Your tax dollars, overworked

Ad Networks and Analytics:

• mDialog has launched mAD, an ad delivery platform that brings short pre-or post-roll ads and coupons to online video content.

Agencies and Marketing Execs:

• Tom Vick and Joe Petyan are now joint managing directors at JWT/London.
• Reuters added Riley McDonough, former head of ad sales at WebMD, to its team as SVP/GM/Director-Ad Sales.
• Omnicom Group promoted Tiffany Warren to Chief Diversity Officer for Arnold Worldwide. She previously served as Arnold's VP-Director of Multicultural Programs/Community Outreach.
• Ex-CEO Andrew Frawley of ClickSquared (formerly ClickTactics) is now President-Digital Services at Purple@Epsilon, a direct marketing firm.
• EVP-Products Kevin Conroy of AOL is now President-Interactive Media at Univision. Conroy, who joined AOL from BMG Entertainment in '01, is credited for the development of AOL Music.
• Jana Friedman joins Double Fusion as SVP-Worldwide Ad Sales.
• Digital marketing firm Isobar is launching a Toronto office under the label Ammo Marketing. COO Daren Trousdel of Isobar Canada will lead the pack. Ammo, based in San Francisco, was purchased by Isobar in '06. Clients include Electronic Arts, Philips and TiVo. It specializes in WOM and "influencer" marketing.
• Derek Edmond, Director-SEM Strategies/Social Media, is now an equity partner at KoMarketing Associates.

Biz Buzz:

• BabyCenter.com, an ad-supported info and community site for parents, is shutting down its online store. Parent firm Johnson & Johnson says — rather confusingly — that the move is part of an initiative to "concentrate solely on digital media."
• Blogoscoped produced a list of Google products that do — and don't — make money. (A handful are supported by AdSense, however.)
• Computer firm Lenovo is cutting 2500 jobs.

Gaming:

• Major League Gaming gleaned $7.5 million from Oak Investment Parnters, adding to the $25 million series B round it closed in 2006. The online pro video game league devoted 2008 to creating "the next American digital league sport," said CEO Matthew Bromberg, and Oak credited the firm with succeeding in building a "cultural phenomenon" with a profitable business model. Major sponsors include Dr. Pepper.
• MindArk launched First Planet, a separate arm intended to manage the economy of an MMORPG game called Planet Calypso, part of Entropia Universe.

Legal, Government and Regulation:

• Leo Burnett is paying $15.5 million to settle a lawsuit filed by the US Army. The latter alleged LB overbilled the Army — and by default, the American people — for work on the "Army of One" campaign.
• Model Liskula Cohen filed suit against Google in a New York court, demanding that the company reveal the identity of a blogger who "defamed" her on Skanks in NYC, an irreverent blog that dubbed her "our #1 skanky superstar." The anonymous blogger also posted images of Cohen scantily-clad, dancing suggestively in what appears to be a living room.
• Fox has made an enemy in ProgressIllinois.com, an online news site whose YouTube videos it claims infringed on its copyrights. "We are responsible YouTube users who utilize the site as a journalistic tool […] we are not teenagers attempting to pirate material unlawfully," snarled editor/publisher Josh Kalven in a letter to Fox. Unless Fox changes its tune, the company has vowed to file suit.
• A passel of consumers filed an antitrust suit against Netflix and Wal-Mart. The suit — which claims the companies conspired in 2005 to "divide the markets for the sales and online rentals of DVDs" — was filed in federal district court in the northern district of California.

Mobile:

• AdAge's Rita Chang argues the recession may turn mobile into more of a direct marketing channel than a branding one.

Search:

• Google's Matt Cutts is soliciting feedback for cutting down on search spam in 2009.

Social Networks:

• Facebook is now 150 million active users strong — up 10 million from last month. Reminiscing on the socnet's roots as a site for college students, founder Mark Zuckerberg mused, "Today, people of all ages–grandparents, parents and children–use Facebook in more than 35 different languages and 170 countries and territories."

User Experience:

• "Mobile Broadband: Beyond the Cell Phone," a study by Parks Associates, projects over 140 US consumers will be paying for mobile broadband services in 2013 — up from 46 million in 2008.