As the Crappy Old Year comes to a close in local media, City Pages has laid off restaurant writer James Norton and Assistant A-List editor Ben Palosaari, while WCCO-AM canned longtime overnight guy Al Malmberg and his regular fill-in, Brad Walton.

CP first: Editor Kevin Hoffman says the "brutal" economy did Norton and Palosaari in, and adds, "The decision says nothing about those guys — they are both stellar."

Norton, who was hired with Rachel Hutton after Dara Moskowitz Grumdahl departed for Minnesota Monthly a year ago, says, "the fact that City Pages has two food writers presented some low-hanging fruit."

Neither layoff hits news coverage — Hoffman says a replacement for recently departed staff writer Beth Walton starts Feb. 1 — but does hit the cash-money part of CP's business, at least in print. A-List has been the spine of CP's arts coverage, and dining, at least under Moskowitz, was an ad-rich environment.

Hoffman says CP will use some of the staff savings to bulk up food and music blogs, presumably with freelance. Norton, who focused on the increasingly relevant $20-and-under beat, says, "They offered me the opportunity to keep writing for the paper's dining blog, but I'm planning to strike out on my own ... I've had plans to launch an online indie food magazine for quite some time now, and there's clearly no time like the present."

Over at the Good Neighbor, having a nationwide wee-hours clear channel signal apparently isn't what it used to be. I haven't confirmed the details with WCCO management, but new station boss Mick Anselmo is under orders to slice costs — top talent was asked to take a 10 percent pay cut, and two news reporters were recently let go — so low-revenue overnights was probably a tempting target.

One tipster told me the station will shift to a syndicated show out of St. Louis on Monday; I haven't pinned down its identity yet. Another tipster says the station that advertises itself as "NewsRadio 830" is so short-staffed that it now runs recorded weekend morning newscasts in the afternoon; also unconfirmed.

Oh and by the way: today marks the final day of contractual layoff protection for the Pioneer Press newsroom. Funny, this champagne tastes kinda flat.