Remember Debra Birnbaum, the editor of Life & Style who, as we were the first to tell you, was ousted by Bauer head Hubert Boehle in November '06, only to be replaced by Mark Pasetsky, who got himself the ax less than a year later?

In June of last year, she headed to TV Guide as the executive editor. TV Guide, if you're unfamiliar, is a magazine your mother used to keep on the coffee table so she knew what time her stories were on. Today, it's a magazine that's seen readership dwindle and is basically a commodity in the $2.3 billion sale of parent Gemstar to Macrovision, which only wanted Gemstar's video programming technology; the sale, of course, also saw top editors EIC Ian Birch, managing editor Lois Draegin, and exec ed Steve Sonsky leave the building.

Getting to the point: Now we're hearing rumors that Birnbaum is taking over as editor of the magazine. Mediaweek is hearing those same rumblings but notes "the title's long-term future is up in question," since Macrovision isn't expected to hold on to the magazine for very long. Which means Birnbaum assuming the top spot now could be trouble down the road. Or a brilliant career move. It's so hard to tell with these things!

Update: It's confirmed: Birnbaum is the new EIC.

It's called TV Guide, and its parent Gemstar is worth $2.2 billion. Selling it off might make room on the balance sheet for Dow Jones, eh?

• Time Inc. looks to slice another 150 jobs, and not even People will be spared.

• Ousted Life & Style editor Debra Birnbaum lands at Gemstar-TV Guide in a gig that will let her tell them all the things they're doing wrong.

• Mort Zuckerman kindly asks The New Yorker not to write about him. David Remnick kindly denies request.

• If it's not overblown meth epidemics, it's other assinine drug stories Jack Shafer is pinning journos for.

• Judge freezes O.J. Simpson's If I Did It cash that was funneled to shell organization. Onlookers bewildered at paltry sum O.J. was actually paid.

• Rupert Murdoch's hat throne in ring for Tribune assets.

• Crack and meth addicts, along with alcoholics, may actually perform better than non-users in the workplace. [Under The Counter]

• The Wall Street Journal's list of influential blogs, alas, doesn't include this website. But at least we get to complain about white male Jews unable to break through the glass ceiling. [WSJ]

• Maybe Peter Braunstein has more in common with the rest of us than we thought. His marriage to the love of his life ended in shambles, Just Like Us! [NYP]

• We stopped TiVoing Tyra Bank's chatfest weeks ago, but we're definitely tuning in on Friday for her televised confrontation with Naomi Campbell. [People]

• The Firm is none too happy with Orlando Bloom, claiming he stiffed them on $600,000 in fees from the sequels to Pirates of the Caribbean, along with Elizabethtown and Kingdom of Heaven. [TMZ]

• What do you think tipped off Inside TV staffers that something was amiss? Perhaps Gemstar CEO John Loughlin's split for Hearst. Maybe? Yes? [FWD]

So it turns out that Us Weekly's Sarah Piper was just a .. custodian? Gemstar had brought her on this month to turn around Inside TV, the TV Guide spin-off who's embarrassing entry into celebrity weeklies makes In Touch look successful.

But now the publisher – so busy concentrating on how to fill a magazine that doesn't include grids – has pulled the curtains on the struggling glossy, with Thursday's issue being its last. As if you needed another excuse to read Star instead.

Gemstar to stop publishing Inside TV [Business Week]
Related: Celebrity saturation? We must go on, can't go on, must go on!

Aw, a magazine is struggling to survive? That just breaks our little hearts — sort of the way Tyra Banks will when she walks the catwalk for the last time tonight at Victoria's Secret.

But knowing that it's a celebrity rag that's on its last legs? Well that's just soul shattering. But such is life for Inside TV, the TV Guide spin off from Gemstar that was late to the game and is suffering for it.

They've brought on Sarah Pyper of Us Weekly fame (that's without the fortune) to revamp the title so it can seriously compete with the likes of Star and, well, Us Weekly.

Sources said the new Inside TV likely would incorporate more celebrity-inspired fashion, shopping and relationship editorial and less tabloid-style news and gossip. If so, that would be consistent with a growing consensus among weekly editors that the gossip market is unsustainably overcrowded.

Uh huh, uh huh — and just when was this growing consensus reached? Just because Jann Wenner's a pussy and didn't want to launch a cheaper Us Weekly doesn't mean there's not enough Jessica Simpson to go around.

Switching Channels [Memo Pad]
Related: Media Blitz