The Huffington Post is on a quest to find its game changers — “100 people who are using new media to reshape their fields and change the world.”

Today, the online pub announced its 10 game changers in its entertainment and green categories. Two more categories will be announced every week for the next five weeks, until all 100 game changers are announced in politics, technology, media, sports, business, style, health and philanthropy & service. Each category is open for readers to vote, with one “Ultimate Game Changer” being picked for each category over the next few weeks.

“New media and the Internet have impacted nearly all aspects of our lives — from the way we elect our president, to the way we select our music, to the way we choose to make a difference in the world,” Arianna Huffington said. “Our Green Game Changers inspire us with the myriad ways they are tapping into the wired world to help protect the planet. The Entertainment Game Changers are using new media to push the creative envelope, deepen their engagement with fans, and revolutionize the ways in which we are entertained.”

The entertainment game changers include Jimmy Fallon, Netflix founder Reed Hastings, Twitter phenom Ashton Kutcher, blogger Nikki Finke, FunnyOrDie.com founders Will Ferrell and Adam McKay, actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Radiohead, Andy Samberg and his comedy team The Lonely Island, Taylor Swift and will.i.am.

Green game changers include Ken Cook of the Environmental Working Group, White House garden inspirer Roger Doiron, Treehugger.com founder Graham Hill, Gary Hirshberg of ClimateCounts.org, Annie Leonard, Bill McKibben, actress Isabella Rossellini, David de Rothschild, Carrotmob’s Brent Schulkin and Gavin Starks.

Who will you be voting for?

Meet the HuffPost Game Changers: 100 People Who Are Using New Media to Change the World –Huffington Post

Earlier: Help HuffPost Pick New Media “Game Changers”

Rumors, theories and conjectures have been swirling since The Wrap reported yesterday that a deal between cable provider Comcast and GE-owned NBC Universal “had already been completed at a purchase price of $35 billion.”

But reps from Comcast later told Bloomberg, “the report that Comcast has a deal to purchase NBC Universal is inaccurate.”

However, that same report revaled that “negotiations for Comcast to buy about 50 percent of NBC Universal have been under way for at least two months.” Such a deal would depend on whether French company Vivendi SA decides to sell its 20 percent stake in NBCU.

After the jump, what some people around the industry are saying about the possible deal.

Update: Our sister blog TVNewser has an email from NBCU CEO Jeff Zucker to employees. Of the future of Vivendi’s stake, Zucker said, “They have not yet made us aware of any final decisions about their future with us; should they choose to exit, there are a number of possible things that could happen.”

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TVNewser: CNN correspondent Christiane Amanpour celebrated the launch of her new show “Amanpour” at Michael’s yesterday, and chatted with Kevin Allocca. Says Kevin: “After the interview, Amanpour remarked, ‘That’s the tiniest lens I’ve every looked into.’”

FishbowlLA/Folio: Nikki Finke reports that The Hollywood Reporter will be going online only next year, while another entertainment trade Variety will be erecting pay walls. But Folio reports that THR owner Nielsen Business Media says it has no plans to shut down the trade pub’s print edition.

GalleyCat: Back in August, GalleyCat senior editor Ron Hogan correctly predicted that Oprah Winfrey‘s next book club selection would be Say You’re One of Them by Uwem Akpan. The Washington Post made it official this afternoon, citing unintentionally leaked info. Winfrey is set to announce her book club choice during her show tomorrow.

Ad Age: The Wall Street Journal has announced plans to start charging for its mobile app available on iPhones and Blackberrys, and the cost is surprisingly high. Readers that don’t subscribe to the WSJ either in print or online will have to pay $2 per week for the app — or $104 a year. Subscribers to either medium will only be charged $1 a year and those who subscribe to both will get mobile access for free.

Bloomberg: IAC CEO Barry Diller says he will use his cash to repurchase stock, not invest in other companies like NBC Universal.

USA TODAY: Daily Variety columnist Army Archerd has died at age 87.

Deadline Hollywood: CBS tried to bribe Nikki Finke into writing about upcoming show “The Good Wife” with a $20 Amazon gift card. She said — in so many words — no thanks.

New York Times: A survey of 8,000 readers has revealed that The New York Times and The New Yorker are the most read newspaper and magazine on the subway. Can that really be true or do New Yorkers like to sound more intellectual when answering survey questions?

The Observer: Just after The New Yorker brought on a 26-year-old managing editor, The Daily Beast has hired 24-year-old Lucas Wittmann as its books editor.

Mediaite: Jimmy Fallon squashes the beef between Keith Olbermann and Glenn Beck in six minutes flat.

Earlier this summer we advised you to get your resumes ready because after selling her breaking news Web site DeadlineHollywoodDaily.com to Mail.com Media Corp. (MMC), Nikki Finke was looking for a New York-based reporter.

Just over two months after the MMC acquisition was announced, Finke’s site has been relaunched as Deadline.com and Finke is welcoming a new contributor, our colleagues at WebNewser report.

In her comments about the new site this morning, Finke said immediate editorial plans include a Deadline New York senior editor/writer. Contributors in London, Paris, Mumbai, Hong Kong and Sydney are up next, she said. We can’t wait to see who Finke has brought on.

WebNewser: Deadline Hollywood Daily Rebrands As Deadline.com, Nears New Hire

Earlier: Get Your Resumes Ready, Nikki Finke’s Looking To Hire NY-Based Reporter

She once helped celebrity magazine Us Weekly become a must-read and guided American Media, which publishes Star. Then Bonnie Fuller left the world of magazines last year to launch her own company, Bonnie Fuller Media. But now she’s put those plans on hold, returning to a role as editor-in-chief — of a Web site.

Yesterday, David Carr of The New York Times reported that Fuller had been named editor and president of HollywoodLife, a celebrity site based in Los Angeles owned by Mail.com Media Corporation.

Mail.com made a splash last month when it purchased Hollywood reporter Nikki Finke‘s Web site DeadlineHollywoodDaily.com. Carr also has a profile of Finke on today’s front page of the Times, in which he reveals that she “stands to make more than $5 million in the next eight years,” from the sale of her blog. “And her deal could go as high as $10 million,” Carr added, citing an anonymous source with knowledge of the matter.

So is Mail.com, which also owns Movieline.com and OnCars.com, finished snapping up big name media personalities, or are there more to come? And what exactly does Mail.com owner Jay Penske plan for the future of his media empire? Guess we’ll have to wait and see.

(Photo from Fuller’s Twitter page)

Embedded video from CNN Video

FishbowlLA: The Los Angeles Times‘ James Rainey wrote an even-handed profile about Nikki Finke — after the Internet journo scared the crap out of him.

Unbeige: New York artist Dash Snow died Monday from a drug overdose. He gained notoriety in the New York art scene thanks to a lengthy profile in New York magazine two years ago.

New York Times: Thomson Reuters is in talks to buy financial commentary Web site Breakingviews.com.

Silicon Alley Insider: Online video start up Next New Networks laid off a “handful” of staff today as part of reorganization.

Cato Unbound: Clay Shirky predicts that in the future journalism will have to deal with changes in subsidy. “There are many shifts coming, but three big ones are an increase in direct participation; an increase in the leverage of the professionals working alongside the amateurs; and a second great age of patronage,” he says

Today on the mediabistro.com Morning Media Menu podcast, host Jason Boog welcomes AgencySpy editor Matt Van Hoven and erotic writer Rachel Kramer Bussel to talk about media headlines and some new book industry news.

The trio discussed The Virginia Quarterly Review‘s story accusing Wired editor-in-chief Chris Anderson of plagiarism in his new book “Free,” Dick Cheney‘s memoir, the sale of Nikki Finke‘s blog DeadlineHollywoodDaily and Rachel’s work in the independent publishing and erotica industries.

When asked how she got into erotica, Rachel revealed she started writing it while in law school, inspired by reading other books in the genre. “I was reading [the short story collection] “Best American Erotica”…and I thought ‘Hey, I can try this,’” she said. “There was a book about celebrity sex, and it was 1999, so I said ‘I’m going to write this story about Monica Lewinsky.’ So I wrote a fantasy story about Monica Lewinsky and it got published…I’ve been writing ever since.”

Rachel recently won three Ippy Awards, distributed to independent book publishers, and discussed her creation of “book trailers,” or short video advertisements for her books, for her Web site. “Does it affect sales, that’s what a lot of people ask me,” she said of her trailers. “I don’t necessarily think a million people are watching that and then rushing out to buy the book…I think it’s about building your brand as an author.”

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

Our sister blog FishbowlLA has news that “infotainment” columnist Nikki Finke has sold her breaking news Web site DeadlineHollywoodDaily.com to Mail.com Media Corp. (MMC), “the digital media company that owns and operates the Mail.com portal and email service as well as a growing portfolio of lifestyle brands, including HollywoodLife.com, MovieLine.com and OnCars.com.”

But the far more interesting part of the deal’s announcement — to us in New York that is — is that Finke plans to use this acquisition to expand her organization into a bicoastal affair.

“Within the first 90 days, DHD will become bicoastal with the hiring of a New York City-based senior journalist who will report to Finke,” the company said in a press release published on DHD.

Let the speculation begin: Who will be Finke’s East coast counterpart?

Scoopmeister Nikki Finke is opining on the upcoming departure of Peter Chernin, Rupert Murdoch‘s number two man at News Corp. Finke suspects that perhaps Chernin wanted to be more than a “seat warmer” for the next generation of Murdochs:

In terms of News Corp., the assumption has always been that the youngest son, who runs all of News Corp.’s international assets, would eventually take over. As Chernin himself liked to tell people, “I’m just warming the seat for a Murdoch.” It would also calm Wall Street concerns about successorship at News Corp., since Rupert Murdoch is 78 years old.

However! Finke says this assumption may be misguided: “I hear James [Murdoch] simply isn’t ready: He’s a know-it-all who parties hearty and isn’t picking up the business or running it as he should.

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