Gawker is losing one of it’s longest tenured writers, as Alex Pareene announced yesterday afternoon, after it was posted by John Koblin at the New York Observer, that he was leaving Nick Denton’s employ for Slate’s “War Room” blog. This is just the latest in a recent succession of departures from the influential blog, and has been raising questions about what’s going on at their Nolita offices.

Is this the man being prepped at Bill Keller’s heir at the New York Times? It certainly sounds that way. The Observer‘s John Koblin (also, of the newly relaunched Media Mob!) certainly seems to conclude as much.

The evil pace of the Internet is apparently driving writers to plagiarize. Yesterday, New York Times business reporter Zachery Kouwe resigned from the New York Times after it was revealed his posts contained passages lifted from the WSJ. Intentional or just word exhaustion?

It looks like the long-rumored, much-chattered about New York Times ‘bombshell’ story about Gov. David Paterson may end not with a bang but a whimper. The fact the damaging rumors even began in the first place is all Twitter’s fault. Or so say some disgruntled media folks.

Wow. Well welcome to the new, new journalism where even the New York Times editorial board is forced to go meta. Seriously meta. Apparently, the rumors about a Paterson, fueled in equal parts by the blogosphere and the venerable New York City tabloids, got so out of hand the Times felt they had to push back in a editorial blog post. They went straight to the source.

On Friday gossip was flying around New York media (and one imagines political) circles that the New York Times was working on some sort of bombshell story that was going to be so shocking that Paterson would be forced to resign! Apparently nothing that shocking exists.

Apparently the New York Times is working on some big shocking story about Gov. David Paterson‘s sex life. All things considered, namely what we already know about Paterson, the low expectations even the most starry-eyed among us must at this point have for anything having to do with Albany, and the general state of the personal lives of our politcos at the moment, one shudders at the thought of what currently qualifies as shocking.

Yesterday, we noticed that the New York Times profile of a shifting, and possibly floundering, Harper’s magazine focused on the increasingly second-guessed moves of publisher Rick MacArthur. Tuesday, in a follow-up by the Observer‘s John Koblin, Harper’s staffers are called “queasy” about MacArthur’s “increased visibility in their lives.” Not exactly a vote of confidence in a time of turmoil.

Condé Nast is considering new and different ways to monetize their “most iconic brands,” John Koblin reports in today’s New York Observer. He even quotes a Condé Nast insider, who reportedly sniffed “do we need Vogue handbags? Gourmet kitchen mitts?” Well, no — though mostly because Gourmet is no longer an “iconic brand” at Condé.

From New York Times executive editor Bill Keller’s 2008 letter to the George Polk committee. It was this letter that WSJ managing editor Robert Thomson was referring to when he accused Keller of “casting aspersions” on the Journal. Hmm.

News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch is planning to introduce a New York city edition of the Wall Street Journal, and is reportedly going “all in” to do it. John Koblin reports for the NY Observer that he is “ready to roll out a budget of $15 Million,” in an effort to compete directly with the NY Times.

At some point the New York daily tabloids are going to become a luxury instead of a necessity. That day has apparently arrived at the New York Times Metro Desk. The NYO is reporting that the Metro Desk has been informed that, as of today, if you want the paper you now gots to pay for it.

Everyone who’s paying attention knows that Condé Nast is in trouble. But given how little substantiation there has been as to the scope of that trouble, there’s been quite a lot of writing about it, often taking on tut-tutting moralistic tones. Why do media watchers so love to pile on Condé?

In some ways the story of McKinsey evaluations at Condé Nast is the perfect story. All summer long it’s been like watching a train wreck in the best way: We know the end is going to be gruesome, but we’re waiting with bated breath to see just how just how gruesome, just how far the blood will splatter, just how deep editorial budgets will be cut. With the end in sight, the latest round of odds-making and gossip-mongering.

After three months, NYO’s John Koblin points out that Bonnie Siegler’s redesign of Newsweek has yet to start flying off the newsstand. While the new look has not been without its critics, it is too soon to call the new look a failure, especially if such an indictment is based on newsstand the numbers.