Now that the wave of 2009/end of the decade retrospectives are over, it's time for predictions for the year to come. Wired co-founding editor and current Federated Media CEO John Battelle has a particularly thought-provoking set. Among the most intriguing: that in 2010, web search won't quite die off, but it will deteriorate such that people "question search's validity as a service." (more...)

The "Hulu for magazines" joint venture spearheaded by John Squires officially has a name: Next Issue Media. According to Folio, the partnership has some real heavyweights behind it: Time Inc., Meredith, Hearst, Condé Nast and News Corporation. All of which represent some serious old media muscle, but will they be able to compete in the digital marketplace? (more...)

Rupert Murdoch dropped the hint that he was thinking about pulling The Wall Street Journal's content from Google earlier this week, decrying Google News and aggregator sites as thieves, "plagiarists," and "parasites." Conveniently overlooked: plenty of News Corporation sites pull content from other sites, some extensively. (more...)

The stateside advertising boycott of Glenn Beck's show following his remarks on Obama's supposed 'racism' may not have had as big a financial impact on Fox as the boycotters might like you to believe, but anti-Beck sentiment continues to ripple out in unexpected ways. Case in point: Waitrose, which the AFP describes as "Britain's most upmarket supermarket chain," has pulled all advertisements from Fox News sister channel Sky News in response to complaints about Beck's show.

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