Marta Topran has joined Cosmopolitan as the magazine's seniorbeauty editor.

Previously, Topran had worked as the beauty editor of HollywoodLife.com and in the beauty department at Condé Nast's Cookie magazine.

Brian Hoffman, the vice president of brand management for Hoffman Media, has been named executive vice president and chief creative officer for the publisher. He will oversee editorial content, design, branding and consumer marketing for all eleven of the company's titles, including Sandra Lee Semi-Homemade and Cooking with Paula Deen.

Hoffman has been with the company since 2007, when he started out as event director for the company.

Moira McDonald is joining The Atlantic as Director of Sales for the Pacific Northwest.

McDonald brings a wealth of sales experience to the venerable periodical. She spent 14 years at WIRED magazine, where she held several senior sales positions during her tenure.

"I'm delighted to welcome Moira to The Atlantic," VP and Publisher Jay Lauf said in a statement. "As The Atlantic broadens its presence through digital and event platforms, Moira's deep market knowledge and intuitive understanding of multi-platform programs will help us fuel even greater success."

The Atlantic has already seen a upswing in readership.

In the first half of 2010, The Atlantic posted a 21.75 percent increase in ad pages and TheAtlantic.com reported a 166 percent revenue increase.

Tribune Broadcasting named Eric Meyrowitz as vice president and general manager of WPIX. Meyrowitz, who had served as VP and GM for Tribune's WDCW-TV in Washington, D.C. since 2004, assumes the job immediately.

"Eric is the right guy for this job," said Tribune Broadcasting President Jerry Kersting in a statement. "Even more so because he's originally from New York--he understands the city, the importance of local news and the rich tradition of WPIX."

"This is an incredible opportunity to lead a great station in the best media market in the country," said Meyrowitz, a New York native. "With new syndicated programming launching this fall, and the expansion of its morning news show, WPIX will continue growing its legacy and I'm honored to be a part of it. Plus, I get to return home-I can't wait to get started."

In June, Tribune fired longtime WPIX president and GM Betty Ellen Berlamino. She started at the station in 1994, and was promoted to general manager in 2000.

Reportedly, veteran anchor Jim Watkins will not have his contract renewed by WPIX. His deal with the station was set to expire at the end of August.

A station spokesperson had no comment on Watkins' situation at Channel 11.

Watkins is on vacation this week from his PIX News at Ten duties.

continued...

Its website may be cause for concern, but, nonetheless, Forbes is barreling ahead by introducing its latest local-language edition, Forbes Ukraine. The magazine's first issue is due out in the first quarter of 2011.

Said Boris Lozhkin, the President of United Media Holding, who made the magazine possible through a licensing agreement:

It is the great honor and a huge responsibility for us to launch the Forbes brand in the Ukraine. Entering the Ukrainian market with the most influential business magazine in the world is an important step for us in moving towards a global economy, and in implementing the best standards in world journalism.

• All Voices: Rick Sanchez called Barack Obama the "cotton picking President" because that's what we say in "The South" while, you know. Sitting under magnolia trees and sipping mint juleps in Hialeah.

• FishbowlDC: In the White House Press Office's defense, though, Israel is so real.

• NY Observer: Hurricane Earl will eat your babies, kick your pets, and inform you that you do, indeed, look fat in those jeans. Best be prepared.

• PRNewser: Simon Doonan, whose name I confuse with Peggy Noonan's like maybe 43 percent of the time, is taking his paisley-print shirtiness over to Slate.

Update: The New York Times's Brian Stelter just Tweeted that the gunman has died after being shot.

According to a press conference, the hostage situation that has been unfolding this afternoon at the Discovery Channel's Silver Spring, Maryland headquarters has been resolved.

Suspected gunman James Lee has been shot and his three hostages are free. Lee is currently in custody and his condition is unknown.

Police are currently searching the building for additional explosive devices.

John Marshall is back on the air in New York. The veteran meteorologist turned up on WCBS/Channel 2 last weekend, doing weather forecasts on the morning newscasts.

He is reunited with anchor Rob Morrison.

"He and I started about same time at peacock. Great guy. Psyched he's on board," Morrison told FishbowlNY via Twitter.

Marshall's status with WCBS, however, is uncertain.

"He is just filling in until they find a replacement," a WCBS spokesperson said.

Last month, WNBC didn't renew Marshall's contract.

Marshall spent the past 12 years as weather anchor at Channel 4

We received a tip earlier this afternoon about the possible (probable) shuttering of Paste. Last night, the magazine's associate editor, Rachael Maddux, Tweeted about being "suddenly in the market for a job."

Our tipster noted that a colleague "had heard" the magazine had indeed folded. There's been nothing but cricket chirps (and, well, an Emmy-related blog) emanating from editor and chief Josh Jackson's normally busy Twitter account, as well as that of publisher Nick Purd.

Gawker notes that other former Paste staffers have taken to Twitter in search of new jobs.

Just this past April, Jackson spoke with mediabistro about the ongoing struggles faced by the Atlanta-based magazine:

The money has always been really tight for us. We're an independent magazine, so when the downturn hit there was no money in the bank, and we were struggling. The last couple of years there were many months where we were wondering, 'How are we going to get this issue out? How are we going to make payroll?' Last year it got to the point where we didn't have an answer to the question, 'How will we ever get this issue out?' And we were pretty close to, like a lot of magazines, just throwing in the towel.

We reached out to Maddux via email with no response as of yet, but we'll update should we hear anything from her or other staffers.

Update 3: The New York Post is now reporting that there is a "small number of hostages" in the building. An acquaintance who used to spend time with Lee at a bookstore near the Discovery Channel building told the paper that Lee had said that he felt "Discovery is supposed to be protecting the environment, but they are not, they are just making movies."

Update 2: FOX affiliate WTTG is reporting that the person being held hostage is a male security guard supervisor.

Update: NBC's Pete Williams has confirmed that the gunman is indeed James Lee.

An armed man entered the Discovery Channel building in Silver Spring, MD this afternoon. Some reports indicate he may be armed with explosives in addition to firearms.

So far, the building -- including its on-site daycare center -- has been evacuated and agents from the FBI and ATF, are on the scene. The gunman is said to have taken at least one hostage in the building's lobby.

An as-yet-unconfirmed list of the gunman's demands can be found on savetheplanetprotest.com, wherein, which includes the demand that Discovery and its affiliate channels must "stop encouraging the birth of any more parasitic human infants and the false heroics behind those actions" and that "civilization must be exposed for the filth it is. That, and all its disgusting religious-cultural roots and greed. Broadcast this message until the pollution in the planet is reversed and the human population goes down!"

The man is thought to be James Lee, the man behind "Save The Planet Protest" who was the target of posts by DCist in January of 2008, who called the site "rather hilarious." DCist also reported, a couple years ago, that Lee had tried to organize a protest outside the Discovery building.

We'll continue updating as more news is made available / confirmed.

Although the jury is still out on whether the iPad will save magazine publishing, for executives like Chris Wilkes of Hearst, the innovative device means one thing: an opportunity to actually profit from digital content. (This, of course, is opposed to the free-is-better mentality of the Web.)

"What we finally have when the iPad is here is ubiquitous Internet connections, portability, and a large color screen which really gives us a palate with which to create beautiful products on," Wilkes said in our Media Beat interview.

He points to Hearst's iPad offering for Popular Mechanics, which is already receiving consistent praise, as an example of the company's approach to digital magazines.

"It's about not adding bells and whistles and animation for the sake of doing so, but it's about enriching the storytelling experience and adding complimentary interactive features."

Part 1: Hearst's Chris Wilkes on Landing a Mobile or Digital Job

Part 2: Hearst's Chris Wilkes on 'The App Lab'

Chris Wilkes discusses how print brands can create applications and mobile sites that meet consumer needs at Think Mobile on September 23 in San Francisco.