The Los Angeles Times reveals that “

[i]n an effort to recapture some of the national advertising dollars that have fled the pages of newspapers for major websites, Tribune Co. and three other leading media chains today will announce a joint venture to sell ads on their Web pages on a national scale.  The alliance, called QuadrantONE, is financed by Tribune, the parent of The Times, along with Gannett Co., Hearst Corp. and New York Times Co.  […]  QuadrantONE, scheduled to be operating by April 1, is designed to offer national advertisers one-stop shopping for display ad space in the partners’ network of websites. The sites reach 50 million unique users monthly and cover 27 of the nation’s top 30 advertising markets, according to Dana Hayes, a Tribune executive who is functioning as the venture’s interim chief executive. The network also would be open to websites unaffiliated with the partners.”

The Christian Science Monitor has an interesting article today on the power of social networking sites to mobilize political action.  The publication praises Facebook and Co for producing “shared enthusiasm among the wired millions, creating a new consensus about the future.”

According to the New York Times, “[l]abor protests in the high-tech industry are rare, but IBM is in midst of one and it’s unfolding entirely online. Instead of waving protest signs outside the company gates, affected workers are airing, in comments accompanying an online petition, disappointment, anger and bitterness with the company over a salary cut affecting 6% of IBM’s U.S. workforce.  Since its announcement last month, more than 1,200 people have signed a petition sponsored by the Alliance@IBM, protesting pay cuts to 7,600 technical support employees.. Whether all these signatures are from affected employees is not certain, but many of the comments seem authentic, and often heartfelt.”

In a different article, the New York Times reports that “[i]n one of the first rulings of its kind, a Staten Island judge has said that a teenage girl could be charged with violating a restraining order by using MySpace.com to reach out to people she was told not to contact.  The girl, Melisa Fernino, 16, of West Brighton, Staten Island, was charged with three counts of criminal contempt in September after she was accused of sending a MySpace “friend request” to Sandra Delgrosso and her two daughters on Aug. 23. The order was put in place after Ms. Fernino made several violent threats against Ms. Delgrosso, who had dated her father, and against her two daughters, said a Staten Island official who insisted on anonymity because the case originated in Family Court, where proceedings are private. On Wednesday, Judge Matthew A. Sciarrino Jr. of Staten Island Criminal Court turned down Ms. Fernino’s request to dismiss the contempt charges, ruling that MySpace was a form of contact just like speaking in person or by telephone and that the order of restraint had barred any sort of contact with the Delgrossos. The judge’s decision was reported on Thursday in The Staten Island Advance.”

ZDNet writes that “Google is reportedly going to test visual ads in its search results instead of the usual small text ads. The big question is what the reaction will be?  According to Saul Hansell at the New York Times’ Bits blog, Google has begun experimenting with video ads on some search results pages.  […]  From a business perspective, Google’s move makes total sense. After all, Google has acquired DoubleClick, which serves up display ads. Meanwhile, Google has been tinkering with video advertising–especially on YouTube. But if Google wants scale, these ads will have to hit search results at some point. Google reassures folks that it’s not going to go banner ad happy.  The big question is whether folks will stand for these little experiments.”