-- William Morris: Former Disney/ABC SVP of business development Bruce Gersh has joined talent agency William Morris, where he will focus on the development of intellectual property on behalf of the agency’s clients. Gersh was involved in putting full episodes of shows on ABC.com and iTunes, developing and launching ABC Mobile, establishing the business model of bringing ABC series to DVD and developing product lines, video games, soundtracks and books. At WMA, Gersh will be working with clients across every area of the business, reporting to John Fogelman, executive vp and worldwide head of motion pictures.

-- National Geographic Digital Media: Rob Covey has been promoted to SVP of content development and design for online material from managing editor and creative director for National Geographic Media online. Reporting to Betsy Scolnik, president of NGDM, Covey will be responsible for conveying all of NGM’s properties online, integrating NGM.com into NGDM. Before joining NGM in 2007, Covey was SVP for content and design at Discovery Communications. Dave Smith has also been named director of Web technology planning and now joins Stavros Hilaris’ Technology Group. Smith played a key role in NGM’s online product development and previously reported to Covey.

-- Discovery: Former MTV Networks (NYSE: VIA) executive James Hitchcock has been named marketing and branding officer at Discovery Channel. He will lead and direct the network’s branding and will be responsible for developing creative and media strategies, across all platforms. Hitchcock most recently was SVP marketing and creative at MTVN’s cable network CMT.

-- NextNew Networks: Online video producer/syndicator NextNew Networks has tapped broadcast and ad agency vet Bill Cella to help manage the company’s ad sales strategy. While Cella has been named to NextNew’s advisory board, the company has also hired his new media sales rep company, The Cella Group. In his role as an advisor, Cella will be charged with mapping out ad strategy. He recently spent six years as chairman and CEO of Interpublic Group’s Magna Global Worldwide, a media negotiation, research and programming unit that handled over $25 billion of media spending.

-- InfoSpace: Michael Glover has been promoted to VP of business development from senior director. In this role he will report directly to Jim Voelker, chairman, president and CEO, and lead all aspects of InfoSpace’s (NSDQ: INSP) partner strategy. Prior to joining the firm in 2000, Glover was director of marketing at Uniglobe.com. Release.