Richard Smith will be stepping down from his role as the most powerful man at Newsweek.

The editor-in-chief and chief executive is leaving pursue his charity work; he’ll keep his title as chairman of the magazine.

Newsweek exec Ann McDaniel will become managing director. In the role, she'll handle the business and editorial sides of the magazine, which could get awkward if Newsweek ever runs an investigation on big Pharma. Thomas Ascheim, former G.M. of Nickelodeon Television, will replace Smith as chief executive. No new E.I.C. will be named, which makes Jon Meacham, editor of Newsweek, the top guy.

Word around the Newsweek office is that “he was extremely tall and knew everyone's name” and made a lot of good toasts, which is the most you can hope for in a leader.

The crash test pilot, who killed 11 people in the 2004 Staten Island ferry crash, Richard Smith, was sentenced to 18 months in prison. The former ferry director, Patrick Ryan, was also sentenced, and is being sent to prison for a year and one day. (Is the extra day really neccessary?)

Now, we're waiting to hear weather or not the city is going to be sued. The good news is, we have a full year to try and get more tourists back to the city, so they can shovel money into the economy to pay for our stupidity. Which of course includes taking the SIF to the Statue of Liberty.

S.I. ferry pilot, director get prison [Anthony M. DeStefano, Newsday]