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David Fischer, the managing director of Fox Interactive Europe, has left the company, according to an internal memo sent out by MySpace CEO Chris DeWolfe...he is leaving after a year. Travis Katz SVP & General Manager of FIM International will act as interim MD of Europe. No indication where Fischer is going to.

Dow Jones is set to acquire London-based investment banking newspaper Financial News for approximately $53 million, according to Telegraph UK, which said an announcement could be made within days.
In addition to its weekly print version, the Financial News has its own real-time financial news site, eFinancialNews with around 40,000 subscribers. The company was founded by a group of London business journalists in 1990s.
Last year eFinancialGroup, a sister company to Financial News, sold its jobs website eFinancialCareers.com to U.S.-based online recruiter Dice, which is owned by General Atlantic Partners and Quadrangle, for about $94 million.
Related:
-- eFinancialNews Bought By Investor Group; eFinancialGroup Brought Separately By Dice

A British ad campaign has people accusing Ask.com of being a corporate wolf in radical activist’s clothing, the WSJ reports. The online, TV, radio, and outdoor campaign – no print ads, which were deemed too “corporate” by its agency, Publicis’ Fallon – is designed to appear as though a protest group is devoted to combating “establishment” control of the internet, represented by a certain large search engine. The ads, which began appearing March 12, do not mention Ask.com or its obvious target, Google. Instead, users are directed to a website, www.information-revolution.org, that asks people to “try a new search engine” by clicking either Ask.com, Google, MSN or Yahoo. Still, the site doesn’t seem to be hiding the connection with Ask.com, since the company’s logo is clearly superimposed over a fist. It also features a fairly prominent photo and quote about “searching for alternatives” from Apostolos Gerasoulis, who is identified as the “creator of Ask.com search.” And while most people probably don’t click the Terms & Conditions section, the first line does say the site is provided by “IAC Search & Media Europe Limited (Ask.com, we or us).”
Nevertheless, the WSJ reports that individuals, joining the site’s chatroom, have dominated it with complaints of being duped “by an inferior search engine.” Fallon insists it isn’t troubled by the buzz backlash, however. The reasoning: since Ask.com was used for 4.3 percent of all U.K. searches in January, according to comScore, and compared to Google’s 75 percent of U.K. searches, the IAC unit has very little to lose.

It’s official - EMI Music just became the first major record label to drop digital rights management on its digital downloads - but many consumers must pay more. EMI is launching a new line of “premium” downloads at twice the current audio quality that will come without usage restrictions. From May, and initially at Apple’s iTunes Store, tracks from the label’s entire catalogue will be available in 256kbps AAC format at $1.29 (EUR1.29/GBP0.99) each. Tracks at the existing lower-quality 128kbps format will, however, remain for sale with DRM and at their current $0.99 (EUR0.99/GBP0.79) price. The announcement was made during this morning’s joint press conference at EMI’s London HQ.
- EMI CEO Eric Nicoli said the move comes after January retail tests showed sales 10-to-1 in favor of the higher-quality format, “reaffirming our belief that sound fidelity is, for many, an important factor”. “All our research tells us [consumers] would be prepared to pay a higher price for a file they can play on any music player. Interoperability is the key to unlocking the music business. We have the consumer at the center of our strategy; it’s clear from our research that many consumers find it frustrating they don’t have interoperability. It’s also clear that some care about quality. By combining these two, we think it’s a very positive step.”
- Apple CEO Steve Jobs repeated that interoperability and quality were the two key issues. “While 128kbps AAC is the best audio quality offered by any mainstream music store, audio users can tell the the difference between it and the original source material. It is time to consider delivering even higher audio quality than is currently available.” Asked if removing the restriction that Apple Store purchases must be played on an iPod would hurt iPod sales, Jobs said he was confident customers would continue appreciate the device’s ease of use.
- iTunes: The new EMI line-up will sit alongside the existing line-up on Apple Store, which will automatically invite consumers to choose which version to download. iTunes Store users will also be able to upgrade all the EMI tracks currently in their library to the new versions for $0.30 per song. “We think customers will really appreciate this,” Jobs said, although this is the standard per-track price gap between old and new formats, not a special offer. Suggesting a wholehearted effort to safeguard the future of albums, whole albums will automatically be sold at the new, DRM-free bitrate for the existing price.
- Retail: EMI’s new line-up will not be limited to iTunes. Other retailers would also be given the opportunity to sell tracks in AAC, WMA, MP3 or other formats “in the coming weeks”, Nicoli stressing it is retailers and not labels which set end prices (figures mentioned here are iTunes-specific). EMI press release: “From today, EMI’s retailers will be offered downloads of tracks and albums in the DRM-free audio format of their choice in a variety of bit rates up to CD quality.” DRM is also being removed from music video downloads, Nicoli said, with no price change. DRM must remain on tracks sold via subscription and ad-supported stores, however.
- Future: Nicoli: ”We expect sales to grow as a result of this. We remain optimistic that digital growth will outstrip physical decline - it hasn’t happened yet, don’t ask me to predict when that will happen because I can’t, but we remain optimistic. Digital downloads remains in its infancy - the opportunity is massive.” In an indication that Jobs’ February memo to the industry was the real deal, the Apple CEO said: “EMI has taken the first bold step in the music industry. Starting today, Apple will reach out to all the other labels [including independents] to give them the same opportunity.” “Well over half of the five million tracks on iTunes today will also be available in high-quality offerings by the end of the calendar year” - suggesting either confidence or specific knowledge about similar future announcements. Both said they hoped to be able to carry The Beatles’ catalogue - Jobs adding “we’re working on it.”
Update: Streaming audio|MP3| Slides (pdf)
Related:-
- Steve Jobs To Music DRM: Drop Dead

UK magazine publisher Emap reported its 2006/07 annual revenue from digital media is up 35 percent at £127 million ($250 million). “The recently launched B2C websites serving the golf and motor biking communities have got off to an encouraging start and [the company] is excited by the prospects for its recent acquisition Yospace”, a statement reads. Following the negative trend of the last couple of years (the publisher closed pop music mag Smash Hits after 28 years last year), Emap said it expects “existing difficult trading conditions in consumer media markets” to continue next year, with weak forecasts for consumer magazines (its core business), recruitment advertising and radio. Overall revenue growth is expected to be three percent, with underlying growth down two percent. It says the priority is to target “faster-growth” platforms, and it aims to make savings of £20 million ($39 million) next year - most likely starting by offloading its Irish radio businesses, according to Bloomberg.
Related:-
- Emap Ramps Up Online Strategy, Digital Head for Each Consumer Arm
- UK Publisher Emap Snaps Up Mobile Social Media Firm YoSpace For $17.1 Million

AOL and UKTV have struck a syndication contract to carry clips form the lifestyle TV network on the web portal in Britain. UKTV operates 10 niche channels on topics including food, home improvements and history as part of a joint venture with BBC Worldwide and Virgin Media; its programming comprises BBC DIY and gardening re-runs plus some original productions. This is its biggest online video partnership to date. Seventy clips of between three and five minutes will show at AOL UK’s Show Me and Homes & Property sections, providing short instructional videos on subjects like fixing leaking radiators. If AOL can leverage the content to channel the kind of growth seen in the online lifehacks and how-to realm, it could prove popular.

Virgin Media may be about to buy one of the UK’s oldest internet service providers, Pipex, The Telegraph speculates, in a move that would extend Richard Branson’s broadband offering from cable to fixed-line. Sixteen-year-old Pipex appointed an investment bank last week to draw up sale plans, with any one of BT, Carphone Warehouse, Tiscali, BSkyB or Orange initially mooted as possible suitors. Telegraph does not cite its source but said Virgin Media (which rebranded last month after a merger with ntl/Telewest) was a “surprise frontrunner” amongst several expressions of interest.
In an increasingly competitive market, several UK companies now offer triple-play telephone, internet and IPTV services, with the addition of Branson’s Virgin Mobile adjunct marking his company out as a “quad-play” provider. But Virgin will need to grow its communications network from cable alone if it is to grow its subscriber base : while cable is available to just 55 percent of the country, ADSL broadband of the kind offered by Pipex is available over a standard phone line to anyone whose local exchange has been upgraded. A Virgin Media spokesperson just told me no comment: “Lots of people are looking at it and I’m sure we’ll continue to be mentioned in dispatches”.

The UK’s Channel 4 TV broadcaster has won backing from SMG, UTV and possibly Emap Radio - three of the UK’s biggest radio companies - in its bid to run eight new national digital radio stations, The Guardian reports. Canadian media giant CanWest is also said to have signed up.
Media regulator Ofcom invited companies to apply by March 28 for the license to run a second over-the-air UK digital radio (DAB) multiplex. Northern Ireland-based UTV Radio, which operates the talkSPORT channel and several regional stations, was already on record as supporting Channel 4’s bid; there’s not much new there. But the arrival of Virgin Radio owner SMG and - imminently, according to the report - from Emap Radio, will be be welcomed by Channel 4.
The publicly-owned commercial TV broadcaster, which expects a £100 million annual budget shortfall by 2012 as viewers migrate to multi-channel options and ad revenue declines, has already branched out with niche movie, entertainment and documentary channels, and has used channel4radio.com to put its audio programming in the shop window as podcasts. Ofcom has stipulated the new digital radio offerings must be “distinctive”, which aligns neatly with Channel 4’s existing TV remit, set out in the terms on which it was founded in 1982.
Though C4 would extend some of its current programming into the new space, and resurrect some extinct shows like The Tube, many stations and shows will likely be joint ventures with brand partners. C4 Director of Radio Nathalie Schwarz told this morning’s Guardian that Financial Times and New Musical Express are lined up for the new platform. This is where Emap’s experience will come in handy - the company already operates several cross-media radio ventures with magazines like Heat, Q and Mojo. “Disney is all but confirmed as an exclusive partner to develop children’s programming,” the report adds. Schwarz: “With the BBC at 55 percent market share, there needs to be a real strong credible public service alternative.”
The Telegraph newspaper in December made noises about a bid based on the talk radio format but that has since gone quiet, while current multiplex majority-stake owner GCap was also said to have formed a consortium with BT and infrastructure provider Arqiva, but so far National Grid Wireless is the only other confirmed bidder. Could The Guardian itself be positioning for carriage with the eventual license winner? It last week began stringing together its podcasts as a web-based “radio” service; parent GMG operates a handful of existing traditional channels. An Ofcom spokesperson just told me they would not reveal the identities of applicants until March 28 and that any bidders are likely to leave it to the last minute. The new spectrum is also expected to allow for new interactive radio services on mobile handsets.