MTV Networks today officially announced the appointment of three senior editors to the recently officially launched site, NextMovie, a new cross-platform digital brand celebrating movies.

Kevin Polowy, executive editor; Brooke Tarnoff, senior editor; and Breanne Heldman, senior editor; are all veteran film and pop culture journalists with extensive experience in the digital realm.

As executive editor, Polowy will work closely with NextMovie vice president and general manager, Scott Robson, to drive the editorial content and voice of NextMovie to create a complimentary experience to MTV Networks’ movie content.

Prior to joining NextMovie, Polowy was senior editor at AOL’s Moviefone.com, where he covered Hollywood for eight years.

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A new opportunity has just popped up for media startups in New York. NYC SeedStart Media 2011 is a 12 week summer boot camp specifically for startups in the digital media space, including ad infrastructure, mobile, digital content and ecommerce businesses.  Each of the 10 companies selected for the program will receive  $20,000 in funding, space to work, and mentoring from an impressive group of media, advertising, and tech companies in New York City that includes AOL Ventures, Comcast, Google, Hearst, MTV Networks, News Corporation, New York Times, Ogilvy, Time Warner, and Vivendi, as well as veteran VCs and entrepreneurs.  The ideal applicant is a media-focused team of two with at least one technical co-founder and a source code or beta product ready to go.  The program begins on June 15th and they’ll be accepting applications through March 31st.  To apply, click here.

Casey Patterson has been named executive vice president, event production, talent development, and studio relations at MTV Networks Entertainment Group. Patterson previously was senior vice president of Spike TV and TV Land.

The Entertainment Group is comprised of several cable networks, including Comedy Central, Spike TV, and TV Land.

“Over the last several years, Casey Patterson has overseen the development and launch of some of the most exciting and original events on television,” says Doug Herzog, president of MTV Networks Entertainment Group. “The vision and passion she brings to these events is unmatched.”

The first woman hired at Spike TV in February 2003, Patterson has been instrumental in making the network a true television destination for men.

At TV Land, she oversees production of the TV Land Awards, which pays tribute to classic and contemporary TV shows.

Patterson is based in New York.

Wall Street Journal: Viacom, parent company of MTV Networks, reported its third quarter earnings today. Profit grew 15 percent due to cost-cutting, perhaps related to this summer’s layoffs at MTV?

New York Times: Scripps is reportedly close to closing its deal to buy the Travel Channel from Cox Communications.

Folio: B-to-b publisher Ascend Media has filed for Chapter 7 liquidation.

MediaWeek: Bloomberg unveils its plans for BusinessWeek: make it look more like The Economist and offer content for free “while creating deep, vertical content areas that paying users could access for roughly $100 a year.”

Business Insider: Alan Meckler, the CEO of mediabistro.com’s parent company WebMediaBrands, talks about plans to buy new blogs, and his plans for Mediabistro and Semantic Web.

It’s no surprise that some media movers and shakers made their way onto Fortune‘s 50 Most Powerful Women List.

Oprah Winfrey, who topped ForbesWoman‘s list of of the most influential women in the media earlier this summer, was the top media leader on Fortune‘s list as well. The Harpo chair ranked sixth after just five other powerful businesswomen including PepsiCo’s Indra Nooyi (number 1) and Avon’s Andrea Jung (number 5).

Other female media and entertainment leaders to make the list include Anne Sweeney of Disney (number 16); MTV Networks‘ chairman and CEO Judy McGrath (number 20); Time Inc. chair and CEO Ann Moore (number 21 — pictured right); Hearst Magazines president Cathie Black (number 46); Bonnie Hammer and Lauren Zalaznick of NBC Universal (numbers 47 and 48, respectively) and Sony Pictures co-chair Amy Pascal (number 49).

“In 1998 when we premiered our list of the Most Powerful Women in Business, just two of our honorees ran Fortune 500 companies. This year, 13 do,” Fortune said in the introduction to the list. “When it comes to milestones, we say, Keep ‘em coming!”

Fortune‘s 50 Most Powerful Women

Related: Oprah Tops ForbesWoman‘s List Of Media’s Most Powerful Women

Online publisher BuzzMedia announced a major expansion today. The Los Angeles-based company, which publishes Buzznet, Celebuzz, TheSuperficial, Stereogum, WWTDD, Absolute Punk and Just Jared brought on two former MTV Networks execs, expanded its ad sales operations and opened a new office in New York.

Doug Rohrer, former executive vice president of sales at MTV Networks, has been named chief revenue officer of BuzzMedia. He will be joined by Andi Poch (right), formerly VP of ad sales at MTV and MTV.com, who will now work as senior vice president of ad sales for BuzzMedia. Poch and Rohrer are joining BuzzMedia from their digital advisory firm “and,” which serviced clients like IAC and Virgin Mobile.

BuzzMedia has also added three more sales execs to its team across the country: Rose Ferraro in the West; Paul Magyar in the East; and Cheryl Beley for the Midwest. The company also promoted Karina Kogan to executive vice president of sales and marketing and brought on Emily Schwartz as ad solutions director on the ad sales operations side.

Full release and bios of the new staffers after the jump

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MTV Networks-owned Comedy Central has named Lisa Leingang senior vice president of original programming and development based on the East Coast. Leingang will be based in New York, where she will oversee development and production of all of the network’s original pilots and series based here.

Leingang will be filling a position left vacant by Lou Wallach last December, the Hollywood Reporter said.

Most recently, Leingang spent four years at CBS Entertainment, where she served as vice president of primetime programming and development. Prior to that, she worked as vice president, comedy development for NBC Studios/Universal Media Studios, where she helped get a TV development deal for the comedy/singing duo Flight of the Conchords and developed the first TV projects for many comedians and comedy groups, including Broken Lizard and Demetri Martin.

This new position at Comedy Central is a return to comedy for Leingang, as well as a return to MTV. Before joining NBC, Leingang worked as a director of development at MTV in Los Angeles.

Full release after the jump

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Kids network Nickelodeon today promoted its vice president of preschool production, Anne Mullen, to senior vice president overseeing on-air creative strategy for the whole network — from preschool programming to Nick at Nite. It’s an intense promotion that puts Mullen in charge of all on-air promotion and brand communications, Nick’s COO Russell Hicks said.

“Anne has been a talented and energetic leader within our organization for more than four years,” Hicks said in a statement. “Her experience in creative strategic planning for top brands continually brings a fresh perspective to Nickelodeon.”

In today’s economy, a fresh look at partnerships with brands that keep your network alive with precious ad dollars is certainly important — perhaps more important than ever. Additionally, Mullen is being charged with developing strategies that will bring Nickelodeon’s kids and family TV channels, which include NOGGIN, The N and Nicktoons Network, and the company’s Web sites under one Nickelodeon brand.

In her previous position, Mullen worked to develop promotions for “Dora the Explorer” shows, managed the creative team for the “Blue’s Clues” tenth anniversary event and helped launch several preschool series. Before joining Nickelodeon she worked for the Sundance Channel and Razorfish.

A full release after the jump

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Although they have nothing to do with each other, we noticed that there have been lots of appointments to the top spot at a handful of media organizations over the last few days. Is something in the air?

Interview magazine, which was at the center of some controversy at publisher Brant Publications earlier this year, seems to finally have established a powerful editorial team. The New York Times reports today that BlackBook founder Evanly Schindler has been named president of the magazine, while editor Stephen Mooallem, has been promoted to editor-in-chief. Former creative director Karl Templer, who left Interview earlier this year, is returning, and he will report to Fabien Baron, the editorial director who left and then returned last month.

Earlier today, Broadcasting & Cable reported that the Weather Channel is getting a new CEO. The company, which had been searching for a chief for months, named former AOL Media Networks head Michael Kelly to its top spot.

And on Friday, our colleagues at BayNewser revealed that former MTV Networks president Mark Rosenthal had been picked to lead Current Media, the parent company of Current TV and current.com.

There have been some big changes in the media world, and we can probably expect more to come as companies look for new solutions and fresh blood to tackle problems brought on by the economy. And as more executives and top talent get cut from cost-cutting companies, the pool of available people who can run a media organization is growing.

Related: The Drama At Brant

Today, The Hollywood Reporter has more information about Tuesday’s layoffs at MTV Networks.

First, THR said the number of axed employees was only “50-something” and not the 75 of previous reports. And, in an interview with MTV’s president of programming Tony DiSanto, THR learned that a majority of the layoffs were part of a broader reorganization of MTV.

“It was not done for financial reasons, it was purely creative — an overhaul of the organization to better meet the creative needs of MTV,” DiSanto told the industry trade.

DiSanto said that seven executives under him and his number two, Liz Gateley — about half of MTV’s development team — were let go, including senior VPs Maira Suro and Aaron Meyerson, who worked on the scripted and unscripted sides, respectively.

DiSanto is now putting together a new creative structure for the network which will involve a New York-based comedy team led senior VP Brent Haynes and a bicoastal series development team led by Gateley, THR said.