CARLSBAD, Calif -- Rupert Murdoch, News Corp CEO just gave the the welcoming speech to the D: All Things Digital conference getting started tonight.  It is quite a turnout and we are a bit star struck.  We were on hand just before his speech to get this video of Murdoch and Donald Graham, CEO of The Washington Post Company, introducing [...]

SAN JOSE ---  Cisco has long been known as a business-to-business giant, but with several new initiatives on its docket the company is expanding into new business and consumer sectors. That includes the introduction of Web building tools in its Cisco EOS platform,designed to help media companies, artists and entertainers create branded, community-centric Web sites, said Dan Scheinman, senior VP [...]

Kara Swisher, veteran newspaper reporter with the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal, now co-head of Dow Jones' AllThingsD, knows how to get the  her interviewees chat.  But she runs into a tough subject with her Mom in this roadside interview at a Chevron station.  It's pretty funny when Kara needles her about Twitter (45 seconds in).She put together [...]

The Huffington Post, long a bastion of liberal thought and discussion, is becoming a forum for number of Republican thought leaders and operatives, Politico reports. Arianna Huffington, who co-founded the eponymous site four years ago this month, tells Politco that increased Republican engagement “is a reflection of our traffic, our brand, and the fact that we are increasingly seen ... as [...]

Pando Networks, the New York-based peer-to-peer provider, which is working with broadcasters including NBC, is now working with major game publishers to distribute big files as big as 6GB, we have learned. Pando is working with Acclaim, Turbine and others to distribute a number of titles, according to Robert Levitan, CEO and founder of Pando in this video interview.We spoke with [...]

Great piece up by Daisy Whitney writing for the Hollywood Reporter on how Google TV is becoming part of the television ad marketplace. Marketers can buy  Google TV for buying television time or they can insert their ads on YouTube, a relatively new development in the monetization of YouTube.Early this month, we spoke with YouTube spokesperson Chris Dale about how Google [...]

NEW YORK  -- NBC’s local media division plans to launch its local broadcast Web sites this summer, including one in New York. Separately, we have learned that the Huffington Post is expanding its local strategy.  Having established its first local site in Chicago, its New York site will launch in June.NBC rolled out new sites for its 10-owned stations starting [...]

We are huge fans of the Washington Post's innovative use of online video.  The paper has been on the forefront of the industry's use of online video.    One of the most celebrated series has been OnBeing, a series of simple, three minute profiles of non-celebrities with interesting stories, simply shot. “It’s about building an online community of people who don’t usually [...]

We read the expansive Mediabistro Q&A with Larry Kramer, entrepreneur/editor, media visionary.  In the post published today, he addresses a number of topics including the evolution of the newsroom, regional news coverage and the challenges for mainstream media to navigate the extraordinary period of turmoil. Last April, I interviewed Larry about how mainstream media can embrace social media.  I have republished [...]

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA -- Google has been making progress with its Google Book Search project, having scanned and indexed 7 million volumes, but it will vastly expand if a settlement with authors and publishers is approved by a U.S. Federal court in Manhattan.  The settlement decision is expected sometime in Q4 of this year.  The agreement covers authors with who hold [...]

Publishers and authors are stepping up their game when it comes to online video and book promotion. The young adult genre is taking the lead with new creative experiments in Web video to promote books like Jay Asher’s “Thirteen Reasons Why,” Alyson Noel’s “Evermore” and Harper Teen’s “The Luxe,”For more details on what’s working, what’s not and what’s next when it comes to the intersection [...]

The third annual CNET Webware awards are out and YouTube and Justin.tv are among video-related companies among the 100 winners. Other video-related winners are Amazon Video on Demand, Hulu, Ustream and Vimeo. Here's the word from Webware's editor Rafe Needleman: "This is the year that people have truly embraced Web 2.0 sites, services, and applications as a medium to communicate and collaborate," [...]

Blinkx, the online video search company released its year-end earnings today.  While the company has lowered its burn rate and has $23 million in cash, some analysts are cautious about the company's prospects, Reuters reports. Here are some company developments shared by Blinkx:·         Revenue more than doubled (top and bottom line performance beat analyst consensus)·         Profits up over 100%·         Unique visitors [...]

Mogulus, the New York-based start-up which provides free and paid Web streaming services, has renamed itself as Livestream. In a phone conversation this morning, founder and CEO Max Haot told me that the name change is important as the product is becoming more broadly marketed to consumers.   Liz Gannes at NewTeeVee first reported the story this morning.  She reports the company's  [...]

Manhattan-based health information network HealthiNation has quadrupled its ad revenue on a year-over-year basis and has seen its monthly traffic grow more than seven times in some cases. The economy is accelerating the shift for pharmaceutical advertisers to the Web and that shift is helping the network win new partnerships, such as its recent co-production deal with U.S. News [...]

NEW YORK -- VMIX, the San Diego-based video services company, is powering a number of newspaper and local television station Web sites, including the Tribune newspapers.  It has had a recent win with the Post-Newsweek television stations sites. At the Streaming Media East conference last week, I caught up with VMIX CEO Mike Glickenhaus.  Mike explained the utility of his company's [...]

NEW YORK, NY -- Brightcove, the Boston-based video services company, has been enjoying annual 300 percent growth, global expansion, strong balance sheet and is hooking up with devices including Vudu. According to Brightcove CEO and Founder Jeremy Allaire, the company is providing integration onto the iPhone for shows including AMC's Mad Men, Saul Hansell of The New York Times reports.Brightcove [...]

The Wall Street Journal's web site has jumped to more that 12 million monthly unique visitors in April, an increase of 160 percent over the same period last year, according a Nielsen Online report published today in Editor & Publisher. We surmise that a big part of the jump has resulted from the complete site redesign which was implemented in [...]

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA -- As it continues to mine new advertising models, YouTube said VISA has currently bought out the new “click to buy” ad option on YouTube. The ad format is an overlay ad that pops up on music videos and gives viewers a chance to buy the track that’s playing. The VISA/YouTube promotion was first reported on Monday by [...]

NEW YORK -- Boxee, a free software download which allows users to connect computers  to television sets, bypassing a cable box, has 500,000 users in the U.S. I sat down with CEO Avner Ronen earlier this week  at the Streaming Media East conference where he was a keynote speaker. As for negotiations with major media for permission to stream the networks' [...]