Microsoft has created the Publisher Leadership Council – a collection of digital publishers – to help develop its new advertising platform for online.

Full story at this link…

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Former Microsoft executive Erik Huggers is expected to be confirmed as the replacement for outgoing BBC director of future media and technology Ashley Highfield.

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Microsoft has opened up the technology behind the New York Times’ e-reader to all publishers.

The Times Reader format, which creates a digitised version of the paper browsable on or offline, is now freely available to publishers.

The system has already been implemented by some publishers, Michael Cooper, director of advanced reading technologies at Microsoft, told delegates at the World Association of Newspapers (WAN) conference.

“What took Microsoft and the New York Times 18 months to develop has been adopted by other publishers in less than six weeks,” he said.

The technology, Cooper said, will allow publishers to deliver content to a range of devices in one go.

The growth of the mobile internet will not eliminate the need for the e-reader technology, he added, because of the format and offline accessibility to news it offers.

However, the next stage of the technology will be to develop it for use on mobile phones.

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Publishing 2.0 takes the Yahoo/Microsoft story as a good example of where it is uneconomic to run news pieces that will just be swamped by leading and other news sources running the story.

Over 2000 news pieces on a Google News search about the latest developments about the deal – if your not it the top ten – is it really worth the bother?

“If each site were, as in print, an island unto itself, this would make sense – if the news outlet did not cover the story then its readers might not know about it,” wrote Scott Karp.

“But seen as a whole on the web, which connects each and every one of these websites, and especially seen through the lens of an aggregator like Google News or Techmeme, this huge mass of content about the same story doesnâ

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Google and Yahoo have announced a two week experiment that will see the web giants take a share of each other’s advertising space.

During the trial Google will be able to put ads next to 3 per cent of search results on Yahoo.

Microsoft, which recently offered to buy Yahoo, has criticised the scheme.

“Any definitive agreement between Yahoo and Google would consolidate over 90 per cent of the search advertising market in Google’s hands. This would make the market far less competitive,” Brad Smith, Microsoft’s General Counsel, told the BBC.

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Those guys at Tribune know how to have a laugh don’t they? Take this ‘hilarious’ press release I received today about the US media group’s latest appointment:

Surely You Can’t Be Serious? Marc Chase – President Of Tribune Interactive!

Randy Michaels’ run of acquiring radio-management stars
came to a screeching halt today with Chase’s appointment

CHICAGO, April 7, 2008 — Another freaking Clear Channel
Communications executive on the payroll and this one’s been
named President of Tribune Interactive.

Tribune Broadcasting’s Randy Michaels’ past finally caught
up with him when Marc Chase obviously blackmailed his way
into a position he is not remotely qualified to hold.
Insiders are irate. Chase is a fraud. A source inside
Tribune HR, who wished to remain anonymous, pointed out that
Marc Chase’s resume (below) was obviously fabricated. First
of all, his name isn’t even Marc Chase–it’s Mark Thompson.
The whole thing is a sham.

MARC CHASE
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Washington DC 20500 202-456-1111

PROFESSINAL EXPERIENCE

Vocabulary Advisorist for George W. Bush
President of the United States of America
Washington DC, 2004-present

eBay
President of Buying Crap
San Jose, California 2003-2004

Google
Executive Vice President of Finding Crap Anywhere
Mountain View, California 2001-2002

Microsoft
Senior Executive Vice President of Technology and Stuff
Seattle, Washington, 2000-2001

CBS, ABC, NBC, FOX Television
Vice President of Watching TV A Lot
Los Angeles, California 1999-2000

Harvard University
Dean of School of Internetology
Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1998

EDUCASHION

Nearly Graduated with Honers
School of Alabama in Atlanta Georgia 1985

COMMUNITY SERVICE

400 Hours (reduced from 600)
Judge gave time off for good behavior

Chase was quoted as saying, “Timing and infrared photography
are everything. I couldn’t be happier! I know Randy is
relieved to finally have me on Sam’s payroll.”

Tribune has undergone major changes in the past year, with
billionaire Sam Zell acquiring the company last April in a
complex deal that left it with $13 billion in debt. Since
then, Zell has brought in new executives to fill key roles.
This one takes the cake.

Last December, Zell hired Michaels — who helped Zell to
build Clear Channel into a radio behemoth that he could then
sell — to oversee Tribune’s broadcast and Internet
divisions. It is obvious Michaels has lost his mind with
this hire.

–By Hugh Jass – A Reputable Media Source

© 2008, Bogus Information, a division of Dewey, Cheatum, and
Howe. All Rights Reserved.

While you’re sewing you sides back together (and trying to make sense of the whole thing), you have to ask why? As Gawker points out Marc Chase has been hired – that’s about all you can determine from the message – but is it appropriate to send out a spoof release as the Tribune company faces mass redundancies?

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