Unless you've read the books he's authored, benefited from his philanthropic work, followed his political career or watched him race cars, then you probably never heard of Leo Hindery Jr. He's a man about town, or the country for that matter. He is more known by those who follow his career for the above mentioned. But Mr. Hindery is also a major player in the media industry.  However news and information about individuals in the business is usually saturated by the more known knowns like Jeff Bewkes of Time Warner, Jeff Zucker of NBC-Universal, Brian Roberts of Comcast, Robert Iger of Disney and Rupert Murdoch of News Corp to name a few. When I think of Leo Hindery, I think of all the above but other things come to mind like his stint as CEO of the Yes Network and running AT&T's Broadband operations. Since moving on from those high powered rolls, he's been on the investment side of the media business in an even more powerful roll. He is the founder and managing partner of InterMedia Partners which owns InterMedia Outdoors Inc, the nation's biggest outdoors media company publishing well known magazines like Guns & Ammo, Bowhunting and more totalling about 16. Under this company Mr. Hindery also controls the Sportsman's Channel and a collections of online properties catering to the outdoors sportsman. Two of the latest addition to his media empire is Hip Hop and pop culture magazine, Vibe and Uptown Magazine which is a lifestyle magazine for the affulent African American consumer. Other properties include Cinelatino The leading Spanish-language movie channel in the U.S., Control Room, The world’s leading producer and distributor of live music events, the Gospel Music Channel, Soul Train and more. As head of InterMedia, Leo Hindery sits atop an impressive collection of media properties,  which puts him up there with the mainstreamers. He is the known unknown media mogul, which  is perhaps the way he likes it. At 62, Hindery shows no sign of slowing down. Besides he still has many years ahead of him.

Fox is said to be thisclose to announcing its deal with booted NBC personality Conan O'Brien. The network is reportedly waiting on commitments from affilitates so they can announce the deal and include a new program from Conan in their fall line up presentations in May. It was due to Fox's interest in Conan a few years back that NBC head Jeff Zucker promised him Jay Leno's job. Now that he has since been pushed out of the job he was promised to stay at NBC, Fox finally got their play. In Other Fox/NBC news, NBC may be the new home for Fox's "24" drama if the latter network makes this season the last. Its funny how NBC killed the cop drama "Southland" which was picking up steam to make room for the ratings cesspool that was "The Jay Leno Show". Now to add a little more drama to their line up, they may be picking up Fox's leftovers. So why is Jeff Zucker still running NBC again?

In a clear sign that the web is where its at, bookseller Barnes & Noble promoted William Lynch, the president of Barnesandnoble.com to CEO of the company. Lynch replaces Steve Riggio who will stay on as vice chairman. Lynch had a hand in the launch of the company's e-reader called the Nook which increased online sales. Under his leadership, barnsandnoble.com's traffic has been hovering in the 5 million visits per month.

"William came to us as a skillful leader in e-commerce who, in a short period of time, has done a superb job in quickly establishing Barnes & Noble as a major player in e-commerce and digital content," Chairman Leonard Riggio said in printed statement. "Given the dynamic nature of the book industry, William is uniquely qualified to lead the company's transition to multi-channel distribution and drive the continuing expansion of our e-commerce platform, eBooks and other digital content and products."

Former Jane Editor in Chief Brandon Holley was living the fab magazine life. Similar to that of her counterparts like Vogue's Anna Wintour and Vanity Fair's Graydon Carter.  Ms. Holley was spoiled with an expense account, waiting car and driver, front row seats at fashion shows and hair and make up people making sure she looked her best while she conducted business on the phone in her huge office at the much gawked at 4 Times Square headquarters of Conde Nast. But Brandon Holley soon came to find out that the old saying "Nothing lasts forever" was the real deal. When Conde Nast Chairman Si Newhouse informed her in an early morning meeting that he was pulling the plug on Jane, she  knew all her perks and the lifestyle she grew accustomed to, was also being yanked. She was lost, but not for long.  She knew the next big thing for magazine style content was the web, but she was clueless about it, how to do it and what it does. Then Yahoo! called about launching a new site geared towards women, and Ms. Holley went in with blind folds. Today with 17 million visitors, Shine.yahoo.com has become the third-largest women’s destination on the Web, behind the Glam Media network of sites and iVillage and its only been around for almost 3 years More...

News Corp is apparently trimming some fat at IGN Entertainment which is a company focused on the video gaming industry. IGN Prexy Roy Bahat explains why "Today is a hard day" via a memo to his underlings. Bahat in his memo makes it clear to employees that the cuts are happening because they need to use the salaries of those fired employees to invest elsewhere in the company. Isn't that always the case Mr. Bahat? More...

AOL which plans to flood the internet with a gazillion new websites, today launched Kitchendaily.com which focuses on everyday cooking of course. Like many new sites launched since the start of 2010, Kitchendaily.com targets the mommies. What about the daddies? Some of them know a thing about cooking too ya know!

KitchenDaily features thousands of recipes, with a focus on easy-to-put-together meals for dinner. Plus, the site houses tools like Don’t Know What to Cook? Geared toward provide inspiration and instruction. “KitchenDaily is designed to help busy home cooks—moms in particular—make smart, informed decisions about food and cooking, while  also helping to instill confidence in their abilities in the kitchen,” said Stephanie Dolgins, svp, AOL Women’s and Lifestyle Group.

Conde Nast has announced that it is moving W Magazine out of the FairChild Group directly into Conde Nast stable of glossies where it will be under the watchful editorial eyes of  Tom Wallace. With a bad year behind it, the suits at Conde perhaps felt the need to start fresh with the title. With this shift also comes a little staff shake up as well. Patrick McCarthy who is Chairman of the Fairchild group will be out come the end of the year and Tom Wallace will name a new EIC for W. It would be so boring if they were to pick from inside. Then again why take on a new salary when u can just promote someone and give them a little more cash right. More...

“This formally establishes a structure for W consistent with our other consumer magazine titles, and allows FFG the autonomy to focus on their core business-to-business publications and related businesses,” Said Conde Nast CEO Chuck Townsend.