JCPenney and Macy's set for trial over Martha Stewart.

BMW blows away Mercedes-Benz with December sales to claim U.S. 2012 luxury-segment crown.

CES trend-watching and predicting begins.

Adweek invites votes on best and worst brand extensions of the year.

Al Jazeera deal for Current TV could change U.S. cable news.

American Airlines promises merger decision on US Airways within weeks.

Apple sees iPad lift from holiday sales and marketing.

Barnes & Noble sees Nook lose ground in tablet wars.Continue reading...

If the charts (above) that The Atlantic published online today are to be believed, then what we're seeing regarding Gawker's move to a new platform is the Laser Disk moment of online publishing.

Back in February, we chronicled the rage against the redesign by Gawker's readers, whose negative reaction would appear to be supported by the grim chart above. Denton, of course, begs to differ. Continue reading...

The King's Speech won four Oscars including Best Picture at the Academy Awards last night, unseating early favorite The Social Network; click here for more coverage.

Apple's iPad 2 rumored to come in white as design guru Jony Ive may return to the UK.

Audi counts on accelerated sales in the US.

Baseball Hall of Famer Duke Snider dies.

Berkshire Hathaway is looking for “more major acquisitions,” Warren Buffett says.

Blackstone wins bidding for U.S. assets of Centro for $9.4 billion.Continue reading...

A&P files for bankruptcy.

Amazon reveals holiday boom in Kindle sales.

Apple reveals its top-selling apps of the year.

Buick underwrites travel series on MSN.

BYD seeks to charge up its U.S. business.

Carlsberg innovates global growth.

Coca-Cola and Apple lead global “word-of-mouth” brands.

Coty and L’Oreal snap up prominent local brands in China.Continue reading...

* AOL is introducing a bigger, splashier ad format.

* Bell Canada owner BCE Inc. is retaking control of the CTV network for $1.3 billion and re-entering the TV business.

* BP is back in the news as its landmark legal battle looms, an executive shuffle clears way for Tony Hayward's next role, more oil from the spill is found by researchers, and the smarta$$ behind @BPGlobalPR Twitter account steps forward.

* Chrysler dealers will get the chance to meet CEO Sergio Marchionne this week, while more than 450 execs including ex-chairman Lee Iacocca sued Daimler AG and Cerberus, claiming they lost 100 million dollars in pensions in the automaker's bankruptcy.

* Disney's ABC is pushing its TV brand anew after the arrival of Paul Lee at the helm.Continue reading...

Brandchannel recently noted British chef Jamie Oliver's comments on McDonald's U.K. being closer to his philosophy on healthy eating than McDonald's U.S.

One particularly kid-appealing food item on McDonald's menu that raised Oliver's hackles, above, is facing more fire following an investigation by CNN — the Chicken McNugget.

The humble McNugget is being attacked for containing the same chemical found in Silly Putty, a toy tie-in that McDonald's isn't eager to have associated with its name.Continue reading...

Remember the Atlantic article, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” If not, you may have read it online but forgotten it — thereby proving author Nicholas Carr's point.

Carr has expanded his thesis to a new book: The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains. His argument: “Try reading a book while doing a crossword puzzle, and that is what you're doing every time you use the Internet.”

"Chronic distraction" is Carr’s terminology for the nature of the Internet as a disruptive medium. Perma-distraction is how we keep up with and process the Web's tsunami of information, whether that flow of facts and data is coming to us via laptop, cellphones or other digital touchpoints.

Much like this website's tagline, the Web is always on, and so are we. (Still with us?)Continue reading...