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Yesterday, IAC announced that NBC Universal co-chair Ben Silverman was leaving the network to launch a new venture for Barry Diller‘s media company.

Silverman’s two-year stint at NBCU has been fraught with speculation of his inevitable exit thanks to expensive flops like “My Own Worst Enemy” and “Knight Rider.” But Silverman is also responsible for bringing NBC’s biggest hits, “The Office” and “The Biggest Loser,” which were also produced by Silverman’s former company Reveille, to the network.

Although no one was surprised that Silverman was leaving NBC, his sudden departure and the mysterious new venture have been somewhat of a shock. Last week, he participated in Fortune‘s technology conference and spoke to Poppy Harlow about his network’s plans for “America’s Got Talent” and Jay Leno‘s move to primetime (video above). Silverman would presumably want to see the launch of Leno’s new program, but his two-year contract with NBC expired this summer.

So what will he be doing next at IAC?

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After months of speculation over his possible departure, Ben Silverman is leaving NBC Universal to join Barry Diller‘s IAC, where he will develop a multi-media production company.

Silverman said he will stay at NBC through the launch of the fall season. He will be replaced by Jeff Gaspin (pictured), president and COO of Universal Television Group, who was promoted by NBC today, effective immediately.

The full release after the jump.

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Get your 2010 calendars ready: the International Academy of Digital Arts & Sciences and the Mayor’s Office of Film, Theatre and Broadcasting today announced the dates for next year’s Internet Week. The event will kick off on June 7, 2010, culminating with the 14th Annual Webby Awards on June 14.

This year’s Internet Week drew 15,000 people to events including mediabistro’s Circus — which featured speakers from The New York Times, BusinessWeek.com and Bravo, just to name a few.

Other companies like YouTube, Yelp, Digg, Time Warner, Digitas, CollegeHumor and Microsoft also participated in panels, exhibits, screenings and networking events that attracted big name media types like IAC‘s Barry Diller, Rupert Murdoch, Martha Stewart and Twitter founders Jack Dorsey and Biz Stone. What will next year bring?

This week, New York magazine takes an in-depth look at New York Observer owner Jared Kushner and his relationship with his ex-con father, Charlie Kushner. Although the profile sticks mainly to the father and son’s stories, it comes at an interesting time for the salmon-colored broadsheet, which recently lost long-time editor Peter Kaplan and laid off a bulk of its edit staff.

“I think we’re definitely at a bottom for newspapers,” Kushner told New York‘s Gabriel Sherman a couple of weeks after the layoffs on June 5. “Once this Russian winter is over, once the papers fail that should fail, you’ll see a resurgence. I think the Observer two years from now will be a very viable entity.”

What the article does reveal about the Observer is Kushner’s relationship with Kaplan and the editor’s possible reasons for his seemingly sudden departure.

“In truth, Jared and Kaplan’s relationship swerved between grudging respect and conflict,” the article says. “Though they grew up in the same part of New Jersey and both went to Harvard, in other ways they were the oddest of couples. Jared found a lot of the paper incomprehensible and fuddy-duddyish, while Kaplan couldn’t quite get over the fact that Jared was the same age as many of his reporters. Kaplan at first tried to mentor Jared like one of his writers. But that only worked for a while.”

Then Kushner hired Bob Sommer, a former publicist, to work as president of the Observer and pushed a redesign, which included the addition of a real estate section, reflecting the young tycoon’s interest in the industry.

“He also insisted on shorter stories and drove Kaplan to shovel stuff onto the Web, which Kaplan thought was the wrong strategy,” the New York article reports. “‘We had benchmarks,’ Sommer says. ‘And Peter hated it.’”

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Today on the mediabistro.com Morning Media Menu podcast, hosts Jason Boog of GalleyCat and AgencySpy‘s Matt Van Hoven welcomed Janelle Nanos, editor of National Geographic‘s Intelligent Travel blog.

Janelle discussed some of the things she covers on her blog, including her upcoming trip to Alaska and the Aleutian Islands. “The thing about travel right is…it’s still very much doable,” she said. “We’re all still struggling with the economy but now is actually one of the best times to be traveling because it’s cheaper than ever and there are so many deals out there that if you look for them you can really make your money go a lot farther.”

Also discussed: IAC‘s Barry Diller‘s not so positive prediction about Twitter’s business model at Sun Valley and “unconscious plagiarism.”

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

Today, IAC and the Observer Media Group officially announced their deal passing majority control of IAC’s email newsletter Very Short List to Jared Kushner-owned Observer. VSL, which last week won a Webby Award for “Best Guides, Ratings and Review Website,” has been renamed The Observer’s Very Short List and will be written and edited by the staff of The New York Observer — who are already overworked thanks to recent staff cuts.

News of the deal broke this weekend, with Gawker reporting that the entire VSL staff had been laid off. A press release distributed today did not touch on any staff cutbacks, but did mention that founders Kurt Andersen and Michael Jackson “will continue to remain involved” in the joint venture that is now The Observer’s Very Short List.

Full release after the jump

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There’s been some shakeups in the digital world today, with one Web site losing a CEO and another gaining a top editor.

IAC-owned search engine Ask.com, said yesterday that CEO Jim Safka (left) is stepping down for personal reasons.

Safka, who was named to the post in January of last year, also served as CEO of IAC’s Primal Ventures division, which oversaw IAC’s investment in new business opportunities. Ask.com’s president Scott Garell will reportedly be stepping in as CEO.

“Jim has decided to move on from Ask.com, following the recent passing of his brother which has led him to re-evaluate his personal and professional priorities,” Ask.com said in a statement, according to Marketwatch. (Our calls to IAC were not returned.)

On the same day, another digital property, D.C.-based Kiplinger.com, has named Robert Long managing editor. Long, who formerly worked at AARP, will oversee day to day operations at the Web site and work to streamline integration with Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine.