Here at Mediaite we don’t write about, much less care too much about, fancy-pants restaurants, even those deemed to be “media” hangouts and especially those considered “hot spots.” So last year when our founder Dan Abrams and other media guy Dave Zinczenko got involved in The Lion restaurant, we yawned publicly while secretly imagining a new Mediaite clubhouse, sort of like a real-life version of Cheers only with powerful media figures playing the part of regulars.

Rodale Inc. has promoted Dave Zinczenko to executive vice president and editorial director for the company’s Prevention and Organic Gardening brands, effective immediately. In addition to his new duties, Zinczenko will remain editor-in-chief of Men’s Health — a position he’s held since 2000 — as well as editorial director of Women’s Health, a role he’s held since 2008.

Zinczenko will oversee both print and online editorial for Prevention and Organic Gardening, with Prevention editor-in-chief Diane Salvatore and Organic Gardening editor-in-chief Ethne Clarke reporting directly to him.

On Friday, Elaine Kaufman, the legendary owner of New York landmark Elaine’s restaurant, passed away. Below is a tribute from one of her most loyal supporters.

On the night of September 11th, after a day of confusion and sadness and loss, there was only one place I could think of going. This past Friday, after another such day, I went to that same place. I went home. To Elaine’s.

When does a new technological advancement officially break through? When the majority of the users are no longer the proudly nerdy “first adapters” but the regular mainstream folks. Case in point? Dave Zinczenko, the Editor in Chief of mainstream Men’s Health, overtook Chris Anderson, the Editor in Chief of the tech-savvy Wired, as the Magazine Editor with the most twitter followers.

The American Society of Magazine Editors announced nominations for their annual National Magazine Awards last week, and for the first time included a brand new category: Magazine of the year. The official press release from the Magazine Publishers of America, defines the new award as, “honor(ing) publications that successfully use both print and digital media in fulfilling the editorial mission of the magazine.” Let’s take a look at the first time honorees: The Atlantic; Fast Company; Glamour; Men’s Health; and New York.

2009 was a remarkably troubled year for magazine publishing. But a few titles were able to eke out some positive attention and influence over the field — thanks, in part, to the vision and leadership of their editors. In our first end-of-year media poll, we ask our loyal, smart, and attractive users to share their thoughts on who had the biggest year in various media categories. Our first category: Magazine Editors.

Men’s Health is providing Mediaite with further clarification about the way they choose cover lines following our post on the similarities between the newsstand cover of their December 2009 issue and their October 2007 issue, which were first pointed out by Perez Hilton.Men’s Health editor-in-chief David Zinczenko has passed along a number of the magazine’s subscription covers, which he says make up nearly 80 percent of their distribution versus the 20 percent comprised by newsstand covers like the ones Hilton discovered:

People who memorize every cover of Men’s Health may have noticed something curious about the December issue’s cover, aside from noted dreamboat Taylor Lautner: almost all of the text and layout is identical to a cover from 2007, which featured Jason Statham. The self-recycling was noted by none other than intrepid media watchdog … Perez Hilton. In a statement to Mediaite, Men’s Health editor-in-chief Dave Zinczenko defends the cover: