At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland New York Times Company Chairman and Publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. said its flagship brand's online product, The New York Times Digital, has moved from "ancillary" to being "core" to the company's future, even though the print version still generates far greater revenue than its online counterpart. That said, the Times online already has more readers than its print product, which means the Times Company and other newspaper publishers are still figuring out how to monetize its audience properly. Because it has established such strong trust with its readers, Sulzberger said the Times …

That we have unfettered Internet access is thanks in no small part to our Internet service provider, the company that enables us to get on the information super highway. Most of us know this, and most of us trust our ISP to grant access to anything and everything that's out there. However, for those who access the Web via a digital subscriber line or broadband cable, using the networks of Verizon Communications or Comcast, such unfettered access could change in a few years, according to the Los Angeles Times. When Verizon merged with MCI and SBC Communications merged with AT&T, …

Wikipedia, the consumer-generated online encyclopedia that can be edited by any person who chooses to do so, is, in my humble opinion, way too vulnerable to the self-interests of others to be as consistently a reliable source of information as, say, the regular encyclopedia. The latest example (and there may be countless others that go unchecked everyday), comes from a series of edits made by politicians in Washington. It was recently discovered that someone deleted references to a broken term-limits pledge and massive campaign funding for the listing of Rep. Marty Meehan, a Massachusetts Democrat. The political blunder was sniffed …

After refusing a federal summons to provide the U.S. government with data that might help its case to protect children from pornography, Google has now declined to appear before a Congressional Human Rights Caucus tomorrow to answer questions about its business in China, where it recently agreed to aid the Chinese government in censoring those search results deemed "subversive." The briefing aims to gauge the pressures China is putting on U.S. companies like Google, Yahoo and Microsoft that have businesses there. Microsoft Corp. and Cisco Systems have also declined to speak at the briefing; Yahoo has yet to respond. These …

Investment bank Stifel Nicolaus claims that online retailer Amazon.com would be "uniquely positioned" to benefit from an entry into the digital download business, after it was reported that the company was actively pursing a partnership with independent studios for content. Daily Variety last week said that Amazon had approached Image Entertainment, Ardustry Home Entertainment and First Look Home Entertainment about the creation of an upcoming download service. An Amazon spokesperson said the report was "speculation," and none of the film studios were able to comment on the report either. In a research note, Stifel Nicolaus analyst Scott Devitt said …

YellowPages.com, the massive online directory effort of AT&T and Bell South, is kicking off a TV and online marketing blitz using this very-to-the-point tagline: "We wrote the book on local search." The campaign attempts to leverage YellowPages.com's ties to its telco parents in hopes that it will appeal to the rapidly expanding number of consumers who turn to the Internet to find local information. The multimillion dollar campaign was produced by GSD&M, the company's agency of record, according to ClickZ, and will run through 2006. The campaign, called "Need something?", shows people performing everyday tasks like mowing the lawn using …

According to search marketing expert Jennifer Slegg's Web blog, Google has started testing rich media ads on AdSense, its network of Web publishers. Rich media, including interstitials, expanding ads and floating ads, is a major departure for Google, which had limited its advertising services to text and graphical ads. The company began quietly recruiting a few of its publishers a few weeks ago, according to the blog, but details are scarce, as each publisher likely had to sign a nondisclosure agreement before proceeding with the tests. As Slegg points out, of all the rich media formats, it's surprising to see …

The result of a new lawsuit between the online auction giant eBay and high-end jewelry maker Tiffany and Company could have huge implications for the ecommerce industry, says The New York Times. Tiffany is accusing eBay of facilitating the trade of counterfeit items on its Web site. EBay says it takes no responsibility for fakes being sold on its site because the company merely facilitates the trade of goods between buyer and seller without directly selling anything itself. In an internal study, Tiffany bought 200 jewelry pieces labeled as Tiffany items on eBay, and found three out of four …

Don't be surprised to hear Yahoo! announce partnerships with a few old media companies in the near future. According to a New York Times article, like Google, the Internet media giant is looking to expand its online content by making old media available on its Web site. As Dan Rosensweig, Yahoo's COO, says, "we're going to be a great partner to the media companies." Or a great competitor--especially as the likes of News Corp. continue to hedge its bets on the Web as the future of entertainment by scooping up emerging companies like MySpace. In fact, as more media …

Thanks to Apple, college students may have found another reason not to go to class. The maker of the iPod and iTunes is introducing a new concept called 'iTunes U" that allows students to access course lectures and other educational materials through Apple's iTunes software. Apple had been testing the program with six schools, including Stanford University and The University of Missouri, which had offered podcasts of its lectures through its school network before becoming an Apple pilot school. Each school is able to decide whether to make its materials available to certain groups or the general public. How is …