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Our L.A. Year-End Digital Media Review and Mixer: Arianna Huffington Interviews Ashton KutcherToday

December is fast approaching and as it customary with us, we are doing a mixer and year-end roundup here in Los Angeles. As part of that, we are thrilled to announce that actor and producer Ashton Kutcher will be interviewed on stage by Arianna Huffington, co-founder and editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post, at our L.A. Year-End Digital Media Review and Mixer at the WGA Theater on Dec. 9. Ashton's production company, Katalyst Media, produces film, TV and digital entertainment properties, inclusive of the animated Web series Blah Girls. that will be distributed on MySpace in 2009.

We will also host a panel session at the event, featuring Miles Beckett, co-founder and CEO of EQAL and co-creator and executive producer of lonelygirl15 and KateModern; Lewis Henderson, SVP - head of digital for the William Morris Agency; and a

Microsoft Makes Zune Pass Rent To Own; Subscribers Get 10 Tracks A Month For KeepsToday

Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) just added some lagniappe to its Zune Pass music subscription: effective now, 10 tracks a month can be downloaded for keeps. It's a nice gesture for subscribers—I am one so can attest to that—but it's also a very real PR effort to goose interest in the subscription model. To expand the $14.99 monthly subscription, the company crafted new payment agreements with all four majors—EMI, Sony, Warner Music Group, and Universal Music Group—and indie distributors INgrooves, Independent Online Distribution Alliance and The Orchard. Microsoft values the tracks at approximately $10 (not in the confusing conceit of Zune Marketplace points), which would take the cost of the actual subscription to about $5 a month for those who make all the permanent downloads.

-- Liner notes: The 10 permanent tracks can be burned to CD or moved to other devices even after the subscription ends. The Zune Pass currently allows subscription sharing between three PCs and three Zunes. An updated version of Zune's software started distribution Tuesday. Sony BMG and UMG also agreed to provide DRM-free MP3s, joining EMI, WMG and some of the indie labels. Microsoft says Zune's li

Industry Moves: WaPo Veteran Grayer Retiring As Kaplan CEOToday

Jonathan Grayer is resigning as chairman and CEO of the Washington Post Company's Kaplan Higher Education unit after 17 years in the role. His replacement is Andrew Rosen, who has served as COO since Grayer became CEO in 1992; he's been with the company since 1986. While WaPo is mainly known for publishing the Washington Post and Newsweek, it's the Kaplan unit that's been the prime revenue driver lately. The education division produced revenues of $602 million in Q3, more than half of WaPo's total $1.1 billion. Year-to-date, the Kaplan segment revs rose 15 percent to $1.7 billion, while during the same period, WaPo's total revs grew only 8 percent to $3.2 billion. Release

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WGA Files For Arbitration Against Producers For Not Keeping Up On New Media ResidualsYesterday

And so it starts again: The Writers Guild of America (WGA) is planning to file for arbitration against the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers (AMPTP), alleging that the producers are not complying with the new contract that was negotiated after a prolonged strike during the winter of 2007-08. The full WGA statement is here.

The points in WGA's new complaint:
-- That the media companies part of AMPTP are not paying residuals for writers' work that is reused on new media. Of course this was the main issue of the WGA strike.
-- WGA is "embarking on an aggressive contract enforcement program—including legal action—to ensure that the AMPTP companies make good on their obligations," it says.
-- WGA says that its residual agreement with media companies covered feature films after July 1, 1971, and TV programs produced after 1977. It now says that "the companies have reneged on this agreement and are taking the position that only programs produced after February 13, 2008 are covered by the new provision. This may be their deal with the DGA, but that was never our agreement." AMPTP and DGA came to an agreement after the WGA agreem

Local TV Stations Are Facing Severe Cost Pressures—Here's How They Should CutYesterday

NBC Local and Fox announced last week their plan to pool resources to cover local news in certain markets, an encouraging sign that TV stations are beginning to understand the desperate need to rationalize their massive newsgathering costs. Is there too much local TV news? I think yes, and it's a warning bell I've sounded for some time.

Way back when, there were three network affiliates in a market, and each produced one to several local newscasts a day. Those newscasts were typically the most profitable parts of the day for TV stations, as they kept all the revenues. Driven in particular by growth in auto, the largest ad category, all was good in local TV land.

Enter new networks and their affiliates and 24-hour cable network news channels, and you suddenly have a surplus of news. (I am clearly ignoring the proliferation of other local media, as TV is less fungible than most mediums). The local ad dollar started to peak a year or so ago, as auto came under inordinate pressure. Growth in local TV news inventory combined with a leaky bucket of ad dollars is a prescription for trouble.

More after the jump

Local marketing agreements (LMAs), shared service agreements and duopolies have proven to be palatable solutions in some markets. While there are