The Associated Press board yesterday approved an ambitious plan to tag and track every piece of text content for the organization and its members. The news registry will start by tracking AP content online and is expected to add AP member content in early 2010. AP will fund it through 2010; it's then expected to be self-sustaining. One feature of the registry, which is being designed to work on payment models ranging from free to pay walls, is a "beacon" that will let the AP know how the content is being used. The registry will provide metrics on online …

A Michigan court judge awarded newspaper coupon company Valassis Communications $300 million in damages in a lawsuit against a News Corp. subsidiary. Valassis claimed that News America Marketing engaged in unfair competition and "tortious interference." A jury found News America Marketing liable for both counts. Valassis also has lawsuits pending against the News Corp unit in a federal court in the Eastern District of Michigan and the California Supreme Court. News America says it will appeal the decision. Chris Mixson, president, says the lawsuit was "part of a larger strategy to get News America Marketing to raise …

Meredith's lifestyle magazine More has teamed up with Candace Bushnell, creator of HBO's "Sex and the City," on a new Web series. "The Broadroom," written by Bushnell, will take a humorous look at workplace issues facing women Cast members include Jennie Garth from "Beverly Hills, 90210," and Talia Balsam from "Mad Men." Four episodes are scheduled to air starting in September. The series is sponsored by Maybelline and is part of a nine-month, multiplatform campaign for Maybelline's new Color Sensational lipstick line. The campaign includes print and Web ads in More, Ladies' Home Journal, and Real Girls Media web …

ESPN banned staffers from the New York Post from appearing on any of its programming after the newspaper published three photos taken from a video showing sideline reporter Erin Andrews nude in a hotel room. Newspaper reporters are regular guests on ESPN shows. The blurry video was taken without Andrews' knowledge. The Post was one of several TV networks and newspapers that aired or published images from the video. Andrews plans to seek criminal charges and file civil lawsuits against the person who shot the video and anyone who publishes the material, her attorney Marshall Grossman says. Every …

Disney plans to sell online subscriptions to a broad array of its content, including TV shows, movies and games, possibly at a single Web site, says CEO Robert Iger. "The notion of going online at some point as a subscribe-to, robust entertainment experience is pretty attractive to us," Iger says. "We are developing such an experience." Disney already is a content provider and equity partner in Hulu, which sells advertising. Disney also sells content on iTunes and charges a subscription fee for its Club Penguin site. But Iger says much more money can be extracted from Web surfers seeking …

TV Guide Network has picked up the cable off-network rights to ABC's series "Ugly Betty." It is the network's first major acquisition since it changed programming direction under new owners. Under the deal with Disney-ABC Domestic TV, TV Guide will begin repurposing "Betty" in October. The cable network will air the series' new installments within two weeks of their run on ABC. Additionally, TV Guide will run "Betty" as a weekly strip beginning in fall 2010. Sources pegged the license fee at about $200,000 per episode. Ryan O'Hara, network president, says the series "will become a cornerstone …

Boston Globe Media has launched BGM Experiential, a new business division that provide clients in the Boston area with alternative marketing services, such as sampling, guerrilla marketing, events, product launches and the management of trade shows. "Boston Globe Media has a strong track record in creating events of all types and sizes," says Sam Martin, chief advertising officer of Boston Globe Media. "BGM Experiential allows us to draw on our expertise and offer a new, stand-alone service to new customers."

The FCC is opening an inquiry into its children's TV rules, according to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, speaking at a Senate Commerce Committee hearing. He said the wealth of new digital media outlets justified re-opening the Children's Television Act, which was passed in 1990. But Genachowski also said that broadcasting remains an "essential medium" and that it was still "uniquely accessible to all Americans," a phrase that echoes one of the Supreme Court's justifications for broadcast content regulation. The phrasing is important because broadcasters have recently ramped up their argument that given all those media choices Genachowski …

Newspaper publisher and TV station owner Media General says cost cutting helped deliver a profitable second quarter despite tumbling ad revenue. Like fellow publishers Gannett and McClatchy, Media General says layoffs, furloughs and other cutbacks helped prop up earnings even as revenue continued to suffer from both the economic downturn and the shift of advertisers to the Internet. The publisher of the Richmond Times-Dispatch, The Tampa Tribune and other papers earned $20.6 million, or 90 cents per share. That compares with a loss of $532.2 million, or $24.12 per share, a year ago, when the company took a …

After collecting more than 150,000 photos from readers since it launched its "Your Shot" project in 2006, National Geographic will publish a special edition Your Shot issue. The issue will feature more than 100 of those images, selected by the magazine's editors. It's the magazine's first special edition made up entirely of reader-submitted photos. Taking the concept a step further, the magazine also partnered with e-commerce provider Consolidated Graphics to allow readers to upload a high-resolution photo online and have it printed on the cover of their own edition. To accomplish this, Consolidated Graphics plans to print the …