The Wall Street Journal continues to defy industry trends, growing Individually Paid Subscriptions by 1.6% to 1,351,396 and overall circulation by 0.3% to 2,069,463.

This continues a trend over the last four reporting periods that has seen Individually Paid Subscriptions grow 12%. This is the outcome of the Journal’s strategy to maintain the highest quality circulation by focusing on growing home delivery subscribers while reducing other paid circulation. The Journal has a high number of Individually Paid Circulation with more than 50% more—or 500,000 more—than the next highest newspaper total as reported by ABC.

The Wall Street Journal Online (www.wsj.com) has also steadily grown its subscriber base, increasing paid subscribers 11% year-over-year in 2008, rising to 1,035,085 subscribers from 931,000. The Wall Street Journal Digital Network, which comprises WSJ.com, MarketWatch.com, Barron’s.com and AllThingsD.com also generated significant year-over-year growth in terms of both visitors and page views. Visitors to the WSJDN increased 70% while page views increased 32%.

“Over the last few years when other publications have seen declining circulation, the Journal franchise has gone from strength to strength showing growth in circulation and improving quality,” said Paul Bascobert, chief marketing officer of The Wall Street Journal. “With the recent expansion to both the print and online editions of the Journal we expect to build on this positive pattern of growth with new opportunities to serve our core audience while engaging new readers.”

During the six months ending March 31, 2008, as reported in the ABC March 2008 FAS-FAX, total average paid circulation for the Journal grew to 2,069,463 from 2,062,312.

About The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal, the flagship publication of Dow Jones & Company is the world’s leading business publication. Founded in 1889, The Wall Street Journal has a circulation of more than 2 million, reaching the nation’s top business and political leaders, as well as investors across the country. Holding 33 Pulitzer Prizes for outstanding journalism, The Wall Street Journal provides readers with trusted information and knowledge to make better decisions. The Wall Street Journal print franchise has more than 750 journalists world-wide, part of the Dow Jones network of nearly 1,900 business and financial news staff. Other publications that are part of The Wall Street Journal franchise, with a global audience of more than 3.8 million, include The Wall Street Journal Asia and The Wall Street Journal Europe. The Wall Street Journal Online at WSJ.com is the largest subscription news site on the Web with 10.9 million users each month. In 2007, the Journal was ranked No. 1 in BtoB’s Media Power 50 for the eighth consecutive year. The Wall Street Journal Radio Network services news and information to more than 280 radio stations in the U.S.

Source: Circulation percentages calculated by The Wall Street Journal based on data filed with the Audit Bureau of Circulations for the six months ending March 2008 (subject to audit); and the March 2007, March 2006 and March 2005 ABC Publisher’s Statements.

Paul Connolly, President of Europe & UK, Universal Music Publishing Group, announced on April, 23 the company’s acquisition of Big Life Music. As part of this agreement, UMPG has a worldwide publishing deal with multi-platinum selling Snow Patrol, encompassing past and future works. Founded in 1987 by Jazz Summers and Tim Parry, Big Life Music has been one of the most successful independent music publishers of the last twenty years and embraces a wide and eclectic roster of songwriters covering hits of the past two decades. The Big Life Music catalogue includes over 2000 copyrights.

Snow Patrol have sold over seven million albums to date. Signed to Big Life since 2002, the catalogue comprises all songs from the phenomenally successful Final Straw (Fiction/Polydor) and Eyes Open (Fiction/Polydor) albums, including the hit singles “Chasing Cars,” “Run,” and “You’re All I Have.”

“Rarely do you find a music company as edgy and diversified as Big Life,” stated Connolly. “Jazz and Tim have consistently pushed the creative envelope over many years. We are delighted with the acquisition and of course very proud to represent Snow Patrol.”

Connolly’s tenure has seen UMP, the world’s leading global music publisher, emerge as a creative driving force across the industry. Snow Patrol join UMP UK’s successful roster of talent, including Adele, Lily Allen, Bjork, The Clash, Coldplay, Elvis Costello, The Cure, Feist, Franz Ferdinand, Elton John/Bernie Taupin, Joy Division, Keane, The Killers, Kate Nash, Sex Pistols, The Smiths, Van Morrison, and Paul Weller, amongst others.

About Universal Music Publishing Group
Universal Music Publishing Group (UMPG) is the industry\’s leading global music publishing operation and is part of Universal Music Group. UMPG represents music in every genre from some of the world\’s hottest songwriters and catalogs. UMPG is also a global leader in the areas of Production Music, Christian and Classical Music. For more information, visit: www.umusicpub.com.

The Nielsen Company and ESPN Deportes, ESPN’s 24-hour Spanish-language sports network in the U.S., announced on April, 24 that they have reached an agreement to report program ratings in Nielsen’s U.S. Hispanic cable service, known as the Nielsen Homevideo Index Hispanic (NHIH) Service.ESPN Deportes’ ratings will be derived from the Hispanic sub-sample of Nielsen’s National People Meter panel. Approximately 1,722 Hispanic households are included within Nielsen’s National People Meter sample, representing 12% of all households.

“The addition of ESPN Deportes to Nielsen’s U.S. Hispanic cable service will provide sponsors with additional metric to realize the value of investing on our network” said Paul Green, vice president, advertising sales, ESPN Deportes. “The timing is especially good as we enter the 2009 Upfront selling season.”

“We welcome ESPN Deportes to our national sample of Hispanic television networks,” said Catherine Herkovic, Managing Director, National Television Client Services, The Nielsen Company. “With interest in Spanish-language programming rising steadily, Nielsen is focused on providing more detailed ratings reporting for Spanish-language programmers. We believe this agreement will help to meet that need.”

NHIH data for ESPN Deportes will be available as of April 28, 2008.

With the new agreement, ESPN Deportes will be one of six fully-rated Spanish Language cable networks that will be accessible to national clients within the Hispanic Sub-Sample.

About ESPN Deportes

ESPN DEPORTES is ESPN’s Spanish-language sports brand dedicated to providing the widest variety of sports to the U.S. Hispanic sports fan via television, radio, online, print, and wireless. Sports media assets include ESPN Deportes television which offers unparalleled Spanish-language sports programming, featuring more than 1500 live and/or original hours of sports programming presented annually; ESPN Deportes Radio, the only around-the-clock national Spanish-language sports radio network in the U.S.; ESPNdeportes.com, the #1 Spanish-language sports Web site among Spanish-preferred fans in the U.S.; ESPN Deportes La Revista, the first general sports Spanish-language magazine in the U.S.; and ESPN Deportes Wireless, the brand’s emerging business which offers Spanish-language sports content to fans via wireless devices.

About The Nielsen Company

The Nielsen Company is a global information and media company with leading market positions and recognized brands in marketing information (ACNielsen), media information (Nielsen Media Research), online intelligence (Nielsen Online), mobile media (Nielsen Mobile), trade shows and business publications (Billboard, The Hollywood Reporter, Adweek). The privately held company is active in more than 100 countries, with headquarters in Haarlem, the Netherlands, and New York, USA. For more information, please visit, www.nielsen.com.

CBS Corporation has acquired International Outdoor Advertising Group (IOA), the leading out-of-home advertising company in South America with more than 17,000 advertising faces in Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Uruguay, for $110 million in cash, it was announced today by Leslie Moonves, President and CEO of CBS Corporation, and Clive Punter, President and CEO of CBS Outdoor International, which encompasses Europe, Asia and now South America.

The four countries in which IOA operates comprise more than two-thirds of the continent’s population, GDP and advertising-spending growth, and offer CBS Corporation an entry point and leadership position into the fast-growing South American market.

 
   “Outdoor has proven to be a high-growth business for CBS, and we’re pleased to expand in one of its hottest and most promising marketplaces,” Moonves said. “As an established, locally-managed asset with both breadth and scale in Latin America, IOA is a great complement to our outdoor billboard businesses in Mexico and

   “We see a lot of potential to expand and grow IOA’s billboard business,” said Punter.  “We continue to apply best practices from across our international operations to improve each of our locally managed businesses.  I’m pleased that Leslie and CBS have afforded us the opportunity to include IOA into our growing portfolio of international assets.  IOA will greatly increase the size of the business by adding not only scale but opportunities for leveraging existing business within the group.”

  IOA CEO Jack Sabaj will continue to manage the business.  He will report to Antonio Alonso, Chief Development Officer for CBS Outdoor International and previous general manager of CBS Outdoor in

  “This is a great day for IOA,” said Sabaj.  “The combination of CBS’s operational know-how and available resources will greatly help our ability to grow in

   “Jack and his team have established a strong business.  Their local knowledge combined with Antonio’s expertise of creating a winning model for building international brands in

About CBS Corporation

CBS Corporation is a mass media company with constituent parts that reach back to the beginnings of the broadcast industry, as well as newer businesses that operate on the leading edge of the media industry. The Company, through its many and varied operations, combines broad reach with well-positioned local businesses, all of which provide it with an extensive distribution network by which it serves audiences and advertisers in all 50 states and key international markets. It has operations in virtually every field of media and entertainment, including broadcast television (CBS and The CW – a joint venture between CBS Corporation and Warner Bros. Entertainment), cable television (Showtime and CBS College Sports Network), local television (CBS Television Stations), television production and syndication (CBS Paramount Network Television and CBS Television Distribution), radio (CBS Radio), advertising on out-of-home media (CBS Outdoor), publishing (Simon & Schuster), interactive media (CBS Interactive), music (CBS Records), licensing and merchandising (CBS Consumer Products), video/DVD (CBS Home Entertainment), in-store media (CBS Outernet) and motion pictures (CBS Films). For more information, log on to www.cbscorporation.com.

integration with digital at the core and reflects our stronger position in key markets.” - Fernando

- the acquisition of BLM, the leading independent media agency, which has combined with Arena

1 Net account wins, expressed in estimated annual billings. Full definition given on page 6 of this press

- the acquisition of CAKE, the leading independent branded entertainment agency in the UK,

- the acquisition of KADIUM, a strong digital agency in California, that we have merged with our

Neal H. Moritz, founder of Original Film and producer of several hit film franchises, and Sony Pictures Entertainment have renewed their first look development and production pact though 2011, it was announced on April, 14 by Doug Belgrad and Matt Tolmach, presidents of Columbia Pictures. The first-look deal continues the successful collaboration and partnership that has resulted in several #1 hits, including this weekend’s horror hit Prom Night.

“We have worked with Neal for over a decade at Columbia. During that time, he has proven that he possesses great commercial instincts and has a remarkable eye for emerging talent, said Belgrad.

Added Tolmach, “Neal has always been a partner to us. He knows exactly what kinds of films we are looking to make and equally important, he is a hands-on producer who knows how to deliver first-rate production value at a price. Neal has made tremendous contributions to our recent success and we love having him as part of the Columbia family.”

Moritz added, “I began my producing career at Sony with Cruel Intentions, and since then, I have always been treated as part of the family. They back my movies with the full force of the studio and I believe their production, marketing and distribution executives are the best in the business. I’m proud to call Sony my home.”

“Neal is the kind of producer you want to have on your side,” said Amy Pascal, Co-Chairman of Sony Pictures. “He is equally adept delivering films at every range of the production spectrum, from modestly budgeted titles like Prom Night and Made of Honor to larger action driven movies like Vantage Point and S.W.A.T.. We have a great short hand after so many years and we are proud that Original is here to stay.”

Moritz is one of the most prolific producers working in Hollywood today with more than 35 movies to his credit. He has produced a total of 14 No. 1 hits, most recently Screen Gems’ Prom Night and Columbia Pictures’ Vantage Point. His films for Sony and other studios, including I Am Legend, Click, Sweet Home Alabama, the Fast and the Furious franchise, S.W.A.T., XXX, Evan Almighty and many others, have taken in more than $3.5 billion worldwide. Among Moritz’s films set for release later this year is Columbia’s romantic comedy Made of Honor.

Among the films Moritz is currently developing for Sony are The Green Hornet, starring Seth Rogen and written and executive produced by Rogen and his partner, Evan Goldberg and the recent acquisition Battle: Los Angeles. Other titles being developed by Original include R.I.P.D to be directed by David Dobkin, Man Witch to be directed by Todd Phillips, and a remake of Escape From New York. He is currently in production on the fourth installment in the highly successful Fast and the Furious franchise, which reunites the entire original cast, including Vin Diesel and Paul Walker for director Justin Lin.

For television, he is an executive producer on the acclaimed drama series “Prison Break.” and he produced the HBO movie “The Rat Pack,” which earned 11 Emmy Award nominations.

A graduate of UCLA with a degree in economics, Moritz went on to earn a graduate degree from the Peter Stark Motion Picture Producing Program at the University of Southern California.

About Sony Pictures Entertainment

Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) is a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America (SCA), a subsidiary of Tokyo-based Sony Corporation. SPE’s global operations encompass motion picture production and distribution; television production and distribution; digital content creation and distribution; worldwide channel investments; home entertainment acquisition and distribution; operation of studio facilities; development of new entertainment products, services and technologies; and distribution of filmed entertainment in more than 100 countries. Sony Pictures Entertainment can be found on the World Wide Web at http://www.sonypictures.com.

Universal Music Group (UMG), the world\’s leading music company, and PluggedIn (www.pluggedin.com), announced on April, 16 an agreement whereby PluggedIn users will have access to thousands of high-definition quality videos from UMG’s extensive roster of chart-topping artists covering every genre of music.PluggedIn is powered by an innovative new media player that supports high-definition full-screen video playback with no buffering and DVD like controls, a multimedia search engine and fan centric social networking applications. PluggedIn’s Media Player delivers a smooth, uninterrupted, full screen viewing experience and enables fans to watch stunning, HD quality music videos from their favorite artists. Videos are encoded for multiple bandwidths (dial-up, wireless and broadband) and DVD type controls allow for instant playback and skipping around. At PluggedIn.com, music lovers can discover new music, get recommendations to artists, videos, and to other fans, and click into the PluggedIn Media Stream – a real-time, voyeur’s view of the activity of tastemakers and fans.   On PluggedIn, the community drives all the ranking and presentation of videos, artists, playlists and fans.

“With more and more consumers discovering and enjoying music videos online, we are confident that fans and artists will quickly embrace the incredibly engaging product the PluggedIn team has put together,” stated Rio Caraeff, Executive Vice President of Universal Music Group’s eLabs. “This is the first time customers will be able to view our videos online at such high quality, and the difference is remarkable.”

 “There is no question that music remains a large part of our everyday lives and a key element to the online community experience,” commented Jeff Somers, CEO of PluggedIn. “This strategic partnership is an ideal fit as it provides us and our customers with access to the resources of Universal Music, the world’s largest producer of music programming.”

###

About Universal Music Group

Universal Music Group is the world’s leading music company with wholly owned record operations or licensees in 77 countries. Its businesses also include Universal Music Publishing Group, the industry’s largest global music publishing operation.

Universal Music Group consists of record labels Decca, Deutsche Grammophon, Interscope Geffen A&M Records, Geffen Records, Island Def Jam Music Group, Lost Highway Records, MCA Nashville, Mercury Nashville, Mercury Records, Philips, Polydor Records, Universal Music Latino, Universal Motown Records Group, and Verve Music Group as well as a multitude of record labels owned or distributed by its record company subsidiaries around the world. The Universal Music Group owns the most extensive catalog of music in the industry, which is marketed through two distinct divisions, Universal Music Enterprises (in the U.S.) and Universal Strategic Marketing (outside the U.S.). Universal Music Group also includes eLabs, its new media and technologies division, Bravado, its merchandising company, and Twenty-First Artists, its full service management division.

Universal Music Group is a unit of Vivendi, a global media and communications company.

About PluggedIn

PluggedIn launched its beta service in April 2008, with the goal of changing the way consumers interact with and view premium entertainment content on the web.  PluggedIn is an internet media company that offers streaming, free to consumer, HD and broadcast quality videos to fans everywhere. The entertainment site features over 10,000 HD and broadcast quality music videos and more than one million Artist Profiles, and is powered by an innovative new media player that supports high-definition full-screen video playback with no buffering and DVD like controls, a multimedia search engine and fan-centric community features.  PluggedIn is based in Santa Monica, CA.  The company was founded and is managed as a rare partnership between proven Internet entrepreneurs and successful music industry executives. The company’s team includes Brett O’Brien, founder of Xdrive, which was sold to America Online (AOL) in 2005; Kevin Welk, CEO of Vanguard and Sugar Hill Records; Jeff Somers, former executive with Amazon and Zillow; JJ Aguhob, previously with Xdrive and AOL, and an early team member at MySpace; John Gaa, previously with Xdrive and Sony; and Nicola Marzolla, from Yahoo Music.

comScore, a leader in measuring the digital world, released on April, 16th, February 2008 data from the comScore Video Metrix service, indicating that U.S. Internet users viewed more than 10 billion online videos during the month, representing a 3-percent gain versus January (despite February being two days shorter) and a 66-percent gain versus February 2007.

Google Sites Extends Lead in Online Video Market Share

In February, Google Sites once again ranked as the top U.S. video property with nearly 3.6 billion videos viewed (35.4 percent share of all videos), gaining 1.1 share points versus the previous month. YouTube.com accounted for 96 percent of all videos viewed at Google Sites. Fox Interactive Media ranked second with 586 million videos (5.8 percent), followed by Yahoo! Sites with 293 million (2.9 percent) and Microsoft Sites with 293 million (2.9 percent).

*Rankings based on video content sites; excludes video server networks. Online video includes both streaming and progressive download video.

Nearly 135 million U.S. Internet users spent an average of 204 minutes per person viewing online video in February. Google Sites also attracted the most viewers (81.8 million), where they spent an average of 109 minutes per person watching video in February. Fox Interactive attracted the second most viewers (55.7 million), followed by Yahoo! Sites (37.1 million) and Microsoft Sites (27.1 million). ABC.com attracted the tenth largest viewing audience, and its viewers exhibited heavy engagement averaging 51 minutes of online viewing per person.

*Rankings based on video content sites; excludes video server networks. Online video includes both streaming and progressive download video.

Other notable findings from February 2008 include:

• 72.8 percent of the total U.S. Internet audience viewed online video.
• 80.4 million viewers watched 3.42 billion videos on YouTube.com (42.6 videos per viewer).
• 50.2 million viewers watched 539  million videos on MySpace.com (10.7 videos per viewer).
• The average online video duration was 2.7 minutes.
• The average online video viewer consumed 75 videos.

About comScore
comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR) is a global leader in measuring the digital world. For more information, please visit www.comscore.com/boilerplate.

Microsoft Corp. has completed its acquisition of Danger, Inc., the company announced on April, 15th. Danger’s expertise in building great, intuitive client software for mobile handsets connected to powerful hosted back-end services fosters rich consumer experiences in communication, media sharing, entertainment and personalization. The combined force of Danger and Microsoft strengthens the company’s ability to provide innovative mobile experiences to more consumers.Danger will become a part of the new Premium Mobile Experiences (PMX) team, a group within the Mobile Communications Business (MCB) of the Entertainment and Devices Division at Microsoft. The PMX team focuses on consumer-facing mobile projects and is led by Roz Ho, corporate vice president of Premium Mobile Experiences, reporting to Andy Lees, senior vice president of the MCB. Danger co-founders Matt Hershenson and Joe Britt will join the new organization, reporting directly to Ho.

“We imagine a mobile experience that embraces sharing and celebrating relationships and personal moments,” Ho said. “Combining Danger and Microsoft talents together in the Premium Mobile Experiences team is how we’re going to deliver cool, new, fun mobile experiences to consumers. We want people to smile every time they look at their phone.”

The Danger mobile Internet platform, which connects people to their social circles and other rich content, is an integrated end-to-end solution that enables people to interact with their friends, social communities and content through the Internet and Internet services.

“At Danger, we created a fun and easy-to-use mobile experience for today’s Internet-savvy consumer,” Britt said.

Hershenson added, “As we combine our team and technologies with Microsoft, we see a clear path to evolving that experience and delivering it to an even broader group of consumers.”

Danger employees will continue to work from their current offices. Financial terms of the acquisition have not been disclosed.

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

AOL, on April 14th,  announced that it has acquired Sphere Source, Inc., a leading provider of contextual-search tools which offers related content to publishers. Sphere will operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of AOL as part of the company’s Programming division, which is led by Executive Vice President Bill Wilson.

Founded in 2005 and based in San Francisco, Sphere uses its contextual-search platform technology to make connections between content from blogs, video, media, photos and advertisements. These contextual results are then displayed in a pop-over window or an integrated widget that lets publishers enhance articles by incorporating related articles and blog posts from archived content and across the Web.

Prior to the acquisition, AOL partnered with Sphere to offer its widget technology on AOL News, http://news.aol.com, and the myAOL service, Mgnet, http://mgnet.aol.com. Sphere’s third-party network includes more than 50,000 content publishers and blogs and is live on an average of more than 2 billion article pages across the web every month.*

“Our focus at AOL is providing consumers relevant content wherever they are on the Web, and Sphere’s capabilities fit in perfectly with this effort. Not only will it let us enhance content on our own sites, it will let us distribute our content across Sphere’s growing third-party publisher network,” said Ron Grant, President and COO of AOL. “In addition, this acquisition provides AOL with access to advertising inventory across Sphere’s network, while growing its reach to content publishers via the widget.”

“We are delighted to be joining AOL,” said Tony Conrad, CEO of Sphere. “AOL’s vast properties and platforms offer us the opportunity to reach publishing and news environments across the Web.”

Sphere was founded by Tony Conrad, Martin Remy, Steve Nieker and Toni Schneider. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. *Source: internal Sphere data

About Sphere Source, Inc.
Founded in 2005 and based in San Francisco, Sphere is focused on providing products that connect mainstream and conversational media content. Sphere’s contextual-search platform technology connects online content from blogs, video, media, photos and advertisements. More information can be found at a www.sphere.com.
About AOL
AOL® is a global Web services company that operates some of the most popular Web destinations, offers a comprehensive suite of free software and services, runs one of the largest Internet access businesses in the U.S., and provides a full set of advertising solutions. A majority-owned subsidiary of Time Warner Inc., AOL LLC and its subsidiaries have operations in the U.S., Europe, Canada and Asia. Learn more at www.AOL.com.