• 2009: Fear of Doing it Wrong
  
  
• A Tipping Point in Corporate Talent Strategies
  
  
• Ogilvy PR Adds Two VPs in New York
  
  

Whether you're thankful to be employed or happy for a chance at reinvention, tomorrow and Friday are days well earned for all of us this year.

2009 hasn't been easy for many, we'll be honest. But here's another thing to be thankful for: The year's almost over. Phew!

Enjoy your turkey (or turducken) tomorrow and don't burn your house down with a deep-fryer.

The New York Public Library seeks a manager of public relations. If you have 7+ years in journalism or PR, at least 2 years of managerial experience, social media chops, and more, you too could hang out with the stone lions all day.

Shape.com seeks a project manager.

Euro RSCG is seeking freelancers to work on media placement and account handling.

Tavares, Fl., seeks a public communications coordinator.

The Management Sciences For Health organization seeks a senior writer to work on proposals.

The American College needs an interactive designer.

The St. Ignace News seeks a reporter.

Lonely Planet is still seeking a head of television.

Work in Hawaii! The West Hawaii Today newspaper needs a sports page designer.

We asked y'all to take the Primary Color Test in order to win a copy of The Leap. Before we announce the winner—chosen randomly from the test-takers—here's how you all stacked up:

Many of you were "Razzle Dazzle Rose" colors (somebody must really like Crayola): that means you're "comfortable in the world of ideas and innovation" but can also "be an effective organizer who can get things done."

Many of you also found out you were "Chocolate Moose" colored: you're "viewed as extremely dependable and have a complete, realistic and practical respect for the facts. Logic and analysis tend to be hallmarks of this color. While you eagerly solicit others opinions, you are likely to be known as the "idea" person."

And MJD readers are also overwhelmingly Atomic Tangerine, or the Inquisitive Executor.

You can still take the test if you're curious about your own personality "color", but our contest is over.

The winner, by the way? Reader Jenny Sharpe. She'll be getting her copy of "The Leap" in the mail in the next week or so. Congrats, Jenny!

Fortune suffered another round of layoffs yesterday, bringing the total number of staffers axed from that publication to 30, Keith Kelly reports.

Among those let go yesterday were two writers, Suzanne Kapner and Telis Demos, and three assistant managing editors: Eric Gellman, John Brodie and Brian Dumanie.

InStyle Weddings was shuttered yesterday, causing nine to lose their jobs, and, according to Kelly, three employees from Sports Illustrated were also ousted. Also at the sports mag, seven edit staffers volunteered for buyouts, bringing the total number of people downsized from Time Inc. yesterday to 24.

Weekly jobless claims dropped to 466,000 for the week of Nov. 21, according to figures from the Department of Labor, the first time since January claims have hit under the 500,000 mark. The four-week average was 496,500.

This is a "nice milestone, but practically meaningless," according to Mark Gongloff at the WSJ.

Why? Because that number is still far too high. Weekly claims should be solidly under 400,000 to lower unemployment.

Job growth typically begins happening when weekly claims average 350k-400k—there're always, even in a healthy economy, a large number of weekly claims because of employment churn.

So yes, great milestone, but no growth yet.

The newsroom employees of the Detroit Free Press will take five unpaid days in 2010 in exchange for no job cuts through March. Without the furlough, which was accepted by the Detroit Newspaper Guild on Sunday, there would have been immediate layoffs, Editor & Publisher reports.

Editor and publisher Paul Anger as well as non-newsroom management will also participate in the furlough, a fact that some say helped the vote go forward.

Execs at MediaNews and A.H. Belo said that they may pull their content from Google, joining Rupert Murdoch's News Corp in flirting with the idea.

MediaNews, the company that owns the Denver Post, the San Jose Mercury News, and many other dailies and weeklies, has been talking about paid content since forever (CEO Dean Singleton is also chairman of the AP) but making one's paid content invisible to the biggest search engine takes cojones to say the least.

A.H. Belo, according to PaidContent, is being more cautious: "EVP James Moroney says his company...hasn't made any decisions yet, [but] is considering instituting pay walls at some of its newspapers websites, and the article suggests that such a move could coincide with delisting the paper's content from Google News."

We've talked about the walled garden ad infinitum, so won't bore you with a long explanation of why this will or won't work. Murdoch is betting that the subscription revenue from his loyal readers (as well as the cash Bing may end up paying for News Corp's Google invisibility) is worth more than the ad revenue from fly-by readers. It's worked reasonably well with financial news (FT.com, WSJ.com except for the "leaky wall") but will it work with daily, commoditized news? Your thoughts?

• Time Inc. Shutters InStyle Weddings (via FishBowlNY)
  
  
• Cue Ryan Seacrest. WaPo Announces "America's Next Great Pundit" Winner (via FishBowlDC)
  
  
• Breaking: More Layoffs At Time Inc. (via FishBowlNY)
  
  
• AOL Spotted Hiring J-School Grads (via Silicon Alley Insider)
  
  
• Two Video Journos Out at WaPo.com (via FishBowlDC)
  
  

The Washington Post will close three of its news bureaus—in New York, Chicago, and LA as part of a cost-saving measure, the City Paper reports, effective Dec. 31.

The reporters in those bureaus are being offered jobs at Post HQ, according to a memo from Post management.

However, the three news aides in those bureaus, "who have been dedicated colleagues and are friends of many here, will be let go."

"At a time of limited resources and increased competitive pressure, it's necessary to concentrate our journalistic firepower on our central mission of covering Washington and the news, trends and ideas that shape both the region and the country's politics, policies and government," the memo, in part, read.

A new survey reveals that while almost one in seven workers found their work talent through work, only a third discovered what they were good at in the classroom, putting more importance than ever on the need for on-the-job learning opportunities.

British independent education foundation Edge surveyed over two thousand British adults, but the results are "probably a good indicator of how many U.S. workers find their professional niche as well," HRE Online reports.

Granted, Britain's "tracked" learning system may make this research more valuable over there, but knowing that careers evolve in strange ways is valuable to anyone, jobseeker or recruiter, we believe. In other words, how many of you are working in a field directly related to your degree? How many of you "fell into" your careers?

Steve Colvin, former CEO of the U.S. arm of Dennis Publishing (overseeing Blender, Maxim, and Stuff), is moving to The Daily Beast to serve as its president.
SAI wonders: "We find the move a little bizarre, since The Daily Beast already has a general manager, Caroline Marks. Who needs a GM and a President?"

Christine Delargy, one half of the team that brings you FishbowlDC every day, is taking a promotion at CBS, her full-time gig. The fishy spot will be filled by Betsy Rothstein. Full deets at FishbowlDC.

Time Inc. EVP John Squires is leaving to launch an "iTunes for magazines" that will sell digital versions of The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Vogue, Time, People, Sports Illustrated, Esquire and O, The Oprah Magazine, and more. Squires' gig is reported to be temporary only.

AOL (er, Aol) web designers in Dulles, Va., about 10-12 people, will be moving on (involuntarily) by the end of Q1 2010, as the company prepares itself for transformation into a lean new media business.

Brent Bolthouse and Jenifer Rosero have been named publishers of 944 Magazine Los Angeles.