PayPal and credit card provider Discover are teaming up to bring PayPal payments to Discover's network of 7 million U.S. merchant locations. Under the alliance, PayPal's 50 million customers will be able to make payments at retail stores beginning in April 2013. The move gives additional momentum to PayPal's efforts to make the jump from online to in-store payments through its own digital wallet services. In May, the eBay unit struck partnerships with two the largest point-of-sale (POS) terminal companies—Verifone and Equinox—to expand its in-store payment system to 15 more …

Announced back in June, Facebook on Wednesday rolled out widely Facebook Studio Edge, an online tutorial program to keep ad agencies up to speed on new Facebook products and best practices. Building on Facebook Studio, showcasing top campaigns, the new offering provides self-guided courses focused on topics related to apps, Pages and ads. Each course takes 10-15 minutes to complete and users can earn “recognition” badges as they progress through course modules. Now there's an incentive for passing. At launch, Facebook Studio Edge will be open to agencies within …

GroupM has named Ari Bluman, a long-time executive of WPP sister company 24/7 Media, Chief Digital Investment Officer for North America.

Time Warner Cable issued a press release Tuesday crowing about hitting 1 million fans on Facebook. Never mind that brands and celebrities including Facebook, YouTube, “The Simpsons,” and Shakira are north of 50 million. But, hey, that's a lot for a cable company. TWC credited its “Enjoy Better' campaign for nearly tripling its fan base on Facebook from 338,000 in February. The effort included specialized tabs on the company's Facebook page to let viewers get special content around movies and sports on TWC channels.

Meredith Corp.'s Meredith Xcelerated Marketing unit just made a couple of key hires from digital savvy agencies, including Organic's Steve Kerho, who joins as senior vice president-Chief Strategy Officer.Kerho was senior vice president-strategy, media and analytics at Organic, which is a unite of Omnicom.Also joining MXM Doug Rozen, who was named senior vice president-general manager of mobile practice, The Hyperfactory. Rosen joins from Aimia Inc. (formerly Carlson Marketing Worldwide), where he was senior vice president-global lead for creative, interactive, media & mobile.

Barnes & Noble reported sales of its Nook devices fell in the quarter ending July 28, even as overall revenue rose 2.5% to $1.45 billion. While sales of digital content sold through Nook increased 46%, total Nook sales, including its e-reading devices, dipped to $191 million from 191.4 million a year ago. The biggest U.S. bookstore chain said Nook sales had declined because of reduced prices and its inability to meet demand for the Nook Glowlight model, which allows users to read in the dark. Barnes & Noble has an estimated 25% to 30% of …

On the heels of the sale of Buddy Media and Clickable, Gannett just announced the acquisition of BLiNQ Media LLC. Terms were not disclosed, but Gannett said the acquisition would help Gannett's Digital Marketing Services organization develop innovative social marketing solutions for marketers.

I just heard from John Ross, the founder of Interpublic's Shopper Sciences unit, that he's leaving to join INMAR Corp., where he will lead the development of a retail promotions and sales performance practice.Ross, who previously was head of Interpublic's Lab, and prior to that was CMO of Home Depot, is one of the experts on retail marketing, and especially on so-called shopper media, and launched Shopper Sciences to develop new scientific approahces to researching, measuring and improving the practice.The move comes at a time when Interpublic's Mediabrands is integrating a number …

Former Yahoo executive Marc Grabowski has joined social media marketing firm Nanigans as chief operating officer. The Boston-based company confirmed the hiring first reported by the AllThingsD blog. At Yahoo, Grabowski was a top display advertising exec, helping to lead the company's Interclick acquisition as well as mid-market sales and reseller relationships. Most recently, as VP, media sales, he oversaw a team of more than 200 online advertising sales and account …

Wi-Fi provider Boingo Wireless in June launched a partnership with Google Offers to sponsor free Wi-Fi at more than 200 hotspots in Manhattan, including six subway stations through Sept. 7. Now that deal is being expanded nationally, with Google Offers sponsoring free and discounted Wi-Fi at eight malls and 16 airports in major cities including Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, Washington, D.C., and Seattle. The airports include New York’s John …