Weekend Wire: Big media's big bet on digital czars

Its no secret that old big media companies like Viacom, Time Warner, News Corp and others are scrambling to get with the digital times. Some companies like News Corp, are already leading the pack with the purchase of super site Myspace.com. Big media has been hiring digital execs left and right placing big bets on the heads of these individuals hoping to be lead into the digital world where advertisers are spending most of their money these days. In the last few weeks, there has been a stampede of change involving the top Internet executives at big media companies. Most significant, Jonathan F. Miller, the chairman and chief executive of AOL, was replaced at that Time Warner division by Randy Falco, a 31-year veteran of NBC Universal; Ross Levinsohn, the wunderkind who helped Rupert Murdoch snag MySpace last year, left the News Corporation two weeks ago and is being replaced by a cousin, Peter Levinsohn, a Fox TV veteran; and Larry Kramer, who built and sold the site MarketWatch, left his job as digital overseer at CBS after the arrival of Quincy Smith, a former investment banker, as his boss. Seeking Executive to Tame the Digital Future [NYT]