Cooking Light has added two new columnists: Rozanne Gold and Naomi Duguid. Gold is a four-time James Beard award-winning chef and cookbook author. Duguid is an award-winning cookbook author as well and a well-known food historian.

Gold will pen a column titled “Radically Simple Cooking,” which explores making quality meals in the easiest ways. “Global Pantry,” Duguid’s column, will discuss how to incorporate exotic ingredients into meals. They will alternate monthly, with Gold’s first column debuting in May’s issue, available tomorrow.

“Rozanne Gold and Naomi Duguid are two very well-respected figures in the food world and their new columns will offer recipes and advice to inspire home cooks to be more adventurous in their everyday cooking,” said Cooking Light’s Editor-in-Chief, Scott Mowbray.

Eileen McCarthy was named executive director of brand insights for Cooking Light and MyRecipes. In this role, McCarthy will be responsible for leveraging consumer, syndicated, and proprietary insights for both brands.

“Eileen brings nearly two decades of experience working on branding and insights to this newly created role on the Cooking Light and MyRecipes marketing team; her knowledge and expertise will be integral in leveraging the brands’ unique positions in the marketplace,” says publisher Karla Partilla.

McCarthy comes to Cooking Light and MyRecipes most recently from Bon Appétit where she was the executive director of marketing & strategic planning for nearly nine years. Prior to that, she held various positions in marketing and research at Inc, Fast Company, YM and Businessweek.

McCarthy reports to Michelle Lamison, associate publisher, marketing.

With the Oscars now over, let’s continue the self-congratulatory awards news with The American Society of Magazine Editors’ Digital Ellies finalists. Leading the way with 10 nominations is Condé Nast. Golf Digest, GQ, The New Yorker and Wired were selected for doing great things in the digital realm.

Runner-up was Time Inc.with six nominations for Cooking Light, EW.com, People, Sports Illustrated and Time. The Washington Post Company held down third place with four nods for Foreign Policy and Slate.

Below is the full list of finalists. If you happen to work at one of these publications, pat yourself on the back and be sure to humblebrag about it on Twitter.

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Rose Tilson was named executive director of integrated marketing for Cooking Light and MyRecipes. She will be responsible for managing the integrated marketing team and elevating the programs and assets offered to the advertising community across multiple platforms.

She starts today and will report to Michelle Lamison, associate publisher, marketing. Tilson comes from Scripps Networks Digital, where she was the director, integrated ad sales marketing for the food category.

“Rose has a strong digital marketing background and an impressive knowledge of the epicurean space, which make her a tremendous asset to the Cooking Light and MyRecipes integrated marketing team as we continue to develop multi-platform, fully integrated marketing programs,” publisher Karla Partilla says.

Giant companies like Kraft and Unilever – which pretty much make everything – are scaling back buying ads in magazines because of the rising price of commodities. These companies, which buy space for things ranging from toothpaste to corn, usually spend a lot, but they’ve slashed their budgets for the first quarter of 2011, reports Adweek.

Time Inc.’s Real Simple and Cooking Light are among the titles that are feeling the cuts the most.

On the bright side, publishers are being told by those companies that the rising cost trend won’t last long, so ad buys will return to normal eventually.

People looking to find out who the newest celebrity endorsing Lipton is are just going to have to wait.

Karla Partilla, the associate publisher at Southern Living, is making the move over to the same position at Cooking Light, the Time Inc. title announced today.

Replacing Partilla at Southern Living will be Debbie O’Brien, who received a promotion from New York manager at the magazine.

Before joining Southern Living in 2004, Partilla (pictured) worked at Meredith Corp. at titles such as Country Home and Ladies’ Home Journal. O’Brien also joined Southern Living in 2004, and had previously worked at advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi.

Full release after the jump

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It was only four months ago that Hearst scooped one of Time Inc.‘s magazine execs to work on its Country Living title. Chris Allen was formerly the senior vice president of Cooking Light before he jumped companies in September to become Living‘s publisher.

Now Hearst has made the same move again, by giving former Cooking Light associate publisher Kassie Means the same role over at Country Living. Considering last year’s major cuts across Time Inc., we’re happy to see that some media executives can still find work elsewhere.

Press release after the jump.

Previously: Former Cooking Light SVP Chris Allen Named Publisher Of Country Living

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Hearst Corp. may not be having its annual Christmas gala for the second year in the row, but the company is still doing relatively well compared to the rest of the industry.

While layoffs plague rivals like Time Inc. and Condé Nast, Hearst is in the process of hiring and promoting staffers. Their latest move? Taking former Cooking Light manager and maternity leave sub at Marie Claire to head up its Pacific Northwest Manager position at Country Living.

Cooking Light is owned by a subsidiary of Time Inc., so Hearst’s (relative) job security must come as something of a relief to Griffis.

Full press release after the jump.

Related: Thinking Different Helps Hearst Survive

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Video: Chef, restaurateur and iVillage Food contributor Donatella Arpaia prepares her quick Sunday ragu at the launch party for iVillage.com/food

Last night at the Culinary Loft in SoHo, iVillage celebrated the launch of its newly revamped food destination, iVillage.com/food, with basil-limoncello cocktails, Web site demos, and a veritable Italian feast prepared by New York restaurant fixture and iVillage contributor Donatella Arpaia.

On the heels of September’s entertainment site relaunch, which Lauren Zalaznick, president of NBC Universal‘s Women and Lifestyle Entertainment Networks, says spurred a spike in page views, membership, and message board activity, iVillage hopes to recreate that success with its latest makeover in the Food category.

“Almost three-fourths of all women who are on the Web rely on the Internet for meal planning and healthy eating,” said Zalaznick. “If we fill that gap… that’s how iVillage is going to win.”

Christina Bender, director of product development for iVillage, acknowledged, “We know competition’s stiff,” citing FoodNetwork.com, Delish.com, and MarthaStewartLiving.com as rivals. Bender said the new site’s secret weapon will be to “uncover what women are already saying” in the vibrant iVillage community of 20 million unique monthly visitors, bolstered by their unique access to NBC Universal’s “premier content,” which includes Bravo‘s explosively popular “Top Chef” brand.

“This is a community-centric site, not a user-generated site,” Zalaznick said. It’s “a big, rollicking portal that behaves like a series of niches.”

“You have to be able to adapt and keep up with the way women use media,” said chief content officer Angela Matusik, who says the revamp is meant to “modernize the message board” with new tools and ways to contribute to the conversation. Next up to go under the knife? The Astrology channel, followed by Health, Beauty and Family. And stay tuned, Matusik added, for a new iVillage social media community platform set to launch sometime in 2010.

Read on for a breakdown of the site’s features and fabulous food photos:

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Hearst Magazines today announced the appointment of Chris Allen as vice president/publisher of Country Living magazine — America’s bestselling shelter magazine on newsstands.

Allen, formerly of Time Inc.‘s Cooking Light, is replacing Steve Grune, who is making a move into Hearst’s Integrated Media group.

Allen previously worked for 17 years at Cooking Light, as associate publisher and then senior vice president, publisher. He has also worked at People, Yachting magazine, Cruising World magazine and New England Monthly.

Also today, there were reports of editorial change at Allen’s former home Cooking Light. The Media of Birmingham blog reported that editor-in-chief Mary Kay Culpepper will be departing the Southern Progress publication on October 1, to be replaced by Scott Mowbray, who has been working as executive editor Time Inc.’s Lifestyle Group since this spring.

A Time Inc. publicist confirmed Culpepper’s move to FishbowlNY, adding that she will be starting a creativity studies graduate program in New York next spring. Cooking Light has also recently undergone a redesign. The revamped magazine hit newsstands August 25.