Since its recent redesign, editors at The New York Times claim to have seen a measurable increase in visits to NYTimes.com, as well as time spent by visitors. The paper of record has also experienced its fair share of reader criticism, according to its public editor, Margaret Sullivan. Among other complaints, some readers say the new font is too small; navigating around the site and printing stories have become a chore; and the cartoons are impossible to find. 

Ad revenue is up 30% from last year's total for The Puppy Bowl, Animal Planet's 10-year-old alternate programming to the Super Bowl -- with nine sponsors, 3 more than in 2013. The newest is AT&T. Also new is a move to appease the cat lovers: a VIP suite sponsored by Sheba cat food, where felines will be around.

HBO Go will be available on Sony's PlayStation 3 video game console soon, the company announced, although it did not specify exactly when. Next will be an app of the broadband video service for the just-released PS4.

Advertising regulator National Advertising Division rebuked Shape magazine for a September advertorial labeled "news" that promoted its own product, Shape Water Boosters. The magazine “blurred the line between advertising and editorial content in a way which could confuse consumers,” according to the ruling. But "the publisher said that the ad required no disclosure because a connection between the publication and its branded products was obvious," writes Andrew Adam Newman.

It’s turning out to be a tough week for Yahoo and CEO Marissa Mayer. Following the firing of COO Henrique De Castro -- one of Mayer’s first major hires --Yahoo’s Editor-in-Chief Jai Singh just quit. Even worse, as Kara Swisher sees it, is Mayer’s decision to put CMO Kathy Savitt in charge of the media unit. “Appointing a marketing person to be in charge of editorial is probably enough … for many journalists to run screaming.” 

On the heels of a similar move by Spotify, Rdio is making its music streaming service free to all US Web users. “In other words, you can access the company’s over 20 million songs, as well as albums, playlists and stations from any computer without paying a dime,” The Next Web reports. In addition, “Rdio says it has added ‘in-stream messaging’ (read: ads) to its Web service.” 

Glamour magazine enjoyed "its strongest first quarter in five years, with advertising up 12 percent, or 34 pages, for the first quarter of 2014 versus the prior-year period," writes Alexandra Steigrad. Gains come after publisher Connie Anne Phillips "brought in five new positions on the ad side, including a luxury director, a retail director, a head of digital sales, a Detroit director and an executive director of integrated sales." And Anna Wintour, as parent Conde Nast's artistic director, made some editorial staff changes.

TV commercials work more effectively when combined with Twitter paid ads, according to a study by MarketShare. In a survey of new mobile service subscribers in the U.K., carriers that used both Twitter and TV ads averaged customer acquisition costs of $85 -- 35% better than the average new customer cost of $131 for TV ads alone.“Now more than ever, major brand marketers need to understand the complex interplay between different marketing channels, and online-offline in particular,” said Jon Vein, co-founder and CEO of MarketShare.

Capital New York is launching a free monthly print version Jan. 27 with a small run (about 8,000 copies) distributed in Manhattan and Albany. The move "underscores a growing if limited embrace of print among digital-only media properties, with several Web sites introducing some version of a physical magazine," including Capital sibling Politico and the upcoming print revival of the presently digital-only Newsweek, writes Michael Sebastian.

Surely music to consumers’ ears, Spotify has scrapped restrictions on free listening. “Previously, the service capped the number of hours you could listen to music without a subscription,” The Register reports. “Industry sources suggest that Spotify's maturing advertising sales operation -- and a different advertising marketplace -- have helped it to increase its advertising rates, and thus pay the royalties required by record companies and music publishers.”