Eddy W. Hartenstein, former head of DirecTV with no newspaper experience, is the new publisher of The Los Angeles Times. His job will be to invigorate a newspaper that has cut hundreds of jobs as circulation and advertising revenue decline. Hartenstein is the fourth Times publisher since the newspaper was acquired in 2000 by the Tribune Company. The post has been vacant since David Hiller resigned on July 14, during a round of staff cutbacks. Hartenstein, 57, said Sam Zell, chief executive of the Tribune Company, basically told him: "'You're the publisher and CEO. It's your [paper] to …

Sports marketers have started scrambling to find which Olympic athletes, besides Michael Phelps, can squeeze the most sponsorship gold from their Olympic feats. Some winning athletes have ardent fans in their given sports, but the comparatively small numbers of those fans mean corporate sponsors are hard-pressed to justify endorsement deals. To ride the initial wave of fame, many high-profile Olympic medalists will participate in the 2008 Tour of Gymnastics Superstars, which will travel to 36 cities, selling tickets for up to $80. Walt Disney is providing the soundtrack of the tour, and Fox will broadcast a two-hour television special …

After years of regarding pirated video on YouTube as a threat, some major media companies are now treating it as an advertising opportunity. CBS, Universal Music, Lionsgate, Electronic Arts and others have stopped trying to remove unauthorized clips of their content and are now selling advertising against them. Ironically, CBS's sister company, Viacom, is also pursuing a billion-dollar copyright lawsuit against YouTube's owner, Google. So far, the ads appear on only a fraction of YouTube's videos, but the shift suggests the chilly standoff between YouTube and traditional media is thawing as YouTube struggles to gain revenue from video ads.

The United States is behind several other countries when it comes to boosting TV viewership by making free, ad-supported television an attractive option for mobile phones. Choices about TV technology made long ago are largely to blame. Cell phones that can tune in to free TV broadcasts are widely available in Japan, South Korea, Germany and China, but not in the U.S. One major reason is the impending shutdown of analog TV broadcasts in February. Most handsets can only tune in to TV via analog transmissions--so there is no interest in selling phones like that in the United States, …

Jon Stewart and "The Daily Show" have emerged as a genuine cultural and political force. Recent studies show that satirist Stewart ranks as an admired and trusted journalist along with real newscasters such as Brian Williams and Stewart's show "is clearly impacting the American public dialogue." The show has earned a devoted following that regards it as a provocative source of news because it is wickedly funny and because its sense of the absurd is perfectly attuned to an era of widespread cognitive dissonance. When Fox, MSNBC and CNN routinely mix news and entertainment, "The Daily Show," in contrast, …

With just a month before fall television programs hit the air, more than 10 highly anticipated shows have leaked online, offering users sneak peaks at "Life on Mars," "Leverage," "Do Not Disturb" and others. The number of leaked shows is steadily increasing and the leaks start as early as May, says Eric Garland, a digital tracking executive. Welcome to the dawning age of the "pre-air" season, where shows bubble up online several months before their debut on network television. For example, the first episode of J.J. Abrams' highly anticipated supernatural show "Fringe" surfaced on file-sharing networks in June …

Last year, when WPP Group landed an unprecedented deal to create one giant agency to handle Dell's massive account (which had been handled by 800 shops worldwide), it upended the ad business. Lately the ad business has been firing back. In blogs and private conversations, detractors are counting the days until the deal falls apart. They repeatedly point out that Enfatico is running behind schedule and has yet to produce any advertising for Dell since it won the $4.5 billion contract. Other ad chiefs question if Enfatico will be able to keep top creative talent happy working on …