The Associated Press has introduced a file-based video news delivery service that gives broadcast customers a modern delivery platform that better integrates with their digital newsroom production systems. AP Media Port will allow customers to receive video news stories as separate digital files, which will be dispatched to the client as soon as each story is ready. Clients will no longer need to record stories from AP's Global Video Wire feed based on a 24-hour bulletin schedule. The service has already been installed at 40 customer locations and will eventually roll out to 800 sites. The Media Port server …

Tribune Co. is changing top management Thursday, naming Gerry Spector as chief operating officer of the Chicago-based media conglomerate, which has spent the past year in bankruptcy court. Spector will oversee Tribune's publishing, broadcast and Internet operations, replacing Randy Michaels, who replaced Sam Zell as CEO this month. Zell remains board chair. Michaels and Spector, who had been chief administrative officer, joined Tribune Co. in 2007, when Zell took control of the company through an $8.2 billion leveraged buyout. They have overseen a slate of cost-cutting and other restructuring moves.

Jesse Jackson's Rainbow PUSH Coalition has asked the FCC to take a second look at its request to deny license renewals for some Sinclair stations, saying Mediacom's retrans complaint against the broadcaster provides new evidence of misconduct. The request involves the FCC acting on a petition, filed in 2004, to review an earlier decision denying Rainbow's petition to deny Sinclair license renewals because the group alleged Sinclair was exerting de facto control of another station group Glencairn, Ltd. in violation of the FCC's duopoly limits. Mediacom has complained that Sinclair is not bargaining in good faith and has made …

After five years as editor and 20 years with the company, John Mancini is leaving Newsday. He is being replaced by Debby Krenek, who will become editor in chief and executive vice president of Digital Media. Most recently, she served as the newspaper's managing editor and senior vice president of Digital Media. Krenek joined Newsdayin 2001 as associate editor for special projects, following a career at the New York Daily News, which included a three-year run as editor in chief.

As Internet video becomes a standard marketing, branding and communication tool, traditional TV broadcasters find themselves moving from the television screen to the computer screen. The same holds true for radio. The growth of Internet radio has sparked a desire to stream not only audio from radio stations, but video content as well. More stations are installing television production equipment into their studios to broadcast their morning shows -- from cars to office cubicles. As digital media and Internet video continues to grow, more radio stations will stream live video to their audience. As the audience …

Belo 4Q revenues won't drop as much as analysts predict, the company's chief executive said this week at the USB conference. Dunia Shive, president and chief executive officer of the Dallas media company said quarter revenues will be down in the mid-teens, rather than the 21% predicted by Thomson Reuters analysts. "Spot revenues excluding political are currently pacing down in the low-single digits, a significant improvement from the 16% decline in the third quarter of 2009. The automotive category is currently pacing down around 10%, an improvement from third quarter's 36% decline."

Gannett executives are somewhat optimistic about outlook for 2010, an outlook that also indicates job cuts in the New Year. sees modest payroll reductions next year., seeing modest gains in broadcast and online properties, in part from anticipated heavy political advertising and its NBC-affiliate television stations gains from Winter Olympics advertising. But job cuts are still expected in the new year. Gannett's operating assumptions for 2010 are that its broadcast division head count "will be down slightly" in 2010. Its digital division will see a head count down in "low-single digits," a reference to percentage decline. At its publishing …

Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND) is protesting the practice of drumming up demand among consumers for prescription drugs via television advertising and then keeping the price at a high level, actually reading from the scripts of five such ads for products such as Ambien CR and Boniva. Prescription drug advertising has often come under attack on Capitol Hill, and eliminating business tax deductions for such advertising came up earlier during the 2009 health care debate. No pharma ad are addressed in any current bill. He is sponsoring an addition that would allow drug importation fro other nations to encourage competition.

A federal shield law, The Free Flow of Information Act, finally passed the Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday on Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy's 17th attempt to get a vote. But that passage did not come without sometimes heated debate on a string of amendments by Republicans and a pair of Democrats. The bill still must be voted in the full Senate then reconciled with a different version passed in the House. There could be more changes to the bill, such as finessing of the definition of journalist, which includes bloggers and freelancers. The bill gives journalists a qualified protection …

The amount of information consumed by Americans in 2008 totaled 3.6 zettabytes and 10,845 trillion words, according to a report by the University of California at San Diego, "How Much Information? 2009 Report on American Consumers." For an average person on an ordinary day, this represents 34 gigabytes of data and 100,500 words. Americans are now exposed to 11.8 hours of information each day -- not counting the workplace. Americans spent 16% of their information hours browsing the Internet, which is second only to television's 41%, according to the UCSD study. With the increase in use of email, …