that's why they're doing it."

Another victim of the reduction-in-force reports that the motivation is that the Post is moving to streamline its operations.

Updates to come.

Multiple sources are reporting that several employees at washingtonpost.com are losing their jobs as part of the merger of the site with the main Washington Post newsroom. Several of dot-com's editorial staffers as well as some non-editorial workers are among those who've gotten the ax, according to the sources.

Read More "Breaking: Reported Dismissals at Post Web Site" »

There are so many things I love about Peapod. One, I don't have to wait in grocery-store lines anymore. Two, the Peapod people are fantastic. Three, the deliveries are painless and easy to schedule. Four, the Web-shopping interface is easy to navigate.

Yet one important consideration falls in the minus column, and that's Peapod's uncanny insistence on wrapping virtually everything in its own plastic bag. It's as if the Peapod people have to fill a quota of plastic-bag use, as if the employee handbook had a rule that reads: Any employee found to have used fewer than 100 plastic bags per delivery shall receive a formal reprimand signed by the Regional Manager.

I've provided a photo above to illustrate the Peapod plastic bag crush. The context here is that individuals with whom I am familially associated ordered a processed Pillsbury bread product. Well, that product alone occupied an entire plastic bag on our last delivery, as shown in the photo. It wouldn't be worth noting if it were an aberration, but it's not. Over the weeks, we've gotten single containers of yogurt, single cucumbers, single everything---each wrapped in its own plastic bag. Prior to a Peapod delivery, we must be sure to clear out some space to may way for the colony of plastic bags that we gain.

The crew that's trying to bring about a new Washington Blade is ready to hang with you at Hard Rock Cafe. Tonight from 6 to 8!

For 15 years, Metro Weekly competed against the Washington Blade for its slice of readers and advertisers here in Washington, D.C.

So it was perhaps appropriate that Metro Weekly would issue a statement upon the death of the Blade. You know, something respectful, deferential---all class. Well, the first paragraph of that statement sure fit the bill. Here's how it reads:

Read More "Metro Weekly Issues Terrible Statement About Demise of Washington Blade" »

More on the failed attempt by Falls Church News-Press Owner Nicholas F. Benton's to acquire the Washington Blade prior to yesterday's shutdown. As mentioned in this post, Benton had won a bid to acquire the Blade from its broke parent company, Window Media. Or at least he thought he had.

Here's the way Benton tells it: His people and the Blade's corporate overlords were in the very final stages of completing the ownership transfer. Around Nov. 6, Benton was waiting for some notes from the other side's lawyers on "finalizing the contract for sale." But they got no notes. "We got silence," says Benton. "We weren't in touch."

Next thing Benton knows, the Blade is dead.

Here's a bit more detail on just what the deal would have involved. According to Benton, the idea was to acquire the Blade free and clear of the debt load that was killing it. Benton also wanted to "retain as many of the employees as possible and continue business as usual." Money was also part of the deal, though Benton won't say just yet how much he was offering.

Perhaps it wasn't enough to offset the always-high legal fees involved in transferring ownership of a paper. Or perhaps it was---who knows at this point. More updates to come.

Nicholas F. Benton, the storied owner of the Falls Church News-Press, attempted to acquire the assets of the Washington Blade from the paper's bankrupt parent company, according to a Nov. 17 press release.

Read More "Claim: Benton Made Big Play for Washington Blade" »

Today, the Style section of the Washington Post featured a conservative-liberal duel on the topic of Sarah Palin. From the right wrote Matthew Continetti, a youngish opiner from the Weekly Standard. From the left wrote Ana Marie Cox, quite possibly the greatest blogger ever.

But I must say that it was Continetti who grabbed me this morning, right from the start of his piece. If ever there was a perfect lede, this was it:

Read More "Continetti and I: Devotees of Hans Robert Jauss" »

Tomorrow morning, the staff of the defunct Washington Blade will meet to launch a new publication that does pretty much what the Blade has done/did since 1969---cover gay Washington.

Read More "Blade Staff to Launch New Publication" »

Reports are coming in that the Washington Blade is closing effective this week. The source for the news is our sister paper, Creative Loafing Atlanta. City Desk has made several calls to the Blade but hasn't yet gotten through. More to come.

UPDATE, 11:46 A.M.: Queerty posts a nice wrapup on what went down. Seems that the Blade's publisher, Window Media, posted a note on the front door of its Atlanta offices saying, hey, we're done. It instructs employees to return on Nov. 18 to retrieve belongings and get the lowdown on "separation stipulations."

UPDATE, 12:55 P.M.: Politico's Michael Calderone reports that Blade staffers are already planning a new venture. Editor Kevin Naff tells him, "The Blade staff is united and ready to continue the paper's long-standing mission. The first meeting for our new venture is Tuesday and we welcome the community's input as we move forward."

photo by Darrow Montgomery

Marty Petty, the former publisher of the St. Petersburg Times and the Hartford Courant, was named this morning chief executive officer of the Creative Loafing chain of alt-weeklies.

Petty's hiring comes at a time of transition for the Creative Loafing papers. In late August, a bankruptcy proceeding forced an ownership change in the chain, taking it out of the hands of former owner Ben Eason and placing it with Atalaya Capital Management, a hedge fund that was Creative Loafing's primary creditor. To manage the newspapers, Atalaya hired a management team that Petty will oversee. The chain has papers in Washington, Chicago, Atlanta, Charlotte, Tampa, and Sarasota.

According to a company press release, Petty said, "I'm invigorated by the possibilities to deepen relationships with our readers and advertisers and expand our influence in our communities. The coverage areas which have differentiated and distinguished the alternative press historically may be more important than ever."

The retrocast this week celebrates the cessation of a wet spell that had us all waterlogged as of Friday night. And then, still: People are somehow surprised when we get temps into the high 60s and beyond in mid-November. People are like, Wow, this is warm for November. But for anyone who's been around here for longer than like two or three years, that statement is a pure confession of ignorance. If you have any weather memory at all, you'll know that such temperatures are not uncommon at all through November. Important point here: This is not a broadside against people who don't like the cold nor is it one of those Nordic superiority rants in which the person says, Oh, this ain't cold; you ain't seen cold till you....This is merely a riff about people's lame weather memory.
Read More "Weekend in Review" »

We won!

Read More "Washington Post Restores Old Weather Scheme" »

The Washington Times has historically placed a real low value on transparency. For years, the place ran corrections only at gunpoint. It was nearly impossible to get newsroom leaders on the line to defend their journalism, a task that often required going through a flak and then getting a "no comment."

Editor John Solomon changed a lot of that. Having taken over the newsroom in early 2008, he was not only easy to get on the phone, but he'd talk your ear off, evangelizing about this great new initiative or that one.

Yet he's not helping too much on the great unanswered question of this new round of weirdness at the Times.

Read More "Opacity Rules at Washington Times" »

The Washington Times is doing everything in its power to maintain its stranglehold on weirdest local publication. For starters, it fired top newspaper leaders on a Sunday night. Then, the next day, it fills its flagship facility on New York Avenue NE with security personnel and holds a quickie meeting with staff to not-explain what went down. The third floor of the building, where the execs hang out, is somehow closed for business.

And then there's the whole John Solomon angle. The outgoing, popular newsroom leader hasn't been seen since the putsch. The staff-wide meeting yesterday featured no mention of the guy who happens to top the masthead. Solomon isn't commenting and even people who consider him a close friend are reporting no contact with him.

One possible reason for Solomon's scarcity: He has lost his parking spot. According to Washington Times sources, the signs that reserved spaces for top company officials have been stripped away, including the one for Solomon.

So even if he did have plans to come back, where the hell is he going to park? At the Arboretum?