Unfortunately, Office Pirates will be closing shop as of today. We'd like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who wasted a bit of time on the corporate dime with us. Our internal reporting shows that we will have served up 11.5 million page views over the month of August. At one year spent on each page, that's 27,000,000 years of man hours (metric) wasted at work!

What's to become of the Office Pirates staff? You can look us up any time you want. We'll be at Buffalo Road. Third booth along the back wall...

Four cast members are about to be fired - they know who they are, but the public doesn't.

Two others - including the undisputed star of "SNL," Tina Fey - are gone.

Auditions are about to begin for the signature spot on the show, anchor of the snarky "Weekend Update."

And because there will be two new shows that use "SNL" as their back drop - Aaron Sorkin's "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" and Fey's "30 Rock" - the late-night comedy show will be attracting more attention than it has in years.

The Digital Photography Weblog is retiring. This is a sad development (heh -- see what I did there?) for loyal readers, but fits right in with the evolution of Weblogs Inc. This blog will remain archived for reference and searching. Also, readers might enjoy other blogs in the Weblogs, Inc. network, including Engadget and Download Squad.

The findings will be released just days after Emap, the media group, closed Sneak, the teenage celebrity gossip magazine, conceding that teenagers were now getting their showbiz news on the internet. Smash Hits magazine was also closed by Emap six months ago after 30 years in business.

Emap sources said that Bliss, another of the company's teenage lifestyle titles, would show a significant fall in circulation in next week's ABC figures. It is understood that Hachette's Sugar and Natmag's CosmoGirl will also show declines.

However, industry sources said that niche teenage titles such as Kerrang!, Emap's rock music magazine, were faring better. It is understood that Kerrang! will post record ABC figures next week.

An Emap spokeswoman said: "The rise of citizen journalism has meant that the likes of MySpace and Bebo [the social networking websites] are doing the job traditionally done by teenage lifestyle magazines."

As first reported by Jossip, four staff members at popular lad-mag Maxim were laid off this morning. A source inside the magazine said that senior associate editor John Devore and associate editor Steve Mazzucchi have been let go, as well as production editor Andrij Witiuk and fact-checker Bartley Morrisoe.

A source inside Maxim said that the turnover had "nothing to do" with the recent hiring of erstwhile gossip maven Chris Wilson, though the magazine will have to match Wilson's current salary, rumored among industry insiders to be in the $70,000 range, not to mention perks (such as fully-subsidized weekend getaways).

The company has roughly 4,700 local workers and 19,000 worldwide.

A source familiar with the layoffs says "hundreds, not thousands" of employees in Northern Virginia are expected to be let go.

AOL officials declined to comment publicly on how many local workers would be affected.

"At a company meeting [Thursday] morning, [CEO] Jon Miller told AOL's worldwide work force of 19,000 people that within the next six months, it is likely that around 5,000 employees will no longer be with the company," says Tricia Primrose Wallace, the company's vice president of corporate communications.

Ann Moore and John Huey, president and editor-in-chief, announced the changes in a memo to staff on Tuesday in which they pledged to invest in TeenPeople.com, citing its growth and promise.

Time Inc. is the world's largest magazine publisher, and has earned a legendary representation as a consistent generator of cash for Time Warner. Yet it is now struggling to retain readers and advertisers in the internet era, something that has raised concern among senior management.

Some of its biggest titles, including Sports Illustrated and Fortune, last year suffered double-digit declines in advertising. As a result, the division has been trying to reinvent them on the internet while also experimenting with new, web-only publications, such as Office Pirates, a humor site.

The latest move is expected to affect 50 jobs, although Ms Moore and Mr Huey said that they would try to relocate as many as possible within Time Inc. Amid complaints from shareholders, Time Inc has already undertaken three rounds of layoffs since December that have eliminated 450 jobs.

Entertainment giant Disney is cutting 650 jobs across the world to focus its film division on family blockbusters. The company will produce 12 movies a year, down from the current 18, and will steer away from adult-oriented films.

Walt Disney Studios chairman Dick Cook says, "When we do it right, not only do moviegoers of all ages benefit from the finest in quality entertainment, but it lifts the entire company as well."

Among the job cuts, Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group president Nina Jacobson will be leaving.

Disney made the decision regarding adult movies after disappointing box office performances from The Alamo and The Ladykillers, which were made through their subsidiary Touchstone Pictures.

Business 2.0 posted the biggest decline in terms of a percentage loss, dropping 28.5 percent to $3.9 million in ads sold in June. BusinessWeek reported a decline of 18.7 percent to $26 million in ads sold last month.

Fast Company's ad sales declined 27.7 percent to $2.5 million, while Money's ad sales fell 20.4 percent to $12.4 million.

On the other end of the spectrum, the Economist saw a 33.4 percent gain in advertising to $7.7 million in the month, while Forbes' June sales rose 21.2 percent to $31.9 million and Fortune saw a healthy gain of 18.9 percent to $22.4 million.

Inc. magazine had a 9.9 percent increase in ad sales to $7.4 million, while SmartMoney showed a 5.6 percent increase to $4.8 million in ad sales for the month.