If you are a fan of the addictive ABC drama “Lost,” you’ll want to listen to today’s mediabistro.com Morning Media Menu podcast. Gearing up for next month’s Season 6 premiere of “Lost,” hosts Jason Boog of GalleyCat and AgencySpy‘s Matt Van Hoven welcomed Nikki Stafford, who has written five unofficial guides to the show.

Nikki ran through the possible scenarios that could occur in the coming season but, of course, only came up with more questions. But ultimately, she manages to stay positive about the challenging show. “If you stick with it, you are so rewarded by the end…of ‘Lost,’” she said.

“Unlike ‘The Sopranos,’ I don’t think they’re going to leave us hanging,” Nikki said about the creators of “Lost.” “I believe they know where they’re going and its going to be a satisfying conclusion.”

Read more from Nikki at her blog, Nik at Nite.

You can listen to all the past podcasts at BlogTalkRadio.com/mediabistro and call in at 646-929-0321.

A profile of Roger Ailes in The New York Times yesterday highlighted the tension between the Fox News chief and his boss, Rupert Murdoch.

The profile includes a quote from inside the Murdoch family that speaks harshly about Ailes and his work at Fox News. Says Matthew Freud, great-grandson of Sigmund who is married to Murdoch’s daughter Elisabeth:

“I am by no means alone within the family or the company in being ashamed and sickened by Roger Ailes’s horrendous and sustained disregard of the journalistic standards that News Corporation, its founder and every other global media business aspires to.”

Of course, this is not how Murdoch officially feels about his company’s Fox News division. He told the Times, “I’m proud of Fox News and what it is accomplishing, and I am grateful to Roger and his team for creating such a great asset for News Corporation.”

He also offered Ailes a contract that earned him $23 million, plus bonuses and additional income, more than Murdoch made himself last year, the Times reported. If Fox News really is as successful as the profile claims — said the article: “Fox News is believed to make more money than CNN, MSNBC and the evening newscasts of NBC, ABC and CBS combined” — then Ailes earned it. And that’s something he can take to the bank, no matter how Murdoch and his family really feel about him.

Read More: A Fox Chief at the Pinnacle of Media and Politics –New York Times

Previously: Ailes and Obama Called Truce?

This year — full of flux and uncertainty about where the media is heading — has resulted in a vast number of job changes and departures across all matter of media companies and publications. In almost every field of journalism, big names have either been fired, promoted, retired, or simply moved on to more lucrative positions. Here, we take a look back at the biggest industry shakeups of 2009.

The Biggest Move in Magazines: Stephen Adler leaving BusinessWeek.
When editor Stephen Adler announced his departure from BusinessWeek this October following the magazine’s sale to Bloomberg LP, he wasn’t just making a statement, he was starting a trend. Soon he was followed by some of his former colleagues, like John Byrne and BusinessWeek‘s president Keith Fox, who decided to stay with magazine’s original parent, McGraw-Hill. (Not to mention all of those who involuntarily left the pub not long after.) It takes a lot of chutzpah to up and quit your editor gig in the middle of this turbulent media landscape, it takes even more to get your coworkers to come with you. Fortunately for Adler, he’s already landed another gig at Thomson Reuters.

Runners Up: Time.com managing editor Josh Tyrangiel comes on board as editor at Businessweek; Marie Claire‘s publisher Susan Plagemann joins Vogue; Nancy Berger Cardone of shuttered Gourmet takes Plagemann’s spot at Marie Claire; Janice Min leaves Us Weekly; Mariette DiChristina becomes Scientific American‘s first female editor-in-chief.

More after the jump

Read more

• Fox News‘ holiday cards are back! And as always, taking swipes at their competitors during this festive season. -FishbowlDC

• An even better holiday card, though, is the one where you ask your friends for a job while wishing them a Merry Christmas. -MediaJobsDaily

• Charlie Gibson was honored by ABC last night for his dedicated news hosting over the last 35 years. -TVNewser

• Billy Dee Williams is hawking commemorative Tiger Woods plates for a Jimmy Kimmel sketch. We would totally buy these for Christmas, if they were real. -AgencySpy

Looks like the fact checkers at The New York Post may have taken off early for the Thanksgiving holiday.

Today’s paper features a headline about former “American Idol” contestant Adam Lambert and his scandalous “Good Morning America” concert cancellation and shift to CBS but, as our sister blog TVNewser points out, the Post has confused what network “Good Morning America” is on.

That would be ABC, not NBC, Post headline writers.

Previously: Good Morning America Cancels Adam Lambert Concert

Even before the Primetime Emmys opened with a musical number by Neil Patrick Harris, the show’s host — who also served as co-producer — was a lamenting the death of network television.

“This may very well be the last year they’re on a network show,” Harris told New York magazine in a a profile featured in last week’s issue. “This wheel contract they have, where each year a different network gets the show, as the ratings decline it becomes less of a good thing to ‘get it.’ It’s a very expensive show. Which means they have to get more ad revenue. Ads are less expensive, because ratings are down. So you have to do more ads, which makes the show smaller…and finally someone will do it on cable, where there won’t be any commercials. Which will be a wonderful show. Our three-hour show is only two hours and five minutes long, due to economics.”

If cable is a better outlet for award shows, is it also a better outlet for award-winning television? It seemed that way as a slew of the first few awards of the night went to basic cable shows — Toni Collette won Best Actress in a Comedy Series for her role on Showtime‘s “United States of Tara,” Glenn Close took home the Best Actress in a Drama Series award for “Damages” on FX, Bryan Cranston won Best Actor in a Drama Series for the second year in a row for his role in AMC‘s “Breaking Bad” and AMC’s “Mad Men” won the drama writing award and Outstanding Drama Series.

But, the networks still had a strong showing. Kristin Chenoweth took home the Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series prize for her role in ABC‘s “Pushing Daises,” which was canceled even before nominations were announced. Jon Cryer took home Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy for CBS‘s “Two and a Half Men,” Alec Baldwin won for the second year in a row for Best Actor in a Comedy Series for NBC‘s “30 Rock,” which also took home the Outstanding Comedy Series award for the third year running.

Still, the changing world of television as a medium was a prevailing theme throughout the show. At one point, Harris revisited his online persona, Dr. Horrible, to (literally) sing the praises of Internet television over network and cable TV — complete with “buffering” gag.

And in her acceptance speech, “30 Rock” creator and star Tina Fey took a jab at Jay Leno when she thanked NBC brass for not pulling her show off the air, “even though we are so much more expensive than a talk show.”

Even Harris couldn’t help mentioning network TV again in his sign off, telling viewers, “May we see you again on broadcast television again next year.”

After the jump, some Emmy highlights, including the Harris’ Dr. Horrible Sing-a-Long Blog bit.

Read more

This weekend, ABC‘s “Good Morning America” weekend edition will celebrate its five year anniversary with a party in a big way.

Tomorrow from 9:00 am to noon, the show will be offering free cupcakes and hotdogs in the middle of Times Square. The Naked Cowboy has even promised to appear.

“GMA” weekend has a lot to celebrate — its become the fastest weekend morning network news show. Just check out the graph at right.

And while we’re talking about “GMA,” head over to TVNewser to vote for your choice of co-anchor to replace Diane Sawyer when she moves to “World News” next year.

TVNewser: ABC had a good year at the Daytime Emmy Awards yesterday. “Good Morning America” took home the “Outstanding Morning Program” prize for the third year in a row and “The View” was honored for “Outstanding Talk Show Host.”

New York Times: Newsday is being picky about its advertising. It has rejected ads from Verizon, which is a direct competitor of the paper’s parent company, Cablevision.

Folio: Despite the economy, more magazines are launching.

Mediaweek: As they struggle to find new ways to sell ads, magazines are trying lots of new cover ad gimmicks.

Examiner: WCBS anchor Chris Wragge has climbed from weeknight sports anchor to part of the main anchor team at 5 and 11 p.m.

A&E Television Networks, which is a joint venture between the Disney-ABC Television Group, Hearst Corp. and NBC Universal — has entered into an agreement to acquire Lifetime Entertainment Services, which will put several cable channels under one management team.

The new parent company, which will be called A&E Television Networks, will now encompass many channels including A&E Network, History, Lifetime Television, Lifetime Movie Network, Bio, History International, Lifetime Real Women, History en Español, Military History and Crime & Investigation Network.

Under the terms of the deal, NBCU can “elect or be required to exit the company over a period of up to 15 years,” reported Broadcasting and Cable. If NBCU exits, Hearst and Disney would become 50/50 partners.

Abbe Raven, president and CEO of A&E, will serve as head of the newly combined company. Lifetime’s CEO Andrea Wong, Nancy Dubuc at the History Channel and Robert DiBitetto at A&E will be keeping their positions, and they will all report to Raven, B&C reported.

via B&C and ABC News

ABC announced yesterday that soap opera “All My Children” is moving its production facilities from the Big Apple to Los Angeles at the end of the year.

According to the network, the show’s new home is twice as large as its current digs, and they will be able to facilitate high definition taping. The show will start shooting in its new facility at on Jan. 4, 2010 — one day before the show’s 40th anniversary — and HD episodes will begin airing in February.

“It feels a little like I am sending one of my children off to be married,” said “All My Children” creator Agnes Nixon, who added that she “will miss being able to run over to the show.”

Another Nixon-created ABC soap, “One Life To Live,” will be moving in to “All My Children’s” old studio after it relocates to the West Coast. We’ll miss you, Susan Lucci!