There's no question the swell of negativity will continue to wash over the newspaper industry, but the fact that many readers are simply migrating from print to online often fails to make headlines. According to Nielsen/NetRatings, the online editions of newspapers have just posted an 11 percent rise in readership this October, totaling 39.3 million unique visits to newspaper sites. This translates to one in four of those using the Web in the U.S. The most popular site was The New York Times, drawing 11.4 million hits, followed by USA Today, the Wall Street Journal, and the Los Angeles Times. …

Ad execs like the prospect of reaching consumers via blogs, podcasts, and Web-enabled cell phones, but won't be spending much money on them anytime soon. On a scale of 1 to 5, respondents to an American Advertising Federation survey said they rate the three new Web based channels a 3, less than traditional media and other forms of online advertising. However, that's not low, especially since these Internet enabled devices are far short of amassing any kind of sizable audience. Other forms of online advertising that received higher marks today were deemed "experimental" three short years ago. Separately, 58 percent …

Google Base, a service that allows users to post and make searchable anything from recipes to help wanted ads, goes live in beta form today, triggering what Piper Jaffray analyst Safa Rashtchy says will be a new era for buying and selling things online. Google Base, he says will be even easier and more efficient than Craigslist or eBay, which is complicated by a time-consuming listing process and vast numbers of international sellers who take too long to deliver products. Rashtchy says "ecommerce 3.0"--powered by Google, of course--will connect buyers and sellers on an even more local level by leveraging …

In an interview with the Hollywood Reporter, media visionary and News Corp. King Rupert Murdoch discusses how his massive corporation is molding itself to the challenges and opportunities of the digital age. Murdoch, 74, calls the Internet "the most fundamental change in my lifetime and for hundreds of years," because it empowers everyone to consume and create whatever they want. He says MySpace.com, News Corp.'s recent acquisition, is the quintessential example of this phenomenon, and that the company will now be uniquely focused on ways to reach consumers via the Web. Advertising, he says, will "absolutely" be the business model …

The front pages of major Web portals have been sold out of their prime real estate for months and even years on end. Ad buyers are complaining that bookings on Yahoo, AOL, and MSN are placed so far in advance their campaigns run the risk of no longer being relevant once the time comes to post the ads. This kind of supply issue inevitably leads to huge rate increases on prime real estate. "It's starting to get into Super Bowl territory," one buyer says. Indeed: MSN is now charging up to $1 million for a 24-hour spot on its home …

How do analytics providers feel about Google's entry into their territory? This week, the online advertising powerhouse said it will be offering its AdWords customers free data about where, when, and how people go to the Web sites in its index. Analytics providers gave ClickZ a decidedly mixed reaction, but the consensus was that Google will not wipe out high-end analytics providers because they can still offer richer data than Google about specific site performance, but lower-end guys will start dropping one by one. Still others think Google's entry into analytics will expand the category by lifting awareness for providers …

Internet gambling companies, which are illegal in the United States, are starting to use celebrity endorsers. Some, including Jesse Ventura, a wrestling personality and former governor of Minnesota, say they're doing it to put pressure on the U.S. government to legalize online gambling on U.S. shores. The problem for online gambling companies is that they bring unlicensed gambling to the United States. American owners of such companies are basically exiled from the country for doing so. In recent months, several celebrities, including model Brooke Burke, actor Tom Arnold, and former NFL quarterback Jim Kelly, have signed deals to promote online …

Aside from generating huge sales for big online retailers like Amazon and auctioneers like eBay, the Web is also helping smaller retailers sell their niche products. The New York Times profiles a small-town retailer whose Web site enables it to move inventory much more quickly. This fosters innovation in product development and diversification among sales floor offerings, but it also--crucially--lets customers know that they should come back often, as new inventory is constantly being brought in. The store profiled in the article is precisely the kind of small-town retailer local search providers want to lure online. Most of the marketing …

Keylogging, a tactic used by identity thieves to record passwords, credit card info and other text entries, is on the rise. The number of keylogger variants is expected to increase 65 percent over last year, reaching nearly 6,200 in total, according to research firm iDefense. Keyloggers track keystrokes on infected computers and use the info collected to steal user names and credit card numbers. Often spread by organized cybercrime rings, keyloggers can slip past firewalls and antivirus software by exploiting the weak defenses of Web browsers.

As a new series of on-demand television deals have been struck between network TV, Web portals and cable operators (basically conceding that the digital video recorder is on its way to displacing the TV business model as we know it) Business Week asks, "where's the business model?" Well, as Business Week may recall, the actual money-making part often comes later--look at Google, who developed its search engine years before implementing its multibillion-dollar search advertising program. NBC, CBS, ABC, Warner Bros., Apple, Yahoo!, AOL, TiVo, MSN and the Associated Press have all announced deals in the last month to convert their …