A new partnership between The Huffington Post and a Detroit-based ad rep firm could help automakers gain more social media traction. The news and opinion site has teamed with Focus Media and Marketing, to gain ad dollars from automakers Ford, Chrysler and GM. HuffPo chief revenue officer Greg Coleman says the site's readership, with its has average household income of $100K, appeals to auto advertisers, which can spread news of new vehicles in a more "viral manner." "We're allowing live Twitter feeds to run through a sponsored ad unit," said Coleman. "There are plenty of events that the …

There is a growing push within the agency to reclassify broadband as a common carrier service, meaning Internet service providers would be regulated like telephone companies. But that notion is not sitting well with One of the nation's biggest telecommunications providers, which are pushing the FCC not to assert its authority over Internet services, but to leave it to Congress. Verizon Communications said that the FCC's power over high-speed Internet services is "at best murky" and offered recommendations to Congress that could take away much of the agency's power. Tom Tauke, Verizon's top lobbyist, arguing that the FCC should …

Pleased with early "TV Everywhere" returns from its relationships with Verizon FiOS and Comcast, HBO is moving toward deals with other distributors. Eric Kessler, co-president of HBO, says the premium programmer is engaged in conversations with a number of different distributors about the platform that enables authenticated subscribers to access content from multiple touch points. TV Everywhere and HBO Go are the latest examples of the programmer being at the forefront of technology as a mechanism to fortify and increase its subscription base. Currently, HBO Go is available to Verizon FiOS TV and Internet customers who subscribe to …

Fox Mobile is hoping it can convince consumers to watch TV on their smartphones. The News Corp. subsidiary has unveiled Bitbop, a subscription service for smartphone owners that will deliver both streaming and downloadable movies and TV programs to smartphone users. The app will be free to download when it launches on an unspecified date in the next several weeks, but the app itself will only offer sneak previews -- full content will cost $10 monthly over 3G and Wi-Fi connections. Bitbop will work on devices such as the iPhone, Droid and several BlackBerry models at launch, with more …

JWT's Rosemarie Ryan and Ty Montague are leaving the WPP Group agency to start a shop of their own. Ryan, JWT's North American president, has been with the company since 2004. Montague, co-president and chief creative officer for N.A., joined in 2005. Each executive started in a New York role: Ryan as president of the office and Montague as co-president and chief creative officer. In 2008, worldwide CEO Bob Jeffrey promoted them to their North American positions, overseeing operations in N.Y., Chicago, Atlanta and Toronto, as well as JWT Specialized Communications and JWT CET. The partners have been …

Condé Nast Publications named Stefano Tonchi, the editor of T: The New York Times Style Magazine, to be the editor in chief of its fashion magazine W. Tonchi wants to bring a more accessible, general-interest sensibility to W, a large-format magazine with lavish photography. Ad pages at W fell almost 50% in 2009, to about 1,050 pages, according to Media Industry Newsletter. That makes it one of the hardest-hit magazines at Condé Nast. Tonchi joined The New York Times as style editor for The New York Times Magazine in 2003. He had previously been a fashion and creative director …

The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, which represents more than 1.6 million union workers, has begun airing ads in the districts of 14 Democratic members of Congress who voted for health-care reform, but whose seats may be at risk because of that vote come November. The campaign -- a one-week, $1 million TV ad buy also backed by the group Health Care for America Now -- is titled "On Our Side." The ads applaud the members of Congress who were pro-reform against what AFSCME calls "the 2,049 health insurance company lobbyists and the $86 million in misleading …

The Wall Street Journal's New York sports section will assign beat reporters to the major local sports teams, including the Mets, Yankees, Jets, Giants and the Knicks, sources said. They'll be credentialed for home games, and they'll travel to road games. But the focus is features and trends -- much like The New York Timess. The Journal has hired Jim Baumbach from Newsday as their lead Yankees reporter and Mike Sielski of the Calkins Media newspaper chain as their Mets reporter, said sources. Sam Walker, currently The Journal's sports editor, will oversee the section, a source said.

n a poll of 2,176 consumers released this week, comScore found that 37% of potential iPad owners said it is "likely" that they will read books on the device. Another 34% said they would read newspapers and magazines. The study also found that consumers who are already a part of the Apple mobile ecosystem,"iOwners," are more likely to pay for newspaper and magazine subscriptions than others. In all, 52% of "iOwners" said they were willing to subscribe to print content on an e-reader, while 22% of all other consumers said they would be willing to subscribe. "These findings suggest …

Hulu might be better off simply dialing up the number of ads that run on the site, according to comScore. The Web researcher released new research at the Advertising Research Foundation's Annual Convention + Expo in New York which found that people who watch TV shows on the Web are far more tolerant of ads than once thought, and would actually stand for more clutter. Specifically comScore found that while sites like Hulu typically serve around four minutes of ads for every hour of content served, users would be OK with six to seven minutes. The reason most …