LiveChat with National Geo Photographer David McLain (Tonight 8pm EST)

Photographer David McLain (l.), who we wrote about in PDN last year for his work with the Red One camcorder, will be doing a LiveChat on the Internets tonight from 8-9pm to discuss his experiences as a National Geographic photographer. David's an interesting fellow and all-around enthusiastic, optimistic guy who's not afraid to embrace the latest technology. Should be a fun discussion.

If you're interested in participating, follow this link and register for free. The link will be live for about an hour before the chat. We had meant to post this earlier but got caught up with today's Macworld news so our apologies for the last minute heads up.

Bad News Roundup: McGraw-Hill, Tulsa World, Forbes...

January is going to be a hard month. Here are some stories about media-related cutbacks announced today alone.

• The Tulsa World newspaper is laying off 28 employees. (Tulsa World)
• Forbes just laid off 19 editorial staff. (Mediaweek)
• McGraw-Hill cut 375 jobs in Q4. (Mediaweek)
• Ogilvy is cutting 10% of its work force. (Adweek)
• After layoffs, Village Voice Media bosses are taking a pay cut. (Westworld)

Adweek: Ogilvy Group Cuts 10% of Staff

Ad agency Ogilvy Group is cutting about 10 percent of its workforce today, Adweek reports:

"The Ogilvy Group today cut about 10 percent of its staff across multiple units in response to client spending reductions that exceed the WPP Group shop's new business growth, sources said.

"The cut affected the North American offices of units such as Ogilvy & Mather, OgilvyOne, Ogilvy Interactive and OgilvyAction, according to sources. Some sources estimated the number of layoffs at 300, but others said it was about half that, or roughly 10 percent of the total headcount at those offices.

"An Ogilvy representative declined to comment."

The cuts reflect a general downturn in ad spending. Ogilvy's client list is heavy with companies battered by the economy: Wachovia (which left the agency when it was acquired by Wells Fargo), Morgan Stanley, American Express and Kodak. Other Ogilvy clients include IBM, Unilever, Kraft Foods, Lenovo, Thomson Reuters, Sears-Kmart and Stolichnaya vodka. Ogilvy is owned by WPP.

Laid-off employees are unlikely to find comfort in Ogivly's recently-launched site "Ogilvy on Recession," which promises "Smart strategies for dealing with the downturn."

Are Time.com Editors Oblivious To Callie Shell's Work?

We don't know the exact arrangement that saw the Obama-Biden Flickr stream publish photos by Time photographer Callie Shell of the Obama girls getting ready for school yesterday (including the one you see above). But we assume it was a pool situation, since the photos were quickly distributed by AP and other wire services, credited to the Obama-Biden transition team and Shell. It didn't take long for Shell's photos to show up all over the place, including Shell's own publication – credited as handouts from the Obama team. Time.com published two of Shell's pictures with the credit line "Obama Flickr." Seriously.

Related: NPR's "All Things Considered" interviewed Shell about the photos yesterday.
Related: PDN: Pete Souza Named Obama’s Chief White House Photographer.

Apple Introduces Revolutionary New Laptop with No Keyboard

We're Apple fans, but this is too funnnnnny.

Apple Introduces Revolutionary New Laptop With No Keyboard

Redo: JPG Magazine Actually For Sale

As many as 20 entities are in a bidding war for whatever's left of 8020 Media, which announced last week it would stop publishing JPG magazine and go out of business.

A memo from 8020 Media CEO Mitch Fox (posted on SaveJPG.com) claims JPG has entertained offers from 20 possible buyers and has set a date of January 7 for bids. This is the same Mitch Fox who said last week his company was out of money and would close "immediately."

On the JPG blog, COO Devin Poolman writes that "this interest has bought us a little more time, so we are now looking to keep the site open at least through next week." The site was scheduled to shut down today.

In the rumor mill, TechCrunch reports that photo-sharing sites Flickr (owned by Yahoo!) and SmugMug are among the possible buyers, and blogging platform WordPress was interested in the magazine but dropped out of bidding. Also, entrepeneur Alexander Muse writes on his blog that he wants to buy JPG.

Are you thinking what we're thinking?

Warning: Beware Twitter Hackers (Updated)

Twitter, the short messaging service that had a breakout year in 2008, has fallen victim to a surprisingly effective and simple security attack. In the last few days, hackers have successfully hijacked many Twitter accounts by sending out spoof messages designed to trick people into handing over their passwords.

Within the photo business, accounts hacked include Akili Ramsess, director of photographer for the Orlando Sentinel, and Gary Hairlson, video director for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. (PDN's Twitter feed has not been hacked.)

(A separate attack today targeted celebrity victims including Barack Obama, Britney Spears, Fox News and CNN's Rick Sanchez.)

Here's a warning on Twitter's blog about the phishing scams.

UPDATE: More information from Twitter.

UPDATE 2: We now know there were at least two different Twitter attacks. There was the phishing attacks that used social engineering to trick some users into giving up their passwords. And on top of that, Twitter says 33 accounts were compromised this morning by someone who hacked into Twitter's support software. Add it all up and it's bad news for Twitter.

Two Journalists Freed In Somalia After Nov. 26 Kidnapping

Two journalists, including Spanish freelance photographer José Cendon, have been freed after being held by kidnappers for 40 days in Somalia. Cendon and reporter Colin Freeman, chief foreign correspondent for Britain's Sunday Telegraph newspaper, were kidnapped November 26, apparently by men they had hired to be their bodyguards. The Sunday Telegraph and the BBC have detailed reports.

Press advocacy groups, including Reporters without Borders and the Committee to Protect Journalists, reported the November 26 kidnappings but omited names for safety reasons.

Somalia, which lacks a functioning national government, has been the site of several recent journalist abductions. The BBC says two more journalists, "an Australian and a Canadian abducted near the Somali capital, Mogadishu, in August," are still being held. CPJ indentified them as Amanda Lindhout and Nigel Brennan.

Freeman and Cendon had traveled to Somalia to report on piracy, a growing concern in the Gulf of Aden off the north coast of Somalia.

Just In: Pete Souza To Be Obama White House Photographer, NPPA Says

NPPA News Photographer is reporting that Pete Souza has accepted the job of official photographer for the Obama White House. We're planning a full story on this soon.

Meanwhile, click here to view PDN's audio slide show about Souza's Obama book from May 2008.

Update: We've confirmed this with Souza. Here's our story.

Related: Pete Souza's Obama Book a NY Times Bestseller.

Related: Pete Souza's advice to the next president.

Follow-Up: Apple's Steve Jobs Suffering From "Nutritional Problem"

Following speculation over his health, Apple CEO Steve Jobs put out a statement today saying he is being treated for a hormone imbalance that caused him to rapidly lose weight. Full letter is below.

To recap: Jobs' disclosure about his health comes a day before Apple's annual Macworld keynote in San Francisco, which is typically given by Jobs. This year, Apple SVP Philip Schiller will deliver the keynote. Apple says this is its last year at IDG's Macworld trade show.