But Mark Thompson also made a fierce defence of the independence of the Corporation and claimed that public service broadcasters around the world were under threat because of the downturn in the media economy.

Mr Thompson, who is leading a strategic review of the BBC, said the Corporation would be cutting back areas of its output following the switch-off of the analogue signal in 2012. "Expect to see reductions in some kinds of programmes and content ? look, for example, at the current scope ( Read more... )
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But, his proposal is a gamble, and one that could hurt News Corp instead of helping it.

Murdoch is considering removing News Corp's news from Google's Web search results, and is talking to Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) about listing the stories with its Bing search engine instead. Microsoft would pay for the privilege, sources have told Reuters, but it was not clear how much.

If Murdoch pulled this off, he will likely be followed by other newspaper publishers looking ( Read more... )
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Google is at the centre of the debate once again after reports yesterday that Microsoft, which this year launched its rival search engine Bing, had entered talks with Rupert Murdoch of News Corporation to begin paying for top index content from his newspapers, including The Times and The Wall Street Journal, on its pages.

According to a report in The Financial Times, Bing would agree to the payments system on condition that Mr Murdoch takes steps to remove all his content, or links to his ( Read more... )
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Google already has a mobile ad delivery system, DoubleClick Mobile, which it got with its $3.2 billion (£1.9 billion) acquisition of DoubleClick Inc. in 2008. Google said buying AdMob will give it more expertise in a market that is expected to grow rapidly over the next several years.

Google shares rose $9.84, or 1.8 percent, to $560.94 in afternoon trading.

Omar Hamoui founded AdMob in 2006. The company, which is based in San Mateo, California, provides ( Read more... )
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The 30-minute play, Turing's Test, starring The History Boys actor Samuel Barnett, is a fictionalised account of the scientist's last moments after taking cyanide following his prosecution for homosexuality.

It is the first drama of its kind to be premiered on a newspaper website and has been widely praised since being launched last month.

Ashley Byrne, creative director of Made in Manchester which produced the drama, said: "This clearly proves that good quality audio drama can be ( Read more... )
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It began when a blogger and film reviewer, who tweets under the name "brumplum", said to one of his followers: "I understand @stephenfry's tweets but, much as I admire and adore the chap, they are a bit... boring.... (sorry Stephen)."

Shortly after, Fry replied: "Whereas yours are so fascinating I can barely contain my fluids." Twenty minutes later, he issued his declaration of tweet retirement.

Fry, who famously suffers from bipolar disorder, later confessed he was feeling "very low ( Read more... )
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Alongside a photograph of Travolta kissing Jeff Kathrein, the carer who had discovered Jett's body, the Gawker story made provocative suggestions as to the nature of their relationship. The item also referred snidely to Kathrein, who is married to a woman, as a "faux nanny". In a boast that seemed to recognise the depths to which it had stooped, the blog observed that the theory it had just outlined was one "you won't read about in the trashiest of internet tabloids".

But as more news outlets consider charging for their internet offering, the report shows there is little appetite for subscription services in the immediate future.

Only 11% of consumers said they paid for any online media and of those who did not currently pay, only a further 11% said they may begin any sort of subscription in the next 12 months.

The figures were compiled by YouGov in a survey commissioned by financial firm KPMG and show 28% reduced newspapers ( Read more... )
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Speaking to delegates at the World Media Summit in Beijing, Mr Murdoch said that search engines and other websites that use free content published by his sprawling News Corporation, which includes The Times and The Sun, would soon be charged for doing so.

"The aggregators and plagiarists will soon have to pay a price for the co-opting of our content," said Mr Murdoch.

"If we do not take advantage of the current movement toward paid content, it will be the content creators ? the people ( Read more... )
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Murdoch's comments were echoed by the Associated Press' Tom Curley and comes againts a background of media industry struggles in the internet age.

Many news companies say that sites such as Google have reaped a fortune off their articles, photos and video without fairly compensating those producing the material.

"We content creators have been too slow to react to the free exploitation of news by third parties without input or permission," Mr Curley, The AP's ( Read more... )
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He may find that gauntlet goes untouched.

For Murdoch, it is another step in his campaign of saying something loud enough in the hope that it becomes true. He has begun the retreat from free content (shutting down the Londonpaper, planning to charge on NewsCorp sites) and hopes that others will follow.

In many ways, Murdoch?s not being unreasonable. As he says, quality journalism isn?t cheap (though where that leaves The Sun is another matter). But newspapers ( Read more... )
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Murdoch's comments were echoed by the Associated Press' Tom Curley and comes againts a background of media industry struggles in the internet age.

Many news companies say that sites such as Google have reaped a fortune off their articles, photos and video without fairly compensating those producing the material.

"We content creators have been too slow to react to the free exploitation of news by third parties without input or permission," Mr Curley, The AP's ( Read more... )
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But when Andrew Rawnsley quit Politics Home last week, it was the latest sign of unease at the growing influence of the Conservative Party's deputy chairman. Lord Ashcroft is now marching ahead with plans to build his own media empire, concentrating on the kind of social media platforms used so effectively by Barack Obama in the US presidential election.

A deal was struck last weekend between Lord Ashcroft and the proprietors of two major political websites, Conservative ( Read more... )
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But the famously genial Wadsworth doesn't bear a grudge. Rather, he admires Thom Yorke, Ed O'Brien and the boys for having shaken up the music industry and made it think more radically. "I thought what they did was very interesting and innovative because what it did was question the notion of how you derive value from music."

His magnanimity may be due to the fact that his primary role now is chairman of the British Phonographic Industry, meaning he is obliged to identify ( Read more... )
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Julius Genachowski's comments, in his first major speech since becoming chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, delighted campaigners who fear that "congestion charging" could kill the spirit of the internet and make it harder for users to access niche websites by bloggers and independent publishers.

Mr Genachowski also signalled that the new net neutrality rules would apply to mobile phone services, too, protecting the fastest-growing area of internet access. "This is not about ( Read more... )
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The changes at the Hollywood trade publication will take place early next year and come with new online features such as a better archive, publisher Brian Gott said.

While there might be some reduction in the number of website visitors, currently about 2.5 million per month, the switch will help preserve paying subscribers even if readers eventually switch to reading online only, he said.

"It's getting ahead of something that inevitably will happen and creating ( Read more... )
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Speaking to a group of British broadcasting executives via video link, Eric Schmidt said he could, however, imagine niche providers of content such as business news succeeding in this area.

Schmidt was responding to an announcement by News Corp CEO Rupert Murdoch that he could start charging for content online.

"In general these models have not worked for general public consumption because there are enough free sources that the marginal value of paying ( Read more... )
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He earns a living by overseeing the chatrooms on websites for a clientele that ranges from Heat magazine to Liverpool Football Club and the pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline. ?The analogy I use with clients, to take them into the real world, is that we are a bit like bouncers, and if we see somebody causing trouble we will eject them, though it?s not our job to prosecute them or to see them banged up,? he says.

Marcus is director of Chat Moderators, one of the leading ( Read more... )
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He earns a living by overseeing the chatrooms on websites for a clientele that ranges from Heat magazine to Liverpool Football Club and the pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline. ?The analogy I use with clients, to take them into the real world, is that we are a bit like bouncers, and if we see somebody causing trouble we will eject them, though it?s not our job to prosecute them or to see them banged up,? he says.

Marcus is director of Chat Moderators, one of the leading ( Read more... )
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Microsoft's content portal, MSN, has 19.9m unique users a month in the UK (more than any of the big British newspaper websites), but it craves to be taken more seriously as a news provider. Its journalists, Ball argues during an interview in a nearby office, do far more than simply reproduce, or aggregate, other people's work. These multi-skilled MSN journalists, have not just a "nose for news" but a "passion for technology", he says. "Our editors edit videos and podcasts, they select images, ( Read more... )
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