CW’s Ostroff is out

“Gossip Girl” looks set to get an influential friend in New York — the CW network’s entertainment president, Dawn Ostroff, is negotiating a possible exit to move to the Big Apple, sources tell The Post.

Ostroff, one of the longest-serving broadcast entertainment chiefs in the business, is set to leave the network she joined in January 2006 when CBS-owned UPN merged with Time Warner’s The WB to create The CW.

Ostroff intends to leave when her contract expires in June. She wants to move back to New York to spend more time with husband Mark Ostroff, who is a managing director at Lazard Wealth Management. The two executives, who have four children, have been traveling back and forth between Los Angeles and New York for years.

A network spokesman declined to comment on “rumor and speculation.”

Some reports suggest that part-owner Warner Bros. Television wants to see some fresh blood in the corner office.

Ostroff and her employers are trying to figure out how to move forward, and nothing is being ruled out, according to sources familiar with the situation. News of Ostroff’s likely departure, first reported by Deadline.com, puts the exec in a tough spot with the Hollywood creative community and with Madison Avenue.

Brad Adgate, a senior vice president of research at Horizon Media, a New York ad agency, said that the young female demographic target, with shows like the CW’s “Gossip Girl.” “90210” and “The Vampire Diaries” is getting tougher because the competition includes everyone from a resurgent MTV and ABC Family to all manner of shows online.

Previous candidates to take the CW position include MTV chief Tony DiSanto and producer David Janollari, now at MTV. Former Lifetime executive Andrea Wong and Garth Ancier, a former BBC America chief who once ran The WB, are also available.

SNL Kagan predicts the network will lose $70 million in 2010. For Time Warner and CBS, CW’s continued losses must be disappointing even though it represents a platform to air their content. catkinson@nypost.com