Journalism Online, founded to help new publishers charge for content, and ITZ Publishing have formed a partnership to work with small and medium-sized newspaper companies. Consulting firm ITZ is advising Journalism Online affiliates about their usage and traffic patterns to help them determine what content to charge for and what to give away for free. Journalism Online's strategy is to give publishers a variety of tools and options to charge for content, including the ability to implement micropayments. The company was created by former Wall Street Journal Publisher Gordon Crovitz and cable executive Leo Hindery Jr. ITZ …

Dish Network, working with GroupM and tech firm Invidi, will launch an addressable advertising system over Dish by early 2010. While the service will start with Dish, DirecTV, which recently signed an agreement with Invidi, will join as a distributor in the second half of 2010, say insiders. Unlike the now-scuttled Canoe Ventures plan, the Dish-Invidi-GroupM service would offer household-specific addressability by storing targeted ads in individual digital DVR set-top boxes. More than 6 million Dish households have digital DVR-enabled set-top boxes. Dish's total subscriber count stands at 13.6 million. It is believed that GroupM clients would …

TMZ's scoops on the death of "King of Pop" Michael Jackson this week may mark a turning point in the brand's place in the news media landscape. Usually obsessed with tabloid trash, TMZ trounced all news rivals on the Michael Jackson story. While TMZ's Jackson reports are only the latest in a long line of celebrity-related scoops, the outfit's reports on the pop star's death showed its news team's prowess. TMZ was not only first to report on Jackson's hospitalization, death and cause of death--parts of a story that every major news outlet wound up chasing--it also got …

Billy Mays, the recognizable pitchman for products like OxiClean and Mighty Putty, died Sunday. He was 50. Mays also starred in "Pitchmen," a TV show airing on the Discovery Channel co-starring Anthony Sullivan. The cause of death is unknown. Mays was aboard a US Air flight that made a rough landing in Tampa on Saturday. He told a local TV station that he was struck in the head by items that came out of the overhead compartment during landing. Autopsy results will be released today or tomorrow.

Taco Bell is turning to cinema as it kicks up its "Why pay more?" campaign to push nine menu items priced at 79 cents, 89 cents and 99 cents. The new ad, dubbed "Roosevelts," referring to FDR, just opened in National CineMedia's FirstLook pre-feature program across 171 markets. The Taco Bell spot will also be seen on NCM's lobby entertainment network of plasma screens located in movie theater lobbies. The new spot will break in this medium before rolling it out to TV a week later. It targets young adults and airs before "Transformer: Revenge of the Fallen" and …

When the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences announced it would open the Oscar best picture race to 10, filmmakers got excited. So did the networks, thinking it would increase ratings. The movie studios are another story. Tony Angellotti, who consults for Universal and Disney Animation, thinks the move could well dilute the award's impact and quality. "I would imagine the studios are grieving over this. They'll have to spend more money and not likely see a return -- just what they don't need in a recession." Another executive worried it would clog up distribution to release …

Hachette Filipacchi Media will combine sales of Car and Driver and Road & Track with Jumpstart, the company's vertical online ad network. The pubs will be sold by a single sales force paid on their total revenue haul, cross-platform. Steve Wilhite is the CEO for the new group, John Driscoll, is senior vice president, Chief Brand Officer. Driscoll said the changes formalize efforts to cross-sell the print titles and their Web sites with Jumpstart's network of sites like Consumer Guide and Vehix. Car ads are down 47.5% in print in 1Q, per Publishers Information Bureau. Through …

This week's layoffs at MTV are part of a long-in-the works programming restructuring, say network execs. The new structure creates new development teams that report directly to MTV president of programming Tony DiSanto. Recent cuts "were not done for financial reasons, but rather to overhaul the organization to better meet the creative needs of MTV," DiSanto says. Under the new structure, MTV will assemble a boutique comedy team based in New York to be led by senior vice president Brent Haynes. There will be a bicoastal series development department, focused mostly on unscripted fare, under DiSanto's top lieutenant, Liz …

Newspaper publishers will soon see if technology can help them sell more expensive ads. Alan Mutter, a former editor of the San Francisco Chronicle and technology consultant, is proposing an online registration service that would track Web users as they read articles on a plethora of publishers' sites. The new venture, called ViewPass, will compile personal data profiles comprised of demographic information and reading histories. Publishers could use that data, Mutter says, to sell expensive hyper-targeted ads. Mutter says his ViewPass will give newspapers a clear look at the value of specific types of online readers to advertisers. …

Fox News is on track to have its most-watched year ever, showing significant ratings growth despite having just come off a high-flying election year. With the second quarter coming to a close, Fox News averaged about the same number of viewers as the top three other cable news networks combined. And while rivals including CNN and MSNBC took hits following last quarter's inauguration-fueled boost, Fox News has remained nearly steady. The new standings are strong enough to rank Fox News third behind USA and TNT among all ad-supported cable networks for the quarter among prime-time total viewers. In its …