Romenesko

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Washington Post
"We are not a national news organization of record serving a general audience. Nor are we a wire service or cable channel," says Washington Post executive editor Marcus Brauchli, who is shutting his paper's Chicago, Los Angeles and New York bureaus. || Read his memo to staff.

San Francisco Chronicle release
The Chronicle will be the exclusive presenter in the Bay Area for the San Francisco Panorama, a 300-plus-page, single-edition newspaper published by Dave Eggers's McSweeney's. The paper comes out Dec. 8. || Previous Panorama coverage.

Wall Street Journal
Under a deal reached last week, Playboy will turn over all of its operations except the editorial ones to American Media Inc. The five-year partnership will help return the magazine to profitability by the end of 2011, says Playboy CEO Scott Flanders.

New York Observer
John Koblin reports Time Inc., Conde Nast and Hearst are expected to join the company, which will prepare magazines that can work across multiple digital platforms -- the iPhone and Blackberry included -- and sell the titles in an iTunes-like store. The deal isn't done, but if all goes according to plan, the company could be announced within weeks, reports Koblin.

Romenesko Memos
Copy messenger Ryan Checkeye writes in his farewell note to colleagues that "this has been, without question, the strangest job I've ever had. ...Callers have threatened suicide, questioned my patriotism, reported UFOs, accused me (and Matt Tully) of stealing their thoughts, and peppered me with ethnic slurs. I once found an 80-year-old Pulitzer medal in a box of trash ... I've received mail from a man who tried to murder Princess Anne of England 'as a joke,' letters about time travel, and bizarre artwork (Bin Laden and McCain jousting, now hanging on my wall)."

Romenesko Memos
Carl Kasell, 75, who has been on the air with NPR since 1975, will read his final newscast on Dec. 30. He'll continue to serve as official judge and scorekeeper on NPR's "Wait Wait ... Don't Tell Me!" program. "I'm just changing jobs," not disappearing, he says.

East Valley Tribune
The buyer wasn't identified. Freedom, which is operating under Chapter 11, will seek approval from the bankruptcy judge to complete the sale by the end of this year. "It's my understanding the intention is to continue to operate the newspaper and Web site," says East Valley Tribune publisher Julie Moreno.

New York Times
Andrew Corty says if he didn't sell to e.Republic, which offered the highest bid out of six contenders and whose top managers are Scientologists, he would have been accused of discrimination. "I felt I would have been criticized either way," says the Poynter-owned Times Publishing Co. veep. Of Governing's 27 employees, 12 were kept on, nine were let go immediately and six others were asked to stay on in transitional roles.