Warren Buffett has challenged Rupert Murdoch to tax return disclosure-off. Last week the Murdoch owned Wall Street Journal ran an editorial asking Buffet, the namesake of a proposed guideline that would ensure that those who make more than $1 million pay proportional tax rates, to make public his tax returns. “No doubt the millions of Americans who could end up paying more because of this claim would love to see the details,” they wrote, urging the Berkshire Hathaway CEO to consider the disclosure an “opportunity to educate the public” on “his secret of tax avoidance.”

With the momentous news that Osama bin Laden has been killed, Saturday’s White House Correspondents Dinner feels almost like an event from a bygone era. Still, for those of you who still remember the dinner, but have already seen President Obama‘s blistering Donald Trump routine, or Seth Meyers‘ dry-roasting of the media like so many [...]

Don’t feel bad for Cathie Black. The former Hearst executive may have been named to the position of New York City’s schools chancellor amid plaintive wails of “Huh?” from a mostly confused public, and her time in that position may have lasted approximately 13.5 minutes, but, hey. She tells Fortune magazine that she “feels fine.”

In an interview with FORTUNE, Conan O’Brien reveals that after his departure from NBC and The Tonight Show, the network was unhappy with the comedian’s sudden popularity on Twitter.

O’Brien tells FORTUNE‘s Douglas Warsaw that he recalls being told, “The network isn’t crazy about you tweeting. They’re not sure that’s cool.” O’Brien called their bluff: “Tell them I would be thrilled if they shut down my Twitter account. I’d love it if that got out. You think PR’s been bad up till now? Wait till you take away my Twitter account.”

Though Oprah Winfrey is currently filming the final season of her syndicated talk show (she tapes the last episode, which will air on September 9, 2011, next May), the Queen of All Media will not go gentle into any good night. Her new TV network, OWN, is launching on January 1, 2011—and in addition to having complete creative control over the channel, Winfrey has committed to appearing on OWN for 70 hours each year.

Soccer teams from countries all over the world have already gathered in South Africa to compete in the World Cup, but at the end of the month the country will play host to different types of national representatives, like heads of state and CEOs of the world’s biggest companies. Did someone say boondoggle?

Esquire, Fortune, Playboy, Vanity Fair, New York: End the War on Christmas Magazine Covers! Who knows, magazines might even increase those newsstand sell-through numbers that are all doing so terribly if they just get back into the holiday spirit. To make a case, we’ve collected the Top 20 Christmas Magazine Covers of All Time.

As the face of media evolves, it’s important to honor the figures who helped define, shape and set the standards in their industries. These are some of the most prominent members of the media who passed away over the past 10 years. Take a look back with some snippets from their respective New York Times obituaries.

It’s been widely reported that Time Inc. has been planning a rather significant round of lay-offs before the end of the year. The conventional wisdom around New York publishing circles was that the lay-offs would be coming after Thanksgiving. Unfortunately, that does not appear to be the case, as a Time Inc. spokesperson confirmed exclusively to Mediaite: “Yes, sadly there are layoffs today across a number of titles at Time Inc.

The NY Times reports today that Time Inc. is expected to announce next week that it will cut $100 million in costs and make significant layoffs, describing this as “another blow to what is becoming an increasingly grim industry.” Well, at least some attention is off of Conde Nast.

The pot aficionado’s handbook High Times has almost singlehandedly owned the marijuana magazine beat for going on 35 years now. But curiously, they’ve had a little bit of competition lately, with Harper’s, New York, and Fortune all running long-form cannabis articles. But how does the newfound mainstream approval feel for veterans of the field like High Times senior editor Bobby Black? He’s rolling in the green.

Grab the latest issue of New York or Fortune magazine, roll it up and smoke it — you might get high. This week, they’re full of weed. Both titles ran full-length features about marijuana, exploring the relationship between pot and the law in our country. Is the “Great Pot Moment” upon us? Well yes, at the newsstand at least.

The media loves one-year anniversaries, hundred-day anniversaries — any excuse to zoom in on the thing they’ve been covering all along. This week’s one-year anniversary of the financial crisis — a gold mine for business magazines! Or a call for gold spray paint, if you’re BusinessWeek.

Keith Kelly reported that John Huey, the Editorial Director of Time Inc had “assembled a high-level SWAT team of in-house and external experts to revamp Fortune. “Sound familiar? Its because he’s used the same team to re-design Entertainment Weekly and Money, with little to no impact. What’s going on at Time Inc.?

The A.I.G. Financial Products unit is to the global financial crisis what rickety levees were to Hurricane Katrina. But as Michael Lewis points out in his excellent article in the latest issue of Vanity Fair, F.P., as it’s called, used to be the envy of Wall Street. In 2001, the elite unit accounted for a [...]