Ad-agency jobs in October 2009 were down 14% from the recession's December 2007 start -- a loss of 26,300 jobs, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data. Agency employment from January 2009 to October 2009 alone fell from 175,300 to 161,500, or nearly 8% That included WPP's Ogilvy & Mather laying off 4% of its North American head count this month. While jobs have been shed and agency doors shut, there is a glimmer of hope indicating turnaround: stock performance. Shares in agency holding companies rebounded sharply in 2009, a sign that investors are betting on brighter prospects …

The long-delayed third season of animated comedy "The Boondocks" is finally expected to hit the small screen next year. Series creator Aaron McGruder announced on his MySpace page that the Sony Pictures TV-produced show had been ordered for a new season, sans date. Then in August, a short Adult Swim promo spot for the show began appearing on YouTube. The ad promised new episodes in early 2010. McGruder confirmed on Twitter that an airdate is set for the first quarter.

Newspapers are weighing whether to ask online readers to pay for at least some of what they offer, as a handful of papers, like The Wall Street Journal and The Financial Times, already do. Rupert Murdoch, WSJ owner, has talked about forming a partnership with a single search engine, which would pay him for the rights to scour the news and entertainment programming produced by his company, the News Corporation, rather than letting all search engines crawl his sites. Also Hulu, co-owned by Murdoch's company, is considering charging viewers to watch some of the TV shows it now streams free. …

Amazon.com shares rose on Monday after posting strong growth in holiday season orders. The company said its customers bought more e-books than physical books for the first time ever on Christmas Day, thanks to its Kindle electronic book reader. The U.S.-based Internet retailer said Kindle become the most-purchased gift in the company's history. The Kindle Store now includes more than 390,000 books, Amazon said. The company reported Dec. 14 was its peak shopping day with more than 9.5 million items ordered worldwide. On the peak day of the season, Amazon said it shipped more than 7 million units.

It's crunch time for the networks trying to unload $1 billion in ad time for television's two biggest sporting events. NBC wouldn't say how much Olympic inventory it has left, but ad buyers estimate it still has 20% to 30% to go, selling for The Olympics are expected to liftU.S. ad spending, but not as much as in years past. According to Magna, the Games will boost U.S. ad revenue by $487.5 million in 2010, down 25% from $650 million during the 2006 Winter Olympics. As for the Super Bowl, CBS has sold about 90% of the …

"Jersey Shore" is losing sponsors. Dell is the third advertiser to pull out, TMZ.com reports. The reason? What some perceive as ethnic bashing -- the show spotlights "guidos" and "guidettes." American Family Insurance pulled their ads from the MTV show after the premiere. Pizza chain Dominos was the first to make the move away from the controversial reality show. The controversy started after the Italian American group, UNICO National, said they were offended by the images.

Wiewers are eating up food TV shows. Fox has made a cottage industry out of Gordon Ramsay ("Hell's Kitchen," Kitchen Nightmare"). Bravo's "Top Chef" and TLC's "Cake Boss" are their networks' top series. Scripps Networks, which saw prime-time ratings for its Food Network spike 29% this year to a new record, is turning its underachieving Fine Living Network into a 24-hour Cooking Channel next May. The Food Network airs a Jan. 3 "Iron Chef" special, featuring star chefs Bobby Flay, Emeril Lagasse and Mario Batali with White House executive chef Cristeta Comerford and an appearance by the first lady. …

Religious broadcasters have asked the Federal Communications Commission not to reallocate any broadcast spectrum for wireless, saying it will disproportionately impact Christian TV broadcasters. It points to fears that spectrum could be reallocated from "lower value" uses like broadcasting to "higher value" uses; NRB says it is afraid it could be relegated to the lower assignment, due to its noncommercial model. The NRB says Christian television broadcasters rely on current 'must carry' regulations to gain optimal coverage, and do not, as a general rule, enter into retransmission agreements. NRB says that any station that can support itself through public …

DirecTV and Rainbow Media and MSG may be trying to hammer out carriage renewals on New Year's Eve. The multiyear distribution contracts for Rainbow Media's national services AMC, We TV, IFC and Fuse end with DirecTV on Dec. 31, as do the deals for regional sports networks MSG and MSG Plus. DirecTV is in the middle of other contract situations: Comcast's national sports service Versus has been off its air since Sept. 1 over pricing and positioning issues; the top DBS provider recently avoided arbitration by settling with Comcast SportsNet New England. The negotiations with Rainbow and the …

U.S. antitrust regulators are taking a closer look at Google Inc.'s proposed $750 million purchase of mobile phone marketer AdMob, the latest sign of government vigilance as Google tries to expand its advertising empire. Regulators are watching Google as the company tries to build its dominance in the Internet's lucrative search advertising market. Google is expected to pull in more than $22 billion in revenue this year, mostly from ads shown alongside search results and other Web content. Since its inception nearly four years ago, AdMob has built a thriving network that sells and delivers ads on applications and …