Usually my e-mail from Starbucks (NSDQ: SBUX) is about the new reserve coffee or some other promo about the company’s products. But the message from Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz addressed to “Starbucks Friend and Fellow Citizen”:  that just hit my inbox has a very different subject, one that raises the…

Hollywood upstart TheWrap.com is getting a leading role with Reuters (NYSE: TRI). The wire service and the startup founded by Sharon Waxman in 2009 are expanding their relationship, with TheWrap replacing The Hollywood Reporter and Billboard as Reuters’ lead provider of entertainment news effective today. One result is a serious…

Technically, Bookish doesn’t have any revenue stream yet. The joint venture of Hachette Book Group, Penguin Group (USA), and Simon & Schuster (NYSE: CBS) went public Friday after more than a year in stealth but the launch is planned for summer. CEO Paulo Lemgruber and I chatted via e-mail about…

Three major publishers are behind the latest effort to boost print and digital book reading. Bookish, backed by Hachette Book Group, Penguin Group (USA), and Simon & Schuster (NYSE: CBS), promises an editorially independent platform for discovery and sales. It has been in stealth mode for months as “Obikosh.” (Get…

Google’s Android Marketplace, now home to more than 100,000 mobile apps, has fast become the top competitor to Apple’s App Store. But unlike Apple’s store, Android apps aren’t subject to extensive review before they’re made available in the store. Google’s more open system for uploading apps has led to a…

Five days after Groupon’s Super Bowl ad debacle, the daily deals said it has heard enough and has pulledthe remaining ads.

SnagFilms, founded in 2008 by Ted Leonsis, has raised its first major outside capital: a $10 million round led by New Enterprise Associates and *Comcast* Interactive Capital. Known until now for its documentaries, SnagFilms will use some of the funds to expand to fiction, to distribute its library across more…

Lots of about next-generation payment platforms today, and it’s only beginning to ramp up. Most of the news surrounded PayPal’s developer conference today in San Francisco and its three designated themes: local, social and mobile. PayPal said today it is launching a new digital goods payment platform that will make…

In early 2006, Howard Schultz talked about the power of having a massive collection of Wi-Fi hotspots, declaring “Starbucks (NSDQ: SBUX) is a network” with a ““unique proprietary competitive advantage. We understand the cultural relevancy of digital fill-up. I can’t say when, but it’s in our future.” Turns out it…

Six months after McDonald’s attempted to woo Starbucks’ customers with the promise of free WiFi at its local franchises, the coffee bar chain will follow suit on July 1. Starbucks’ WiFi service will continue to be run by AT&T (NYSE: T), which also handles McDonald’s and Barnes and Noble’s free…

Ken Sonenclar is a Managing Director at DeSilva + Phillips, LLC, a New York investment bank specializing in media. After decades with less disruption than a German train schedule, Hollywood media is rocking from a tumultuous year of deals and reinvention.  Nothing less than the future of B2B publishing is…

Guess I owe Howard Schultz a thank you for helping me cut back on CD purchases ... Starbucks is dramatically reducing the number of CDs carried in its stores, promising to remove the rotating racks from 6,500 locations by September. Instead, a spokesman told the Seattle Times the company will…

Good news for anyone in need of a quick internet fix: Starbucks is turning on free Wi-Fi today, courtesy of its partner AT&T (NYSE: T). The deal, according to USA Today: Users will get two hours of free internet usage when they purchase a $5 reloadable Starbucks Card and register…

Actually, I had an inkling of this before the press release rolled in just now—when the AT&T (NYSE: T) network took over as soon as my computer started looking for a network at the Starbucks where I’m working for a while this morning. Until today, the customary T-Mobile network still…

Once again, Starbucks is changing course when it comes to entertainment. The company announced today it is pulling out of direct management of the Hear Music label and instead will emphasize digital strategy and “core” content with music and books digital as Howard Schultz continues to assert his new vision.…

Starbucks and XM (NSDQ: XMSR) radio will end a longstanding joint marketing agreement that will result in the Starbucks XM Cafe channel going off the air. The agreement, which established a Starbucks branded channel and covered in-store radio, had been slated to continue into 2009, according to an SEC filing.…

I actually netted about 50 cents today during a stop at Starbucks—that’s if you total the two 99-cent ‘song of the day” freebies I left with and subtract a tall cup of java (the kind you drink, not the kind you can’t use on an iPhone). Of course, that also…

Lots of news big and small from The Steve Jobs Show (NSDQ: AAPL) now underway, including, as anticipated, a touch iPod with WiFi shipping this month—basically an iPhone sans AT&T and the phone, a WiFi Music Store—and, for the traditional content partner surprise, a deal for WiFi downloads with Starbucks…

As Paul McCartney prepares to release his first original album available for download sales, he has told Billboard magazine that a deal to distribute the Beatles’ catalog for online downloading is “virtually settled,” Billboard Biz reports. McCartney’s new album, Memory Almost Full, will be his first solo release available for…