Mediagazer: FTC Closes its Investigation of Google AdMob Deal (Federal Trade Commission)

1:01 AM ET, May 22, 2010

Top News:

FTC Closes its Investigation of Google AdMob Deal — After Thorough Review, Agency Finds Transaction Not Likely to Harm Competition — The Federal Trade Commission has closed its investigation of Google's proposed acquisition of mobile advertising network company AdMob after thoroughly reviewing …

Thomas Catan / Wall Street Journal:
Bloggers Aim Posts at Regulators

Discussion: mediabistro.com

Omar / The Life and Times of AdMob:
Working with Google to move mobile advertising forward

Discussion: Silicon Alley Insider, VentureBeat and paidContent

Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:

Exclusive: PaidContent Founder Ali to Depart Pioneering Digital News Site — PaidContent's Rafat Ali, who turned a one-man Web site into a must-read hub for digital media news, is leaving the company he founded eight years ago. — Sources said Ali has told co-workers he will leave the company …

Discussion: Gawker, MinOnline, paidContent, Silicon Alley Insider, FishbowlNY, Romenesko, Guardian and LA Observed

Rafat Ali / paidContent:

On To Life 2.0 — In the end, all things do come to an end. The good and bad part is, it is never a definite marker, but all part of a process. And so it has been for me. After pouring exactly eight years of my life and a lifetime into this, I am leaving ContentNext and paidContent in early July.

Discussion: Folio

Rafat Ali / paidContent:

Newsweek Sale Book: First Bids Due By June 2; Complete Financials — When the Washington Post Co. (NYSE: WPO) announced that Newsweek was for sale, the top-line numbers we pulled out of SEC documents weren't new but they were stark. The first-quarter earnings released a couple of days later highlighted the rationale.

Discussion: FishbowlNY, New York Observer and eMedia Vitals

Henry Blodget / The Wire: Newsweek Has 6 Employees In “Dining Services”

Ben Fritz / Company Town:

Weinsteins' deal to reclaim Miramax falls apart [updated] — Bob and Harvey Weinstein's long-in-the-works deal to reclaim independent movie label Miramax Films from the Walt Disney Co. has fallen apart after several weeks of intense negotiations, according to three people familiar with the matter.

Discussion: Hollywood Reporter, Media Decoder, The Daily Beast, The Wire, Thompson on Hollywood, /Film, Gawker, DealBook, New York Magazine and Movieline

Megan Garber / Nieman Journalism Lab:

The programmer majored in English: A fascinating study of the NYT's Interactive News unit — At the University of Texas's International Symposium on Online Journalism conference last month, a series of academics presented papers on the future of news. There's great stuff, including …

Colby Hall / Mediaite:

Happy Hour Is Over: Fox Business Network Cancels Dayside Business Program (UPDATE) — Earlier today Mediate first reported that Fox Business had canceled Fox Business Happy Hour, the 5:00 pm show on the relatively nascent financial news channel. Mediaite has confirmed with Fox Business …

Discussion: TVNewser, Inside Cable News, Dealbreaker, News On News and New York Magazine

Andy Plesser / Beet.TV:

Rachel Maddow's Rand Paul Interview on MSNBC.com Gets Half a Million Online Views — Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy — Rachel Maddow's Wednesday night, news-making interview with Rand Paul - Republican candidate for U.S. Senate from Kentucky …

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Right Now, Richard Prince's Journal-isms, Change of Subject, Mediaite and Think Progress

Erin McPike / National Journal Online:

Away From Prime Time, CNN Thrives — CNN STICKS TO ITS GUNS ON NEWS WITHOUT OPINION, EXCEPT ON THE HLN CHANNEL. — Smack in the middle of the worst economic decline since the Great Depression, when businesses everywhere are hemorrhaging money and news organizations are suffering through …

Edmund Lee / AdAge:

Yahoo Aims to Double Original Content in Ambitious Publishing Strategy — Plan Includes Snapping up Journalists, Buying Associated Content — NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — Despite Yahoo's well-publicized strategy to corner a broad array of online businesses from advertising to search to content …

Matthew Belloni / Hollywood Reporter:

MARC CUBAN COMPANY SUES PARAMOUNT FOR MILLIONS — EXCLUSIVE: Paramount has been sued for tens of millions of dollars by the Mark Cuban-backed entity that represents money behind 25 movies released in the 1990s. — Content Partners, the Cuban-affiliated company that manages Hollywood profit …

Discussion: Company Town

Jimmy Orr / Top of the Ticket:

Robert Gibbs turns into Wonder Woman; successfully deflects 13 questions in a row — It was almost like White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs turned into Wonder Woman and was using her magical silver bracelets to deflect the onslaught of questions from two reporters Thursday afternoon.

Discussion: Romenesko

David Kravets / Threat Level:

Pennsylvania AG Dropping Twitter Subpoena — Pennsylvania prosecutors are dropping their grand jury subpoena to Twitter demanding the identity of two account holders who used the microblogging service to criticize Attorney General Tom Corbett, a spokesman said Friday.

Discussion: New York Times, CasablancaPA and TPMMuckraker

Mark Sweney / Guardian:

Sky News ditches weather presenters — Long-serving forecaster Francis Wilson among those to go, with news presenters asked to deliver ‘headline forecasts’ — Francis Wilson, the long-serving weather presenter who has spent the past 17 years at Sky News, is understood to be leaving …

Jason Fell / Folio:

Source Interlink Launches Magazine with Emphasis on Newsstand, Not Advertising — ‘Bound by ink’ to chronicle the impact of art on tattoo culture. — When a pair of longtime Source Interlink Media executives began talking 10 months ago about launching a magazine, they wanted …

Discussion: FishbowlNY

Steve Buttry / Pursuing the Complete Community …:

Some tips on landing your next job in digital journalism — I have recently gained experience from both sides in job-hunting in digital journalism. — First I spent nine months looking for my next gig, landing at TBD as Director of Community Engagement. So I studied the issue from the hunter perspective.

Brent Lang / The Wrap:

EXCLUSIVE: Bob Kerrey Tapped to Head MPAA — By Ira Teinowitz & Sharon Waxman — Former U.S. Sen. Bob Kerrey has been tapped to be the next chairman of the Motion Picture Association of America, TheWrap has learned. — Kerrey has won approval from the heads of the movie companies …

Discussion: Hollywood Reporter, Media Decoder, TVWeek.com, Variety and Company Town

Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg / Wall Street Journal:

E-Books Rewrite Bookselling — NEW YORK—In the massive new Barnes & Noble superstore on Manhattan's Upper East Side, generous display space is devoted to baby blankets, Art Deco flight clocks, stationery and adult games like Risk and Stratego. — The eclectic merchandise …

Shira Ovide / Digits:

With 3-D in Newspapers, Is This Tech Trend Overdone? — Is 3-D at risk of jumping the shark? — Already flooded with 3-D movies, 3-D televised sporting events and 3-D scantily clad women, the world now will have a 3-D newspaper section. — The Philadelphia Inquirer said today …