Ad inventory optimizing company AdMeld has closed on a $15 million third round of venture funding, bringing the 3-year-old company's total financing to $30 million. The series C infusion was led by venture capital company Norwest Venture Partners, with Time Warner Investments and the company's existing backers, Spark Capital and Foundry Group, also participating. AdMeld provides tools for publishers to analyze the performance of their display ad inventory appearing on ad networks and exchanges. The company handles inventory for such customers as Fox News and Thomson Reuters.

News Corp chief Rupert Murdoch said Apple would sell more than 40 million iPads by 2012 as he flagged plans to put content on more tablet devices. He calls the tablet or slate computers "a perfect platform for our content." Murdoch added his company already had "tens of thousands of readers" who had downloaded apps for The Wall Street Journal, The Times of London and The Australian on the iPad, and said subscriber levels for The Times, following its recent move to erect a pay wall around its online content were "strong." He added that The Times of …

Condé Nast, the publishing giant, has signed a tentative deal to move its stable of chic magazines to ground zero, where it will anchor the skyscraper now under construction. The 1,776-foot-tall skyscraper will be the tallest building in New York when it is completed in 2013. If all goes well, employees of Condé Nast - publisher of Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, Vogue and 15 other magazines -- would move in 2014 from their current home in Times Square. The building's owner, The Port Authority of NY/NJ, is hoping that Condé Nast will bring the same kind of cachet …

CBS Corp. is in talks to bring some of its TV shows to popular Web video service Hulu, CBS Chief Executive Les Moonves said in an interview on Monday. Moonves said talks were with Hulu Plus, a paid for subscription service which the online video company launched in June, charging users $9. CBS, home to top shows such as "CSI," is the only major broadcaster whose shows are not available on Hulu. Hulu is one of the fastest growing TV sites since its launch in 2007, with an estimated 43.5 million viewers in May, according to comScore. Moonves said: …

Some 60 million or so iPhones later--not to mention millions of Android devices and other smartphones--mobile video advertising is set to take off. Revenue tied to mobile video is expected to nearly triple from 2009 to 2014 -- jumping from just $436 million to $1.34 billion, per eMarketer. In 2010 alone, mobile video revenue should reach $548 million, per eMarketer, which predicts that the universe of mobile video viewers in the U.S. will approach 24 million this year, reports Mediaweek. However, eMarketer's mobile video revenue figures include dollars driven through advertising, direct downloads and subscriptions; advertising is a …

"Create. Package. Provoke." That is a tagline found on the Web site of Richard Branson's Virgin Group, which unveiled Virgin Produced, its new film and TV development, packaging and production company. It will be led by former J2TV/J2 Pictures producers Jason Felts as CEO and Justin Berfield as chief creative officer. Based in L.A., it promises to "break the mold of Old Hollywood by providing a collaborative environment that embraces talent so they can best create and inspire." Virgin Produced has struck a joint venture with Kavanaugh's Relativity Media's Rogue Pictures to develop, produce and market films. "Virgin has …

News Corp. is weighing a bid for the bankrupt Texas Rangers. The media giant, which owned the LA Dodgers from 1998 to 2004, hasn't decided whether it will bid at Wednesday's bankruptcy court auction, but is said to be leaning toward making an offer, sources close to the situation said. Bidding for the suddenly resurgent baseball franchise will begin at $307 million, but a winning bid may be $100 million higher -- or more. It could not be learned if News Corp., whose Fox Sports Southwest unit owns television rights to the team, would bid independently or as …

Mark Coatney, a former senior editor at Newsweek, is the latest hire at Tumblr, a fast-growing blogging service based in New York that says it has 6.6 million users. He quickly cultivated a following on Tumblr for his thought-provoking, quick-witted Newsweek posts. Over the last few months, other media outlets have caught wind of Tumblr, which is free to use. The newest recruits include The Atlantic, Rolling Stone, The Paris Review, The Huffington Post, Life magazine, The New York Times and NPR. But many of those outlets have done little more than set up a placeholder page. In …

Advertising billboards similar to those seen in the film Minority Report, which can recognize passers-by, target them with customized adverts and even use their names, are being developed by computer engineers. Researchers at IBM have revealed they are working on technology which will lead to consumers being shown tailor made adverts that reflect their personal interest, reports The Telegraph. Digital advertising screens are already appearing in train stations, on bus stops and on the sides of buildings, but currently they only show generic adverts for a handful of products. The new ads will behave like those in the Tom …

Turner Broadcasting System, which operates TV channels such as CNN and the Cartoon Network, is opening an office in Dubai and may launch a local production center as it looks to boost the amount of Arabic-language content it creates. Turner, which is part of Time Warner, is also pursuing plans to syndicate the Emirati animation Freej outside the MENA region. Alan Musa, the vice president and general manager for the MENA region at Turner Broadcasting System, said the company would open its Dubai office in the fourth quarter of this year at about the same time it started broadcasting …