First on FishbowlNY: Steven Kotok, general manager of The Week‘s U.S. edition, is being promoted to president of The Week Publications, Inc. He has been with the magazine since 2002 and in his current position since 2007.

Kotok joined Dennis Publishing, which produces The Week, in 1996 and served as publisher of Maxim Books before joining the American version of the successful newsmagazine. It’s one of the few publications gaining advertising pages, posting double-digit percentage gain during the first quarter of 2009. Adweek named The Week No. 1 on its “10 Under 60″ Hot List.

In one of Kotok’s first moves as president, he announced a host of other new positions. Kevin Morgan is the new CFO, while Arielle Starkman joins as controller. David Weeks moves from The Economist to become international advertising director. Lori Crook joins as production director with Shelby Washington coming onboard as senior promotion manager.

Both releases are after the jump.

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Rolling Stone went small. Good went tiny (if only for one issue). Hearst Corporation‘s Good Housekeeping thought, “Screw it. We’re getting bigger.”

Starting with the January 2010 issue, the magazine will celebrate its 125th anniversary by increasing its size 10 percent. The new dimensions: 8-1/4 x 10-7/8 inches (up from 7-7/8 x 10-1/2 inches).

Considering magazines are responsible for the destruction of 63 million trees a year in the United States alone, we’re not sure a bigger issue is really what we need.

The magazine will raise its cover price and drop its rate base from 4.6 to 4.3 million.

Maurice Jarre died on March 28. Hours after hearing of the French composer’s passing, Shane Fitzgerald — a sociology major at Dublin University who is taking a class about the spread of information on the Internet — added the following quote to Jarre’s Wikipedia page, attributing to the deceased man.

“One could say my life itself has been one long soundtrack. Music was my life, music brought me to life, and music is how I will be remembered long after I leave this life. When I die there will be a final waltz playing in my head that only I can hear.”

In a result that is both shocking and not surprising at all, outlets across the globe, including The Guardian, picked up the quote and used it in obituaries honoring Jarre.

At least one paper learned a lesson it should have already known. “The moral of this story is not that journalists should avoid Wikipedia, but that they shouldn’t use information they find there if it can’t be traced back to a reliable primary source,” the Guardian‘s Siobhain Butterworth wrote in a note explaining the mistake.

While most media companies are running as quickly as they can away from the print world, Vibe Media Group will embrace the medium with a print magazine covering “celebrity fashion, lifestyle, red-carpet moments, travel, and news.” The Most! hits newsstands on June 16, while its corresponding Web site, TheMostMag.com, debuts two weeks earlier.

Vibe‘s all-time best-selling cover featured Chris Brown and Rihanna, which signified that there would be space in the marketplace for a celebrity-focused version of the music mag. The Most! will be published twice a year.

“Our goal with The Most! is to give our readers ‘the most’ of what they crave,” Danyel Smith, editor-in-chief of Vibe/Vice president/editorial director of Vibe Media Group, and founder of The Most!, said in a statement.

The full release is after the jump.

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Maybe the best week yet…

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The Radar refugees are resurfacing. Aaron Gell signed on as editor-in-chief of Hemispheres. Choire Sicha, Alex Balk and David Cho launched TheAwl.com. And now Maer Roshan, the man at the top of the thrice-failed magazine, has a new full-time gig. Buried at the bottom of Keith Kelly‘s column today comes the news that Roshan will join TheWeek.com as editor.

The Week, brought to the United States by Felix Dennis after the magazine was a huge hit in England, saw its ad pages jump 42 percent in the first quarter of 2009 (or 19 percent, depending on your source). Given the struggles of other newsweeklies, Roshan looks to be in a good situation.

As a “professional blogger,” we spend far too much time wandering around looking for places with WiFi. (One can only spend so much time in one’s apartment before one goes nuts, especially when two stories are being added onto the roof of one’s building.)

Those days might be drawing to a close. The New York Times‘ David Pogue writes about MiFi, a new device that gives you wireless while sitting in your pocket. The takeaway:

Last week, I was stuck on a runway for two hours. As I merrily worked away online, complete with YouTube videos and file downloads, I became aware that my seatmate was sneaking glances. As I snuck counter-glances at him, I realized that he had no interest in what I was doing, but rather in the signal-strength icon on my laptop — on an airplane where there wasn’t otherwise any Wi-Fi signal. “I’m sorry,” he finally said, completely baffled, “but how are you getting a wireless signal?” He was floored when I pulled the MiFi from my pocket, its power light glowing evilly.

Where do we sign up?

Henry Schliff, who has been CEO and president of Crown Media Holdings Inc. (owners of Hallmark Channel), will step down after accepting a lump sum of $2.5 million. CMH officials told The Wall Street Journal the split at “amicable.”

Bill Abbott, currently the vice president of advertising sales, will take over as CEO.

Well, Schliff could be considering running for public office. In November, 2007 he told mediabistro.com:

“One of the things I still hold out for my own personal desire is to do something in public service, in government. To the extent that I would have potentially some role in a government position in public service, I like that.”

At the very least, he’ll have a nice chunk of change to help finance his campaign.

At 5:02 p.m. yesterday, The Daily Beast‘s Stryker McGuire published a story about News Corp.’s “secret plan to charge for content.” In it, he wrote “The Daily Beast has learned, Murdoch’s News Corp. has set up a global team, based in New York, London, and Sydney, to create a system for charging for online content in an environment where consumers have come to expect to get it for free.”

Seven hours later, the New York Post‘s Peter Lauria wrote the same story, without citing the Beast article. While it’s certainly possible both scribes were working on the piece at the same time, Post‘s article reads as a reactionary one.

(For those who keep track of this type of thing, the Post got the Drudge link.)

Last night, former Portfolio.com Mixed Media blogger Jeff Bercovici had a byline on a post NYMag.com‘s Daily Intel. We emailed Jeff to find out if he was becoming a regular contributor.

“Thanks for noticing. I’d certainly love to do some more writing for them, but there’s no formal arrangement as yet. Just keeping my pen sharp.”