Cityfile: New York's Most Notable and Influential

• It's been two years since Ben Silverman became co-chairman of NBC Entertainment. And what a two years it's been, huh? [LAT]
• The largest union at the Boston Globe will vote on a new contract on July 20, even though it's yet to iron out a deal with the New York Times Co. [BG]
• Reader's Digest's plan to remain relevant: It's going to become even more conservative and old-fashioned, and embrace religion and stuff. [NYT]
• How are some newspaper reporters dealing with unemployment? They're turning to careers as go-kart racers. Just as you suspected. [Fortune]More

• Portfolio isn't over and done with, after all: An affiliate of Condé Nast—based in Charlotte, weirdly—plans to revive the magazine's website. [NYO]
• Josh Marshall has accepted Maureen Dowd's apology for swiping some of his copy; and Dowd's new column today is Marshall-free, thankfully. [TPM, NYT]
• Upfronts 2009: What the CW and CBS have in store for the fall. [THR, THR]
• Is Jann Wenner looking to poach Condé Nast honcho David Carey? [NYM]
• Times executive editor Bill Keller says Google is the paper's "frenemy." [NYO]
• CNBC's Jeff Macke had a meltdown on the air yesterday. [Gawker]  More

• Tense negotiations over proposed budget cuts continue between the New York Times Co. and unions that represent workers at the Boston Globe; in the meantime, the Times has postponed plans to shut down the paper. [NYT, WSJ]
• Another way the Times is planning to rake in some much needed cash: It may raise newsstand prices as early as this week. [FT]
• NBC announced several shows that it plans to add to primetime. One show noticeably missing from the lineup: Law and Order. [Variety, NYT]
• Ex-Portfolio publisher William Li has landed at Condé Nast Traveler. [NYO]
• A positive aspect to the cuts at Conde Nast? Media buyers "say that publishers and salespeople are becoming easier to work with. [Crain's]
• Wolverine grossed a whopping $87 million at the box office. [Variety] More

• Esquire, The New Yorker, Backpacker, and Wired were all big winners at last night's National Magazine Awards, although the mood was much more subdued this year, not surprisingly. [ NYT, WWD, NYP]
• Portfolio's Joanne Lipman reflects on what went wrong. [Newsweek]
• Hollywood might be on track for its best year ever at the box office. [WSJ]
• A roundup of the winners at the Tribeca Film Festival. [NYT, THR]
• White House Social Secretary Desirée Rogers appears on the cover of the new issue of WSJ. The idea of having her pose in an Oscar de la Renta gown in the First Lady's garden was vetoed by the powers-that-be, wisely. [WWD]More

• William Morris and Endeavor have agreed to merge the two agencies. The new company will be called William Morris Endeavor Entertainment, or WME, which should not be confused with WWE, or World Wrestling Entertainment, although the testosterone and aggression levels are comparable. [WSJ, NYT]
• Is the New York Times Co. putting the radio station WQXR up for sale? [P6]
• David Hunke, who had been publisher of the Detroit Free Press, is the new president and publisher of USA Today. [PaidContent]
• The New York Sun is back! Sort of. [NYSun via Gawker]
• More coverage/ analysis of Portfolio's closing, if you're up for it. [NYT, TDB] More

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• More on the decision by Condé Nast to shut down Portfolio. [NYO, Gawker]
• Newspaper circulation figures for the past six months show steep declines at most major papers, including the Times, Post, and Daily News. One bright spot: the Wall Street Journal, which experienced a tiny, 0.6% gain. [E&P]
• Phil Falcone's Harbinger, the hedge fund that battled for a piece of the New York Times Co. last year, may now be looking to unload its stake. [WSJ]
• CNN has fallen behind MSNBC and Fox News, as you may have heard. [NYT]
• PRWeek is going monthly. But it'll still be called PRWeek, so you know. [NYT]
• Obsessed starring Beyonce was No. 1 at the box office this weekend. [THR]More

Portfolio Folds | WWD confirms the news that Condé Nast is folding Portfolio. The magazine's May issue will be its last. [WWD]

• The New York Times Company reported a first-quarter loss of $74.5 million today, as advertising revenue plunged by more than 28 percent. [NYT]
• Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia's Wenda Harris Millard is stepping down as the company's co-CEO and president. [Crain's]
• One magazine that hasn't been crippled by the recession: Hearst's Food Network Magazine, which is now ramping up circulation. [AdAge]
• What's former Condé Nast star James Truman up to these days? Among other things, he's working on the in-room magazine for Ritz-Carlton. [Portfolio]
• Washingtonian magazine has a shirtless pic of Obama on the cover. [WM]More

• You can rest easier now: Now that he's no longer planning to run for Senate, Chris Matthews has signed a new four-year contract with MSNBC. [NYT]
• Howard Dean has signed on to be a CNBC contributor. [HP]
• Major media companies are now looking for a bailout. From Google. [AdAge]
• Jay Leno's chat with Obama was his fourth most-watched show ever. [LAT]
• Some perks may be curtailed at Condé Nast. Like the one that allowed Portfolio editor Joanne Lipman to fly to Davos first-class, possibly. [NYP]
• Advance Publications is instituting mandatory 10-day furloughs and a pension freeze at nearly all of its daily papers, says Steve Newhouse. [E&P]
• Time publisher Don Fries is headed out the door. [NYP]
• NBC is very good at spinning the Times, in case you haven't noticed. [CJR]
• Knowing starring Nic Cage was No. 1 at the box office this weekend. [NYDN]

• Further evidence CNN's Jon Klein should start polishing his resume: The network continues to trail Fox News, MSNBC, and Headline News. [Portfolio]
• Obama's performance on The Tonight Show will keep people talking for awhile (and not in a good way, clearly), but the ratings were huge. [Time, THR]
• The April issue of Portfolio is the slimmest in Condé Nast's history. [NYP]
• Charla Lawhon is stepping down as managing editor of In Style. [WWD]
• Your prayers have been answered: VH1 is reviving Behind the Music. [NYP]
• Bob Pittman says the ad industry should get a bailout, too. [Fortune]
• Fox News's Greta Van Susteren is denying her husband is a paid adviser to Sarah Palin, but she admits that he gives her advice and "helps" her. [HP]
• SpiralFrog, the glitzy music site that launched in 2006, has gone bust. [PC]
• Broadway dimmed the lights last night in honor of Natasha Richardson. [THR]

• Jon Stewart's smackdown of Jim Cramer last week generated some of the biggest ratings The Daily Show has ever seen, not surprisingly. [MediaPost]
• Portfolio editor Joanne Lipman has once again defied logic (and some of her Condé colleagues) by putting Sarah Palin on the cover of the new issue. [WWD]
• Condé Nast is expected to trim Richard Beckman's ad sales group. [AdAge]
• Liberal activists have launched a petition drive targeted at CNBC. [AP]
• ICM's Esther Newberg has sold a memoir by Paul Allen to Penguin. [Crains]
• More on Eric Siminoff's split from Lynn Nesbit and Mort Janklow. [NYO]
• Mel Karmazin sounds off on his fight to redeem Sirius and his rep. [Fortune]
• Ratings for Donald Trump's Celebrity Apprentice continue to slide. [AdAge]
• 60 Minutes is the "hottest show on TV." Who knew? [Newsweek]

Portfolio Goes from Bad to Worse | Condé Nast is "having the worst year of any publisher," or so a "rival executive" tells Keith Kelly today. The facts pretty much speak for themselves, though: While there's been a 24 percent drop-off in ad pages industry-wide, the Joanne Lipman-edited trainwreck otherwise known as Portfolio is down 60 percent, and Wired has seen its ad pages plummet 57 percent. Any good news? Why, yes, there most certainly is. Golf World is doing quite nicely these days, you'll be happy to hear. [NYP]

• Katie Couric is still in third place, but her ratings are up considerably. [AP]
• CBS is the only network that has seen viewership rise this season. [Reuters]
• Portfolio's attempt to juice sales with a new cover strategy was a dud. [NYO]
• Ad revenue at the NYT fell 20% last month compared to a year ago. [AP]
• The Times has teamed with Riverhead to publish Obama: The Historic Journey, a book of with photos and essays, in February 2009. [Politico]