Cityfile: New York's Most Notable and Influential

• New Yorker editor-in-chief David Remnick has confirmed he's writing a book about "Barack Obama, race and politics in America." [Politico]
• David Shuster is the new host of MSNBC's 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. [NYT]
• Vogue was the most profitable magazine at Condé Nast this year. [P6]
• Crain Communications (AdAge, Crain's New York) is laying off 60. [NYP]
• The list of layoff victims at CNN grows longer: Jamie McIntyre, Kelli Arena, Linda Stouffer and Rusty Dornin are all on the way out. [TVN]
• The Day the Earth Stood Still was No. 1 at the weekend box office. [NYT]

♦  Michael Wolff's biography of Rupert Murdoch goes on sale tomorrow, as you probably know thanks to the torrent of coverage over the past couple of days. Among the juiciest bits: Murdoch despises Bill O'Reilly, his wife Wendi Deng occasionally reads his email, and he's fond of sleeping pills. [NYT, Gawker, Politico, NYO, Portfolio]
♦  The third quarter of 2008 was a punishing one for newspapers. Ad revenue plunged 18.11 percent, the steepest decline in four decades. [E&P]
♦  Tina Brown's pick for host of Meet the Press: Rachel Maddow. [TDB]
♦  Four Christmases was No. 1 at the box office over the weekend, racking up an estimated $31.7 million in ticket sales. [THR] More

♦  Time Inc. is slashing another 250 jobs. [NYP]
♦  CNN is spending a fortune on fancy-shmancy technology and new talent, but it's making a mint, too: The network is recording double-digit profit growth for the fifth straight year. [NYO]
♦  Dan Abrams is starting some sort of research firm/expert network/PR agency now that he's been replaced by Rachel Maddow at MSNBC. His first client is Ron Perelman. [NYT]
♦  60 Minutes has been the most-watched program in the nation for the last two weeks, believe it or not. [NYT]More

DVF Needs Your Help | CNN plans to air a documentary on Diane von Furstenberg the day after tomorrow. But it seems the network is having some trouble finding someone who owns one of her wrap dresses from 30 years ago to gush about it on camera: "If you own a wrap dress from the 1970s, write to CNN and tell them where and when you bought it, and what it means to you. Your quote or photo could then be featured on the show. Email revealed@cnn.com." [DVF]

♦  Michelle Obama may end up on the cover of Vogue in the next few months: "It's been a long-standing tradition to photograph the new first lady. So needless to say, we are very interested in working with Mrs. Obama." But Ebony may get there first. [WWD]
♦  Shares of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. plunged today following the company's announcement it's revising its 2009 forecast. [Bloomberg]
♦  New York television critic John Leonard has died. [Vulture]
♦  A round of layoffs have hit Hearst, although the exact numbers haven't been released. [Folio]More

♦  ABC appears to generated the highest ratings as the election results rolled in last night. NBC came in second and CNN ranked third. [TV Decoder]
♦  Time is rushing to produce a commemorative issue of the mag by the end of the week. [HuffPo]
♦  Both People and Us Weekly will feature Obama on the covers of the next issue.  [NYP]
♦  Can The Daily Show survive an Obama presidency? and how will other media outlets deal with the post-election dropoff? [Politico, AdAge]
♦  An explanation of that holography thingie on CNN last night. [YouTube]More

♦  Election returns may set TV viewing records tonight, assuming there's some "suspense." [AP]
♦  What's been on cable news channels all day? Mindless talk and speculation, for the most part. [TV Decoder]
♦  It's possible the networks will call the election before the polls close. [THR]
♦  Some of the high-tech wizardry in store tonight: CNN plans to feature 3D "holographic images" of the network's remote correspondents in its New York studio. [WSJ]
♦  More trouble for tabloid kingpin David Pecker: John Miller, AMI's chief operating officer, has resigned. [NYP]More

CNN election coverage through the years [via HuffPo]

♦  The battle over Project Runway rages on: Harvey Weinstein is now claiming that Bravo intentionally undermined the success of Season 5 by changing the show's airtime, running "mundane and unappealing" ads, and "revealing spoilers about future episodes." [THR]
♦  Barack Obama will appear on The Daily Show tomorrow night. [AP]
♦  The New York Times is not running out of money, say execs at the paper. [NYO]
♦  MSNBC moved into second place in the primetime cable news race, beating CNN for the month of October. [THR]More

♦  Campbell Brown is reportedly pregnant. [TVNewser]
♦  Arianna Huffington and Tina Brown aren't in competition. They're best friends! [NYT]
♦  The Robb Report is on the market. The price? "Upwards of $100 million." [Folio]
♦  NBC has exiled the struggling Lipstick Jungle to Friday nights. [Variety]
♦  CNN's new (and appallingly unfunny) political humor show starring D.L. Hughley debuted this past weekend. [NYT] More

♦  The Rachel Maddow publicity machine rolls on (not that we mind, of course): According to today's Times, she's a "fresh face," MSNBC execs adore her, and her show's ratings have defied all expectations. [NYT]
♦  For reasons we will never understand, Fox & Friends is now more popular than CNN's American Morning and MSNBC's Morning Joe combined. [LAT]
♦  Sarah Palin will sit down with Brian Williams tomorrow. [TVNewser]
More

You know Rick Sanchez, don't you? He's the CNN personality who once locked himself in a car that was sinking underwater so he could show viewers how to escape, and even had a Florida state trooper taser him for another segment so he could recount the sensation of having 50,000 volts of electricity coursing through your body. Sanchez has been inescapable on CNN as of late: he anchored much of the daytime coverage on the cable network during the financial meltdown last week. But he's just as kooky as ever! After the jump, a clip of Sanchez's greatest hits compiled by the folks at 23/6.More

♦  Not only is Rachel Maddow more popular than Keith Olbermann, she's now ahead of CNN's Larry King, too. [HuffPo]
♦  Sunday night's Emmy Awards generated the lowest ratings in history. [THR]
♦  MTV missed out on its chance to buy MySpace, but they have no plans to give up on their sixth-tier social network, Flux. [AdAge]
♦  Life magazine is back. For the third time. Time Inc. and Getty Images will use life.com to offer up "free, downloadable photos from world-renowned photographers." [NYP]
♦  Jeffrey Toobin, who says he "owes his TV career to [O.J.] Simpson," has no interest in covering him again, thank you very much. [TV Newser]
♦  Starbucks and ad agency Wieden & Kennedy are parting ways. [AdAge]
♦  Kanye West is teaming up with Comedy Central on a new series described as "hip-hop meets the Muppets." [THR]
♦  The Times recaps the service held on Monday night in memory of Clay Felker, the founding editor of New York magazine who died on July 1. [NYT]

More Amusing Than Hearing About Another Bankruptcy! | The Daily News sent a Sarah Palin look-alike to hit the streets (with a camera crew right behind her, naturally). CNN's Jeanne Moos spent yesterday roaming around town with Barack Obama and John McCain masks. Did they move Halloween up a month or something? [Gawker, Mollygood]

Call on Me, Please! | Mort Zuckerman just appeared on CNN a few moments ago to discuss the meltdown on Wall Street and the Fed's decision to keep the interest rate unchanged. Anchor Rick Sanchez then proceeded to thank Mort for calling in and volunteering to appear on the air. Self-promotion: It's not just for Julia Allison!