The Morning Lowdown 1-20-12
photo: Corbis / Patricia Curi
» SOPA Blackout, Anonymous-Style: FBI, DOJ Sites Downed In Megaupload Protest (paidContent) Day After Piracy Bill Collapses, Feds… Read more »
Stories for Jan. 20, 2012
Music And Movie Studios Take A Slice Of HMV To Save Disc Sales
Struggling UK entertainment retailer HMV (LSE: HMV) is giving equity worth 2.5 percent to its key suppliers – music and movie studios – to a… Read more »
Research: Professionals With iPads Are Deserting Printed Media
photo: Boston Globe
Stark new research statistics suggest digital replacement of analogue content is now very high amongst tablet owners. Read more »
Over 9,000 Hackers Join Anonymous DDoS SOPA/Megaupload Protest
photo: Utah Chiefs of Police website
Things appear to have calmed down significantly since last night — when the FBI, Department of Justice, France’s Hadopi, record labels and… Read more »
Google’s German Engine Is Slowing
photo: Google
Google’s Q4 UK revenue rose 21 percent from the previous year to $1 billion, though German revenue growth slowed during the quarter, the sea… Read more »
Interview: News Int. Hacking Scandal Has Spurred Innovation
News International’s recently-appointed digital product director is trying to make the publisher more agile and innovative in digital media… Read more »
Microsoft On Target In Fourth Quarter But Windows Sales Still Sliding
photo: Flickr / Dru Bloomfield
Microsoft’s fourth-quarter earnings came in about where Wall Street had expected, but the decline of its Windows business continued during a… Read more »
SOPA Blackout, Anonymous-Style: FBI, DOJ Sites Downed In Megaupload Protest
photo: Anonymous on Twitter
A day after the SOPA protest on the web, the hacker group Anonymous has taken the blackout theme to a whole new level: in retaliation for th… Read more »
Forget SOPA: Hollywood And Silicon Valley Make Up At Sundance
The legislative battle over SOPA highlights the cultural rift between Hollywood and Silicon Valley but one place where the two tribes seem t… Read more »
Updated: Day After Piracy Bill Collapses, Feds Shut Down Megaupload
photo: Shutterstock / Ayzek
The FBI today unsealed an indictment that charges file-sharing site Megaupload and its executives with a list of criminal charges, including… Read more »
Updated: Google Miss Sends Stock Down 9 Percent On Cost-Per-Click Questions
Google (NSDQ: GOOG) missed analyst expectations for earnings per share during the fourth quarter, sending its stock plunging in after-hours… Read more »
Updated: App Maker Uses GPS Patent To Sue Zillow, Trulia
photo: Shutterstock / Norman Chan
After suing media site TechCrunch in 2008 over a controversial GPS patent, Chicago-based Earthcomber is at it again. This time it’s accusing… Read more »
Stories for Jan. 19, 2012
News Corp Settles Hack Claims On Basis Execs Lied And Destroyed Evidence
photo: Murdoch: Hubert Burda Media
News Corp could be laden with a multi-million pound UK compensation bill after agreeing to settle claims on the basis its executives tried t… Read more »
Apple Move Will Spark Flurry Of New Companies, Content In Education Market
photo: Shutterstock / olly
At Apple’s event today in New York, Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) unveiled iBooks2, a new version of its iBooks software that is tailored to interactiv… Read more »
Apple Launches K-12 iPad Textbooks, New iTunes U & Self-Publishing Platform
photo: Apple
According to Apple (NSDQ: AAPL), education in the U.S. is plagued both by major institutional problems — low high-school graduation rates,… Read more »
Update: Motricity Restructures: Closes Asia Ops, Will Focus On Mobile Ads
photo: Shutterstock / iQoncept
More woe for beleagured mobile services company Motricity: the company today announced that it is restructuring operations, pulling back fro… Read more »
Sony Ericsson: Big Loss, 'Intense' Competition. Can Sony Turn This Around?
Not great results out today from handset maker *Sony* *Ericsson*, but also no surprise if you’ve been following the troubled fortunes of the… Read more »
New Stats: 2011 Libraries' Digital Checkouts Up 133% Over 2010
photo: Flickr / melanzane1013
Publishers are pulling e-books and digital audiobooks from libraries, but the demand for those materials is increasing exponentially: New st… Read more »
The Morning Lowdown 1-19-12
photo: Corbis / Patricia Curi
» Huffington Post partners with L’Espresso for “L’Huffington Post Italy” (paidContent)
» Introducing new apps for Tim… Read more »
Atlantic Tries A Business Site Again; WSJ's Delaney Will Lead Editorial
Nearly two years after Atlantic Media Company suspended plans for a business site, the company is back at it with nothing less that what Jus… Read more »
Bellwether: Q4 UK Ad Spend Up Slightly On Online Growth
photo: Corbis / Paul Hardy
In a climate where economic forecasts continue to remain cloudy, ad spend in the UK went up marginally in Q4 2011, with increased spend on i… Read more »
ITN Unifying Ad Sales For Multi-Platform Video Syndication
UK TV video news producer ITN is unifying its online ad sales platform as it expands into a burgeoning number of online destinations. Read more »
Pearson Made $3 Billion From Digital Content Last Year
photo: Pearson
Pearson (NYSE: PSO) says it is putting cash made from selling its older businesses toward buying new ones in digital and emerging markets. Read more »
Mail Online Introduces Indian Site
The Daily Mail (LSE: DMGT) has expanded its international digital presence with the introduction of Daily Mail online India. Read more »
Interview: 'No Decision' On Sun Paywall In Absence Of NOTW
photo: vapour trail
News Of The World’s closure deprived News International of data on which it could have based a decision to introduce digital fees at the UK’… Read more »
HuffPo Partners With L'Espresso For 'L'Huffington Post Italy'
photo: Arianna Huffington via Twitter
The Huffington Post Media Group (NYSE: AOL) is partnering with Gruppo Editoriale L’Espresso for the launch this year of an Italian edition,… Read more »
Cuban Teams With Seacrest, AEG To Relaunch HDNet as 'ESPN For Pop Culture'
photo: Flickr / Staci D. Kramer
Struggling for leverage with cable distributors as the operator of an independent network, Mark Cuban may have found a way forward for one o… Read more »
ComScore Study: A Third of Ad Impressions Are Never Seen
photo: Corbis / Ruediger Trebels
ComScore (NSDQ: SCOR) has released its first ad-verification tool since acquiring Seattle’s AdXpose for $22 million in mostly stock last Aug… Read more »
Video: Clay Shirky On Why SOPA Is A Bad Idea
photo: Pop!Tech
Want the short course on why SOPA is getting such blowback? Clay Shirky breaks it down in this 13-minute talk at the TED offices, explaining… Read more »
AT&T Raises Fees On Smartphone Data, But Adds More Data To Monthly Plans
photo: Shutterstock / SERHAT AKAVCI
The price of a monthly wireless data is going up at AT&T (NYSE: T), but the company is also throwing its customers a bone by increasing the… Read more »
Comparing Social Game Publishers | January 2012
photo: paidContent
Social games like FarmVille and Bejeweled seem ubiquitous, as requests for new farming equipment flood across friends’ Facebook pages and sm… Read more »
Updated: Zynga Confirms Recent Purchases Of Four Mobile Gaming Companies
Now that it’s a public company, Zynga can start throwing more cash around. The online gaming company has recently acquired four small mobile… Read more »
Tech Industry Breaks Back Of SOPA As Republicans Jump Ship On Black-out Day
photo: Shutterstock / hd connelly
The furor over controversial anti-piracy legislation reached a climax on Wednesday as Republican lawmakers began disavowing the Stop Online… Read more »
No More New Penguin Digital Audiobooks For Libraries, Either
photo: Flickr / Ian Barbour
Hoping to skirt Penguin’s library e-book restrictions by checking out a hot new title as a digital audiobook instead? Sorry, that strategy w… Read more »
Motorola Starts Android 4.0 Rollout To Xoom, But 3G Owners Must Wait
Android tablet makers have been coy about their plans for Android 4.0, the first version of the software to unify the smartphone and tablet… Read more »
UK's Biggest Regional Newspaper Ending Web Fees
The UK’s largest regional newspaper title, the Wolverhampton-based Express & Star, is ending the premium online payment tier it introduced i… Read more »
Industry Moves: Wiggin, Qriously, Shine 360°, Guardian; Digitas
Here are some of the latest executive-level hirings and departures from the world of digital media business… Read more »
One Publisher's E-Book Revenues Up 795% In 2011
photo: Sourcebooks
Book publishers don’t often share much information about their digital revenues, but Naperville, Ill.-based independent publisher Sourcebook… Read more »
Industry Moves: HookLogic; SwoopThat; ABCi; Digitas; Yahoo
– HookLogic: Jeff Griffin joins in the new position of president of retail. Most recently, he co-founded Interpublic Group’s Shopper Scienc… Read more »
Stories for Jan. 18, 2012
Jesta Digital, Formerly Fox Mobile, Loses Execs, Weighs Up Bitbop's Future
Jesta Digital, the mobile content business formerly known as Fox (NSDQ: NWS) Mobile Group and owner of the Bitbop mobile video service and J… Read more »
