Gawker

fashion blogs Should you be interested in such things (and, if so, God help you) WWD has an extensive rundown of the blogs that are covering Fashion Week. The slappers over at Jezebel get a look in, as do the rest of the usual suspects. (Also, we'll be doing our part at various parties throughout the week.) Not mentioned: Fashion Dish, the Daily News' big shot to get in on this heinous internet thing. [WWD]

dialing for no dollars "Very shortly after Rupert Murdoch bought the New York Post (the real New York Post), I was offered a job by the NY Daily News. My sports editor at the Post, Jerry Lisker, told Murdoch that he wanted to keep me. One quiet night at home the phone rang and it was Murdoch, letting me know that he had great plans for the Post and wanted to keep me on board. I mentioned that the News was offering me more money, and Murdoch kept saying he wanted to keep me on board. There was no hint of a few more dollars coming my way. I wonder if the WSJ staffers who picked up the phone heard the same line and did any better wallet-wise..." [Romenesko]

ALL IN THE FAMILY "[R]eporters for the Times Ledger, the Queens weekly that was purchased last fall by Rupert Murdoch, thought their editors were doing their corporate big brother the New York Post a favor. The reporters had located Matt Murphy, who caught Barry Bonds's 756th home run, through their high-school alumni Website and gotten the first interview with him, which the weekly posted on the Internet. But the Post didn't appreciate the tip. "The Post basically had a fit and demanded the story come down off the site," apparently to keep the Daily News from seeing it, says a source close to the weekly. The Times Ledger complied, and the Post published its own version later that night." That's just how they roll over at News Corp., kids: Wait until you start breaking the financial scoops. Straight to the Journal! [NYM]

switching off A gleeful Keith Kelly reports that the Daily News will let the contract of TV critic David Bianculli, a fourteen-year veteran of the paper, expire this fall. "'Everyone is horrified,' said a source familiar with the situation. 'I assume it is a money thing. They'll probably replace him with some blogger who sits around in his pajamas.'" Hey, Mort, we watch T.V. and sit around in our pajamas! Drop us a line! [NYP]

what is the deal with rain? Here's how our three metropolitan tabloids covered yesterday's weather events. (Click to enlarge.) Oh, Newsday, you're so cute! You're almost like a real newspaper!

Tabloid Wars We hear that Daily News editor in chief Martin Dunn has taken off for London and won't be back all month. Feeling super-secure in his job? Or looking for a new one? We don't know. We would like to! We know only enough to make innuendos.

ladies of and in the news We hear that Jo Piazza, late of Bauer's wretched and folded-before-opening Cocktail, is going back to her old home at the New York Daily News. That's crazy! Who goes back to places they quit? Oh right, this stupid industry. She'll be a features princess or something. We also hear she found out about Cocktail's death while on a cigarette break. Heh. Anyway, fellow Cocktail castoff Piper Weiss will also be rolling up to the Daily News. So much for that self-actualizing screenplay or book proposal or whatever she was talking about.

Tabloid Wars How crazy is it that Lloyd Grove, our favorite former gossip columnist at the New York Daily News, is on assignment for New York magazine to write about nutty New York Post editor Col Allan? So crazy! We hear the piece is at least a few weeks away, though he's been working on it for a while. One might assume the rationale for assigning the piece, despite any actual or theoretical conflict of interest, is that Lloyd would bring some sort of inside knowledge to the story. But if that were true, wouldn't he still have his job at the Daily News? Hi-o! Oh, just asking, Lloyd!