According to The New York Times, Hearst Magazines created a new position of president of digital media and hired Troy Young to fill the role.

In the position, Young will work with the company’s 26 online brands in terms of content, revenue production and development strategies.

Most recently, he was employed by digital media company Say Media until last August and for the past three years he’s served as an advisor to a variety of digital media companies, as per his LinkedIn profile. Prior to that, he worked as president and CMO at VideoEgg.

As per the piece, David Carey, president of Hearst Magazines, said Young was hired because “pure plays are increasingly the companies to watch in terms of how quickly they produce product, the orthodoxies they set aside and how they assemble their talent.”

According to a press release we received from The Chronicle of Higher Education, Michael G. Riley has been named its new chief executive officer and editor-in-chief.

Riley will replace Philip W. Semas. He worked at The Chronicle for 44 years! The last 10 years of service were devoted to his job as president and editor-in-chief.

Riley’s most recent role has been editorial director at Bloomberg Government. As per the press release, prior to that job, he was editor and senior vice president of Congressional Quarterly.

In addition, his resume includes working at The Roanoke Times for eight years as editor. Early in his career he was a correspondent for Time in Los Angeles, Boston, Washington and Atlanta. Plus, in a joint venture of Time and CNN, Riley created and managed one of the first national political Web sites, www.allpolitics.com.

Corbin Gwaltney, founding editor and chairman of The Chronicle of Higher Education indicated in the release, “I am delighted that Mike is joining us. His combination of journalistic leadership, business acumen, and digital savvy is a perfect fit for our needs.”

We caught up with Peter Shankman, founder of HARO, entrepreneur and soon-to-be-father, regarding his new book, Nice Companies Finish First. The principle hits close to home for Shankman; after all, he makes it his business to be nice. Literally.

He told MediaJobsDaily in an exclusive phone interview, “I’m starting a new company with someone — a very high level person at a PR firm – a start-up and we’re going to create a company that teaches companies how to create these moments of niceness that can actually generate some revenue and cut their marketing budget by half.”

Planning to launch by June 1 at the latest, Shankman already has five clients lined up. The name is yet to be announced but in the meantime, he’ll include updates on his blog. “It’s going to be a lot of fun,” he said.

Okay, as for being nice itself, think about the impact being nice can do. Not only is it about the sake of being nice for being nice, being cordial and respectful bodes you and your company well.

“It’s not just a book about business. This is life altering,” he explained.  ”It can not only get you the good employees and the good bonus, it can also get you the good car upgrade at the rental car, the best table at the restaurant, the girl.” Read more

The Financial Times is the latest publication to get hit with the wrath of the economy as CEO John Fallon announced a plan to save 100 million pounds (roughly $151 million) next year.

In fact, as per a piece on Bloomberg, at a meeting across the pond he informed staff there will be less jobs in the U.S. and the U.K. The changes sound pretty aggressive only because he mentioned the company will attempt to restructure within a year compared to a normal timeframe that’s spread across six years for such changes.

As for the changes themselves, there will be less roles within the print business. As pointed out in the piece, according to a confidential source, specific numbers to the job cuts themselves weren’t revealed. It sounds like their focus will move from its education business to digital.

Ah, human capital management (the fancy term for HR folks at some companies). Human resources. Hiring and firing, performance management and salary reviews. It’s what dramas are made of! (And no, we’re not kidding.)

Hollywood certainly agrees. According to Deadline, Alicia Silverstone’s been cast as the lead in a pilot for an upcoming human resources drama on Lifetime. She’ll star as a tightly wound HR director at a global company who previously drank the corporate Kool-Aid. That is, that’s before she experienced a head injury.

Well, she’ll throw it all out the window after the injury and aim to inspire the business to reach higher and altered goals.

So the question is, will you tune in?

The New York Public Library has named Kenneth Weine as its vice president of communications and marketing.

Prior to joining the NYPL, Weine was vice president for Consumer Reports where he had been working since 2006. Before Consumer Reports, he was a communications director at Newsweek; prior to that job, he was a staff attorney and communications director at the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law School. Read more

Here at Mediabistro, we talk to employers and job seekers everyday and have heard that the interview process can be daunting for both parties. It’s easy to lose your train of thought, ask a ridiculous question or get so nervous you trip and fall while entering the interviewer’s office. So, job seekers, we want to know: What is the most embarrassing thing you’ve ever done in an interview?

Enter our contest for the chance to win a free seat in Mediabistro’s Job Search Intensive (worth $145) that starts on January 29 online. All you have to do is follow @Mediabistro and tweet us your answer in 140 characters or less.

Include #InterviewFail in your tweet and you’re in! The winner with the answer that cracks us up the most will be announced on Friday, January 25 at 11:45 am ET via our @Mediabistro Twitter account. Good luck!

The Mediabistro job board is the best place to find top media candidates for your open positions. Companies like Google, Amazon, and AOL post with us —you should too!

Every year Fortune names its best companies to work for and as for this year’s list released yesterday, media names were buried in there somewhere. We really had to dig but noticed Dreamworks Animation ranked twelfth and yeah, that’s pretty much it.

As for notable observations, Facebook and Apple did not make the list and yes, in case you’re wondering, Google also landed the top spot last year as well. This is the fourth time it made the list and as per the piece, that’s aside from its 100,000 hours (!) of subsidized massages to its employees last year. They apparently have three wellness centers and a sports complex boasting seven acres, roller hockey rink and bocce court included. Read more

According to Adweek, it’s parent company, Prometheus Global Media, has officially named Ross Levinsohn as its new CEO.

Levinsohn will lead Guggenheim Digital Media, a compilation of music, media and entertainment media brands which includes Dick Clark Productions. Previously he worked for Yahoo for two years as interim CEO before Marissa Mayer landed the top spot.

In a meeting today, Levinsohn told employees, ”While there’s digital in the title of this company, the importance of print goes without saying. I don’t think print is something that goes away.”

Martha Nelson, editorial director of Time Inc., has been named its new editor-in-chief, as per WWD.

As the seventh person in 90 years history, she’s the first woman to hold the position.

Now she’ll run the ship at all of the titles whereas previously as editorial director she was at the helm of 17 titles within style and entertainment.

As per the piece, there are turbulent times ahead. Layoffs are anticipated after the holidays at Time Inc. and during the previous quarter, there was a loss in revenue within publishing to the tune of six percent.

Nelson told WWD, “It is a difficult time but it’s also an exciting time and, in some ways, the most exciting, certainly in my lifetime.”

As for her first initiatives in the new role, she’ll hone in on maintaining the magazines’ quality and also expanding their reach digitally.