Richard Johnson, who edited the New York Post's "Page Six" for 25 years, has moved to Los Angeles to head up News Corp.'s upcoming subscription-based newspaper that will be distributed on tablets. Last week. Johnson nabbed former "Page Six" and Maxim editor Chris Wilson to serve as news editor. News Corp. won't comment, but insiders speculate CEO/chairman Rupert Murdoch is shooting for the populist tabloid to complement The Wall Street Journal's successful digital product. While many former Post staffers heap praise on Johnson for his reporting chops and Rolodex, there are questions about the depth--or lack thereof--of his digital …

Remember 2008? The battle for the presidency was waged via Facebook and the campaigns battled over Google search terms. This was supposed to be the future of political advertising.Trouble is, that future hasn't come to pass. Karl Rove isn't going around pitching for money saying, "We have to buy more banner ads." And George Soros wasn't screaming, "Here's another million, buy more search terms!" In 2010, TV is back and it's bigger than ever. The economy pushed ad expenditures down across the board in 2010. Except political ad expenditures. The last election cycle set a political ad-spending record of …

Ad network Specific Media has just gotten a lot bigger: It has picked up ad network BBE, according to sources. BBE, formerly known as Broadband Enterprises, specializes in video ads, and Specific doesn't have any video business at all.BBE is one of the biggest ad networks in the world, at least by comScore's measurement: It says the company's ads reach 192.8 million unique visitors per month, enough to earn it the No. 6 slot. By comparison, comScore pegs Yahoo's ad network at 185 million, AOL at 183.6 million and Google at 181.5 million. And the measurement company says Specific …

After dipping a toe in the water with the occasional scripted-series effort, Spike TV is looking to make a bigger splash in 2011, sizing up a slate of six comedies and a one-hour drama designed to appeal to older male viewers. Although Spike has had limited success with scripted programming, Kevin Kay said a shift in direction should help draw a more widespread audience. "We're a younger, more male network, and part of our mandate going forward is to get a little older and a little broader," Kay said, noting that the median age of Spike's prime-time audience is …

The political-ad onslaught may be welcome news for the battered local television business, but the blitz has caused major headaches for corporate America. Madison Avenue media buyers say the influx of political spending has forced many consumer ads off the air. Advertisers have had to scramble to readjust their ad plans to dodge skyrocketing ad prices and find a home for their ad spending, notes The Wall Street Journal. "We are pulling our hair out," says Lisa Pilger, vice president of local media at Rubin Postaer & Associates, known as RPA. Ms. Pilger says her firm, which works on …

Google and news organizations have had a rocky time of it. To over-dramatize the situation only slightly: Google insists that it cares about journalism as a necessity of our shared democracy; news organizations resent it as a (perceived) key cause of the financial strife that keeps them from fully defending that democracy. Now there's an olive branch -- a multi-million-dollar olive branch: Google is announcing that it will donate $5 million to encourage innovation in digital journalism. The grant will come in two parts: $2 million of it will go to the Knight Foundation, the journalism mega-funder - …

For TV viewers, this cutthroat election year is a riot of attack ads and media saturation made possible by big-money donors. For TV stations, it's a stimulus package. The Campaign Media Analysis Group, a unit of the consulting firm Kantar Media, projects that spending on political television ads will hit $3 billion this year. The windfall may continue well past Election Day; regular advertisers are getting squeezed out of the schedule and could spend their ad budgets later. Coming out of a recession, that put some broadcasters in or near bankruptcy protection; political spending is emerging as a critical, …

Don't expect a CBS News-CNN merger or joint venture anytime soon, according to CBS President and CEO Leslie Moonves. "Right now, it doesn't look good," he said in an interview with B&C. Moonves acknowledged he has discussed different arrangements with CNN parent Time Warner, but there have been too many deal points that the sides haven't been able to sort out. "They are non union, we are a union shop, it's a tough nut to crack. We tried 10 years ago, and we tried last year, it's just been a difficult thing. It's hard from a content point of view, …

In another sign of the strong demand among advertisers for commercial time during so-called big TV events, Fox Broadcasting has sold all the spots it plans to run in Super Bowl XLV on Feb. 6. Estimates for 30 seconds of time during Super Bowl XLV range from $2.8 million to $3 million. That is a bit higher than what CBS charged for Super Bowl XLIV this past February, which was estimated at $2.5 million to $2.8 million. Among the advertisers during Super Bowl XLV will be Anheuser-Busch InBev, the Audi division of Volkswagen, Cars.com, the Chevrolet division of General …

The iPad dreams of magazine publishers could be the latest death by irrational exuberance. Despite the optimism that greeted the new device, there is a danger that publishers are squandering an opportunity with clunky apps, bad pricing strategies and unsustainable ad tactics. All told, 7.5 million units have been sold since April. Clearly, tablets are set to take a chunk of the netbook and desktop computer market. But for now, the market is tiny: about 4% of households own a tablet, according to Nielsen -- hardly a mass market. According to a survey of 5,000 tablet users released last …