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After just four months on the job, we hear Daily News chief mouthpiece Nancy Palumbo is leaving her post.

Palumbo took over as Mort Zuckerman's talking head in November, following the exit of Donna Dees – who is now the PR chief at Inside Edition – after a stint as the New York State Lottery director. Now Nacy is already off to a new pasture – within the next week, though we're not sure where – though we're told her exit is voluntary, and that she's already put in her two weeks notice.

And after there was so much hope speculation that Nancy would be running the whole operation one day!

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On Friday, the Daily News announced it had brought on State Lottery director Nancy Palumbo to be its senior VP of strategic marketing and corporate communications. Why is the new talking head for Mort Zuckerman so important? Well, part of it has to do with Zuckerman's constant manicuring of his own image, for which Palumbo will now be responsible. But more interesting is that Palumbo is the replacement for Donna Dees, the generally well-liked now-former chief talking head who was axed in August. At the time, Page Six reported she was let go under an overhaul to remove anyone hired under former News president Les Goodstein — but our sources pointed to Zuckerman's displeasure with not getting enough play in the New York Times, a failure he pinned on Dees. (Whether it was her doing or not, Zuckerman pal Jeffrey Epstein managed to stay out of the Times for quite some time — and someone deserves an award for that.)

So now we've got Palumbo on the clock beginning Nov. 6. And by Nov. 7? She better have some B1 play for Mort in the Grey Lady, at a minimum.

But this wouldn't be a proper Daily News top brass item without some requisite speculation. Our sources say Palumbo is actually in the running to succeed Daily News president Mark Kramer — who Zuckerman has barely supported of late. Kramer has hit Mort's infamous nine month mark, and certainly the pummeling delivered by the New York Post this morning isn't sitting well.