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

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If Comcast ends up with a controlling interest in General Electric-owned NBC Universal, it looks like NBCU CEO Jeff Zucker will be staying on to lead the new venture.

Reuters reports, citing unnamed sources:

“Under the terms being discussed, Zucker will lead the new entity, with no clauses for him to leave after a specific period, the sources said on Tuesday…There has been a lot of speculation about who would head the new company, especially since Peter Chernin — the former president of News Corp. — has been advising Comcast.

The sources said Zucker would be chief executive, but no decisions had been made on what role Chernin might play, if any. Discussions about what the new board would look like are ongoing, the sources said.”

Comcast has been in talks to purchase a controlling interest in NBCU for a number of weeks, and a deal is expected to be announced soon. By keeping Zucker on, it looks like Comcast is putting its faith in him. But can NBC’s recent ratings challenges all be chalked up to the the recently departed Ben Silverman?

Zucker to head new NBCU-Comcast venture — sources –Reuters

Earlier: Comcast Purchase of NBCU Stake A Done Deal?

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AgencySpy: Is MSNBC‘s decision to pair “Morning Joe” with Starbucks a bad branding move?

TVNewser: NBC was accused of violating pool rules over the weekend by putting Matt Lauer in every shot during an interview with Prince Harry that was meant to be shared with all the networks.

MediaJobsDaily: Author Barbara Ehrenreich offered some insight into the tough job market to Berkeley’s journalism school grads over the weekend. “A laid-off autoworker doesn’t go into his or her garage and assemble cars by hand. But we – journalists – we can’t stop doing what we do,” she said.

PaidContent: Former News Corp. exec and current DirecTV CEO Chase Carey is reportedly being wooed back to News Corp. to take over Peter Chernin‘s role as number two to Rupert Murdoch. However, his role may be slightly different from Chernin’s since Carey would likely work from New York while Chernin served in Los Angeles.

Editor & Publisher: The New York Times Magazine is cutting its size starting June 14.

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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Rupert Murdoch is certainly dominating the media headlines these days. As we mentioned earlier today’s Post is running an apology from the News Corp. head for last week’s controversial chimp cartoon, and yesterday Rupe sent out a memo confirming News Corp COO Peter Chernin‘s departure. In the memo — in full after the jump — Murdoch praises Chernin as both a leader and a friend before going on to loosely explain how the transition will managed during this ‘severe’ downturn.

We are in the midst of a phase of history in which nations will be redefined and their futures fundamentally altered. Many people will be under extreme pressure and many companies mortally wounded. Our competitors will be sorely tempted to take the easy beat, to reduce quality in the search for immediate dividends.

Let me be very clear about our company: where others might step back from their commitment to their viewers, their users, readers and customers — we will renew ours.

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Wow. After weeks of speculation — which generally concluded Chernin would end up re-signing at the last minute — the LA Times is reporting that Peter Chernin, president of News Corp. will be leaving the company.

Per the LAT:

Chernin’s departure, which was finalized over the weekend, comes at a vulnerable time for News Corp., which like other media companies has been affected by the recession and a decline in advertising revenue. News Corp.’s stock is off almost 70% from its 52-week high, a steeper decline than that suffered by media rivals Time Warner Inc. and Walt Disney Co. Investors have reacted negatively to Murdoch’s purchase of Dow Jones & Co., owner of the Wall Street Journal, which has seen its advertising plummet.

Rupert Murdoch is expected to take over Chernin’s duties when his contract expires June 30.

Is Rupert Murdoch‘s number two man at New Corp. departing? The LAT reports that Peter Chernin, who is credited with “the company’s smooth operations” and who has been in contract negotiations with Rupe for months may leave the company when his contract expires on June 30.

Chernin has been tight-lipped about his plans. Some analysts view the situation — and the domino effect in management his departure could trigger — with alarm.

“While Chernin has not signaled his intent, we fear the longer time goes by, the less likely he is to renew his contract,” Pali Research analyst Richard Greenfield wrote in a recent report. “Chernin’s departure would raise significant investor concern and could lead to other management changes at News Corp.”

Apart from the terrible timing of the departure, should that happen, there appears to be some question as to whether Murdoch’s children are prepared to lead the company.

Looks like at least one chapter of the long Yahoo soap opera has drawn to a close. Jerry Yang, who co-founded Yahoo back in 1995 announced yesterday that he was stepping down from his position as CEO. The move comes after many, many months of wrangling, proxy battling, and failed takeover and merger attempts — most notably Yang turned down a unsolicited offer of $31 a share in cash and stock from Microsoft — and more recently a failed move to strike a search-advertising partnership with Google.

Yang took over as CEO in June of 2007 amidst “high hopes” but quickly became the object of shareholder frustration and criticism after turning down the Microsoft offer amidst plummeting stock shares. Proxy battler Carl Icahn had promised to replace Yang if he was successful in his bid this past spring, but in the end the two managed to strike a truce, which kept Yang in is position. That said, apparently Yang has been considering stepping down for months. Wired says Yang is “out of the company he cofounded looking anything but a visionary, but instead as yet another high tech entrepreneur…who didn’t realized that time had passed him by.” On the upside Yang’s return to a figurehead position (Chief Yahoo) may pave the way for another deal with Microsoft. As for who might fill Yang’s shoes?

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