Perpetually troubled New York fag rag HX made some staff changes yesterday. And there are more in the works, according to a reader: "This week, HX Media Creative Director Matt Farris, who just returned to the company last year after a seven year absence, was laid off. In addition, The New York Blade will be appearing only every other week, so editor in chief Trenton Straube was reduced to half time. The head bookkeeper’s hours were also reduced and ad salespeople were recently told that there base salaries were being taken away, leaving them to exist on commissions. Spin-off rag HX Phildelphia [sic] will be shuttered shortly. Rumors also have that some staff members are not being paid consistently."

• Village Voice editor Don Forst is resigning from his post, effective Dec. 31. Nice ouster, New Times. [Gawker]
• Speaking of indie mergers, we seem to have missed the New York Blade getting together with HX. Gay marriage, at last. [NY Blade]
• To save Bryant Park from miscreants, the city formed the nonprofit Bryant Park Resotration Corporation. Funny, then, that the place is now being run like a business. [NYT]
• In-flight magazines are not, as it turns out, merely glorified sky malls. But they are in danger of going down without landing gear. [Mediabistro]
• Somehow, Simon Dumenco continues getting paid for screaming at his TV. [AdAge]
• Thanks to designers willing to let socialites borrow party dresses, the B-list never has to wear the same thing twice. [NYT]
• With the creation of "verified" circulation, magazine publishers receive the affirmation they've been looking for: to grotesquely inflate their readership numbers. [Folio]
• With ex-WWD scribe and alleged Halloween rapist Peter Braunstein being spotted throughout Ohio, all those sightings in NYC (like that Brooklyn cafe) are being labeled wishful thinking. [NYDN]

