Remember the turn of the millennium 10 years ago, when people were excitedly debating what everyone would call the new decade? Well, the debate never ended. Now, The Washington Post notes, the decade is almost over and none of the handful of nicknames the period acquired—the Aughts, the 00s, or even the Naughties—have stuck. Of course, whether it’s such a bad thing is an open question. “People think if we don’t have anything to call the decade, that maybe we will forget it, that it will be some kind of orphan decade, that it won’t exist,” linguist Dennis Barron told the Post. “But it’s simply not true.” (The Washington Post)

Anyone can see that the media is in serious trouble, but as magazines shrink and fold, The New Yorker has remained consistent, having changed little over the last five years. The magazine was even spared layoffs as its parent company cut hundreds of jobs and folded a handful of titles over the last few weeks. The New York Observer has decoded the secret to the magazine’s success—its mammoth staff of 215. Editor David Remnick explained: “If The New Yorker is going to be worthy of the name and achieve a level of prose or accuracy or depth, or if it’s going to give the reporters or writers the time they need to achieve what I hope we can achieve, we can’t do it with a minuscule staff.”

The administration has released a list of 500 people who have stepped foot inside 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue since Obama’s inauguration. Pundits jumped when a “William Ayers” showed up among the guests, but it turns out Ayers is among a group of the list’s “false positives”—visitors with famous names who are actually someone else, including Michael Jordan, Jeremiah Wright, and R. Kelly. The release of the list of visitors feels tame after this week’s investigation that named political donors who have gotten access to Obama and the White House grounds. Powerful lobbyists, big-time Democratic fundraiser George Soros, and Oprah Winfrey were all revealed to be among the White House’s visitors between January and July. A Freedom of Information Act request from news and ethics organizations prompted the list’s release. The administration started collecting names earlier this year and will be releasing them every 90 days, signaling a new age of transparency—though some names are still kept under wraps according to the limited exceptions clause.  (Talking Points Memo)

In what appears to be a replay of last year, The New York Times will again be cutting 100 newsroom positions by the end of the year. Executive Editor Bill Keller broke the news to staff today. The paper is offering voluntary buyouts to all staff effective Thursday. If they don’t reach critical mass, management will be forced to resort to layoffs. “I hope that won’t happen, but it might,” Keller wrote. Budget cuts are also imminent for the editorial, op-ed, and business staff. The paper was already surviving on slimmed-down production costs, and staff had been dealt a mandatory 5 percent pay cut earlier in the year. Today’s blow, Keller admits, has come sooner than expected. Despite the cuts, The New York Times will still remain the largest newsroom in the country. But who knows how much of the storm its journalists can weather. “Like you,” Keller wrote, “I yearn for the day when we can do our jobs without looking over our shoulders for economic thunderstorms.” (Reuters)