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While some media companies are narrowing their exposure to newspapers, Honolulu Star-Bulletin majority owner David Black is demonstrating his continued bullishness on print media with a bid to buy Canwest LP's chain of daily newspapers. If Black's bid to buy Canwest's newspapers is successful, it would make him the largest newspaper magnate in Canada. Most of Black's newspapers are small weeklies in western Canada. In addition to the Star-Bulletin, Black's U.S. newspapers include the Ohio-based Akron Beacon Journal.

Back in June , the market was flirting with the idea that Amazon was looking to acquire Netflix. Analysts largely dismissed the combination then. After all, Amazon itself is preparing for a world that is moving away from physical products like books and CDs, and is instead placing emphasis on digital delivery via the Kindle and other devices. Why would the online retailing giant want to buy a company that processed millions of scratched, misplaced, and expensive DVDs? Yesterday may mark a change in the perceptions of a Netflix-Amazon deal . In short, Netflix is becoming a lot more attractive to Amazon.

A media firm rolls out a new approach to product placement and branded integration buys--auctions. But will it work?

"Consumers who have been misled by advertisements into buying expensive products or services - or who are just plain irked to be confronted by yet another cheesy ad about working at home - might wonder where those ads are coming from, and why they appear on otherwise respectable websites. The answer is complicated, but becoming less so."

When Barnes & Noble (NYSE: BKS) announced its Nook e-reader in October, the ability to pursue a dual in-store and online sales strategy appeared to be one of the clear advantages it might have over Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN). But, as we first reported then, the chain didn't plan to sell Nooks to go in all its stores for the 2009 holidays-and, as it turned out, the combination of demand and distribution issues kept the device from store shelves. Instead, most people who bought Nooks at B&N stores were placing online orders for delivery weeks or months into the future-not buying them for same-day use.

Facebook is denying it illegally breached the privacy of its users in a proposed $9.5 million settlement to a class action challenging its program that monitored and published what users of the social-networking site were buying or renting from Blockbuster, Overstock and other locations.

Wal-Mart Stores reached an agreement with Live Nation Entertainment to sell tickets to concerts and other events at about 500 stores. The service will be introduced in the next few months in cities including Chicago and Los Angeles, according to Irving Azoff, executive chairman of Live Nation. The new accord will let Wal-Mart shoppers buy tickets for concerts, sports and other events at cash registers in the retailer's entertainment department, Mr. Azoff said. Live Nation also sells tickets at Blockbuster stores.

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.

As I write this, I have just finished my first playthrough of Heavy Rain. I have, by turns, felt my heart pounding and my muscles aching; questioned my decision-making and morality; laughed where the game's creators intended, and in other places they didn't; I felt genuine surprise, alarm, sadness and joy. It's been a long time since a videogame made me feel any one of these emotions.

The XBox moves into cable TV turf. What does it mean for the industry?

Google faces problems related to privacy and copyright protection in Europe. Google's most immediate challenges may be in Italy. This month a decision is expected in a trial in Milan, where four Google executives have been charged with defamation and privacy violations in a case involving videos posted on a Google Web site showing the bullying of an autistic boy.Italian prosecutors accuse Google of negligence, saying it was too slow to remove the video. But Google sees a political dimension. One of the four executives, Peter Fleischer, Google's chief privacy counsel, called the case part of "an attack on a decade of progress" for Internet companies in Italy. In Germany, German publishers have persuaded the government of Chancellor Angela Merkel to support a new kind of copyright protecting journalistic content on the Web. Analysts say the measure, which has not yet been introduced, could require Web companies like Google to buy special licenses to cite content published elsewhere.

But this year, with technology powerhouses like Apple and Google introducing whole new mobile devices and buying up ad firms specializing in the small screen, the forecasts may finally be right.

"Earlier this week, federal prosecutors in New Jersey unveiled a 43-count indictment charging four men with using sophisticated computer programs to bypass security measures to buy up blocks of tickets through online vendors like Ticketmaster. They sold the tickets to brokers, who in turn marked them up for ravenous fans who found the available supply of tickets scarce. According to the indictment, the defendants reaped more than $20 million in profits from 2002 to 2009 through purchases of more than one million tickets by their company, Wiseguy Tickets."

"News Corp. agreed to pay $70 million for a stake in the media company owned by Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal, one of its largest shareholders. The New York media conglomerate will take a 9.1% stake in Rotana Group, with an option to double its holdings in 18 months. Corp. will have two seats on Rotana's six-person board. The investment gives News Corp its first significant foothold in the Middle East, where it expects economies to grow quickly."

Article discussing Shaw Communications acquisition of Canwest Global Media's television assets. Article discusses legal and economic aspects of the acquisition.

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.