In the battle for online kiddie traffic, Disney is leading Nickelodeon after adding new features to its site, but Nick users stay online longer. Disney saw August traffic to Disney.com grow by a steep 9.6%, to 32.3 million unique users, per comScore, followed by Nick, with 28 million users, a 2.7% boost over the prior month. While Disney can claim a hefty chunk of the 67.3 million kids who went online in August, Nickelodeon's family of sites has better user engagement numbers, per comScore. The average user stayed on one of Nick's sites for more than 93 …

Three years after launching its groundbreaking short-film series, Conde Nast's Glamour is introducing Glamour.TV, a new outlet for Web video. The platform serves Glamour content in bite-sized video clips, customized to key advertisers. Dockers, for example, sponsors a show that interviews celebrity mothers. Revlon backs "Beauty Wars," a competition among makeup artists from around the world. Estee Lauder and Burberry co-sponsor a fashion and entertainment news show. Glamour's Bill Wackermann says the model is reminiscent of the TV-sponsorship model of the 1950s, "when advertisers were in the business of promoting their own shows and having more creative control …

MTV is bringing 16 young, creative, tech geeks to live together in a loft in Brooklyn and compete in a contest that can be watched online and on TV. The mtvU channel, aimed at college students, will launch the Hewlett Packard-sponsored "Engine Room" series next week. Teams in the show will create digital artwork using HP products. Episodes will be quick five-to-seven minute clips that will last over a seven- week period. At the end of the competition, the winning team will be awarded $400,000 and a chance to program the giant MTV screen in New York's Times …

In the footsteps of magazines like Paste and Premier Guitar, Good magazine is launching a three-month effort to boost its subscriber base by allowing readers to pay what they want for a year's subscription. The initiative is being kicked off this week in conjunction with a partnership with Starbucks. Good will publish the Good Sheet, a weekly newsletter featuring cause-oriented articles and information. The Good Sheet will be available in Starbucks outlets over the next three months. Since launching two years ago, Good, which covers various social causes, says it has donated more than $850,000 in subscription …

A John McCain campaign Web ad that used a 3-month-old clip of CBS News anchor Katie Couric has been pulled by YouTube, because of CBS' complaints. The YouTube page that contained the ad was replaced Wednesday with a message saying, "The video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by CBS Interactive." However, the ad, in which Couric appears to be decrying criticism of Sarah Palin, remained on the McCain campaign site. Incidentally, Couric was not talking about Palin in the podcast clip, but about critics of Hillary Clinton.

As Tribune Co. and Google debated over who caused the glitch that cratered UAL's stock Monday, blame spread to the computers that troll the Web for news and automatically execute stock trades. An old news article about UAL's 2002 bankruptcy resurfaced Monday as a current story on Google's widely read news service. It prompted UAL's stock to take a nosedive before United's parent company could issue a denial. Circumstances of the glitch remain murky. For some reason the old story--without a date--suddenly appeared on a list of "most popular business stories" on the Web site of the …

HBOlab is experimenting with a Web series that will bring together recognizable YouTube stars against the backdrop of a college campus and will weave in text messaging, social networking and Twitter. The 10-part series, called "Hooking Up," will star Jessica Rose, better known as LonelyGirl15. The idea to cast proven Web personalities came from a time-tested TV practice, such as ABC's "Brothers and Sisters," which tapped well-known actors Sally Field and Rob Lowe to attract an audience. The Web show debuts Oct. 1 on Hookingupshow.com. HBOlab was created to give HBO a way to develop viable Web …

The Motion Picture Association of America warned the FCC this week about implementing a la carte pricing of cable TV channels at the wholesale level. The association urged the FCC to reject consumer groups' request to let cable providers pick channels one by one. It suggested such regulation would violate the First Amendment. Much of the attention previously has been on allowing consumers to pick cable channels a la carte as a way to keep cable prices down. But recently, the focus has moved to letting cable providers get channels they want without having to take a bundle that …