Mortimer B. Zuckerman, the real estate tycoon and publisher of The Daily News, is considering a run for the New York Senate seat now held by Kirsten E. Gillibrand. He would be the latest boldface name to weigh a run for the seat this fall; former Tennessee congressman, Harold E. Ford Jr., is mulling a primary run against Gillibrand. Though not currently enrolled in a party, he is known as a Democrat. But if he ran for the Senate, it would likely be as a Republican or independent to avoid a costly primary. That move would mimic fellow …

Fresh from its "Grey Gardens" accolades, HBO has picked up the five-hour miniseries project "Mildred Pierce" starring Oscar-winner Kate Winslet, which it will co-produce with MGM, Killer Films and John Wells Prods. Todd Haynes is directing the adaptation of James M. Cain's classic noir novel, which centers on Mildred Pierce Beragon (Winslet), a single mother struggling to earn her daughter's love during the Great Depression in middle-class LA. This marks the second major screen adaptation of Cain's novel. The 1945 feature by Michael Curtiz earned Joan Crawford an Academy Award for the title role. Cain also wrote the noir …

Sponsors have a new name for the Vancouver Olympics: the Social Games. More consumer eyeballs will be on computer and mobile phone screens during the Winter Olympics than on TV screens. Coca-Cola says while 100 million saw its Super Bowl ads air once, online interactions with the ads now number more than 500 million. The Olympics will be no different. "Virtual goods and currency are becoming enormous," says Rebecca Lieb, vice president at Econsultancy. But, she cautions, "It needs to be relative to the Olympic Games and your brand." Visa is getting a bigger boost in pre-Olympic buzz online …

Bayer HealthCare has consolidated its global marketing services duties at Omnicom Group and WPP Group after a review. BHC has awarded international media duties to WPP's GroupM after a parallel review. The marketing services consolidation involves some 50 brands from four subsidiaries: Bayer Schering Pharma/Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals, Bayer HealthCare Animal Health, Bayer HealthCare Consumer Care and Bayer HealthCare Medical Care. BHC, a unit of Bayer AG, spends about $800 million globally in media each year. The creative shift involves roughly half that expenditure and the media assignment represents about 80% of the total spend. As a result of the …

Milwaukee-based Journal Communications Inc. reported its fourth-quarter net profit, excluding special items and impairment charges, jumped 26.4% compared to a year ago to $23.8 million. The broadcaster and publisher said its publishing revenue fell 16.4% in the quarter to $50.2 million "largely due to continued weakness in all advertising categories." Publishing swung to an operating profit of $7.8 million compared to a loss of $13.9 million in the year-ago quarter. At its flagship Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, revenue fell 15.7% to $42.2 million compared to $50 million in the fourth quarter of 2008. Classified adv revenue dropped 35.4% and interactive …

Cablevision Systems completed the spinoff of its Madison Square Garden unit on Feb, 9, and the newly separate entity ended trading on the NASDAQ National Market System the next day with a slight dip. Cablevision shareholders received one share of MSG stock for every four shares of Cablevision they own. The new unit, which trades under the symbol "MSG," includes the Madison Square Garden arena, its New York professional sports teams, Radio City Music Hall, the Beacon Theater and the Chicago Theater, and cable channels MSG Network, MSG Plus and Fuse. Shares of MSG opened at $18.22 per share, …

Vveteran entertainment-marketing specialist Laura Caraccioli-Davis is leaving Publicis Groupe's Starcom USA to take up with Electus, the entertainment joint venture of Barry Diller's IAC and former NBC executive Ben Silverman. She's headed Starcom Entertainment since forming the group in 1998, and pioneered some of the agency's first major entertainment projects, including Kellogg's Pop Tarts sponsorship of the "American Idol" concert tour and Fruit of the Loom's "Countryfest." Silverman's Electus could use a few friends in the ad community as it seeks sponsors for a new deal it recently inked with Yahoo, bringing in A-list talent such as "Arrested …

"The Ellen DeGeneres Show" will stay on stations owned and operated by NBC for the next four years, the show's distributor said late Wednesday. The move ends speculation that Ms. DeGeneres would replace Oprah Winfrey on stations owned by ABC. DeGeneres' 7-year-old show is, next to "The Oprah Winfrey Show," the most popular syndicated show. "Winfrey" goes off air in September 2011. It's why NBCU locked up "Ellen" early; her contract was set to expire next year. Winfrey co-owns a forthcoming cable channel, OWN, with Discovery Communications.

Apple Inc. is talking with television networks to lower the price of downloaded TV shows when the company begins selling its new iPad tablet computer. A source said Apple has already been testing a price of 99 cents--half the price of standard-definition TV episodes--for certain shows on its iTunes service. It wants to finalize a deal to offer that price more broadly along with the iPad, which is expected to go on sale in late March. The discussions are part of Apple's broader strategy to overhaul its iTunes service. The company acquired music-streaming service La La Media Inc. late …

RealNetworks and Viacom plan to spin off the Rhapsody subscription music service. At the same time, Real has decided to give up a controlling interest in the music service. The company will no longer own a majority stake in the company and will hold slightly less than 49% of the company's shares. Viacom owns a similar amount. Real agreed to contribute $18 million to the new company. Under Real's control, Rhapsody has never really caught on with music fans, who prefer to own their songs. The spinning off of Rhapsody appears to be the first significant move made by …