News Corp.’s Rupert Murdoch gave an interview to Bloomberg TV today after announcing the anticipated split of his company into publishing and entertainment wings. Our Ken Doctor broke down the impact yesterday, but here Rupert himself (transcript by Bloomberg): Read more

The advertising industry has struggled to get eyeballs on their Internet ads, and it’s a problem that affects news organizations that need ad dollars to survive. Now Talking Points Memo has rolled out new “conversation ads” that enable readers to interact directly with advertisers. The idea is to train readers to engage with ads in the ways they engage with news content. The ad that’s running on TPM now is for nuclear energy company Areva. Beneath it, there’s a window and a prompt: “Let us answer your questions.”

Adweek’s Charlie Warzel wrote about these new ads, some of which are geotargeted. Areva’s only running in Washington, D.C., but TPM deputy publisher Callie Schweitzer told me that ads for Current, Bill Maher, and Microsoft TAP have run all over.

As Warzel points out, the “conversation ad” is technically new but based on long-kicked-around ideas. And it may be a good sign that advertisers are finding ways to innovate as the news and advertising industries continue to shift online. Warzel quotes TPM publisher Josh Marshall:

“I think when it actually comes down to it, a lot of agencies and advertisers kind of pull back — not because they’re afraid, but they get comfortable in the way they’ve done it,” Marshall said.

Not a career move one sees everyday: The new director of product for The Guardian is Alex Musil, most recently exec VP of product at Shazam. That’s the app you hold up to your stereo and it tells you what song is playing.