Mediagazer: MARC CUBAN COMPANY SUES PARAMOUNT FOR MILLIONS (Matthew Belloni/Hollywood Reporter)

10:15 PM ET, May 21, 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 …

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

Discussion: VentureBeat and paidContent

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

Discussion: mediabistro.com

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: paidContent, MinOnline, Gawker, Silicon Alley Insider, Romenesko, FishbowlNY, 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

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, /Film, Media Decoder, The Wire, Thompson on Hollywood, Gawker, DealBook, New York Magazine and Movieline

Henry Blodget / The Wire:

Newsweek Has 6 Employees In “Dining Services” — Rafat Ali at paidContent scored a copy of Allen & Co's preliminary marketing book for Newsweek. The book provided some helpful financial detail. — As expected, Newsweek is losing a boatload of money—$56 million last year. — Why?

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

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

New York Observer:

Meet Vinnie Rotondaro, The J-School Grad Who Scored a Prokhorov Exclusive — Russian billionaire and new Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov was in extremely high demand among reporters on his tour through New York this week. At a press conference on Wednesday, which lasted almost an hour …

Discussion: The Brooklyn Ink, ProBasketballTalk, City Room, FishbowlNY, Runnin' Scared and Curbed NY

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 …

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 …

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, Richard Prince's Journal-isms, Right Now, Mediaite, Change of Subject and Think Progress

Joe Pompeo / Silicon Alley Insider:

Meet Andrew Golis, The 26-Year-Old Behind Yahoo's Newsiest 57 Million Page Views (YHOO) — Ever since Yahoo! News started putting together an all-star team of journalists earlier this year, we've been curious about its plans. — For the first time, Yahoo! News actually has full-time beat writers …

Discussion: Romenesko

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 …

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

Oliver Luft / Press Gazette:

T/M digital head: Chasing audience is editorial prostitution — Trinity Mirror digital content director, Matt Kelly, said yesterday newspapers wouldn't be able to successfully charge online for general news and instead needed to look at more creative solutions to recoup lost revenues.

Discussion: Journalism.co.uk and Kirk LaPointe's …

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 …

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.

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

Hank Stern / News and Culture:

Oregonian Reporter Fired After Diane Downs Story Appears in Glamour (UPDATED with Bhatia comment) — Veteran Oregonian reporter Lisa Grace Lednicer got fired today after more than 12 years at the daily. — Lednicer recently co-wrote a story that was published in Glamour magazine …

Discussion: Romenesko and Inside Out

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, Company Town and Variety