Media mogul Charlie Ergen has stepped aside and named Michael Dugan to run EchoStar, the maker of television set-top boxes. Dugan, 60, a senior advisor and member of the company's board of directors and, will serve as president and CEO. However, the feisty Ergen will stay on as chairman, a role he also holds at Dish Network Corp. Dish Network was formerly known as EchoStar Communications Corp, and spun off its technology assets over a year ago, including its set-top box division, to create EchoStar. Dugan has held several roles at the combined company, including president and …

Emmy-winner Aaron Sorkin is planning to return to TV. The "West Wing" creator has another series after he completes his film work. Like his previous "Sports Night" and "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip," Sorkin says it's another behind-the-scenes look at a television show. With luck, he will reunite with actors he's worked with in the past, including Brad Whitford and Allison Janney from "West Wing" and Felicity Huffman of "Sports Night." Sorkin adds he expects to work with director and longtime collaborator Tommy Schlamme.

CBS is approaching a 90% sell-out for its Feb. 7, 2010, broadcast of Super Bowl XLIV, which means it has only between six and 12 30-second ad spots left to sell from the 62 typically sold for the big game. It appears CBS was pacing ahead of Super Bowl ad sales for the 2007 Super Bowl telecast. Motorola will advertise in the Super Bowl, but many regulars will not, due to the battered ad economy. In the last Super Bowl broadcast, no U.S. automaker put an ad in the game, and nor did FedEx Corp., a veteran …

Eileen Kiernan and Sandra Cordova Micek have been added to NBC Universal's integrated sales marketing team. Kiernan has been named vice president of "Green is Universal and Healthy" at NBCU. She previously worked at Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia. Micek is now vice president of Women at NBCU. She previously was an executive at Yahoo. Both will report to Maryam Banikarim, senior vice president of integrated sales marketing.

The New York Police Department raided circulation offices Tuesday (Nov. 17) at four of the city's largest newspapers as part of a union corruption probe. The offices of The New York Times, New York Post, El Diario and the Daily News of New York were raided as investigators sought paperwork related to the work of the Newspaper and Mail Deliverers Union. The 1,600-member union, which bundles and trucks newspapers across the region, was previously accused by the Manhattan district attorney's office of being run by organized crime. Only the newspaper delivery system around the city is under investigation …

As consumers seek help to navigate the recession, business titles have seen an uptick in readership, says Mediamark Research & Intelligence. The Wall Street Journal saw its audience grow 11.6%, to 3.4 million; Forbes' grew 11.5%, to more than 6 million; Fortune's rose by 9%, to 4.1 million; and The Economist's audience grew 6%, to 2.8 million. ,br> People may be cutting back on the number of magazines they buy, but they're still interested in the world of business, says Roberta Garfinkle, director of print strategy at TargetCast. Yet those audience gains are hardly reflected in magazines' advertising results. …

ESPN's move to launch local Web sites is prompting Comcast to beef up its news operations at five of the company's regional sports networks. Comcast is interviewing journalists for its online news operations in Chicago, San Francisco and Washington. The effort is similar to the situation in Boston, where Comcast spent millions of dollars earlier this fall to launch a news operation from scratch. This year, ESPN launched local sites in Chicago, Boston and Dallas, with launches planned in New York and Los Angeles next year. The implications for Comcast are significant. In markets where it operates regional …

USA Today is launching an initiative to test how college students respond to electronic versions of printed newspapers. Penn State, Indiana and Missouri are the first schools to participate. ,br> The new "e-Edition" is free for students, faculty and staff. Users must remember to go to the e-Edition site each day, or sign up for a daily e-mail that would link to stories. USA Today says the edition looks identical to the newspaper's print product but with additional interactive and exclusive content. For instance, the Penn State version includes a university-themed story written by the school. While newspapers …

The owners of Arthur Frommer's Budget Travel magazine are looking for new equity investors for the title or even an outright sale, say insiders. Lately rumors have been flying that the magazine was to be shuttered. Budget Travel has been owned since 1999 by Newsweek, which is part of The Washington Post Co., a conglomerate of newspapers, magazines, cable TV and education businesses. Budget Travel's guaranteed circulation is 675,000. Overall paid and verified circulation increased 6.3% in the first half of 2009 compared to the same period last year. Subscriptions grew 7.1%, and copies delivered free to …

BC Worldwide has appointed Zenith Optimedia as its global media agency after a review. The company spends approximately $50 million annually on measured media worldwide, including $3 million on ads in the U.S. last year. Incumbent PHD withdrew from the pitch prior to the final round, per sources. Optimedia will handle the U.S. portion of the modest, but prestigious, account. The agency will focus on strategies and campaigns for the cable channel BBC America, BBC.com and global brands including BBC Earth, Top Gear, Doctor Who as well as the newscast BBC World News America. BBC Worldwide, America, with …