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The Associated Press is creating a strategic business unit to come up with fresh experiences for news on the web, mobile phones, tablets, and e-readers.

FT Press, taking a hint from the twitter/blog/rss trend and came up with a business plan to dice up their best book content into smaller, downloadable formats.

Chris Anderson, Wired's editor in chief, discusses the Internet's challenge to the traditional press

A judge disclosed for the first time that the artist known for his Barack Obama "HOPE'' image is under criminal investigation. A grand jury began an investigation after Shepard Fairey said he erred about which Associated Press photo he used as the basis for "HOPE'' and had submitted false images and deleted other images to conceal his mistake.

A judge revealed in a hearing that a criminal investigation was pending against the artist Shepard Fairey in connection with his use of an Associated Press photograph of Barack Obama, a lawyer involved in the case said

In a sign that Google's negotiations with the Associated Press over a new licensing contract may have reached a standstill, new AP articles are no longer being hosted in Google (NSDQ: GOOG) News; Search Engine Land's Danny Sullivan, who first reported the development, says that new AP articles haven't been hosted on the site since Dec. 24. Google isn't providing an explanation. 

"Do American students have First Amendment rights beyond the schoolyard gates? The answer is yes and no, according to two conflicting federal appellate decisions Thursday testing student speech in the online world. "Ultimately, the Supreme Court is going to have to decide if there ever is a time students have full-fledged First Amendment rights," said Frank LoMonte, executive director of Virginia-Based Student Press Law Center. He's one of the attorneys in the cases the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decided."

"Of the 81 percent of states surveyed that use Twitter, 83 percent of them use it to relay traffic incidents, while 80 percent use it to relay road closings and 63 percent use it to communicate emergencies such as hurricanes and tornados. Other information released by state DOTs on Twitter include referrals to Tripcheck and new video updates, fires, accidents, construction projects and delays, press releases, state responses to the Recovery Act, air quality, transit information and 511 information. "

The Comcast-NBC show returned to Capitol Hill Thursday as legislators pressed executives over the companies' plans to create a $30 billion media juggernaut. During a lengthy round of questioning, Comcast (CMCSA) CEO Brian Roberts and NBC Universal chieftain Jeff Zucker denied that the merger would be anti-competitive and would lead to layoffs. But critics were unswayed, including one who went as far as to say the deal would "undermine American democracy."

Has the consumer been neglected in the panel debates about FCC media ownership issues?

Erik Estavillo, the litigious gamer who has gone after Microsoft, Nintendo, Sony and Activision Blizzard (among others), has turned his sights on the gaming press.

Publishers and broadcasters have always called on freelance journalists. But a generation ago, if they used material from another organization, it was usually limited to a handful of large, well-known and respected ones like The Associated Press or Reuters. With established newsrooms shrinking, a raft of smaller news outlets have cropped up in the last few years, selling or simply giving news reports to the traditional media - groups like ProPublica, Global Post, Politico and Kaiser Health News.

In his feisty opening statement, Franken said: "I worked for NBC for many years. And what I know from my previous career has given me reason to be concerned--let me rephrase that, very concerned--about the potential merger of Comcast and NBC Universal. The media are our source of entertainment, but they're also the way we get our information about the world. So when the same company that produces the programs runs the pipes that bring us those programs, we have a reason to be nervous.... You'll have to excuse me if I don't just trust their promises and that is from experience in this business." The former SNL star and entertainment industry insider-turned-Senator is dead on with his concerns. As Free Press--the media reform advocacy organization founded by The Nation's John Nichols, media scholar Robert McChesney, and current executive director Josh Silver-- points out, the merger would result in Comcast controlling one in every five television viewing hours. It would lead to fewer choices of what you can watch and how you can watch it. Those cable bills that continue to rise would rise even higher, and if you don't use Comcast you might have to pay a premium to get NBC's shows. There will be even less access to local and independent programming as Comcast would promote NBC's shows at their expense. And, finally, there's the even larger issue of concentrating power and limiting access to free public interest media.

"Are newspapers dead, dead, dead? If you can believe everything you read in them, apparently so. Hal Fuson, a veteran of 44-years in the news business, didn't think those obituary writers had their stories straight. In fact, they were reporting myths about the dire state of the industry as though they were facts. When Fuson, who is a member of First Amendment Coalition's board, recently retired from Copley Press, decided to set the record straight. 'I had a few things to get off my chest,' Fuson writes, 'So I agreed to be interviewed by a journalist I trust: myself.'"

"J.K. Rowling has been named in a lawsuit alleging she stole ideas for her wildly popular and lucrative "Harry Potter" books from another British author. The estate of the late Adrian Jacobs added Rowling as a defendant in a lawsuit it filed in June against Bloomsbury Publishing PLC for alleged copyright infringement, according to a statement released by the estate's representatives, who are based in Australia."

""The global potential for connected devices is huge - it's more than just mobile phones and laptop PCs. It can be anything that has a mobile connection embedded in it such as a camera, a music player, a car, a smart meter or a health monitor," said Alex Sinclair, Chief Technology and Strategy Officer at the GSMA. "Predictions around how many devices will be connected to mobile networks vary, but we expect to see up to 50 billion connected devices over the next 15 years, finally making the prospect of a truly connected lifestyle a reality. "

"For the first time ever, Microsoft will bring together Xbox LIVE games and the Zune music and video experience on a mobile phone, exclusively on Windows Phone 7 Series. Partners have already started building phones; customers will be able to purchase the first phones in stores by holiday 201"

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski spoke today about some of the likely recommendations in the National Broadband Plan. Among them is a goal of 100 million households at speeds of 100 Megabits per second."

"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 Associated Press has activated a Facebook page and added a Twitter account as part of its extensive coverage of the Haiti earthquake. http://www.facebook.com/APNews http://twitter.com/ap"