As for the group effort to come up with creative ways to drive ad revenue, Hannah pointedly says that “this is not the classic business vs. editorial matter. If you believe that… you are officially working at the wrong company.”

Two years ago, The Onion invested $1 million in building up its online video offerings. While the company has gotten received a great deal of positive attention for its video lampoons, it no longer provides the advantages in an increasingly competitive market. That said, Hannah insisted that there are no plans to charge for its videos, which are available for free on the site and through iTunes as a podcast.

In the meantime, here’s a fake news chart from The Onion surveying why newspaper readership is down:

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—WPP’s Sir Martin Sorrell: No sign of bottom
—NBCU’s Jeff Zucker: Sign of bottom
—BET founder Robert Johnson: Umm, wait and see
—Random media M&A types: lotsa dry powder sitting on sidelines (a favorite phrase of theirs these days, btw)
—Activision Blizzard’s Bobby Kotick: I don’t care, games still rock
—Stereophonics (why not, it is a slow day): Maybe tomorrow

So what’s driving the optimism? Survey author Mike Cannice writes that most VCs think that the worst of the financial crisis is over. The crisis has also driven their portfolio companies to be more capital efficient which should help in the long-term. By no means, of course, are troubles over. On a scale of 1 to 5, confidence is now at 3.37, just above where it was at the start of 2008. And, indeed, Cannice writes that many VCs do remain worried about the lack of exits.

However, he also says that increases in venture capitalist confidence tend to precede rises in the total value of venture-backed IPOs by one quarter. In fact, during the second quarter there were three additional venture-backed IPOs, after the survey showed that venture capital confidence was up during the first quarter. Thus, Cannice expects there will likely be additional venture-backed IPOs ahead. Read the full survey results here.

The idea behind On Demand Online and TV Everywhere is to give pay video subscribers access to the same programming across platforms: if you pay to get it on cable, you should be able to access it via broadband on PCs and mobile devices. In this case, subscribers would have to pay for the Starz Premium service in order to see movies like High School Musical 3: Senior Year, The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, Hancock and Vantage Point. Ditto for Starz original series Crash, Head Case and Party Down.

Comcast’s technical trial is scheduled to begin in the next few weeks and will cover some 5,000 subscribers nationally. In addition to showing programmers and advertisers how the concept can work, the major focus of the test is the technology needed to “authenticate” a user has the right to see that content no matter where they are or how they are viewing it. To start, the service will be streaming but plans also call for download to go. Initially, content will be accessible through Comcast.net and Comcast video portal Fancast.com.

—Windowing: According to Comcast and Starz, in many cases the movies and originals will be online as soon as they premiere on cable Comcast VOD and before they air on the linear channels.

More to come.

Screenshot of one of its services:

»  A guide to understanding Plain Dealer columnist Connie Schultz’s (pictured) stand for copyright law changes. [Editor and Publisher]

»  NBC Universal (NYSE: GE) is finding that selling ads on its cable outlets is easier than to its broadcast mothership, shifting the negotiations in the advertisers’ favor. [Ad Age]

»  Was Twitter’s feelings hurt in Sun Valley? [LA Times]

»  The Tennessean sadly distributed a pre-printed section of its paper with former quarterback Steve McNair, who was murdered this weekend, on its cover. [Editor and Publisher]

»  Was promoting Ned Hooper to Cisco’s chief strategy officer good for its consumer strategy? [GigaOM]

—The turnaround: While there will be no return to the 32.9 percent growth rates of 2008, eMarketer projects that in 2010, ad spending on social nets will rise 13.2 percent to $1.2 billion. The year after that, social net ad dollars will slow down, rising 8.2 percent to $1.3 billion. Meanwhile, it’s no surprise that eMarketer is predicting that Facebook, which Williamson has said will gain 9 percent in ad revs this year with $230 million, as MySpace’s ad dollars shrink 15 percent to $495 million. She anticipates Facebook overtaking MySpace by 2011, though figures weren’t supplied. The report follows a another rosy outlook for interactive media from Forrester, which predicts that social media spending will see 34 percent compound annual growth rate through 2014.

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Starbucks, the City of San Francisco’s 3-11 program, JetBlue, and Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT), are among users. For now, it’s free although CEO Jesse Engle tells the WSJ that the company plans to eventually charge. Twitter too has talked about making money from its corporate users.

It’s the latest company in the Twitter ecosystem to raise funds. Last month, startup site ChubbyBrain calculated that, to date, investors have put $23 million into 11 startups with businesses that revolve around the site. Twitter itself has raised $55 million. Release.

—CNN: 10.5 million live streams (second-highest ever—topped only by the Obama inauguration); 781,000 concurrent streams; 15.6 million unique visitors; Quite a bit of “citizen journalism” action as well: there were 646 Michael Jackson-related submissions to iReport, 31 of which CNN used on air or on CNN.com.

—Msnbc.com: 19 million total streams (surpassed the record set during its online coverage of the 2009 inauguration); 510,000 concurrent streams; over 75,000 Michael Jackson-related tweets through its live feed/Tinker integration.

—Yahoo: 5 million total streams (blowing away the 1.8 million streams during the Obama inauguration)—but fewer concurrent streams: 385,000 simultaneous streamers for Jackson’s memorial, compared to 430,000 for the inauguration.

—ABC: 6 million live streams (across ABCnews.com and partner sites including Yahoo and Charter); over 500,000 hits to its mobile news site m.abcnews.com; 50,000 status updates through Facebook Connect.

—FoxNews.com: 3.4 million total streams (compared to 5 million on Inauguration Day); over 676,800 concurrent streams.

—E! Online: Around 87,000 streams through Facebook Connect; 939,000 unique visits and 6.9 million page views.

From its vantage point, Verizon argues that by only making the non-HD, standard definition programming from the MSG sports network available to FiOS, Cablevision is denying it a unique “must have” service. But as MCN points out, the FCC rules simply require that sports coverage be universally accessible—it doesn’t say anything specific about the HD version, which Cablevision considers a clear competitive advantage.

The FCC is already considering whether to close the “terrestrial loophole,” something being fought by affected MSOs. Verizon is pressing for a decision from the FCC within five months.

Oodle users will also be able to post listings to their own Twitter, Facebook and MySpace streams from a single screen. The idea is that since people are already sharing content and personal information on these networks, sharing a link to the couch, bike or used car they’re trying to sell should come just as naturally. The exposure to their network should also increase the likelihood of a sale—since there’s an added level of trust when an apartment listing or other sales recommendation comes from a source like a friend-of-a-friend or coworker.

“We’re trying to get people talking about listings on these networks, as opposed to just photos and music,” Donato said. “When someone sees a job listing, for example, we want them to be able to ask a friend on MySpace if they’ve worked there. If there’s a used car they’re looking at, they can get an instant reaction from their Twitter stream about other drivers’ experiences. We know these conversations are happening offline—we want to facilitate people having them online.”

While most of the people sending tweets about their listings will likely be free users at first, the implications for Oodle’s paid listings business are clear. Local advertisers can pay to have their ads featured in a variety of ways; having their listings show up as part of a Twitter search increases the potential for exposure to Twitter’s more than 22 million unique monthly visitors (per Compete). And Oodle is hoping that the combination of scale and social interaction makes its paid listings more compelling than a buy on Craigslist.

—Digital dividend must be quicker: “The United States as a whole switched to digital TV last month. I call therefore on all EU governments: Don’t wait until 2012, the EU-wide deadline for the final digital switch-off, to bring these benefits to you businesses and citizens. Act swiftly now.”

UK switchover began in late 2008 and is due to complete in late 2012. Reding will on Friday publish measures to accelerate the switchover.

“The present economic crisis requires us to accelerate the ongoing switchover from analogue to digital TV in Europe.” Reding reckons spectrum auctioned for wireless broadband could reap €150 to €200 billion.

—Telco rules must be harmonised: The EC’s telecoms reform package is currently in the long grass after MEPs repeatedly refused to abandon their opposition to a line allowing countries to disconnect illegal downloaders without court approval. Reding is protesting: “The agreement encompasses ... 750 subparagraphs - there is only one subparagraph on which no agreement could be found.” She warns EU GDP could increase by two percent with the reforms, helping save €20 billion a year she says is lost due to fragmented national regulations.

—Encourage next-gen broadband through cooperation: Reding wants more competition but also “extra impetus through co-investment schemes under which several operators deploy fibre-to the-home”.

—Drive 3G/LTE take-up: Reding grumbles only 16 percent of EU mobile users (92 million) use 3G ,but says reforms to GSM legislation (and that telecoms reform package) could save mobile carriers €1.6 billion in capex.

Release.

But now, as the two-year anniversary of Microsoft’s closing of its $6 billion acquisition of Razorfish parent aQuantive approaches next month—and with it, the expiration of certain tax penalties on a Razorfish sale—the company looks like it’s gearing up for serious talks to unload the agency and WPP execs say the company is still open to talking about an acquisition.

A deal would come at a tough time for Razorfish, which has been hit by the pullback in ad spend that the industry in general is going through. Two sources with knowledge of the company’s financial state also told paidContent that they estimated that Razorfish’s revenues were down at least double digits this past year and that Microsoft has pressured the company to cut costs significantly. And that has led to roughly 200 layoffs—12 percent of its 1,600 US staffers (it has another 800 staffers internationally) since last October—along with a reshuffling at the top.

—Restructuring for a sale?: Aside from the layoffs and two office closings, Razorfish has had some notable changes at the top. In April, Clark Kokich handed the CEO reigns to Bob Lord, as the former moved into the new role of chairman. And there were other changes.. Razorfish has long been divided along three regions—east, west and central—and had separate P&L’s for each. Three Razorfish sources said that Kokich repeatedly defended the structure as saying it fostered innovation. But others felt the company had no real core, arguing that it was composed of a patchwork of shops. Microsoft might have grown concerned that potential buyers might have thought the same. As Redmond execs began taking a closer look at Razorfish, people familiar with the reorg suggest that part of Lord’s ascension called for demonstrating greater streamlining and unity. A clear example from that April reorg was the promotion of David Friedman as president of the Americas, the first time the agency had a single regional head. (Razorfish representatives directed all calls to Microsoft; a Microsoft rep said the company doesn’t comment on rumors.)

—WPP plays up the Google angle: Razorfish has been fairly quiet in addressing the sale rumors with staffers for the past few months. A number of staffers say that clients are increasingly uncertain about what the company’s plans are and how it will affect them. Sources say that many Razorfish employees have taken to handicapping the two main companies vying for Razorfish, WPP and Publicis. Many accept that a further restructuring would be inevitable, since there would be so much much overlap at both firms. As one staffer told me, “Publicis has Digitas and the digital units under VivaKi, so I’m not sure where we would fit in that organization. At the same time, WPP’s digital holdings are pretty extensive, but it does appear that those shops operate a bit more independently.” For WPP’s part, despite doubts about its wherewithal to absorb such a large shop and meet Microsoft’s estimated $600 million asking price, the holding firm’s dealmakers may point out Publicis’ close relationship with Google (NSDQ: GOOG).

Two high-level WPP sources say CEO Sir Martin Sorrell—who has often described Google as a “frenemy,” despite the company’s own increased coziness with the search giant— expect him to highlight that by Razorfish in that orbit, Google would stand to benefit. Said one WPP source: “That’s not the whole argument, but it could be one more thing for Microsoft to consider regarding the sale.”

—On the day the deal was announced, an uncertain Sunde blogged “The Pirate Bay might get acquired”. In what read like a warning, he said: “If the new owners will screw around with the site, nobody will keep using it.”

—Some of the Bay’s ideological die-hards flamed Sunde as a “traitor” (and worse), bringing him to acknowledge: “The last days have been quite stress for all of us ... we really love you all ... If we ever needed your support, this is now.” Sunde tweets: “I fucking cried earlier that people don’t understand us.” And snaps at detractors: “We’ve been fighting for five years. Where’s the thanks?”

—Sunde has been trying to escape the flak in Brazil during an excursion for a free-software conference: “There’s pictures of me and the president in the news and I got to sign autographs even when I left the conference and went to a night club in Porto Alegre, at 3am.” Whilst there, he’s been autographing Michael Jackson LPs (”all profits go to good things”).

—But he can’t avoid the issue. Responding to demands for news on Thursday, Sunde wrote: “My own personal feelings about it are so mixed and weird that I can’t decide which leg to stand on. Therefore, I do the only smart thing and pretend it’s not an issue right now.” He refused to give further info about the sale.

So why is Sunde - one of the Bay’s four founders - freaking out about making a mint from what Global Gaming has acknowledged is the acquisition only of a domain name.. ?

—We know the man nicknamed “brokep” is working on a range of other projects - the €5-a-month iPredator VPN anonymiser, his self-professed “YouTube killer” Video Bay and online payments startup Flattr. Meanwhile, Sunde says he’s involved in the wider WeRebuild.EU cyberpolitics lobby group plus an effort to anonymise Iranian web users, though these seem to be distributed groups.

—Maybe he didn’t get all he hoped for. Sunde acknowledges: “TPB is being sold for a great bit underneath it’s value.” With half the four founders’ acquisition payout expected in Global Gaming stock, that doesn’t even pay the 30 million SEK (£2.34 million, $3.77 million) fine they were each handed in June.

In one way, the entertainment business has succeeded in suing Sunde in to submission; he’s changed strategy, is downbeat and admits after the trial “we have no energy left”. It seems his riposte will be to broaden the pirate and anonymous-downloading initiatives to more sites than Pirate Bay alone…

Until then, we ask the normally precocious: Why so sad, Peter… ?

No financial terms were disclosed—but TiVo likely has the most to gain in the deal. It continues to steadily lose subscribers to cable companies, so the prominent play at Best Buy stores should help; it had 3.2 million subscribers at the end of its first quarter, down from 3.8 million a year ago. And the Napster tie-in will help it add to the list of services it offers on its DVRs. It already lets subscribers access the Rhapsody music service and it reached a deal with Blockbuster earlier this year that will allow subscribers to rent and buy movies.

Google also is working with wireless company Qualcomm (NSDQ: QCOM), which is developing processors for a new category of computers called smartbooks seen as a cross between a netbook and a smart phone. Google’s Android mobile operating system was expected to run on some of those devices. Two other processor makers, Texas Instruments and Freescale, have also signed on, as has software company Adobe Systems (NSDQ: ADBE). Google did not detail what the involvement of the companies will be, only saying it is working with them “to design and build devices.”