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"At first glance of Friday's Los Angeles Times, you might think the Mad Hatter has taken over the newspaper. Johnny Depp's colorful character in Disney's new film "Alice in Wonderland" dominates a faked front page, which includes the paper's traditional flag and two stories that appeared in the paper last month. Los Angeles Times spokesman John Conroy said the "cover-wrap" was an "unusual opportunity to stretch the usual boundaries and design an innovative ad designed to create buzz." Roy Peter Clark, a senior journalism scholar at the Poynter Institute, said tough economic times and lower ads sales have forced newspapers to tear down the ethics wall that separated a paper's front page from advertisers."

 Hulu investor  Providence Equity Partners is pumping $50 million into a new online video company set up by Chinese Internet search giant  Baidu. The news comes roughly 7 weeks after Baidu confirmed plans to established a new independent company to provide licensed, advertising-supported online video content to Chinese Internet users.

Pepsi decided to pay millions for an online ad campaign that would "engage and interact with customers for months" rather than pay millions for 30 seconds of ad time during the Super Bowl. They also got a ton of free advertising from news agencies who reported on this decision.

Update on the court case between Arbitron radio ratings and Spanish Broadcasting Systems over SBS's refusal to encode their signals so that Arbitron can measure audience. SBS claims that Arbitron's measurment under counts Hispanic listeners and hurts their advertising rates.

Google recently acquired one of the largest mobile ad companies, perhaps indicating that the nascent industry could take off in the next few years.

New York Times Co posted a higher-than-expected quarterly profit on Wednesday after slashing costs, but the newspaper publisher warned that print advertising will continue to decline in the current quarter.

News Corp is hungry to get into the middle east advertising/media markets because of the young audiences and emerging growth in their home markets. They are attempting to buy a share in Rotana Media.

Comcast is working diligently to make sure you see video advertisements when accessing copyrighted programs on the internet.

Cuban discusses the drawbacks of traditional subscription/advertising models for newspapers and develops some solutions of his own for new revenue/marketing strategies.

Following the Fox TWC dispute, experts predict more retransmission battles as broadcast networks search desperately for ways to supplement falling advertising revenue.

FreeAllMusic.com offers free downloads in exchange for active engagement with ads. "iTunes meets Hulu." Says that rather than paying for songs, viewers select among a menu of ads to watch. Leads to active engagement and better retention, which allows charging higher ad rates.

google putting in place the resources to expand its local services. poses a problem, however, as google expands beyond research to content. its reputation rests on impartial search, but with as the slowing growth of revenues from search advertising, it needs to find new growth markets.

"Media-ownership rules should be loosened to allow more consolidation and attract capital to the industry, representatives of the investment community said Tuesday at a Federal Communications Commission workshop on how the agency might change ownership rules later this year."

At an FCC workshop, industry representatives argue for relaxed media-ownership rules to allow more consolidation and to attract capital to the industry. FCC officials are looking at what the agency can do to improve the health of the newspapers, TV and radio stations, which continue to lose customers and advertising revenue to online competitors.

The NY Times breaks ranks and announces a new plan to charge frequent users of their online site. Will this new economic model work?

Lawrence Journal-World is offering unemployed people in the area a 13-week subscription for just $1. "We want to ensure that residents experiencing difficult times are able to stay connected to the news and be aware of job opportunities and advertising specials published in the paper each day," said Chris Bell, Journal-World circulation director. Is this sincere?