By Stephen Brook: The start of the Times Online paywall is imminent, with a special preview about to launch. News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks told staff today that subscribers to the Times and Sunday Times and those registered with Times Online will be invited to register for an “exclusive…

Former Sun editor Rebekah Brooks, now News International CEO, is continuing her rise up the publisher’s ranks - she’s replacing James Murdoch in his seat on the Press Association Group board. Both appointments are interesting since News International papers are, of course, customers of the text-and-video news wire agency. Most…

Public relations news monitor Meltwater, which is still refusing to pay UK newspapers for crawling their websites, has now been blocked from indexing Times Online, the most serious of Rupert Murdoch’s UK newspapers. The news site, which is due to go behind a paywall this spring and which had already…

News Corp.. (NYSE: NWS) Chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch celebrates his 79th birthday with a cameo on his own Fox Business Network. Among the topics ... the newspaper ad model not dead yet (if we were Gawker we’d have to follow that with “neither am I”); iPad will attract more…

By Jane Martinson: Jonathan Miller, head of digital media at News Corporation (NYSE: NWS), said today that “dual revenue streams” are likely to co-exist as media organisations try ways of making money online. Miller claimed the media industry had to return to charging, whether through subscription or some other method.…

At the opening speech of the first Abu Dhabi Media Summit, Rupert Murdoch is exhorting Arab nations to open up and let creative talents flow. Of course, he has his own agenda: open it up to our content as well. This is the show-me-the-money quote: “When we look to the…

Universal Music Group’s ever-honest international digital SVP Rob Wells gave a video interview to TheMusicVoid. The highlights…

Updated: News Corporation (NYSE: NWS) today confirmed that it has reached an agreement to buy a 9.09 percent stake in Rotana Group, the pan-Middle East media group. News Corporation is acquiring newly-issued shares in Rotana for $70 million and has an option to increase its stake to 18.18 percent in…

—ITV (LSE: ITV) betting: The broadcaster wants a piece of online bookies’ success - it’s running a version of WilliamHill.com through ITV.com in a win-win for each. ITV is promoting the site on its ads, but everything links back to WilliamHill.com. Via NMA. —Sky on Nokia: After iPhone and Android,…

Is Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) turning to “research” in its pitch to paywall-happy news publishers? MSN UK content manager Alastair Bruce has published a 60-slide personal presentation on the topic (via J.co.uk) that nicely surveys 30 paid content sites - and then concludes: our search engine will protect your upcoming charging…

Telegraph.co.uk’s sources have been promising the paper Hulu’s imminent UK launch for so long now that, now it’s reporting “further delays” to the U.S. VOD site’s ambitions here, we’re barely inclined to mention it - but anyway… Despite claiming in August that Hulu was in “most advanced discussions” to land…

While Murdoch’s footsoldiers rush to charge for consumer news like WSJ.com does for biz content, and while WSJ.com itself continues its European expansion, one part of the pie is often overlooked… Financial News, DJ’s subscription site covering the London securities market, has redesigned and maintained its place in the Wall…

—Euro Winter Olympics Coverage: The European Broadcasting Union is streaming Winter Olympics coverage free through its “Vancouver Live” portal, including selected events in HD for the first time. The EBU claims that it will have the most extensive online coverage in Europe, aggregating feeds from 30 member broadcasters, six EBU…

—.Fox UK MD leaves: Federica Aperio is stepping down as the managing director of .Fox Networks, the UK sales and ad network for Fox International Channels (FIC). Sales director Francis Turner will now oversee the day-to-day running of the business. This is the second executive departure from .Fox in a…

—Sky Songs/IPC: The broadcaster will promote its new music download service through IPC Media’s listings magazines. TV & Satellite Week, TVTimes, What’s on TV, TV Easy and Soaplife will each offer 10 free downloads of songs in consecutive weeks. Normally the service costs £6.49 ($10.30)-per-month for 10 downloads or a…

You have to sympathise with The Guardian’s correspondent Andrew Clark, who, during News Corp.‘s Q2 earnings conference call Tuesday night, dared to ask Rupert Murdoch: “I don’t know if you’ve read Alan Rusbridger’s speech... ?” “No,” Murdoch interrupted. So Clark had another go, asking Murdoch to comment on the speech,…

By Mark Sweney: Nwws International has hired Paul Gilshan, BSkyB’s head of marketing for its movie channels, to head marketing for the Times newspaper. Gilshan, who also handled marketing for Sky Real Lives, has been hired by his former boss at BSkyB (NYSE: BSY), Alexandra Lewis, who joined News International…

By Stephen Brook: More on New York’s Newsday, its paywall and its (in)famous 35 paying subscribers. As Peter Preston points out in the Observer, it could be a paywall no one will notice, because it comes with TV subscriptions. The owners of Newsday also own Optimum Cable, which supplies cable…

—BSkyB: The company is adding an e-wallet service to its online betting portals, to provide an alternative to using credit cards for every transaction. Sky Bet, Sky Poker, Sky Vegas and Sky Bingo currently have about 150,000 users and in 2009 brought in about £51.9 million in business (via iGamingBusiness)…