Following the official split of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. into separate news and entertainment companies, the man in charge has unveiled the new logo for its News division—one that's very familiar to the Aussie media mogul.

The delicate script logo is based off of the handwriting of Rupert Murdoch himself along with that of his father, according to a company memo sent by CEO Robert Thomson. "The name is historic and the script is based on the writing of Rupert and his father, who have provided us all with not only a name, but a remarkable professional platform," Thomson wrote.

Earlier this month, the company revealed the name and logo for its independent entertainment division, which will be called 21st Century Fox following the spin-off. The name and logo are a clean update on the existing identity of News Corp's iconic Twentieth Century Fox brand.Continue reading...

For 50 years, James Bond has been finding his way out of life-threatening situations and winning hearts on the world’s silver screens. Friday, Oct. 5th marks the 50th anniversary of Bond on the silver screen, which is being promoted as Global James Bond Day. And in about a month, the British spy will come striding onto the big screen once again, so that means the heavy media push is now on.

The upcoming Bond film, Skyfall, has already been raising some eyebrows with the news that 007 will enjoy a Heineken during the film and not his typical martini tipple, with fans encouraged to help the new Bond girl, Severine, "crack the case" in a Facebook mystery game. But plenty of other marketers are jumping on the film’s release as well to encourage consumers to be more like the women-objectifying, consistently drinking, hidden-weapon-wielding Bond.Continue reading...

The Dark Knight Rises' opening this week makes it as good a time as any to ask, do you know what the difference is between Gotham and Gotham City?

The former term associated with Batman/Bruce Wayne's hometown is not trademarked. But a recent filing by the Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation aims to change that. It also raises questions about why the filing wasn't made by DC Comics or Dark Knight movie studio, Warner Bros.Continue reading...

Hollywood's wagons are circling against content theft with a new coalition, Creative America, to fight piracy and protect creative works and jobs.

The entertainment industry coalition states “that halting the looting of America’s creative works and protecting jobs must be a national priority."

Statistics cited on the group's homepage:

• Websites trafficking in stolen film and TV content get nearly 150 million visits every day, more than 50 billion visits per year. 
• Content theft isn’t just about movies. TV shows are illegally streamed and downloaded millions of times each week.  
• Content theft threatens over 2 million jobs supported by the film and televisio n industry in all 50 states and D.C. 
• The vast majority of workers in film and TV are middle class, earning $55K a year on average. These are the people hurt by content theft.  
• Content theft has already cost 140,000 U.S. jobs, along with $5 billion in wages and revenues for residuals and pensions. 

The founding members — including NBC Universal, SAG, Sony Pictures Entertainment, AFTRA, CBS, the DGA, IATSE, Twentieth Century Fox, Viacom, Disney and Warner Bros. — call themselves a “grassroots organization” supporting 2 million Americans whose jobs are in creative fields.Continue reading...