Summer Friday news from Condé Nast: Robert Sauerberg has been promoted to president from group president, consumer marketing. Chuck Townsend remains CEO but the appointment marks a split in responsibilities and a switch to Condé Nast’s newest “strategic course as a consumer-centric media and entertainment company.” The announcement was timed to a regularly scheduled meeting of Condé Nast publishers, Sauerberg told paidContent in an interview. That’s why today was chosen but the timing is also tied to a sense that Condé Nast’s business has improved. “Sometimes when you’re in a good place and things are doing well, it’s a good…

Clicker is adding Clicker Mobile and Clicker Social to the roster of ways the LA startup is trying to meet its mission to be the guide to internet video. Clicker Mobile includes free apps for Android (due today) and iPhone (waiting approval) with guides to videos that actually play on each platform, which could be a boon for anyone who has clicked on unplayable video links. The more ambitious aspect of this expansion wave is Clicker Social, which adds multiple layers of social interaction and a network of third-party sites that will carry customizable Clicker Check-in buttons for status checks.

Maybe it’s just me but it felt like RealNetworks (NSDQ: RNWK) dragged out this whole CEO search for too long. It’s not like Bob Kimball was an unknown: He’s been with the company since 1999. Maybe a month or two after Chairman Rob Glaser resigned as CEO in early January, but six months? That’s roughly how long it took for the board to conduct a CEO search, winding up with the person holding the “interim” title all this time as president and CEO. In that span, Kimball has remade Real, overseeing the spin of Rhapsody and a major reorganization that…

Jeff Bezos is bullish on mobile, whether it’s Kindles, smartphones or what he calls the “new category” of wireless tablet computers. Why? Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) customers spent more than $1 billion via mobile device in the past 12 months, including sales by Kindle, and Bezos used the Q2 earnings release to suggest that tablets “over time” could “become a meaningful additional driver for our business.”

Today’s launch of an Android e-reader app marks Barnes & Noble’s first foray onto that platform—and a shift in strategy. Instead of “BN eReader for iPad” or “BN eReader for PC,” its e-reader apps and software are moving to the Nook brand. That will put Barnes & Noble (NYSE: BKS) more in line with Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN), which has been using the Kindle brand for both its e-reading devices and its platform.

Reddit.com is turning an experimental fundraiser into a full-fledged subscription model. The Conde Nast site startled users earlier this month by asking for money—any amount—in exchange for yet-to-be-decided benefits with the proceeds to go to site improvements. Nearly 9,000 subscribers later, reddit gold is going live as a “true service” with defined fees and benefits.

We still don’t know if the future will be televised but it will be live streamed, at least where paidContent Mobile is concerned. If you’re unable to join in the on-site networking and the hallway dealmaking at the Columbia University Faculty House, you can stay up to speed and enjoy the thoughtful programming by following our live stream starting at 9:30 a.m. Eastern. The event tomorrow features speakers from BBC.com, Foursquare, Blackberry Partners Fund, Verizon Wireless, Accel Partners, Google (NSDQ: GOOG), Zagat, HTC, BBC.com. ESPN (NYSE: DIS), NBCU, The New York Times (NYSE: NYT), MTV Networks (NYSE: VIA) and more.…

We still don’t know if the future will be televised but it will be live streamed, at least where paidContent Mobile is concerned. There’s still time to register to be there in person—and a limited number of tickets are left. If you’re unable to join in the on-site networking and the hallway dealmaking at the Columbia University Faculty House, you can stay up to speed and enjoy the thoughtful programming by following our live stream starting at 9:30 a.m. Eastern. Special thanks to our paidContent Mobile exclusive presenting sponsor, Gigya and our sponsors *Bango* and OpenMarket The hashtag for the…

A flurry of additions as we count down to paidContent Mobile: Leveraging The Smartphone Boom next Tuesday in New York: —A whole new panel, Getting Smart About Apps: You want to outgun the competition with your app offerings, but how? What are the keys to creating and promoting popular apps? How do you get repeat business and build community around them? How do you migrate users from free to paid versions? We’ll be delving into these and other questions with David Bentley, GM, AKQA; Evan Conway, EVP of Marketing, Support & Ecommerce, Handmark; Igor Pusenjak, President & Founder, Lima Sky;…

Some eight months after announcing a partnership for a co-branded online business page, the Washington Post (NYSE: WPO) and Bloomberg have finally delivered. The result is a pretty standard, informative business page that seems to make good use of both partners. Some readers will probably skip right by the branding; some probably will be a little confused by the way the business section blends—or doesn’t blend—with the rest of the site.

We all have personal soundtracks. Mine started playing Maybe This Time soon after I got off the phone with the top executives responsible for crafting the Turner/SI.com deal between Time Warner (NYSE: TWX) siblings Time Inc. and Turner Broadcasting—and for making it work. Not that Mark Ford, Terry McDonell and David Levy are singing a torch song. Far from it. They’re in that wonderful stage of deal exuberance, when everything makes sense and it all seems not only possible and plausible, but probable. The stage where the soundtrack is by The Turtles. Why are they so psyched? For Levy, president…

Pennsylvania’s LancasterOnline went live this morning with the first newspaper use of Journalism Online’s Press+—metered out-of-town access to obits. The meter kicks in after an out-of-market user reads seven obits in one month; viewing more will cost $1.99 a month or $19.99 a year. [Slideshow.] The plans were outlined earlier this year with hopes for a spring launch but “it took a little longer to test and be satisfied with it than we thought,” Ernie Schreiber, the site’s editor of content development, told paidContent.

Before everyone had the AOL-Time Warner (NYSE: TWX) merger to kick around, there was Turner and Time Warner—the combo that was supposed to provide brilliant print, cable and online synergies in entertainment, news and sports. You all remember CNN/SI? Well, maybe not. After all, the plug was pulled on the expensive effort to create a sports-news challenger to ESPN (NYSE: DIS) almost a decade ago. (At this point, the cable net has been gone longer than it existed.) But the online connection remained, at least in via domain name and network traffic counts. Now, it looks like Time Warner is…

Has Google (NSDQ: GOOG) invested $100 million or more in gaming start-up Zynga? That’s what TechCrunch is reporting, citing multiple unidentified sources, as is Venturebeat; although, so far, neither company is confirming the reports;  Zynga spokeswoman Dani Dudek said by e-mail Saturday evening that the company isn’t commenting.

As I was finishing up my review of Hulu Plus, Om Malik raised the idea that Hulu might be considering one of the options I planned to suggest: an ad-free version of its new premium subscription service. Turns out the answer is yes—and no. When I asked CEO Jason Kilar by e-mail if an ad-free option was under consideration, he called his comment “theoretical” but didn’t rule out the option for the joint venture of Disney (NYSE: DIS), News Corp (NSDQ: NWS) and NBC Universal.

Is Hulu Plus worth $10 a month? It all depends on the programming you like to watch, how much of it you want to access and how often. I’ve been using the long-anticipated subscription service from the joint venture of Disney (NYSE: DIS), News Corp (NSDQ: NWS) and NBC Universal (NYSE: GE) since the day after the June 29 launch. Given that I’m a subscription addict, I was fairly sure I’d wind up keeping it after my free review month. One week in, not so much. Here’s why—and why your mileage may vary:

As part of its lobbying efforts to get approval—and acceptance—for its pending merger with NBC Universal (NYSE: GE), Comcast (NSDQ: CMCSA) promised U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush in writing today that it will establish a $20 million venture capital fund for minority entrepreneurs to develop “new media content and applications” when the deal closes. The new fund would be part of Comcast Interactive Capital. According to a letter to Rush, timed for today’s congressional hearing in Chicago about the merger, the fund would “facilitate early stage financing of minority businesses.”

How does ESPN (NYSE: DIS) keep its growing empire fed? With deals like the exclusive 12-year pact with the ACC announced today. In exchange for a serious chunk of change—SBJput it at nearly $2 billion or $155 million a year—ESPN gets more than 4,800 events to spread across its various networks and media properties plus syndication. On the digital side, that includes exclusives for ACC football, men’s and women’s basketball and Olympic sports with simulcasts on broadband net ESPN3.com; live games on ESPN Mobile TV; and extensive content plus highlights for ESPN.com. The deal runs 2011-12 through 2022-23. More details…

Let’s get the easy stuff out of the way. Time.com didn’t go behind a paywall this week and there aren’t plans for that to happen. Technically, Time magazine didn’t put one up for its online content either—that is, you can’t pay to read the contents of current issues of Time (NYSE: TWX) online. What the Time Inc. flagship did was slip on the magazine equivalent of a condom, a barrier between online readers and the full content of the magazine. Instead of full stories, online readers get an “abridged” version with a warning that the full text is available only…