In just one of its latest changes, Business Week has created a worldwide publisher position, tapping Jessica Sibley, formerly vice president of New York and New England multimedia sales for The Wall Street Journal, to fill it. Sibley will now be in charge of Business Week's ad revenue in print, digital, mobile, events and TV. The mag has been working over the last year to overcome a tough market that has seen its ad pages decline 18.2% in 2007, according to the Publishers Information Bureau. It has recently reorganized, redesigned and reined in costs by firing staffers. …

While the end of the three-month writers strike may be near, the fallout from the spat continues with yet another studio threatening to rein in spending on pilot and development deals. Studios and broadcasters were already looking for ways to cut the cost of developing comedy and drama pilots as digital media cuts into network TV ad spend. But the production halt sped up that restructuring. Peter Chernin, chief operating officer of the Fox TV network and News Corp., says he is looking to cut costs of production. And with the dispute estimated to have cost Hollywood studios …

To fill the holes blown in its schedule by the strike, NBC has ordered up 13 episodes of a one-hour drama series "The Listener" that was originally produced by Shaftesbury Films for Canadian broadcaster CTV. It is the second pick up in a week for a Canadian series by a major U.S. network as American broadcasters look to the Great White North to help fill air time. About a man who read people's thoughts, the series was given the OK in December and is in pre-production, with shooting set for the spring. "Two different series, two different …

AT&T has hired Discovery Channel new-media chief Chris Schembri to keep tabs on the allocation of its $3.3 billion annual media budget. Schembri is known for creative, out-of-the-box marketing campaigns and will have the title of vice president-media services at the telco, directing its media planning and spending. The new position was created by Wendy Clark, AT&T's senior VP of advertising. At the Discovery Channel, where he was senior vice president-media planning and partnership, Schembri ran innovative marketing pushes, including one with Verizon Wireless to promote the show "Deadliest Catch" by giving away free wallpapers, ringtones, bios …

The day after News Corp. chief operating officer Peter Chernin said he would stick to the traditional upfront for his networks, Walt Disney CEO Robert Iger hints that the days of the annual advertising showcase may be numbered. Iger says the fate of the upfront is up to the individual networks, but says the pageantry around the events is a bit outdated. He says that Disney will be aggressive in the sales process but "how we present the schedule, and what schedule is presented is still open for discussion. Personally, I think the manner that the schedule …

With digital media growing in importance, it is becoming increasingly more about the numbers than the creative, One bookish media buyer is king, i.e. Irwin Gotlieb or the "$59 billion man." Last year, the CEO of WPP's GroupM ultimately oversaw more than 16% of the $364 billion total global ad expenditures. He understands media better than most, and has the power to sway the industry to his vision. Right now, that means old media taking lessons from the Web. In a digital world, buyers need assume nothing, as they have real data to work with. Instead of buying …