Time Inc.

Obama, Phelps spur on traffic growth.

—Lonely Planet : Lonely Planet, the travel brand owned by BBC Worldwide, has hired Dow Jones' digital strategy and operations SVP Matthew Goldberg as its new CEO. He will replace Judy Slatyer. Goldberg had led the Wall Street Journal Digital Network's business operations, including those for WSJ.com, MarketWatch, Barrons.com and AllThingsDigital.com. When he starts with Lonely Planet in March, he will be charged with maintaining its core printed travel guides business and growing its digital and multiplatform opportunities.

The mystery of why deputy managing editor Adi Ignatius is leaving Time is solved: He's the new editor in chief of Harvard Business Review. The Boston-based title has been without a top editor since last summer, when Tom Stewart quietly resigned.

If you're exploring new opportunities during the holiday break, here are some choice jobs in digital media:

Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) seems to be in the home stretch of retooling its entire ad-sales division: Bill Shaughnessy, Microsoft's global VP of sales, marketing and services is departing. There's been no official word on why the 15-year vet, who has experience on both the product and ad sales sides of MSFT's business, is leaving.

A rare bit of good media news: It seems as if Time magazine's holiday cookie budget escaped the Time Inc. cutbacks. Sweet!

------
Photo by Sean Driscoll; cookies by Veronica's Treats.

At last, Jeff Bewkes is the man.

Time Warner just named Bewkes chairman, confirming that the current occupant of that post, Dick Parsons, will step down on Dec. 31. Bewkes became CEO of the media conglomerate in January; an out clause in his contract would have allowed him to walk away had he not been made chairman by the start of 2009.

In a continued effort to cut costs following its major restructuring announcement in October, Time Inc. has decided to close the Canadian edition of Time magazine. The December 29 issue will be its last.read more

Despite major layoffs at Time Inc., the company says its digital properties are achieving significant growth.read more

Last night was the book party for The Man Who Owns the News, Michael Wolff's generally admiring biography of News Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch. Shortly after the party got under way, I asked the author -- whose willingness to make himself persona non grata is a big part of his appeal -- how he felt about being described in Newsweek as "the world's most abrasive media journalist."